Ziplock Bags -- a Great Invention

I find that Ziplock bags are one of my favorite organizing products. They are truly the bags of a thousand uses. Don't use them only for bagging things for the refrigerator or freezer. They can be used for so many, many other things. I just love them. They come in lots of different sizes and now come in some that are truly humongous.

I use them:

* To carry reading material with me so if I know I'm going to be waiting places (like a doctor's office) I have magazine articles or other things that I want to read but haven't had the time to get to.

* They can be used in a workshop for sorting nuts, bolts, and just about anything else.

* To help sort out papers. I often cram a bunch of receipts into a ziplock and sort them out later.

* To help categorize "stuff". Put eveything of one type into a Ziplock and you've got it together and can work on it later. If you've sorted out a bunch of papers and have to move them off your table or counter put each type into a Ziplock bag and they're ready to be worked on without sorting again.

* The larger ones can be used to store clothing. Separating out winter stuff from summer for instance.

* I use them a lot for packing. I can put all the underwear together or all the same type items so I can just pull out what I need easily. I can also put together anything that I pick up on the trip and put it into categories; personal, business, stuff I really want, stuff to sort through. I always have a few extras that I use for dirty laundry. This makes it easy when I get home to just put the dirty clothes in with the other laundry. It's pre-sorted as to whites, colors, etc.

* Great for keeping wet things wet, dry things dry and keeping them separated from each other.

They are one of the best inventions of the 20th century.

Aging of America

As this country is undergoing the graying of America with almost 8,000 people turning 60 every day it is amazing how more and more things have smaller and smaller type. You would think that people in every field would realize that as people age they find it easier to see larger type but the opposite seems to be true. I see smaller type being used wherever I go.

Today in the supermarket I noticed that Silver Palate has redesigned their labels so that the type is smaller. Prevention magazine, which is aimed at an older population, just underwent a redesign and the type is quite small. I see newspapers using smaller type and many books have type that is either small or light and therefore difficult to read.

It's amazing to me how little thought is given in this country to the aging of the population. So many things could be redsigned to make things easier for older people but it seems that just the opposite is what is happening.

Books and Interesting Stuff

I went to Book Expo which is the big convention for book publishers and book sellers. It's huge and I certainly didn't get to everything but there were some interesting things I did spot. Some books that are useful, a trend that shows the importance that Chinese will have in the future and some interesting ideas from Cornell University about how people taste things and whether people who have similar types of tasting reactions have similar ways of thinking through things.

I'm always surprised at how many people don't have wills. Even people who are professionals and have considerable assets but for whatever reason have never made a will. I bring this up to clients and at speaking engagements but it's obviously something difficult for people to deal with. Nolo books www.nolo.com, the people who bring you a whole line of legal books, now has a new one that is very appropriate for people who haven't been able to deal with making a will. It's called The Busy Family's Guide To Estate Planning. It takes you through the whole process in a very in a simple, easy-to-read book and has a CD-ROM with 15 legal forms.

For those interested in home schooling Peace Hill Press www.peacehillpress.com has a very nice line of books called The Story Of The World. It's four volumes and one of the nice things about it is that it really does cover world history. Instead of the usual Europe and America it also covers Asia and Africa.

Do you want your young child to learn Mandarin Chinese, the language of the future? Well that's going to become easier and easier. For the first time I saw books and DVDs teaching Chinese that are aimed at very young children. www.manyandpandy.com is a line of books for young children and two women from San Francisco have a very impressive line of DVDs www.EarlyStartMandarin.com.

If you want some quick healthy food (who doesn't) the Cook-Zen Cookbook has recipes for 80 Japanese-style dishes that can be made in the microwave. www.cook-zen.com

The Planning Shop has very nice books for entrepreneurs in a simple easy-to-read format. www.planningshop.com

I took a short taste test given by some students from Cornell University trying to find if people who like certain kinds of food like certain kinds of literature. They said they've foudn that people who like spicy foods like Harry Potter. They did a short taste test with a mint and their questionnaire asked what kids of books you read and your specific likes. Their handout from the Division of Nutritional Sciences www.tastescience.org explains that certain types of tasters, broken down into mild tasters who "eat to live", modertaly sensitive tasters who "live to eat" and highly sensitive tasters who love what they like and hate what they don't like may have different ways of thinking. They say that:

* mildly sensitive tasters tend to rely more on logical reasoning to arrive at decisions than do others tasters

*moderately sensitive tasters are more likely to "play things by ear" and improvise

*highly sensitive tasters tend to spend time mulling things over, often "sleeping" on a problem if it is complex.

Does this mean that when hiring people companies should think in terms of their taste sensitivity to get people who fit their job needs? Do creative people eat different foods than people who think in a more linear manner?