“10 Random Facts” … or “My Life as a Sponge”

I am two weeks in to my fantastic new job, and am currently spending the bulk of my clocked-in time training. I have been filling my days with online videos, in-person training classes, and books (both in print and audio).  I am currently attempting to soak up as much knowledge as possible… and retain the lessons learned. Among the sizable pieces of knowledge I have digested (learning new software programs, methods of task management, etc.), I have also come across several tidbits of trivia and quotes that I thought I would aggregate and share, as they’re burning space in my notebook. Enjoy!

Top 10 random things I have learned in my first weeks at Schipul:

1. Houston is the most diverse city in the nation
   Note: I have been unable to find a source on this claim, but there is demographic data that suggests that Houston represents the cultural composition the entire U.S. will see in the not-to-distant future.
2. A font point is 1/72nd of an inch
3. One loses more mental focus constantly checking e-mail than smoking a joint in the middle of a project
   “In 2005, the BBC reported on a research study, funded by Hewlett-Packard and conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London, that found, “Workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.”
4. MC Hammer’s real name is Stanley Berrell
5. 80% of web searches result in a click on organic results
   “SEO is the tortoise, SEM is the hare” – Lynda.com training video on search engine optimization
   
6. One small Tootsie Roll is only about 10 calories. You can eat almost 5 before even incurring one Weight Watchers point
7. Women control 80% of the consumer spending in America
8. Rules of thumb for good brand names: it has 2-4 syllables, 2 vowels, and hints at what the product is but doesn’t say it directly
9. Pressing “F11″ makes your web browser go full screen
10. Toby the red panda (new resident to the Houston Zoo)  is perhaps the cutest animal ever

A few random quotes I have stumbled across in my first weeks at Schipul:

• “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them” – Albert Einstein
• “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
• “A day spent being ‘world famous’ is a lot more enjoyable than a day spent being ordinary.” – Fish!

More soon!

Related posts:

1. The long wait is over
2. My Crazy Life and Aggie Football