In case you haven't heard about Whole Foods, they are "Whole Foods Market is the world's largest retailer of natural and organic foods, with stores throughout North America and the United Kingdom."
Now, typically statements like make me avoid a place like the plague (screams We are the Walmart of grocery stores). But, in this case Sarah and I took the time to go check them out.
We were amazed to find that their product line (at least we guess it's theirs) 365 is almost completely safe for Chance to have. I would go as far as to say that 80-90% of the products we found in the 365 line were completely MSPI safe. Add to this their great selection of safe sausage and meat selections and the minimal price increase is more than worth it.
Just to give you an idea, Chance is so intolerant to Soy that he can't even have products that are prepared with Soy Oil (some people with MSPI can). We found French Fries in a multitude of shapes, sizes, and styles that he could have and that didn't have an ingredient list a mile long.
Yep, we are sold on Whole Foods.
In other news. We have finally launched our bakery (Dough) from our house and are taking orders. The products section still has a lot of work to be completed, but it is online. The best way to place an order is to figure out what you want and give us a call (phone number is on the contact page). I will say that some of our products do contain Milk, but we have marked them with an * to let you know. Typically these are products that are quite obvious (cheesecake as an example).
Future updates will include the complete ingredients listing for each products online, online purchase, and online shipment calculation as long as we can support the growing costs of developing the site.
- Jeremy
Recipe for this post:
Apple Pancakes
1 cup flour
1 Tbs brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4-1/3 tsp cinnamon
1 cup apple juice or apple cider (we like cider)
1 egg
1 Tbs canola oil
Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and cinnamon) in a large bowl.
Mix egg and oil together in a separate container bringing to a complete emulsion. Add Apple Juice (Cider) to the egg and oil.
Pour the wet stuff into the dry stuff and stir about 10 times (till it just comes together). Let stand while you heat your skillet up to 300 Degrees Fahrenheit.
Depending on size, this recipe makes about 12-16 pancakes. They freeze well and reheat in the microwave in about 30 seconds.
Traveling to Family with Allergies
This is something that comes up all of the time and in all Allergy Aware families lives. Its time to go to some location with your allergic child where you don't know what temptations will be around.
In our case it was this past mothers day weekend. We went to my parents house, where they "can't live without their milk and butter", for a family gathering. My Brother, his Daughter, my Sister, her Husband, my Parents and of course my family were all there.
We thought ahead, and knowing no stores or restaurants were near by that we could count on for safe foods, packed food with us. Everything we needed for chances diet was packed. We took Palm Shortening, Lard (boy did I get an earful for that one), rice milk, broth (chicken and beef), cookies, you name it we took it.
Of course, we come through the door and my mother is all over the boys. As we are unpacking, I look up to find my mother giving my son a glass of MILK! Ok, time to explain this all over again to the family and take the drink from Chance.
"A little bit wont hurt him" was the explanation I received from my mother with backing from my sister that "Mom just doesn't know better". A few hours of vomiting and calling later everything settles down and I've impressed enough on the family that they should listen to what we say about our children.
This is my first problem with traveling to family events, family are the worst around kids. They think that we are mean parents by not giving our children Milk and cookies (or whatever). Only when they see the evils that come from "bad foods" do they finally decide that they should listen. Thankfully enough, it wasn't enough for a rush trip to the hospital (1 hr drive away).
Problem is, that the next time we go to an event this will probably happen again even though we tell them constantly NOT TO FEED THE BABY! What do I have to do put a sign around his neck?
Anyways, on with my point. Friday night goes past and Saturday starts up. I'm out the door at 4:17 (see my twitter feed) to work a fishing tournament with my father. Wife and I are signed up for dinner.
We made Salisbury Steak with brown gravy. Get the food out and put everything on Chances plate for him (meat, potatoes, gravy, veggies, you name it). My mother comes around the corner grabs the plate throws it in the trash and scalds me for giving my child Milk!?!!
