When I bought my home, we were unloading the truck: six very tired people, who were just trying to get the job done. The front door is standing open as we carry in boxes. I look up as a woman walked in, with two little boys in tow, and says “Hi, I am your new neighbor.” I have a house full of tired cranky people, and she thinks I have time for a social call? Really?

She followed me around for about an hour telling me she had heard that a disabled person (me) had bought the house, and how her friend used to own it, yadda, yadda, and I finally turned to her and said, “Please, we have work to get done and I will be glad to sit down over coffee, and get to know you, but today is not the day.” She gathered up her two little boys, and as she walks out my from door, she says over her shoulder, that she and her husband will be by tomorrow “to discuss the rent.” I looked at her and said stupidly “huh?”. She then proceeds to tell me that although I bought my manufactured home through the bank, that she and her husband owned the land it was on, and they would come down and discuss rental amount, etc.! I looked her straight in the eye and told her that I did not buy the house through a bank; I bought it straight out right for cash, for the house, buildings and the land they are on! There is no bank involved. She gives me a dirty look, and says “my husband will have something to say about that!” Turns around and walks out the door.

The following day, I saw her husband coming home from work, so I stepped outside and asked him if he wanted to speak to me as his wife said. He looked at me, kind of embarrassed, put his head down, and said “yeah, I am sorry about that, but when she heard a disabled lady bought the house, she figured she could scam you for some cash. I am really sorry, but she just does these things…”

Grrrrr…! She figured she could rip off a disabled person and get away with it? Nope! Needless to say I rejected all offers of friendship until she sold her house and moved. Buh bye!

1. Today is your youngest day.

2. The airplane oxygen masks only last for 15 minutes.

3. The human brain is the smartest and most crucial organ in the human body, right? But that’s an idea your own brain came up with.

4. When you blush, the lining of your stomach blushes too.

5. 300 million of your cells die every minute, which is like an abortion per hour.

6. The youngest person confirmed to be pregnant was only 5 years old.

7. People cook meat to kill the parasites inside, but the corpses of the parasites still remain in the meat.

8. Roaches can’t walk backward, so if one crawled into your ear, it would be stuck there.

9. Pineapple contains the enzyme “bromelain”, an excellent meat tenderizer. So when you eat pineapple, it’s pretty eating you back.

10. There is more actual lemon juice in lemon-scented cleansing spray than there is in the lemon flavor drinks.

11. In 1944, 9 airmen survived when their planes were shot down off the coast the tiny Pacific island of Chichijima. 8 of the young men were captured by the Japanese, tortured and EATEN. The only survivor was George HW Bush.

12. Instead of looking UP into the sky, you are actually gazing DOWN into the infinite universe, with only gravity holding you to the surface of the Earth.

The idle speed is usually between 600 and 1,000 revolutions per minute (rpm) for most cars. The idle speed cannot be too low or too high, because both situations can cause problems for the engine and the car.

If the idle speed is too low, the engine may not have enough power to run the important parts of the car, such as the water pump, the alternator, the power steering pump, and the air conditioning compressor. This can make the car overheat, drain the battery, make it hard to steer, and reduce comfort. Also, the engine may not get enough air and oil, which can make it burn poorly, build up carbon, and wear out faster. The engine may also stop or hesitate when you try to speed up from a stop.

If the idle speed is too high, the engine may use more fuel and produce more emissions and noise than necessary. This can also affect the transmission and the brakes of the car, because the car may move forward or backward when you change gears or apply brakes. Also, the engine may wear out faster because of more friction and heat.

So 700 rpm is a common idle speed for most cars because it is in the middle of the optimal range which makes sure that the engine works well and uses less fuel. A lower rpm would not save fuel but rather risk stopping or damaging the engine. A higher rpm would not improve performance but rather waste fuel and cause noise or vibration.

But before you go – a click on the upvote button will make both of us happy.

Have a good day/night.

A call to a mother.

Shibli Sadiq Hridoy, a 20-year-old Chittagong, Bangladesh resident, contacted his mother Nahid Akhter on August 28, 2023.

His voice seemed quite frightened during the call; he told his mother that some people had kidnapped him, and they were beating him mercilessly.

After some time, Nahid got another call, but this time it was a different person on the phone. He said something that created a huge panic in his family.

Who was Shibli?

Shibli, who was born into a poor household, used to study and work to pay for his college tuition.

He worked as a manager on a poultry farm, and the farm six people worked under him.

Shibli being the youngest, and the other six workers being in the age group of 24 to 26, started being carless at work, thinking Shibli wouldn’t say anything.

At first, he explained to them nicely about their mistakes, but still after not obeying at work he started to take action against them which didn’t fit well with them.

This conflict started to get worse until the farm owner called everyone and calmed them.

