Why Engineers Should Rule the World (or at least the kitchen)

     I'm not a neat freak or an organizational nazi. I've never invented little household gadgets or gone nuts because I found some socks in the underwear drawer. I'm pretty much a chaotic, disorganized mess at home, and that's the way I like it. The thing is, I *really* like to be efficient. Maybe it's because I'm lazy in an odd sort of way. I'll climb over a brick wall to avoid using the door, if it means that I won't have to do either tomorrow or the next day. That's why so many things in my house drive me nuts.
     For example, I have these closet doors that slide back and forth. You can have the entire closet closed or you can have it half open. How worthless is that? If I'm looking at shirts in the middle, I have to keep moving the stupid doors back and forth to be able to see what I'm looking at!
     And how about buffets, especially at people's houses. Why do people always put the napkins and utensils at the beginning of the line? Do I look like I have a third hand to hold onto them while I'm serving myself some food? Put them at the end of the line where they'll do some good. Besides, you never know whether you'll need a spoon or a knife until the end when you know what you're eating anyway. How many times have you had to go back in line or cut in front of someone to grab a knife or an extra napkin after you already had your food?
     Today, I "borrowed" a co-worker's copy of IIE Magazine, the periodical of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. (Hey, I'm bored at work sometimes. I think we went over that already.) They pointed to a neat blog called Cooking for Engineers. Now, this site is actually not so great. It's really just one guy's way of recording the food that he's made for dinner, and he never meant for it to become public. The recipe selection is mediocre and the navigation is weak, but this guy, Michael Chu, has invented a new way to show recipes. He's even patenting the design.

     This is a recipe for Chicken Marsala. How easy is this to follow? This is 100x better than having to read out a paragraph of directions to try to figure out when you should cut or saute or mix. Bravo to him for actually doing something to make home life more efficient!