Back when I was working, when I had an employer, when “double-D” meant direct deposit, when I had to be somewhere by 8 am in business casual and not walk five paces from my bedroom to my “office” that doubles as a dining room every night in the same Juicy jogging suit I’ve been wearing since last Thursday, back when I had a real job, I worked with data. Lots and lots of data. Though my jobs have differed in function and title, my career has always been about data. From online stores to order-processing systems to customer relationship management to marketing, it’s all about data.
It suits me, the list-making freak that I am, to work with data. Lists, even lists of lists, are just...data. It also helps that I’m the teensiest bit of an anal-retentive, obsessive-compulsive, detail-oriented perfectionist organization freak. When I want to be, that is. ;) I’m also a control freak.
But data by itself is worthless information. It’s just a bunch of bits and bytes, numbers and letters that represent who, what, when, where, and how much. Unless that data is organized, you’ll never know that D56778H1 is really a person with a name, an address, a user ID, who spent $64 on his last order. What do you mean his last order was three years ago? What happened to customer number D56778H1?!?! Data by itself is simply information, which is nice to have, but data that is organized is intelligence. Intelligence can answer the question, “Why?"
My old mentor/boss always asked me “Why?” The only way I could ever answer him was by slicing and dicing the enormous, mutant overgrown Maui onion that was our customer database - alphabetized, chronological order, sorted by ID, grouped by month, sub-totalled, totalled, grand-totalled.
Sliced and diced. I was a 500 horsepower Cuisinart for data.
I do a lot of slicing and dicing these days, but it’s a little different – onions, potatoes, carrots, even...whole chickens. That’s what happens when a food blog become your daily (pre)occupation. But now I’m trying to organize my Delicious Life, just as I said I would in a list of resolutions so that the four people (you! that includes you!) who actually read my blog can slice and dice this mess of data.
The Delicious Dining Index is nowhere near the sophisticated databases I dealt with in my previous life, but it’s a start at organization. It’s just a simple alphabetical list of all the places that have contributed in this last year to The Delicious Life – drinking and dining out only. The “dabbling in the kitchen” part is not in scope. We’ll have to revise the project plan for phase 2. ;)
After today, the link to the delicious spree from A to Z will hidden somewhere in that sidebar thing over there -->
tags :: food : and drink : blogs : blogging : reviews : los angeles
BoLA says
Ooo...beautiful picture! Love it!
susie says
your list is awesome!
keep up the great work!
Iktorn says
Ok....
...that is four of us :)
Xericx says
Nice! Great lists! I wish I could download your whole website into my PDA. Maybe I can......
rick james says
world peace = more lists
the world needs more list making freaks..
Grace says
lacheesemonger, I love Sweet Spy! Or rather, I just like looking at Dennis O'Neil's pretty face while he butchers acting/the Korean language.
Sarah! I love lists! More lists! I demand it now! Haha, just kidding.
Neil says
Your list will now offically replace Zagat's for me.
Maure says
I believe I'm quitting my job to
read and live this list
Maure says
someday, perhaps, Chili My Soul
will be on this list. I pray.
Rachael says
I feel as if we have switched lives. Here I am slaving away and you are off enjoying the sunshine.
Sigh.
Im pea green with envy.
;-)
sarah says
yay! glad that everyone likes it so far :) and i wouldn't encourage the list-freak in me if i were y'all. it could get out of control - i mean, so organized that it hurts.
rachael: you have no idea how jealous i am of YOU! oh to have a regular paychek...
djjewelz says
That is a serious farking list. I'm going to need to stay fully employed if I'm to enjoy any of these pleasures.