Book Review: Making Numbers Count

 

Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Heath
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Excellent reference tool for communicators. Reading it straight through gave me general ideas but it's hard to remember the various strategies when presented with so many. I see going back to this for quick reminders.

If you think you aren't a numbers person, you need to read this to communicate and see relationships of numbers.
If you are a numbers person, you need to read this to make numbers relevant to the common man.

If you like general trivia, this is an interesting read simply to go through the examples which are put into tables and easily noticeable to read.

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Monday Musings Except Now It's Tuesday

1. One year ago today I walked into my place of work for my first full day of work. It's been a good year. I am part of a great team.

2. It was really good to get this since at my last place of employment I found my position would be eliminated three days before my first work anniversary there.

3. Over the weekend I stopped at a Farm Bureau booth that had a prize wheel. The sign said "Everybody wins." My spin stopped on "Chance to win a cooler." I filled out the form, but then I commented that I really hadn't won anything. The guy said I won a chance to win a cooler, but I told him I wasn't walking away with anything so I really hadn't won anything. The lady behind the table was not a very nice person. She said "Well you won a chance at a really nice cooler, but go ahead and have a sucker." I'm pretty sure when I walked away my slip of paper went in the trash can and not in the drawing bucket.

Thankful Thursday 8/7/14

1. Good week at work. There is hope that my old position will be filled soon.

2. I've left work the last two days at a very reasonable time and felt good about my workload.

3. Ate tamales yesterday for the first time in over 20 years and only the second time in my life. I didn't get any spice in my eye like I did the first time.

4. I've enjoyed being home alone for a few days, but I'm glad Renae is back today.

5. I got almost everything done on my list while Renae was gone.

Thankful Thursday 7/31/14

It may be early, early Friday morning in Dallas but it's still Thursday in Alaska!

1. It's been a week of long days at work, but I'm so thankful I have the opportunity to do one plus jobs since one year ago today I didn't have a job.

2. It's been a fun week reliving memories of the trip posting pictures on fb and the family blog.

3. Facetime with Emma yesterday. She was eating hotdogs and 'matoes for lunch. She wasn't about to share her 'matoes with me.

4. Wednesday night we got in the spa to cool off after a walk around the neighborhood. All of a sudden we smelled skunk--very fresh skunk. You've never seen two middle-aged overweight women crawl out of the spa and get in the house faster!!! Thankful the smell stayed outside.

Thankful Thursday 7/17/14

1. Alaska.

 

 

2. Two people at work did so much to cover me that catching up was not as major of a deal as I expected.

 

3. My old boss was in the office today. It was great to see him. He was an encouraging leader exactly at the time I needed that.

Thankful Thursday 7/3/14

1. Thankful for the U.S.A. I think it's the best of any place.
2. Thankful that my sister is having a wonderful visit in China with my nephew.
3. Thankful that technology allows her to share pics and posts with me to put on her blog. Her family and friends can track her trip on the other side of the world.
4. Thankful I survived a very, very busy week of work. With the holiday weekend quite a few were on vacation, and I had to cover my old job, what I do of my new job, and other communications work as well.
5. Thankful a co-worker spent several hours prepping the two offices for two new team members on Monday. She knew I was overloaded and completely took that off of me.
6. Thankful she and another co-worker are so willing to cover me next week while I'm on vacation next week.
7. Thankful we had only a half day of work today which gave me more time to get ready to leave tomorrow.
8. Thankful that last night after doing yard work I could get in the pool and cool off. It was wonderful.

Thankful Thursday 6/19/14

1. A wonderful, wonderful trip to SC for Father's Day Weekend.
2. Eventually getting there safely after boarding three planes, two of which had "maintenance issues."
3. Parents who are willing to be at the airport at 2:00 a.m. to pick me up.
4. Getting to see two siblings, two in-laws, and four nieces and nephews.
5. Finding blackberry bushes on a Sunday evening walk with my mother. We went back and picked eight cups. She made a batch of blackberry jelly on Monday.
6. The local berry farm still had fresh strawberries. I got my first fresh strawberries of the season Monday morning. The ones in the grocery store don't come close!!!
7. New job is going well for what I'm doing of it. It's very, very busy trying to do my old job until it is filled while learning the new job.
8. Got in the pool last night for awhile after a hot day. It makes sleeping so nice.

Day 11 and Thankful Thursday

Today is Day 11 of my "being under the weather." I haven't had anything like this any time that I can remember. A week ago Monday I left work mid-morning with a fever and stayed home the next day. After lunch on day 2 I was resting and thought, "I have energy. I am better." I got up, cleaned up, and truly was better. At work the next day I was cold and felt a cold coming on. The next day it felt more like bronchitis coming on. Days 5, 6 and 7 was scratchy throat. Day 8 I went to a walk-in clinic and started an antibiotic. Day 9 when I thought I would be seeing good results I was worse than ever--I had the most serious sinus pain I could ever imagine. Day 10 I stayed home and while I'm much better today I am not quite up to being at work.