Ok, next up, explaining that our diet doesn't just consist of fruits and veggies. We have learned to modify our cooking style to appear "normal" to the outside world. Also comes the explanation that I do care about my children and know what's best for them to eat!
Of course, my wife is in the corner calming a very freaked out Chance (mom made a bit of a scene and he didn't like it, doesn't help that one of his favorite meals was sitting in the trash).
Re-feed Chance and explain how we cook (yet again) to everyone as they compliment us on some of the best Salisbury Steak (as they put it) they ever had.
For Sunday breakfast we made Biscuits and Gravy. Saturday night's little fiasco meant that no one called us on the gravy this time. Mom was on pins and needles by this time though and ever five minutes was asking "can he have juice, can he have the biscuits, can he have fruit?"
Of course, this went on through the day.
My point? My point is this, your family is your worst enemy. You place your trust in them to believe and follow your directions. At times they will, and at times they wont (a little can't hurt always goes through their minds). They are your family so you don't want to hurt their feelings, and they don't really want to hurt your children but don't understand what can go wrong. They don't live with it day in and day out, so they arn't used to it.
Take everything you need with you, and prove that you eat "normally". If the family doesn't like the idea make sure you have a backup (let them cook their own damned meals) and be ready for a "mistake" to happen. Your family doesn't live with it day in and day out like you do, they don't know better and even if they do they will forget.
- Jeremy
Todays Recipe - Brown Gravy
1 carton beef broth (safe of course)
1/4 cup flour
2 Tbs shortening (Palm Shortening from Spectrum is what we use)
Seasoning to taste
Melt shortening in pan over medium heat. Whisk flour into melted shortening until and continue over medium heat until blonde in color (slightly more brown than yellow/white).
Turn heat up to Medium High and add in 1/2 the carton of broth. It should sizzle, whisk fast until it starts to come together. Once it has add broth until desired thickness. Season to taste and serve warm.
My extended family loves this over "normal" gravy now! Guess they can live without milk :)
In our case it was this past mothers day weekend. We went to my parents house, where they "can't live without their milk and butter", for a family gathering. My Brother, his Daughter, my Sister, her Husband, my Parents and of course my family were all there.
We thought ahead, and knowing no stores or restaurants were near by that we could count on for safe foods, packed food with us. Everything we needed for chances diet was packed. We took Palm Shortening, Lard (boy did I get an earful for that one), rice milk, broth (chicken and beef), cookies, you name it we took it.
Of course, we come through the door and my mother is all over the boys. As we are unpacking, I look up to find my mother giving my son a glass of MILK! Ok, time to explain this all over again to the family and take the drink from Chance.
"A little bit wont hurt him" was the explanation I received from my mother with backing from my sister that "Mom just doesn't know better". A few hours of vomiting and calling later everything settles down and I've impressed enough on the family that they should listen to what we say about our children.
This is my first problem with traveling to family events, family are the worst around kids. They think that we are mean parents by not giving our children Milk and cookies (or whatever). Only when they see the evils that come from "bad foods" do they finally decide that they should listen. Thankfully enough, it wasn't enough for a rush trip to the hospital (1 hr drive away).
Problem is, that the next time we go to an event this will probably happen again even though we tell them constantly NOT TO FEED THE BABY! What do I have to do put a sign around his neck?
Anyways, on with my point. Friday night goes past and Saturday starts up. I'm out the door at 4:17 (see my twitter feed) to work a fishing tournament with my father. Wife and I are signed up for dinner.
We made Salisbury Steak with brown gravy. Get the food out and put everything on Chances plate for him (meat, potatoes, gravy, veggies, you name it). My mother comes around the corner grabs the plate throws it in the trash and scalds me for giving my child Milk!?!!
Ok, next up, explaining that our diet doesn't just consist of fruits and veggies. We have learned to modify our cooking style to appear "normal" to the outside world. Also comes the explanation that I do care about my children and know what's best for them to eat!
Of course, my wife is in the corner calming a very freaked out Chance (mom made a bit of a scene and he didn't like it, doesn't help that one of his favorite meals was sitting in the trash).