Shibli forgot and moved on, but the other six did not and started a plan for revenge.

Planning for the revenge.

Two months after the incident, the fateful day came on 28th, August 2023, where they kidnapped Shibli while he was working on the farm.

After kidnapping Shibli, the kidnappers called Shibli’s mother Nahid Akhter, and demanded 15 Lakh Taka (Bangladeshi currency).

Shibli’s family was very poor and started asking people for help with the money.

Even after 3 days, they could not collect the said amount for the kidnappers, and Shibli’s father requested the kidnappers to decrease the money.

The kidnappers knowing that the Shibli family was poor, had reduced the amount to 2 Lakh Taka.

Shibli’s father, with great effort, finally collected the amount.

On September 4, 2023, the kidnappers called Shibli’s father to come to Bandar Ban district with the money.

Shibli’s father in hopes of getting his son back reached the said place and gave the money to the kidnappers.

The kidnappers got caught.

The kidnappers told Shibli’s father to go home now, and his son Shibli will return to the house.

As soon as Shibli’s father reached home, he could not find Shibli, thinking he might come late.

Shibli’s parents waited for 3 days before reaching the Police, and when asked why they came so late, they said the kidnappers had warned them not to tell the police, or they would kill their son.

Shibli’s mother told the police that he quarreled with those six people who worked under him.

Police caught all six workers of the poultry farm.

Their names are Umongching Mama, Suichjingmung Mama, Angthumung Mama, and Ukyathmai Mama. The other two names are unknown.

Initially, all six stayed quiet during the police investigation, but after being questioned aggressively, one of them broke down and told the narrative.

A confession that shocks a country.

He said they only wanted to kidnap Shibli, torture him, and leave him after receiving ransom money.

The plan changed when Shibli learned the identity of his kidnappers and his workers.

Fearing he might go to the police after his release, they killed him by choking his neck.

One of the workers, Umongching Marma even admitted that he cooked some of the flesh of the dead body and ate it.

They then threw the body down from a neighboring hill, and when the police arrived on September 11, 2023, they discovered Shibli’s skeleton bones.

This case had become a topic of discussion throughout Bangladesh country through news channels.

People were furious at the kidnappers, and as the police were transporting one of the main accused, who had admitted to eating flesh to the police, people gathered around the station and grabbed Umongching, who was cruelly beaten by the crowd and murdered.

Jalapeno Rib Eye Steaks

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup cilantro or parsley, chopped
• 1/4 cup sliced pickled jalapeno peppers, chopped
• 4 (8 ounce) rib eye steaks
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (comino)

Instructions

1. Prepare grill or broiler.
2. Combine cilantro and jalapenos in a bowl.
3. Cut a pocket in the side of each steak, without cutting all the way through. Stuff pockets with cilantro mixture and secure closed with wooden picks.
4. Combine remaining ingredients and pepper to taste in a bowl and rub over outside of steaks.
5. Grill or broil about 5 inches from heat source 4 to 5 minutes per side, or longer for more well done meat.
6. Remove wooden picks before serving.

1. If you have a few hours to kill on the airplane, delete pictures from your phone.

2. Use your travel toiletries at home the night before you leave for a long trip.

3. Sign out of your Netflix when checking out of an hotel.

4. When using a grocery delivery service, tip a set amount, not a percentage.

5. Waving someone through a stop sign when they stopped after you is not doing anybody a favour and most competent drivers are just annoyed at you for behaving unpredictably.

6. If you need to memorize something, read it, record it and play it quietly at night.

7. Save your PowerPoint presentation as a .ppsx file that starts automatically when opened.

8. Marry someone who will always have your back, even when they are mad at you.

9. If you find a faster way to do something at your work, keep it a secret from your manager.

10. Your company didn’t know you existed before you applied and won’t notice you when you’re gone. Take care of yourself.

11. Before buying something, ask yourself 2 questions: “Where will I store this thing?” and “How difficult will it be to clean this thing?”

12. If the person you are dating invites you over for a home cooked meal, take the initiative and just start doing the dishes without asking. You can thank me later.

13. Ask the person you are dating the non-negotiables of yours in the first few weeks.

14. If you know how late you are going to be, add an extra 5-10 minutes to it. It might be annoying for the people when you say it initially, but when you come before the time you said, it will evoke a far more positive reaction than underestimating the lateness time.

15. Pay Attention to the smell of your home when you come back from a trip. That’s what it smells like to guests all the time, you just get used to it.

