You are a very inspiring person, in general. I realized that yesterday, watching you work. I don't know if I ever told you.

I went home and worked a couple hours more till it was finally dawn, thanks to you. Hehe :-)

Just when I was getting ready to order the wok, Amazon changed the price on me.

Now this is just annoying! Or maybe it's a signal that I didn't need that wok.

EDIT: And of course, as soon as I deleted every single thing from my cart in protest against Amazon's price-changing shady tactics. the wok silently dropped to it's former price again.


How unbelievably dodgy is this?!

EDIT2: I gave Amazon the royal shove and bought this 12 inch fry-pan from Overstock.com where it has been the same price for more than a month.

I can always use R, but sometimes Gnumeric comes in handy to whittle down lists filled with duplicates in a jiffy.

Simplified steps from

1. Say you have a column A with A1 to A100 rows with duplicate data that you want to eliminate

2. Go to Data > Advanced Filter. Under the input tab, choose list range as A1 to A100.

3. I don't understand why Gnumeric needs a criteria range for everything but it does... Even for duplicate-value-finding that involves no mathematical formulas. So choose a criteria range. Say B1 to B2. Make sure that the first cell of the criteria range has the same column header as the list range. So if, say your cell A1 was named "Numbers" then B1 should also be "Numbers". Leave B2 blank.

4. Check unique records only

5. Go to the Output tab. Choose an output range (longer than the input range, just to prevent any complaints from gnumeric). Click OK.

You should have the original list with no duplicates in the output range.

I found an interesting variation on the Biscoff Speculoos recipe at this

Ingredients:

2 c. all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp baker's ammonia
1 c. unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions:

In a small bowl, whisk the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baker's ammonia and salt together; set aside. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on low speed, cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar together. Add the vanilla extract. Gradually blend the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Press the dough evenly into the bottom of a 9x13 greased pan. Decoratively score the dough with a fork or small knife, if you wish.

Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges. Let cool completely before cutting into bars. Store in an airtight container. Well-wrapped shortbread may also be frozen.

Source: The Art Of The Cookie

Baker's Ammonia? What in the world is that? Sounds so fishy... and sea-weedy.

Do I really want this keyboard? I am tempted to get it because it is exactly like a laptop keyboard. I am a very noisy typist and can probably wake the dead with my typing... or at least make them toss around. Maybe this keyboard will stop all that noise and I don't have to drown out the sound of my own typing with music?





BUT I am sure accumulation tax applies to such frivolous things. I can probably buy more heavy metal instead... Besides, I am sure the dead need all the extra exercise they can get. I am resisting this totally unreasonable impulse to buy this absolutely unnecessary keyboard.