Re-feed Chance and explain how we cook (yet again) to everyone as they compliment us on some of the best Salisbury Steak (as they put it) they ever had.
For Sunday breakfast we made Biscuits and Gravy. Saturday night's little fiasco meant that no one called us on the gravy this time. Mom was on pins and needles by this time though and ever five minutes was asking "can he have juice, can he have the biscuits, can he have fruit?"
Of course, this went on through the day.
My point? My point is this, your family is your worst enemy. You place your trust in them to believe and follow your directions. At times they will, and at times they wont (a little can't hurt always goes through their minds). They are your family so you don't want to hurt their feelings, and they don't really want to hurt your children but don't understand what can go wrong. They don't live with it day in and day out, so they arn't used to it.
Take everything you need with you, and prove that you eat "normally". If the family doesn't like the idea make sure you have a backup (let them cook their own damned meals) and be ready for a "mistake" to happen. Your family doesn't live with it day in and day out like you do, they don't know better and even if they do they will forget.
- Jeremy
Todays Recipe - Brown Gravy
1 carton beef broth (safe of course)
1/4 cup flour
2 Tbs shortening (Palm Shortening from Spectrum is what we use)
Seasoning to taste
Melt shortening in pan over medium heat. Whisk flour into melted shortening until and continue over medium heat until blonde in color (slightly more brown than yellow/white).
Turn heat up to Medium High and add in 1/2 the carton of broth. It should sizzle, whisk fast until it starts to come together. Once it has add broth until desired thickness. Season to taste and serve warm.
My extended family loves this over "normal" gravy now! Guess they can live without milk :)
Potato Salad and Brianna's Dressings
Enough rants and raves about FF joints for a bit. Today I wanted to talk about a great Dressing ling we found a while back (some time in January). Its called Brianna's Dressings (http://www.briannassaladdressing.com/), if you haven't heard of them or tried them you should. In fact I'll give you a recipe that Sarah and I love to give them a try with at the end of this posting.
When Sarah and I found out that Chance couldn't have anything with Milk or Soy in it we were lost at first. It took us quite a bit of time to figure out how to modify our cooking, purchasing, and eating habits to match the diet that is a necessity to his health. Many hours were spent searching the isles of our local grocery stores (big thanks to the HyVee Nutritionist as she really stepped up and aided us in our searches).
One of the things we though he would have to do without was most types of salad dressings, in fact we couldn't hardly find any that he could have (they all had either Milk, Soy, or a hidden Soy derivative) in them. At our wits end I read the back of a Brianna's Dressing bottle one day and found that they did two things for me: First they clearly marked ALL of their ingredients and second they only used Milk in dressings that absolutely required it (not many). Reading their line I found at least 4 that night that Chance could have. Purchased two (as a starting point) and took them home. The salad was great, but the dressings are what blew my mind! Seriously, these are the best dressings I have ever tasted.
I contacted Brianna's using their published contact form saying just how impressed with their product. Didn't expect any response, but instead got a very detailed and personal response (including some swag that was actually useful).
Longer story short, we use Brianna's for almost everything now and after some learning we have found that we can make everything from an excellent Coleslaw to some of the best Potato Salad you ever had.
Everyone should try Brianna's and the recipes on their site. Again big thumbs up guys (and gals)! And thanks for the top notch products that honestly tell you whats included.
- Jeremy
Our Favorite Potato Salad
This isn't a complete recipe with exact amounts as we find that it depends on our mood as to how much we put in, but this is the basic that is easy to expand:
5-6 medium red potato's
1 cup Brianna's Dijon Honey Mustard
1/4cup Fresh Green Onion's (of course you can cut this down if you like)
5-6cloves Baked Garlic (just take a head of garlic and bake it in the oven at 350 until umpshis)
1tsp+1tsp Paprika
2-4Tbs Yellow Mustard (your choice)
Fresh Parsley and other herbs to taste
Cube and boil the potatoes till they are fork tender (meaning they don't resist a fork too much, about how you would expect them in tater salad).
