Friday's Fabulous Four
Friday, June 10, 2011
I have to dart out the door early today, so I'll post on "three four good things," with the fourth allowing me an alliterative title.
1. From the same source, Thinking Directions, that first taught me about "three good things," comes the first book on salesmanship to ever spark my interest, Ron Karr's Lead, Sell, or Get out of the Way. I have so far taken just a cursory look at the on-line sample, but I suspect that my interest is a direct result of the book implementing its own advice of not "PUKE-ing." (See pages 3-4.) Or, in my words, Karr isn't overwhelming me with mountains of information about salesmanship (or, worse, merely asserting that it's important) so much as helping me understand why I need it. It is much easier to become motivated -- and to remember information -- when one has some idea of its value.
2. Our place is nearly ready for the baby now, thanks in large part to the generosity of our relatives and friends. And yes, the man cave/nursery looks quite good in its new Winnie-the-Pooh theme and pink color scheme.
3. Going paperless has never been so easy: In order to integrate paper and computer note-taking, by digitizing my paper notes -- and to save space -- I purchased a Fujitsu ScanSnap s1100 portable scanner some time ago. (This thing is about the size of a small three-hole punch.) It is so fast and reliable that I am now also gradually digitizing our records at home. I shred any old paper records I can as soon as off-site backups exist, and should eventually realize at least a couple of file drawers of new storage space. (Everything counts in our tiny apartment.) I'll also have backups of everything. My only complaint is that the scanner is not fully supported under Linux, so I have to run it under VMWare or using my wife's computer.
4. My latest beer recommendation is Lagunitas Maximus IPA. I'd hoped to buy another six-pack at my usual beer emporium yesterday but, unsurprisingly, they were out. In linking to the Beer Advocate review, I see that Lagunitas's regular IPA may be a viable alternative.
-- CAV
7 comments:
Gus, I don't know how I missed this, but congratulations about the baby! Wonderful news. My best wishes to you and your wife on this wonderfully awesome adventure. :D
Thank you, Jenn!
It's exciting and makes me nervous all at once -- and I do wonder sometimes how I'm going to balance everything -- but I am definitely looking forward to it.
Hey Gus,
Congrats and good luck with the baby. Warning: if you cradle the baby to sleep, always do it with a plan to Ferberize (gently) him/her towards falling asleep on his own. If you do not achieve the latter, you can expect many months (or years —my spouse sabotaged it) of exhaustion, including dangerous (micro-sleep) driving.
I would like to ask about your Fujitsu Scanner, and if you considered the Neat Receipts one? The Fujitsu seems more durable, but I could not see receipt handling that did more than keep an image of each receipt. The Neat Receipts software does an OCR of each receipts, and puts the information into an editable template that then becomes part of a receipt database/ledger (with link to image).
If the Fujitsu has similar receipt reading and ledger preparing software then I'll just have to get one too! :-)
Thanks for whatever info you care to pass on.
I forgot to click for "follow up comments", so have to here.
Hi Richard,
Thanks. Regarding the scanner, I don't think it has software specifically for scanning in receipts, but it does have on-board OCR software capable of scanning into Word (and, I think, searchable PDF). It also comes with some sort of business card import/contact management software that I didn't install.
Perhaps, if Neat Receipt is capable of accepting the Word or PDF files so produced as inputs, the ScanSnap might suit your purposes.
Gus
Thanks Gus.
The NeatReceipts option includes both scanner & software, and is quite pricey -of course they do not sell the software separately.
Since, I already have an Epson scanner I was hoping the Fujitsu was either cheaper, or that receipt handling software could be obtained separately, and could work with jpg files produced by the Epson.
I'll have to wait for another scanner company to add a receipt handler to their software 'suite'.
Thanks again.
Glad to help.
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