CAR: Challenge, Action, Result

I had this in my notes from a long time ago and I figured I should add it here. It came from when I was writing a resume.

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Consider the CAR formula if you get stuck. CAR stands for Challenge, Action, and Result. Every accomplishment should include the problem or challenge, the action you took, and the stellar result of your hard work. You can also invert this formula by leading with the result. Starting a sentence with a dollar figure or percentage will garner more attention.

If you took some time to review the impact that your role has on the company, use those results in your resume to show that you understand your role and the impact that it had on the company. It's called having business sense and acumen.

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There was also a STAR formula, but I don't feel like looking that up right now.

My chili

So I finally got around to making chili. I looked for a recipe, and I found this one from Texas Monthly. As usual, I didn't follow it exactly, but pretty close. The biggest difference was I only cooked half of the recipe.

Now that I've got some experience under my belt, I have ideas about how my second time should go. Since this is more extreme experimentation, I'm only making 1/6th of the recipe. So here is what I'm going with:

2 dried ancho chiles, stems removed
1 dried pasilla chile, stem removed
1 dried chipotle chile, stem removed
1 dried cascabel chile, stem removed
1 jalapeño 
2 cups chicken stock
1 pound beef chuck
1/3 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 roma tomato, diced
1/2 tablespoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon sugar
dash of cloves
salt to taste (I used a teaspoon, that was probably a bit too much)

Basically what I did is take all of the chiles and put them in a pot with the chicken stock on medium heat. Then I took the ground chuck, onion and garlic and cooked them on medium heat in a skillet. Once the ground beef browned, I took the broth with the chiles and put it in a blender and blended it until the chiles were broken up. Then I put the mixture back in the pot, added the beef mixture, added the tomato, and then the spices.

And I know that this is going to be heresy for some people, but I've been trying to lose weight, and the "stay at home" order hasn't been helping at all. So I cut the ground beef by half and replaced it with mushrooms. We'll see how it goes.

How to cook beans

When I moved back to Houston last year, I continued my practice of cooking new things. I decided to try cooking beans instead of buying them from the can. I'd heard different ways to cook beans, but I wasn't sure which was right. I went to the Internet and found an article by Katherine Sacks on Epicurious entitled Epicurious's Myth-Busting Guide to Cooking Beans. I used that for cooking pintos twice last year. Hopefully the article will serve me well again.
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I initially posted that I'd gotten interested in lima beans after learning that they have the most protein of all the vegetables. Then I learned that wasn't true! I was comparing the nutrition information on the lima beans with a package of pinto beans I had. Pinto beans have more protein. Then I looked at a package of lentils. They have even more protein than pinto beans. I then found a page showing the top ten beans ranked by protein, and it puts lima beans at the end of the list. Number one is soybeans. Interestingly enough, that page on the same website as the erroneous page.

Working out in the office

Last year I developed a nice little bodyweight routine. Then I got away from it. Partly that's because I wanted to get back into running. When I started working again and had to deal with time constraints, the strength routine went by the wayside. In an attempt to get things going again, I started doing pushups at work. I started with 10, then 20, then 30 at a time. Now my first set is usually 40, which I hadn't been able to do without stopping for years.

This week I wanted to incorporate some more exercises. I was inspired by an article I read that described the four basic movements: push, pull, squat, and hinge. Searching via Google brought up articles mentioning more basic movements. The squat is ubiquitous, and something that is easily done at work, so added it to my routine. But what else can I do?

I saw an article from Inc and another from Forbes. The four basic movements reminded me of Stronglifts, but I have to remind myself that it's okay to do exercises that don't work multiple muscle groups. So here's my office list so far:

Stair Climbing (But the three floors to my office aren't enough to count)
Pushups
Squats
Dips
Magic Carpet Ride
Calf Raises

Maybe don't be yourself

I've always thought that be yourself was terrible advice, but I came across an article about that very thing. From Leah Finnegan in The Outline. Maybe at some point I'll add some of my own reasons that differ from the ones in the article, but for now, I just wanted to capture it.

Hurricanes

We were always forgetting which Hurricanes were when, so I finally looked it up.

Hurricane Katrina: August 2005. Hit New Orleans.
Hurricane Rita: September 2005. Hit Port Arthur.
Hurricane Ike: September 2008.  Hit Houston.

Obviously more places were affected, I just didn't feel like capturing them all.

I totally forgot that Katrina and Rita were back to back.

Scholarly reflection

I'm taking a class where I am supposed to submit a reflection on each week's reading assignments. Almost all of the online classes have been this way, but it seems that this professor wants a bit more than the previous ones. He mentioned scholarly reflection, so I decided to Google it. I came across the following pages:

Reflection Tip sheet from the International Institute for Restorative Practices. It starts off by saying that it isn't a summary or a stream of consciousness mind dump. Many of my papers have definitely been the latter. But it is the "identification of the main themes of the readings integrated with your classroom experience and how both affect your thinking and practice." I think of identification of the main themes as a summary. I think that's what's been throwing me off.

But I do get how it says it's my opportunity to demonstrate that I've grasped the material and to explain how it may affect my thinking and practice.

How to Write a Reflection Paper by Trent University. What is the thesis? What is the evidence? What ideas stood out to me?

From RMIT University: Writing an Academic Reflection.

• Write using a detailed plan for each reflection: describe, interpret, evaluate and plan for future application.

• Write the body paragraphs containing one main idea (interpreting and evaluating the insight) stated in the topic sentence. Other sentences explain, support and give detail, with evidence from research and/or examples. Integrate theory and include references as you go. Expect to write a number of drafts. 

And directly from the professor:
What are the central themes?
What are arguments?
What's at stake?
Why are these things important?
What are they failing to see?
Do you agree or disagree and why?
How do their arguments work or not work?
What are they not considering, or not considering fully?
Do their conclusions not follow from their premises?