While your boiling your potatoes; chop (mince, dice, whatever) the garlic and onions. Add them to a small bowl along with the herbage. Give this all a stir to bring it together (its easier if you stir before you add wet stuff). Add the Dijon Honey Mustard, Yellow Mustard, 1tsp of Paprika, and any other spices you so choose. Stir this all until it comes together getting a good coating on all of the herbage, onions, and garlic. You will have to adjust the mustard to your likes, but remember that the tastes come out the longer the salad sits.
Bring the dressing mixture and the potatoes together with a large rubber spatula and place in the fridge. Let this sit at least overnight for the best flavor. You can eat it right away but it's like a fine wine, it gets better over time (well not too much time).
Stays good for about a week (+/- a few days depending on the potatoes).
Before serving sprinkle the top with more Paprika for that finished look. Everyone so far has loved it!
When Sarah and I found out that Chance couldn't have anything with Milk or Soy in it we were lost at first. It took us quite a bit of time to figure out how to modify our cooking, purchasing, and eating habits to match the diet that is a necessity to his health. Many hours were spent searching the isles of our local grocery stores (big thanks to the HyVee Nutritionist as she really stepped up and aided us in our searches).
One of the things we though he would have to do without was most types of salad dressings, in fact we couldn't hardly find any that he could have (they all had either Milk, Soy, or a hidden Soy derivative) in them. At our wits end I read the back of a Brianna's Dressing bottle one day and found that they did two things for me: First they clearly marked ALL of their ingredients and second they only used Milk in dressings that absolutely required it (not many). Reading their line I found at least 4 that night that Chance could have. Purchased two (as a starting point) and took them home. The salad was great, but the dressings are what blew my mind! Seriously, these are the best dressings I have ever tasted.
I contacted Brianna's using their published contact form saying just how impressed with their product. Didn't expect any response, but instead got a very detailed and personal response (including some swag that was actually useful).
Longer story short, we use Brianna's for almost everything now and after some learning we have found that we can make everything from an excellent Coleslaw to some of the best Potato Salad you ever had.
Everyone should try Brianna's and the recipes on their site. Again big thumbs up guys (and gals)! And thanks for the top notch products that honestly tell you whats included.
- Jeremy
Our Favorite Potato Salad
This isn't a complete recipe with exact amounts as we find that it depends on our mood as to how much we put in, but this is the basic that is easy to expand:
5-6 medium red potato's
1 cup Brianna's Dijon Honey Mustard
1/4cup Fresh Green Onion's (of course you can cut this down if you like)
5-6cloves Baked Garlic (just take a head of garlic and bake it in the oven at 350 until umpshis)
1tsp+1tsp Paprika
2-4Tbs Yellow Mustard (your choice)
Fresh Parsley and other herbs to taste
Cube and boil the potatoes till they are fork tender (meaning they don't resist a fork too much, about how you would expect them in tater salad).
While your boiling your potatoes; chop (mince, dice, whatever) the garlic and onions. Add them to a small bowl along with the herbage. Give this all a stir to bring it together (its easier if you stir before you add wet stuff). Add the Dijon Honey Mustard, Yellow Mustard, 1tsp of Paprika, and any other spices you so choose. Stir this all until it comes together getting a good coating on all of the herbage, onions, and garlic. You will have to adjust the mustard to your likes, but remember that the tastes come out the longer the salad sits.
Bring the dressing mixture and the potatoes together with a large rubber spatula and place in the fridge. Let this sit at least overnight for the best flavor. You can eat it right away but it's like a fine wine, it gets better over time (well not too much time).
Stays good for about a week (+/- a few days depending on the potatoes).
Before serving sprinkle the top with more Paprika for that finished look. Everyone so far has loved it!
Don't always believe your allergist
I've talked with many families in my local community about our son and MSPI. In many cases the story is the same;
This is due to the fact that a Food Intolerance doesn't affect the entire system and instead is a form of Gastroenterology (a disorder of the stomach, intestines, gallbladder, etc). This means that only a Gastroenterologist can diagnose these problems.
