Interview of Carol Thompson Eidt: Good points

Read the article here:

http://anitaborg.org/news/archive/senior-technical-woman-profile-carol-thompson-eidt-common-language-runtime-microsoft/

Points to note:

I just loved some of the points she makes like
1. the innumerable problems to solve,
2. endless possibilities to get a solution and innovate
3. being an expert in one's field and getting excited to work on it
4. family/work balance and
5. finally, the important thing is CONFIDENCE. I am amazed when she tells it is still one of her challenge even now. I cannot help but quote her very own words - very inspiring!!!

"""
My greatest challenge has always been confidence, and it’s an ongoing struggle. I have to work at trusting my own competence (rather than assuming that if someone disagrees with me, they’re probably right). I have to pump myself up in preparation for presentations or controversial discussions.
"""

Something for all the career woman to keep in mind and work towards.

Time-pass fun for Toddlers - Idea 1 (Collage)

Managing kids of 2-3 years age is quite a task. Engaging them in a useful activity that also helps hone a few skills is ideal. So, here's an idea that could turn very messy, but has a lot of learning fun.

We get a lot of junk in our mails - especially the glossy shopping advertisements. I store them and give one at a time to kid. Kid takes it up and with the aid of a small scissors (this HAS to be done under adult supervision) ask kid to cut portions of paper having a particular alphabet. Kid searches for the alphabet, finds one and tears up the portion. All these bits are kept aside and later in a scrap-book, will let the kid paste all the bits having the same letter in a single page. Every day, it is a new alphabet. In a month's time (26 days at least) - you have your very own alphabet book prepared by your kid! Now that is something really worth storing and using it to learn alphabets!

Whole-grain idlis and dosa! 'Health' it up!

Often seeing whole-grain breads, whole-meal pasta - wondered why not whole-grain idlis or whole-grain dosas. I tried it two years back and from then on, the idlis and dosas at home have the whole-grain ingredient.

The ingredients are just the same, but replaced with the whole-grain substitutes. That is, polished white urid dal is replaced with black gram (whole urid dal with cover) and rice is replaced with brown-rice or unpolished rice.

The texture and color changes - in fact, idlis do get a slight bitter taste due to the cover of urid dal. The texture of dosas is good and gives a good nutty taste. Try it out next time you make idlis or dosas, though it will need sometime to get used to the taste and color!

A few organic stores in Singapore (around Tiong Bahru)

I favor organic products - food, vegetables, cosmetics, clothing and other products. This interest urges me to search for stores that contain organic products. I will list out a few stores that have organic products:

• Yes, Natural!, right opposite Tiong Bahru market - This is my favorite. It is an organic store with a lot of natural products* too. The highlight of the store (for me, especially) is, natural ponni rice grown from Taiwan at almost the same price as that of the regular non-organic ponni rice from Mustafa. These days they offer organic plant produce like fruits and vegetables and also have a few organic bakery items (their wholemeal bread is amazing!).
• Organic vegetable stall in Tiong Bahru Market: There's one really small stall that sells fresh organic vegetable produce. The best thing: the shop-owner entertains vegetable-list one day prior to our visit (sent through SMS) and sets them ready for us to pick them up. Offers a wide variety of organic produce which no shop offers so far; some of them are papayya (for cooking), snake-gourd, bitter-gourd (both indian and chinese), raw mango (for cooking), sweet papayya (fruit), green chillis, beetroot, potatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, different types of spinach, herbs and many more. (all of them are organic, most of them certified).
  
• NTUC Tiong Bahru Plaza: This NTUC has a shelf in an aisle dedicated to organic plant produce; tomatoes, lady's fingers, carrots, kailan, spinach (occasionally), string beans, coriander (occasionally), green bell peppers, red bell peppers, pumpkin, cabbage, lettuce are the regular items that could be spotted.
• Nature's Glory on Outram Road: This is a large organic store - having almost all kinds of products.
• Four seasons market at Carrefour in Suntek Mall: Large organic section, offer almost all kinds of products.
• Organic paradise: Used to be on temple street. A recent trip - I did not find the store. I liked the store for all the kinds of products they offered - especially vegetables.
  

A big complaint with most of the organic stores is finding proper cooking oil with high smoke point. Most of the oils are cold pressed and extra-virgin which are suitable for salads and dressing. To obtain cooking oil for high heat cooking - I resort to the organic section (four seasons market) in Carrefour at Suntek Mall. The organic section is huge, way larger than that of Carrefour at Plaza Singapura.

Another complaint is organic fresh dairy milk; the organic milk is usually available in tetra-packs (available at NTUC Tiong Bahru, NTUC Bukit Merah). NTUC Tiong Bahru obtains organic fresh milk - but that's not frequent.

* To the best of my understanding, natural products are also produced (i) under the same restrictions as organic products, but are not certified or (ii) not as strict as organic farming.