One of the consequences of the speeded up world in which we live (that includes the internet) is that more people seem to have less time to relax. This is ironic because all these labor saving devices that surround us were originally meant to give us more leisure time. Yet, what they have, in fact, done is force us to work harder and faster to keep up with the cutting edge. To be left behind can mean … well, I will let you imagine the consequences for your own business or job.

This lack of free time has made books like “Fix It and Enjoy It” by Phyllis Pellman Good a valuable tool. It is basically a great cookbook, with easy, healthy, and filling recipes. It is one way to ensure the family is getting the proper nutrition, eating well, and at the same time you can feel comfortable about taking a few extra minutes to enjoy dinner.

I wrote a review of Fix It and Enjoy It for InDepthInfo. The book made me think about the way things are going in the world of book publishing. The book is packed with information, but it is organized differently from the way cookbooks were put together in my younger days. They were once rambling works with stories, vignettes, histories, and whatnot interspersed with recipes. They were written for reading, cover to cover. In fact, that was how I wrote my own cookbook, The Real Man’s Cookbook. (It is actually more social commentary than cookbook.)

Now “Fix-It” is a state-of-the-art cookbook which dispenses with the unessential and delivers information on demand to the reader. You want a seafood main course that is healthy and quick to prepare? Voila! Flip a few pages and you are there. It is handy. Quick.

The whole concept of cooking has changed since I wrote my cookbook. Ah how different is the world from even ten years ago! The Real Man’s Cookbook completely disregards health concerns. Well, actually it scoffs at them. Of course, this was written durring the hubris of relative youth. It was also the attitude of the time. Back then we wanted rich, heavy food, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead. Now we want to live as long as possible, but give up as little of the heavy food as we can get away with. That is what I really like about Ms. Good’s cookbook, it enters the new paradigm where fruits, vegetables, and seafood are the center of the meal. Yet at the same time it delivers a satisfying list of recipes.

Thanks, Phyllis Pellman Good, for writing this Cookbook!

A couple of years ago, before I learned JavaScript, I ran across a script that would show the user the Friday the 13ths within a certain range. This, I thought would be handy because I had a webpage on InDepthInfo about Friday 13th. Most of the time you can add a bit of interaction with readers it is a good thing.

Well, I put the script on my website. I recently had reason to go back and take a look at it. When I did so, I found it a regular mess. The guy who had put it on the free JavaScript website must have hacked it together in about 5 minutes, with no regard to form or anything else. There was a flaw right up front where it would show an alert box warning you that the date range was too large, even when it was not.

I decided to rewrite the code. Which proved a mistake. I only began to deepen the mess. Next morning I got up and wrote a script from scratch. Yes, it took me a while to do it, but it is so much more elegant than the old script, and I could not make it fail after innumerable tests. In any case, here is the script:

This part should appear in the Head:

<!– Begin Friday 13 JavaScript –>
<script type=”text/javascript”>

function friday13(){
var calcyear = year.value;
var results = “Dates that fall on Friday the 13th:” + ‘\n’
var actualmonth = new Array();
actualmonth[0] = “January”;
actualmonth[1] = “February”;
actualmonth[2] = “March”;
actualmonth[3] = “April”;
actualmonth[4] = “May”;
actualmonth[5] = “June”;
actualmonth[6] = “July”;
actualmonth[7] = “August”;
actualmonth[8] = “September”;
actualmonth[9] = “October”;
actualmonth[10] = “November”;
actualmonth[11] = “December”;

for (month = 0; month <= 11; month++)
{
var TestDate = new Date(calcyear,month,13);
if (TestDate.getDay()==5)
{
results = results + “13″ + ” ” + actualmonth[month] + ” ” + calcyear + ‘\n’
}
}

alert(results);
}

</script>
<!– End Friday 13 JavaScript –>

This should appear in the body:

<table align=”center” border=”1″ cellpadding=”10″><tr><td>
<p align=”center”>Enter the year:
<input type=”text” name=”year” size=”4″ value=”2009″><br />
<input type=”button” onclick=”friday13()” value=”Find Friday 13ths” /><br />
<a href=”http://www.indepthinfo.com”>www.indepthinfo.com</a></p>
</td></tr></table>

This code is free to use without modification to the link to InDepthInfo.