This testing usually requires an Upper or Lower GI were a die or camera is sent though the system that allows the specialist to view what is going on within the system. In the case of our son we didn't want to have these procedures ran just yet (hard to put a 2 year old though such a traumatic experience). Instead we keep a DETAILED food journal anytime we introduce something new into his diet. The overall outcome is that Chance has a sevear reaction to anything with Milk or Soy Proteins in it.
This is good enough for our local doctor, pediatrtion, and ER. The schools all recognize it, and the pre-schools are the most accepting of it. We have informed all of them of the negative results from the Allergy Test, and shown them the documentation (its all over the place, and if enough people ask I'll go track down the links and post them back up here) to backup our claims that this isn't a typical allergy that can be diagnosed via blood/skin tests.
When Chance gets older (if he wants to) or if it is challenged by the schools later in life he can have the GI performed and final validation of the problem in medical writing.
In case you are curious if we have tried whole or real milk, yes we have. We went to a local organic farm and got Milk straight from the cow (local farmers are more than willing to help families out we have found). Result, well lets just say that he could paint the barn without a brush. Similar when we went to a local farmer with organic Soy plants.
Long and short of what I'm saying, do your research and don't always believe the specialist. The problem may not be in their area of specialty.
- Jeremy
We noticed that there was a problem and that anytime our child received Milk or Soy products (by keeping a food diary and comparing ingredient listings) there was a problem. A visit to our local allergist resulted in testing (usually blood work, but pin prick testing is also common) with a negative result.Remember there are two forms of your body fighting back against an intrusion when it comes to food; a Food Allergy and a Food Intolerance. Food Intolerances typically CAN NOT be diagnosed by an Allergist. They will not show up in the blood work and in most cases will not show on a skin test.
This is due to the fact that a Food Intolerance doesn't affect the entire system and instead is a form of Gastroenterology (a disorder of the stomach, intestines, gallbladder, etc). This means that only a Gastroenterologist can diagnose these problems.
This testing usually requires an Upper or Lower GI were a die or camera is sent though the system that allows the specialist to view what is going on within the system. In the case of our son we didn't want to have these procedures ran just yet (hard to put a 2 year old though such a traumatic experience). Instead we keep a DETAILED food journal anytime we introduce something new into his diet. The overall outcome is that Chance has a sevear reaction to anything with Milk or Soy Proteins in it.
This is good enough for our local doctor, pediatrtion, and ER. The schools all recognize it, and the pre-schools are the most accepting of it. We have informed all of them of the negative results from the Allergy Test, and shown them the documentation (its all over the place, and if enough people ask I'll go track down the links and post them back up here) to backup our claims that this isn't a typical allergy that can be diagnosed via blood/skin tests.
When Chance gets older (if he wants to) or if it is challenged by the schools later in life he can have the GI performed and final validation of the problem in medical writing.
In case you are curious if we have tried whole or real milk, yes we have. We went to a local organic farm and got Milk straight from the cow (local farmers are more than willing to help families out we have found). Result, well lets just say that he could paint the barn without a brush. Similar when we went to a local farmer with organic Soy plants.
Long and short of what I'm saying, do your research and don't always believe the specialist. The problem may not be in their area of specialty.
- Jeremy
Allergies and Intolerances, missed opportunities?
In our family we have multiple food allergies (Blueberries, Bananas, Fake Sugars, etc) and a child with Milk Soy Protein Intolerance (MSPI). Why does this matter at all? For one thing restaurant's and fast food joints are missing out on our business. If we can't identify at least one product on the menu that our MSPI child can eat, we don't eat at the location.
The typical scenario goes something like this;
In fact, a few companies already do this; Yum Foods places ingredient listings for all of their companies (A&W, KFC, Long John Silvers, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell) as a downloadable word document (as long as you have MS Word installed your ok) and Churches Chicken places a listing of "Potential Food Allergens" on their website:
Unfortunately, all that this does is make it known to us that we can't eat at these locations (notice that Milk or Soy is in just about everything).