16. Never try to be the man your father would want you to be. Be the man you would like your son to be.

She came over and knocked on my door and by the look on her face I could tell she was livid and so I asked her if everything was okay. She pointed to the mutual hedge between our houses, which I had clipped the day before. Now keep in mind this hedge is mostly privet which is just underbrush basically. Of the two of us I am the one who keeps my yard up and she is not that interested in yard work. But this day she was upset because I had dared to clip the bushes more than she thought was appropriate. I had clipped them before and it was no problem but now she was not happy. She proceeded to cuss me out saying…”Who f…ing does that?” They were clipped a bit more than usual but they would grow back, I said. She would not back down and was threatening me with a lawsuit and fines until I finally told her I wasn’t going to stand there and take that abuse.

Several hours later, I was coming down my driveway and I saw her sitting on her porch. She practically leaped off the porch and came into my yard shaking some papers in my face telling me she had talked to her lawyer. Turns out they were clearly meant to scare me, which they didn’t because they were very bogus-looking papers.

Then the next morning, early, a policeman came to my door before I was even dressed. He seemed rather embarrassed to even be there when I asked him what the problem was and so I asked if it was concerning my neighbor? He nodded and said, “Ma’am I’m just doing my job and I need you to fill out some papers.” I asked him if it was against the law to clip mutual bushes and he just said, “Ma’am, she filed a complaint so we have to follow up.” Well, he went to his police car and sat there for the longest time and then he drove off and I never saw him again.

My neighbor was still on the warpath and she would do things like park in our mutual driveway and park at the very edge of the drive so that I had to park on the street and couldn’t get in. One time she actually parked behind me blocking me in. And if a friend came and parked in the driveway she put a note on their car, saying “PLEASE don’t park here!!!” Eventually she sent me some more papers from some legal something or another; it seemed like more hogwash to me saying that it wasn’t safe for either of us to park in the drive in case there was a fire because the fire trucks couldn’t get in there and I would be responsible and she hoped I would do the right thing.

Now I was beginning to doubt the mental stability of my neighbor and I just took all this in without saying a whole lot. But after the police visit I did write her a letter telling her the police probably had better things to do with their time and if I ever clip the bushes again I will be sure and ask her and I did deliver the letter in person.

Time went on and she would barely speak to me for over a year. If I was working outside, and the houses are close together, and she was on her porch I would say hello and she would not even look at me. But I did not return her coldness with coldness and I did not seek revenge and eventually she started saying hello again. She even left me some cookies for Christmas one time. Of course they were packaged because I may not have eaten them thinking she was trying to poison me otherwise. Haha.

So this is my disrespectful experience with my neighbor. Hope you learned something about those supposedly nice neighbors of yours. You never know.

At some companies in Silicon Valley in the first dot com boom and the early 2000’s, the *only* way to get a raise or a promotion was not just to threaten to quit, but to actually get a job offer (whether you wanted that job or not) and then to actually quit. That was the only way management would take you seriously and grant you the raise and/or promotion you had asked for. Before the act of quitting, you were viewed as a just squeaky wheel. After quitting, they suddenly realized they needed your wheel, squeaky or not!

In my case, I didn’t specifically ask for a raise — I asked for headcount to do the job that had been assigned to me. I had been at the company for 7 years and held an incredible amount of institutional knowledge, even if the CxOs didn’t recognize that knowledge. The job was impossible to do by myself. I thought a team of 3 (including me) would do the job. Multiple times I made the argument for the additional headcount, the expected results, the ROI, and the basic logic. Around this time I had been assigned to a new manager with a lot of book learnin’ (Harvard JD/MBA), but little work experience and a new VP whose focus was elsewhere, but who knew what I was asking for and why.

Eventually I got fed up asking and got a job offer (for a company I would have worked for). The job offer came through while I was overseas in Dusseldorf visiting my most important partner. I immediately sent my resignation and two week notice to my junior inexperienced Harvard manager and the VP who was trying to ignore my request. Within minutes the VP called. I had no intention of going back to that job, but for some reason felt I should explain what led to my departure. The VP listened and asked good questions for 90 minutes while I was pacing the waterfront wall beside the Rhine. He called again the next evening. And the next. He finally asked what it would take to get me back. I figured I should go all out since I wasn’t planning to go back, I was really just pushing his buttons to see how far he would go. First, the two headcount. Done. Second a $20,000 raise. Done. Third, more stock options. Done. Next a $40,000 retention bonus. Done (to be paid quarterly). Last, I never have to see, talk to, or report to the junior book-readin’ Harvard schnog, I would report to him, the VP. Done. After all that, how could I say no?

Of course, within a year, more re-orgs and other changes made my overall division’s future at the company tenuous. The VP eventually asked me to make an impossible proposition to our most important client — basically tell them a massive lie — a proposal for work my company could never complete. I decided my reputation with the contacts at my partner companies was more important than the job. I refused to make the proposal and quit. But for a year, I got a big raise, a big sign-on bonus, more respect, and a better line of sight to the VP and CxO suite. I’d say it was worth it.