You're gonna learn something new today

For anyone who has been around me IRL, you've most likely heard me say "You learn something new every day!" and sometimes ending that with "and if you don't, you're not paying attention." I think it's one of those phrases that people hear from me so much that maybe it annoys them, but they're too polite to let me know how they feel. :)

If you have been paying attention, you may have noticed that I changed the tagline on my blog to say "you're gonna learn something new today." The "regular tea" thing was cute, and is sentimental because of a great night at Applebee's with friends, but it didn't really say much about PresentlyDeMo. Not that my blog is only going to be all about learning new things, but I thought I'd give it a try. I thought it might be fun to see just how much I can learn in a certain time. A month? A year? We'll see how long I keep this going.

But before posting about this "learning new things" thing and saying "I told you so!" I wanted to make sure that what I'm saying is actually true. So I tried a little experiment and kept a Google Notebook of things I learned every day for the last week. Sometimes it was hard, and at least one of these things is just a matter of lack of common sense at the moment *coughsaltcough*, but it required me to think back on my day. How often do you do that? I know that before this week, I mostly just lived my day and went to bed, ready to start a new day. Sure, sometimes I'd think about funny stuff that happened and get another laugh, but not every day do I look back on just the normal stuff to find what new piece of knowledge I gained from it. It was also fun to remember the things that I taught other people. At work, this mostly involves something simple on the computer, but just last night I taught a friend how to properly break open sunflower seeds to get to the goodness inside.

So here's my list. I'm going to keep this going, and might just make it a short daily thing: The Daily DeMo! (Although at the rate I'm going, this blog seems to be a Thursday-Sunday-Monday blog. Where does my time go? I have no time!) Feel free to add your version of Daily DeMo in the comments.

The Daily DeMo, Edition 1

DD#1 - Friday :: McConnel AFB uses a coding system to report what is wrong with the planes after they come in. For example, every piece of material on every section of the airplane has a numeric code that gets put into the computer so that the mechanics will have a simple way of knowing what needs to be fixed; even something so common as a cup-holder has a code assigned to it. It's someone's job to take what the pilot has logged as needing repair, and translate that into numbers that the computer can understand, and then the mechanics take it from there. [kevin, if you read this and are laughing uncontrollably because I haven't explained it very well, please correct me :)]

DD#2 - Saturday :: Big hooks catch little fish, but don't come out easily. There's a baby catfish swimming around Lazy Creek with some lip jewelry.

DD#3 - Sunday :: Don't confuse the salt for the sugar or the deviled eggs won't taste very good.

DD#4 - Monday :: At least two bulls and a horse live at Cowtown, and they have stinky poo.

DD#4.1 - If you feel like giving up on a bike ride because you've ridden too far, you have to keep going because that's the only way to get home.

DD#5 - Tuesday :: WD-40 is so named because it was the 40th attempt at getting the perfect product.

DD#5.1 - When performing chest compressions during CPR, if you break so many ribs that the chest cavity is mushy, you're doing it correctly *shudder*.

DD#6 - Wednesday :: A bottle of water at a Shocker game costs $3.25. Insane.

DD#7 - Thursday :: The number of telemarketers on any given day is equivalent to the pieces of junkmail that are tossed. [Confession: This is my own frustrated observation, but I'm sure that it's true at some point in time.]