What these companies fail to realize is that they are missing out on a very large market share of people that would become buyers if they could. It is a well known fact that most families will eat out 2-3 times a week when there is a provider of foods that they enjoy near by.
For an Allergy Aware family this drops down dramatically (about once a month if not less). Why, simply no one wants little Billy barfing all over the place or worse yet having to make a mad dash to the hospital because their peanut allergic child ate fries cooked in peanut oil.
Many establishments have changed their cooking oils to a Vegetable Oil instead of Peanut Oil, but this only resolves one of the major allergy groups. Most Vegetable Oil contains Soy and even though "common belief" is that Soy Oil doesn't contain active proteins that affect MSPI individuals, it does in many cases (it all depends on what protein your allergic/intolerant to).
There are some solutions though, if food providers would switch to using Canola Oil or Vegetable Oil that doesn't contain Soy this would take care of many of their products. In the listing from Churches anything marked X** (in the Soy column) would be safe for my child to eat (as long as it doesn't have Dairy in it).
Up till this point I've talked about my family and our points of view. The fact is that we are strong members in Allergy and Intolerance groups online and in our community and we hear the same stories over and over again.
There are some good restaurants out there though. Best in show (in my mind at least) is Texas Roadhouse. We have been to Texas Roadhouse's across the country, and the story is always the same:
If you think we are crazy, just remember, its the only place in town we can go out to eat. Problem is, we would love to be able to go out to more places and have a few fast food joints added to our listing.
Enough ranting for now, hopefully someone up the food-chain reads this and understands what I mean :).
- Jeremy
The typical scenario goes something like this;
My wife or I are too tired to cook something for dinner. We would consider going out, but since none of the local restaurant's or food joints can tell us whats in their products we can't go to them. Instead, one of us sucks it up and makes something for dinner.It would be easy enough for most food chains to at least provide the information that we need to make our decision (the government makes all those primary manufactures distribute ingredient lists with their products). Simply take the listing on all of the primary ingredients used and cross reference it with the top 10 allergies and intolerances, then use that information to generate a listing.
In fact, a few companies already do this; Yum Foods places ingredient listings for all of their companies (A&W, KFC, Long John Silvers, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell) as a downloadable word document (as long as you have MS Word installed your ok) and Churches Chicken places a listing of "Potential Food Allergens" on their website:
What these companies fail to realize is that they are missing out on a very large market share of people that would become buyers if they could. It is a well known fact that most families will eat out 2-3 times a week when there is a provider of foods that they enjoy near by.
For an Allergy Aware family this drops down dramatically (about once a month if not less). Why, simply no one wants little Billy barfing all over the place or worse yet having to make a mad dash to the hospital because their peanut allergic child ate fries cooked in peanut oil.
Many establishments have changed their cooking oils to a Vegetable Oil instead of Peanut Oil, but this only resolves one of the major allergy groups. Most Vegetable Oil contains Soy and even though "common belief" is that Soy Oil doesn't contain active proteins that affect MSPI individuals, it does in many cases (it all depends on what protein your allergic/intolerant to).
There are some solutions though, if food providers would switch to using Canola Oil or Vegetable Oil that doesn't contain Soy this would take care of many of their products. In the listing from Churches anything marked X** (in the Soy column) would be safe for my child to eat (as long as it doesn't have Dairy in it).
Up till this point I've talked about my family and our points of view. The fact is that we are strong members in Allergy and Intolerance groups online and in our community and we hear the same stories over and over again.
We are taking a trip to [Insert Destination] and would like to know where we can eat along the way. Our family has the following list of allergies/intolerances: [listing]The group then has several responses depending on the listing of allergies/intolerances. If, say for example, only peanuts are listed you will see many locations listed. If MSPI, Milk, or Soy are listed then the listing is usually in the range of "your screwed unless you know specifics".