So what makes me thankful?

1. Having medical insurance. Even with high deductible insurance it is comforting to know I have help with medical costs. The antibiotic without insurance was $53.78--with insurance $10.00.

2. Having a work team leader who is supportive and allows me to work at home on days like this.

3. Having family who have been concerned and care.

4. Having a friend who will make me dinner even if her first words to me yesterday when she got home from work were "You look terrible."

5. A co-worker gave me a sachet of this last week when I returned to work. I'm not a hot tea fan as I know I'm sick when I want it. This cinnamon spice tea is really good and has felt great. I immediately ordered it on ebay and it came on Tuesday. I think I like the sachets instead of the paper tea bags.

Macro Work

In the late 80s I had some interest in computer and took one course at a time to complete a computer applications occupational certificate at a local community college. Part of the program included a course in flow charting and two classes in programming. The spreadsheet class (remember Lotus Notes?) included macros. I liked the logic and structure of programming in the little things we did in class.

Fast forward to about 2005 when I worked in an accounting department. One of the team leaders in the department knew that I had a small knowledge of macros and gave me various macro writing projects over the course of next 3 years. There were others available to go to with questions and a previous employee had made a rather extensive spreadsheet of common macro commands. When I didn't know how to do something I could search on-line to find the commands and steps needed. I often went to the same websites for help.

In 2011 I went to another job where I reported to the manager from my previous company. She gave me several more macro projects in the year we worked together there.

Now I'm not in an accounting department, but at a recent department lunch a co-worker was telling about copying and pasting 8 numbers from one spreadsheet to another and had to do each number individually for what was going to be up to 100 people or so. Another person thought I could do something for her so I started in on another macro project.

I am not fast with my programming and people who really know macro programming would probably look at what I do and think "What is she doing?????" However, it works.

Today I gave my co-worker the finished product. What would have taken her well over an hour now completes in about 15 seconds. The macro copies all the numbers and then color codes them red, yellow, or green for unacceptable, ok, and excellent. She said she never would have dreamed of the color coding so that far exceeded what she wanted.

It is fun to help others be more efficient. It is also interesting to see how what I did 25 years ago and people who influenced me during that time helped make me successful now.

Thankful Thursday 09/19/13

1. Mowed the yard for the first time in sub-90 degree temps. It was still hot.

2. Received some very nice recognition at work this week. Renae asked if we get more than just an "attaboy" when we get recognized in various meetings. I said no, but then added that an 'attaboy is more than you get at many places.

3. Had a great time last Friday morning reconnecting with Reach Out Reach Up, an early morning prayer group for those looking for work that I participated in for 4 months.

4. Having fun working on a macro at work. My macro work is very basic I'm sure, but it is fun for me.

Thankful Thursday 09/12/13

1. Loving my job. It's so nice to be affirmed for my work including being praised for contributions that I wouldn't have considered my strengths.

2. A work team leader who is willing to share with others that ideas came from other people than him.

3. Having a cafeteria at work. The food is excellent and the staff is very, very friendly.

4. Having a parking garage which helps keep the car cooler in the heat of 100+ degree days.

5. BSF started on Monday night. I'm really looking forward to studying the book of Matthew this year.

6. Doing a Thankful Thursday means tomorrow is Friday and the last day before the weekend.

I Commit

If I am ever in a place where I am part of a hiring process,

1. If a job seeker leaves me a voice mail, I commit to returning the call even if only to say thank you for the call.

2. If a job seeker sends me an e-mail, I commit to replying even if only to say thank you for the message.

3. If I say I will let someone know something by a certain day, I will send a communication even if only to say where we are in the process.

Signed and sealed, May 21, 2013.

Edited:

4. I will not make a job seeker fill out a 16-page application before I know if I am interested in them. An on-line application can  have basic information and questions to let me know if I want to know more about that candidate. I do not need to know the last 3 books a potential candidate has read.

Signed and sealed again, May 23, 2013

Grief

Last weekend I was reminded that losing a job is like a death and it's ok to go through a grieving process. My co-worker and I were discussing that as well. One day she said, "Today I'm in the anger phase." About Thursday I said, "I must be in the eathing phase of grief." She wondered if that really was a stage.

