Orange + negotiation skills = Cake?

Well, I’ve found out that I might be good at negotiating! Or at least I know what I need to make an orange flavored cake.

After that “two oranges negotiation” class, I decided to prove that you only need the orange peels for the cake. *This had nothing to do with my sudden crave for cake or the fact that I like to bake when I get stressed out.

So, I started out with making pound cake batter.

Then, I cut out a slice of the orange for decoration later on,

and squeezed all the juice.

I’m going to use the juice to flavor icing later on, just so it won’t go to waste.

After that, I chopped up half of the peel

and added it to the batter. I also strained the juice so the icing won’t be all lumpy.

Baked the cake and waited for it to cool, then coated the cake with icing

and decorated it with the slice I cut out in the beginning...

Ta-da!

So at least I know how to negotiate over food, I hope I can transit at least the idea and strategy for a good negotiation. Even in a more serious, legitimate negotiation and although I’m not very good in logical thinking, I got the main point in creating a win-win resolution! 

Kristi :8)

Leadership!

I have always considered confidence as the most important element in becoming a great leader. I know there are many other characteristics you must have in addition, but confidence always struck me as the prior to any other. Probably because I had the least of it when I was in a leading position. In the 2nd year of high school I was my class’ leader for the school festival, and the Volunteer club leader. I loved my class and my club, and I enjoy brain-storming and planning and stuff, so the time consumed over that was not a problem at all. In fact it actually had a positive effect on me since I got to work on things for my friends, and it got my mind off my personal worries. However, I had a lot of trouble when it came to deciding on things. I’m a complete worry-wort, which is the reason to my indecisive personality. I can think about whether or not to buy a ¥1000 hair accessory for weeks! And now I had to make decisions that could effect a big part of my friends’ high school memories. [ Dum-dum-duuuum! ] 

So, what I did was take polls like everybody does in high school :) This worked out half the time, if everyone was in the mood of listening to me. The other half was we’re-too-busy-talking-about-what-to-do-after-school time, and I wouldn’t have enough people voting for anything. So, I was constantly a little tense and SUPER insecure having to decide on a lot of things basically on my own. I wasn’t sure what I was doing, I was always terrified that I’d make/made the wrong choice, the only thing I was sure of was that everybody would hate me at the end. Thankfully this last guess was incorrect, and I had great fun with my friends throughout the rest of high school.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to finding out what could’ve helped me back then, and how to change if I ever have another occasion to be in a leading spot. :)

Kristi :8)