There are some good restaurants out there though. Best in show (in my mind at least) is Texas Roadhouse. We have been to Texas Roadhouse's across the country, and the story is always the same:
We tell the waiter/ress that we have a son who is allergic to Milk and Soy (always followed by some sort of what does he eat dialog). He/She realizes that since Texas Roadhouse makes ALL of its food on site they can accommodate the issue and we place our very specific order for the youngest on a separate ticket so it gets attention: child's Steak no Seasoning AT ALL, Steamed Veggies with no Oil/Butter, Side Salad with vinaigrette (please check the oil type first and let us know) and Juice.The food always comes exactly as we ask for it, and we have never had a problem. This means that when we go out, we eat at Texas Roadhouse. We spend a LOT of money there, and we tip our Waiter/ess and the cooks very well (usually in the range of $15 since we are a family of 4 on our $30-40 ticket).
If you think we are crazy, just remember, its the only place in town we can go out to eat. Problem is, we would love to be able to go out to more places and have a few fast food joints added to our listing.
Enough ranting for now, hopefully someone up the food-chain reads this and understands what I mean :).
- Jeremy
Smile, it makes people nervous?
I've heard this time and time again, and truth be told I don't agree with it one bit. In fact, I'd say that you have two choices in this world; Laugh or Cry. I find that when I smile at someone their reaction varies. They either smile back or wonder what crazy scheme I have up my sleeve.
This, I use to my advantage. Any time I walk into a meeting (client, internal, personal, any meeting) I try and remember to smile. If I don't get a pleasant response I walk back out of the room and try it again. Usually after the third try people are smiling back at me or laughing because they can't figure out the joke.
If their is a party in the room that still doesn't get it, I hit them with a comment such as "Did I kill your dog in a previous life or something?" After a very bad experience I stay completely away from statements like "Who died?" You can fill in the blanks on that one.
By this point they have figured out that I'm going to be happy even if they are not. This has worked to my advantage on many occasions and only once has it got me into "Sensitivity Training" (apparently one member of the room though I was "too flirty", my though is screw them).
Many clients and people that I've heard referred to as close minded or strong willed suddenly become open to suggestions and interested in what you have to say. Obviously if your so happy all of the time you must be doing something right.
This isn't to say that I'm always happy, quite to the contrary I find myself aggravated or disappointed especially when I fail to make a connection with a person. Many times when I feel the worse is when I put this practice to work the most. Getting the people around you to enjoy their day will most times improve your own view of how your day is going.
After all, if you can't laugh about something then you simply have no choice but to cry about it and no one likes a cry baby :).
This, I use to my advantage. Any time I walk into a meeting (client, internal, personal, any meeting) I try and remember to smile. If I don't get a pleasant response I walk back out of the room and try it again. Usually after the third try people are smiling back at me or laughing because they can't figure out the joke.
If their is a party in the room that still doesn't get it, I hit them with a comment such as "Did I kill your dog in a previous life or something?" After a very bad experience I stay completely away from statements like "Who died?" You can fill in the blanks on that one.
By this point they have figured out that I'm going to be happy even if they are not. This has worked to my advantage on many occasions and only once has it got me into "Sensitivity Training" (apparently one member of the room though I was "too flirty", my though is screw them).
Many clients and people that I've heard referred to as close minded or strong willed suddenly become open to suggestions and interested in what you have to say. Obviously if your so happy all of the time you must be doing something right.
This isn't to say that I'm always happy, quite to the contrary I find myself aggravated or disappointed especially when I fail to make a connection with a person. Many times when I feel the worse is when I put this practice to work the most. Getting the people around you to enjoy their day will most times improve your own view of how your day is going.
After all, if you can't laugh about something then you simply have no choice but to cry about it and no one likes a cry baby :).
Mac's Blackberries, and more... OH MY!
So, I'm up to day 3 (or 4 depending on how you count) at Barkley. I must say I'm more than impressed with the company overall. There are few companies that you walk into on your first day and it feels like you have been their forever. There are even fewer that after a few days have past you really feel like your at home walking into the office. Barkley is one of those few, making you feel at home immediately and giving you a growing sense of that feeling over time (at least so far).
