Yesterday i discovered a small papercut between my fingers the painful way – i was using instant hand sanitizer. Today i was opening some mail and realized that i got the papercut by opening an envelope the previous day. If rock beats scissors, and scissors beats paper, and paper cuts then my hand doesn’t stand a chance against rock or scissors. Since knowledge is power then here is all you need to know to conquer a papercut. A papercut is actually two words (1) but i say them together so fast that the ‘r’ and the ‘c’ should overlap. Paper cuts hurt more than cuts made by a metal blade because they leave behind fibers and chemicals in the wound (2) and because they don’t usually bleed the wound never receives blood to form a clot and seal the opening (3). A dot of super glue is an excellent way to button up an open paper cut. The glue also blocks air from touching the exposed nerves (4) which send the signal of pain to the brain.

On Saturday i put some trim around the interior door that i put in to separate the living room from the apartment/bed and brew. Neither the door nor trim have been stained yet but it looks a lot better than the unfinished project we’ve been looking at for weeks.

It’s quite public knowledge that Cena plans on buying Pangea. But there are a few other businesses on the table right now. Just for Kids is also for sale along with the Alaskan Gourmet annex. Northern Lights Restaurant also became available. Joan Mei restaurant has been for sale forever. I just heard that the bike shop is for sale also. Even a part ownership of Kito’s is changing hands. All of this may make it seem like there is a depressed economy in Petersburg. But sales tax revenue to the city was up for this last year. The generation that would operate a business for 30 years has long since retired and people move around and experiment. In a few years when i start to consider my next career move i wonder if i’ll even stay in parks & recreation – or even the public sector. I’ve been dreaming of buying and renovating old homes and buildings.

With winter’s flu season comes a crop of instant hand sanitizers on desktops and counters of businesses. I have one on my desk that i use during almost every phone call. I got to thinking about the things in my office that don’t get cleaned often that would be conduits for bacteria and viruses.

Keyboard – Naturally our contact with computer keyboards will spread germs. Food, hair, skin pieces, and other goodies in there make a nice festering layer just below your hands. What a pain in the butt to clean though. Between compressed air, some sanitizing wipes and a vacuum it seems to clean up pretty well though. Don’t forget the area that your wrists rest.

Mouse – Certainly you’ve seen the sweat and dirt line outlining a finger on someone’s mouse. That can’t be healthy. Clean the area around your mouse too. If you have a cloth covered mouse pad think of finding a replacement that is easier to clean.

Telephone – Clean that handset really well. Get in those crevices of the pieces of plastic that are snapped together. Clean the area where the buttons are and if your phone has one don’t forget about the cord – it’s right in line with your mouth.

Cell phone – Recent research has found cell phones tote more bacteria than a toilet seat or even the bottom of a shoe. I don’t know the best way to clean a phone short of taking it apart as far as possible and disinfecting the pieces.

Chair armrests – Another surface with dozens or even hundreds of contacts a day.

Door knob – Hopefully the person that cleans your building hits the doorknobs of the restrooms and the entry door hardware. If you have an office that doorknob is probably not in the cleaning contract.

Water bottle or coffee cup – I’ve seen some disgusting coffee cups and i’ve let my water bottles get bad enough that i have thrown them out. Wash those things!

Today i got a call from the person that donated a valuable piece of waterfront property to the city for an extension of Eagle’s Roost Park. He sat me down in his dining room with a signed blank check and told me to write it for $100,000 to the city. I love building stuff!

I know a few things about you but not enough to know who you are. You’re using ACS for your internet access and your computer runs Windows XP. You use Internet Explorer version 7.0 (tsk-tsk). You visit Karna‘s and Cena‘s blogs regularly and Beth’s myspace page on occasion. You have spent quite a while perusing my site today – 160 page views! You only visit my page during weekdays and you took Monday off – it was President’s day. You have a day job too because you only visit my site between 8 am and 5 pm. You have not ever left a comment on my website. Please, drop a few hints!

While out of town last week i only had fast food twice. Both times were at Burger King and both times my order was a hassle. At the first place one of the items on my order was a chicken chicken sandwich with only mustard, cheese, and bacon. When i unwrapped it there was mayo and lettuce (the most disgusting lettuce i have ever seen) on the sandwich. It was printed correctly on my receipt but the kitchen had messed it up. I returned it and ended up with what i wanted. The second time i asked for the same item and the lady at the register spent forever trying to find the buttons and get my order right.

While shoveling the driveway the other day i was thinking about “have it your way” as the slogan for Burger King. With today’s technology i was thinking that people could set up a profile online that lists exactly the way people like their food. In my case it would be the chicken sandwich with mustard, bacon and cheese along with a double BK Stacker meal without the sauce on the sandwich. Once my preferences have been set then they mail me a key fob with a passive RFID embedded with my personal ID number. I could then walk up to a special register, wave my tag at the register and it would ring me up – perhaps even billing my credit card or deducting money from my checking account. There would then be one less human making errors on my order. The cooks can still mess things up but the cashier just has to pass me my change if i pay with cash and ask if i’m eating in the restaurant or having take out.

We have this system in place for travelers of toll roads with the Easy Pass system. Why not for fast food or even vending machines?

While i was in DC, Cena received a copy of the Crafter Culture book that my Nintendo controller mouse project is in. Just yesterday i received an email from the author asking for my address to send me a copy. I don’t want to spoil the ending but here’s a glimpse. Yes, that’s Cena’s hand!

Cena and i joined Peerflix to unload some DVDs that we had, didn’t want, and were fairly worthless on Amazon. If it was worth less than $3 or so and we didn’t plan on ever watching it again we listed them. At first it was just a great way to try and get some movies sent to us fairly inexpensively. I listed a bunch of discs and quite a few were requested right away. Before long i had more than 30 Peerbux racked up. We’d have something sent every now and then but we seem to be greater contributors to the network than recipients. The company is small and does a good job maintaining loyalty to the traders. At one point to correct some inequalities they paid some money to my Paypal account and gave Cena a Starbucks card. In December they switched from the Peerbux system to a cash system. Suddenly i had a $125 credit. I requested a $100 cash-out and reduced some of my requests to ensure that i didn’t draw my balance down below $100. The check arrived today.

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