Hopefully I remember this for the future. When you don't know what to say, say you don't know what to say. However, to not say anything is worse. When someone says I don't know what to say they acknowledge that something has occurred and there is no easy answer. Not saying anything makes the one who has experienced a loss feel awkward. And no, don't expect that person to come to you to talk.

Day +4

It's four days since The News. This morning was rough at church. We sang I Stand in Awe of You and How Great is Our God. I was on the organ which was better and was worse. It was better that I didn't have to actually sing the words, and it was worse because I could hear the words and there was a big potential for a meltdown while playing. I made it with no tears until I tried to sing the chorus accapella with the audience but quit and then the leader repeated the chorus.

So many people at church were very encouraging, and I know many of them are praying for me.

Best comment I got yesterday: If you need or want to talk, stop by. We may not know much but we're always willing to give our opinion.

Best comment of today came from a missionary I was giving a head's up that the little financial support I give them monthly may discontinue after February: This morning I was thinking that I had too much work but my perspective on that has changed.

Day One

Day one of getting ready for unemployment.

In some ways today was worse than yesterday. I was prepared for yesterday, but I really hadn't thought about going to work today with Renae's office being empty. It's a bit bizarre in that I don't know who knows and who doesn't. No one in the office said anything.

Today I made a few calls to get advice, stop 401K contributions to help build up cash, made a doctor's appointment for while I still have insurance, and talked with an HR person. I also called two people who work virtually but I've really enjoyed working with and connected with even though we've mostly e-mailed and occasionally talked on the phone.

Two meltdowns today. One was after I talked to the financial advisor and wasn't too big, but the one after I walked out of Menards was pretty bad. I have no idea what triggered it, but thanks Mom for talking me through it!

Funniest moment of the day. Grocery shopping and spending way too long trying to decide which was the best buy on toilet paper.

Advice

Best advice I got yesterday:

Inhale God; exhale doubt.

November 8, 2012

November 8, 2012. I'll remember today.

51 weeks and 4 days after I started a new job I found out my job would be eliminated at the end of February. I knew it was a possibility at some point, but when you walk into a conference room with the finance director and the head of HR you know it's not good.

It could be worse. My close friend and work team leader was told her job was eliminated effective today.

It's interesting that this came down 2 days after the election. I'd like to say it's the result of that but it's not. The official reason is the department is moving to Minneapolis.

So today I begin to find out what my faith really is.
It's easy to say God is in control, God knows, God will take care of me.
I know all of that.
I also know that I have a strong, loving, and very supportive family and a strong support network of friends.
But I cannot say I'm not scared, and I cannot say I haven't had a lot of tears today.

So tomorrow morning I go back and finish the job.

Friday

So many things have  happened in the last few weeks since the last post so here goes a list of lots of random thoughts:
1. I really miss my mom on Mother's Day weekend. I loved 3 years ago when she was here for Mother's Day.
2. Vacation was wonderful. Two weeks ago today I spent the entire day on the beach. Thanks to Jayne I read 4 books over the week--don't know when I've ever done that. I may write about the 4 books later.
3. I like teaching but I don't like the work between the classes, but then I think the students probably don't either.
4. Had a nice team outing with 3 of the 5 team members at the Volksparade at Holland's Tulip Time.
5. My car really needs to be washed. The nice thing about the color of my car (metallic light blue) is good for not showing dust, but the windows show how dirty it is.
6. This has been a couple of very busy weeks at work--getting back from vacation immediately having month end, busy days at the start of the month to invoice clients, getting ready for a server move today, etc.
7. Other thoughts shooting around like a ping pong ball in my head, but those will have to wait . . .

A New Look Going the Same Way

The westbound lanes of one of my routes to work has been rerouted to the right lane of the eastbound lanes due to construction. It's amazing how a different direction makes the drive to work completely different as I saw many different things and things in a different perspective. Apply this to life, work, relationships, etc. and think about looking at the situation from a different view can change perspective and ideas.

Company Picnic

Today was our annual company picnic. It is held at the county fairgrounds, and while it is geared towards families with children there is still plenty that I find enjoyable. I always play both sessions of bingo, play a golf game, and do some trivia or Price is Right. This year there were also several Minute to Win It games, and I won at stacking 7 metal nuts. This was the first year I didn't win a bingo prize. I did get my yearly supply of golf tees and missed hitting the bucket by 1/4" according to the golf game director.

They serve a great meal of grilled chicken, hotdogs, bar-b-q pork, cole slaw, baked beans, potatoes, and fruit. There are various stands with Schwan ice cream treats, elephant ears, cotton candy, caramel corn, and fruit.

I'm glad my company wants to do something fun and entertaining for us. To me it's a nice benefit. I find it interesting that people either love the picnic or won't touch it. I look forward to it every year.