But, thats not what this is about. On Monday we got our laptops. These are lean and mean machines, duo core Mac based on the Intel processor, or at least thats what they tell me. Honestly I don't know how MS can compete with this so far. It's running a Windows distro faster than any of my machines at home and stability is really amazing.
Thats not to say I haven't had problems, oh boy have I had problems. To start getting Lazarus and other tools I'm used to installed has been anything but fun. In fact its been a hair removal process from hell. I now have almost everything installed and running, but can't figure out how to build any Lua or SDL applications and get them to run :(. Oh well, its not exactly part of my day job so IT isn't going to make the pain go away anytime soon, I'll fight it out and figure it out.
Yesterday (Tuesday) we got our Blackberries. This is one of those phones that comes with everything but a roll of toilet paper, and I'm pretty sure thats an option that you can get for it. Honestly, I hate this thing. It has more buttons and options then you can shake a stick at, it vibrates all the time (Voice calls, e-mail, text message, the time of day) and I can't figure out how to change it back to the default look and feel that they taught me how to use in class. Don't ask me how I managed to get it to a different look and feel, I don't know, all I know is nothing is where its supposed to be.
Thats enough ranting for now, look for more in the future.
- Jeremy
But, thats not what this is about. On Monday we got our laptops. These are lean and mean machines, duo core Mac based on the Intel processor, or at least thats what they tell me. Honestly I don't know how MS can compete with this so far. It's running a Windows distro faster than any of my machines at home and stability is really amazing.
Thats not to say I haven't had problems, oh boy have I had problems. To start getting Lazarus and other tools I'm used to installed has been anything but fun. In fact its been a hair removal process from hell. I now have almost everything installed and running, but can't figure out how to build any Lua or SDL applications and get them to run :(. Oh well, its not exactly part of my day job so IT isn't going to make the pain go away anytime soon, I'll fight it out and figure it out.
Yesterday (Tuesday) we got our Blackberries. This is one of those phones that comes with everything but a roll of toilet paper, and I'm pretty sure thats an option that you can get for it. Honestly, I hate this thing. It has more buttons and options then you can shake a stick at, it vibrates all the time (Voice calls, e-mail, text message, the time of day) and I can't figure out how to change it back to the default look and feel that they taught me how to use in class. Don't ask me how I managed to get it to a different look and feel, I don't know, all I know is nothing is where its supposed to be.
Thats enough ranting for now, look for more in the future.
- Jeremy
New job, new requirement
I started a new job at Barkley (yes they used to be called Barkley Evergreen and Partners) today as a Client Side Business Systems Analyst. To make a long title short, I'm a document jockey plain and simple.
I'm really excited about the position and the company as it promises to allow me to flex my technical skills quite a bit more then VML did. Also the team has been great so far and offers opportunity to learn more about other aspects of marketing I haven' t worked in.
Part of the "requirements of employment" is the Digital Ninja course. In short you have to have an online presence. Since I already have Eon Clash, Lad's Grin, and a few other sites most of the stuff is easy enough. Though they also require a blog, so here it is.
I hope to update this more than I do Eon Clash or Lad's Grin as this seems a nice common place to put non-business and non-family related topics. Look for some business and family stuff to sneak in though :).
Thats enough for a first post, more later...
- Jeremy
I'm really excited about the position and the company as it promises to allow me to flex my technical skills quite a bit more then VML did. Also the team has been great so far and offers opportunity to learn more about other aspects of marketing I haven' t worked in.
Part of the "requirements of employment" is the Digital Ninja course. In short you have to have an online presence. Since I already have Eon Clash, Lad's Grin, and a few other sites most of the stuff is easy enough. Though they also require a blog, so here it is.
I hope to update this more than I do Eon Clash or Lad's Grin as this seems a nice common place to put non-business and non-family related topics. Look for some business and family stuff to sneak in though :).
Thats enough for a first post, more later...
- Jeremy
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