AlfaMag Newsletter - July 2007

The Current

The official newsletter of AlfaMag Electronics, LLC.The fun newsletter to read..!!!

Highlights
"Featured Product"
"Brain Teasers"
"Bits & Pieces"
"Rick's Favorite Recipe of the Month"

Featured Product
"Custom Transformers and Chokes"

AlfaMag can supply a complete range of custom transformers to meet your specifications for use in SMPS applications.

Formats include, but not limited to: ETD, EF/EE, U, RM, and toroidal cores. A wide variation in winding construction is employed including multi-strand copper, foil, litz, heavy duty copper, triple insulated wire, and margin tapes. Our engineering can help with design assistance.
* Drive Transformers
* Control Transformers
* Flyback Transformers
* High Current Inductors
* Current Transformers
* Common Mode Chokes
* Output Chokes

Please give us a call or email if you have any questions. You can contact us at 1-800-413-6693 or email us at support@alfamag.com

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Brain Teasers

1. I begin and end with the letter "e". Have eight letters, but just one letter within me.
Answer:_____________________

2. I'm there in darkness, but not alight. Can be seen in daytime, but I'm missing by night. I'm there in the shadows, but not in sight.
Answer:_____________________

3. Look at me one way and I'm heavy, weigh a lot, but turn me around, and you'll find that I'm not.
Answer:_____________________

4. Which of these letters is the odd-one-out?
B, C, D, J, K, L, W, X, Y. (it's not sequential)
Answer:_____________________

5. I'm a five letter word, yet it sounds strange to say, six still remains when you take two letters away.
Answer:_____________________

6. I can be driven, yet have no wheels or feet. Can be sliced, yet remain complete. (think sports)
Answer:_____________________

7. Which letter comes next in this series?
W - L - C - N - I - T - ?
Answer:_____________________

8. The sound of humor, happiness, joy, thrilled -- now add an "s", it's carnage, massacred, killed.
Answer:_____________________

9. Which of these words is the odd one out?
Recount
Creator
Trounce
Counter

10. Lived in reverse, who or what could I be? The incarnation of wickedness and evil - yes that's me!
Answer:_____________________


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Answers: (1)Everyone (2)The letter "d" (3)Ton (4)W (5)Sixty (6)Golfball (7)S (8)Laughter (9)Creator (10)Devil
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Bits & Pieces

* * * * *

"Fail Your Way to Success"
THE SECRET OF SUCCESS is to know how to survive failure. Failure is not fatal -- it just feels that way sometimes..!! That's what I had to keep telling myself when I first embarked upon a writing career. I was genuinely astonished each time I received the standard two-line letter from an editor telling me my masterpiece was unpublishable. I became a brilliant failure, though. I was so good at failure, I finally failed 71 times before my first book was accepted for publication.

I decided that failure is not better if you do not swallow it. Although a failure feels like forever, it is fleeting. Each time I failed, I would celebrate it as a success. Seventy-one times I enjoyed a meal out on my failure. I felt down each time I received a rejection slip, but I never felt out because I always ensured that at least three editors had one of my books at any one time. My chief "success philosophy" is, "Give people every opportunity to say 'Yes' to you."

A fear of failure can so often overwhelm a desire to succeed. If you do not understand failure, it will undermine you. We, all of us, must graduate from the school of failure if we are to gain entrance into the university of success. Failure does not stand in the way; it is the way. Nobody begins as a success: failure is the fire that forges the metal in us to succeed. By learning how to fail, well, learn how to succeed well. Here are some thoughts on failures:

* There are only lessons. Every event in the universe offers a teaching. Look for the lesson and you can then pass the grade. There are not failures, only lessons. Lessons are everywhere if you "see" them.

* Failures teach success. Every failure is a step to success if you take it that way. By learning how not to succeed you , automatically learn more about how to succeed. Every failure is a lesson in success.

* Failures are not "bad". Nothing is implicitly "bad" or "good", it's what you do with something that makes it so. If you take it that failure is "bad", "bad" is what you get. Look for the good news in every failure.

* Failures can be "good". Every event in the universe can be helpful if you take it that way. Defeat can stand you on your feet; endings make way for beginnings; the worst trial can set your free. Make your failures work for you, not against you.

* Failures are not final. Failure is not falling down, it is staying down - and even then all you are doing is learning another lesson. Perhaps the ultimate lesson is that you are always free in life to make another chance for yourself. Are you willing?????

Robert Holden, "Living Wonderfully / Harper Collins"

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*** Rick's Recipe of the Month ***

"Tex-Mex Burgers"

Liven up your summer holidays with these Southwest-inspired burgers. With charred onions, salsa, and avocado, they have just enough fireworks in them to make your parties everyone's favorite. They're easy to make and fun to eat...!!

Ingredients
* 1 lb. raw extra lean ground beef
* 1/2 cup cilantro, fresh, chopped, divided
* 4 oz canned green chili peppers, drained, diced
* 1 tsp chili powder
* 1 tsp minced garlic
* 1/2 medium Vidalia onion, cut into four 1/4 inch thick rounds
* 3 sprays cooking spray
* 4 cup romaine lettuce, shredded
* 1/2 cup salsa
* 2/3 medium avocado, diced

Preparation
1. Preheat grill (or grilling pan).
2. In a large bowl, combine beef, 1/4 cup cilantro, green chilies, chili powder, and garlic until thoroughly mixed; form into four 1/2 inch thick patties.
3. Coat patties and onions with cooking spray. Grill flipping once (or more as necessary if using a grilling pan), until burgers are desired degree of doneness and onions are lightly charred and tender.
4. To serve, place 1 cup of lettuce on each of 4 plates. Top each with 1 burger, 2 tablespoons of salsa, 1 onion slice, 1/4 of diced avocado and 1 tablespoon of remaining cilantro.

I got this recipe from the Weight Watchers Recipe website, and it's only 7 pts per serving. Wishing everyone a safe and happy summer holidays....!!!!

Ummmm, Ummmm....!!!!!

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AlfaMag Newsletter - June 2007

The Current

The official newsletter of AlfaMag Electronics, LLC.The fun newsletter to read..!!!

Highlights
"Featured Product"
"Brain Teasers"
"Bits & Pieces"
"Rick's Favorite Recipe of the Month"

Featured Product
"SWS-2.70-77 Power Inductor"

Please give us a call or email if you have any questions. You can contact us at 1-800-413-6693 or email us at support@alfamag.com

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Brain Teasers
Using the clues listed below, find the word that is common to all of the clues.

1. Answer: _ _ _ _ _ _
Clues: Stone Wall, Dice, Jack and Jill, Gymnasts, Stocks, Drying Cloths

2. Answer: _ _ _
Clues: Rings, Weights, Pool, Lockers, Mirror, Mats, Treadmill

3. Answer: _ _ _ _ _
Clues: Scared, Frozen, Bored, Lucky, Working

4. Answer: _ _ _ _ _
Clues: Price, Electric, Visual, Mountain, Free, Rifle, Driving

5. Answer: _ _ _ _
Clues: Spoon, Wounds, Postage Stamp, Opponent, Ice Cream Cone



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Answers: (1)Tumble (2)Gym (3)Stiff (4)Range (5)Lick
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Bits & Pieces

"The Mystery of the Harvest"
Four young men sat by the bedside of their dying father. The old man, with his last breath, tells them there is a huge treasure buried in the family fields. The sons crowd around him crying, "Where, where?", but it's too late. The day after the funeral and for many days to come, the young men go with their picks and shovels and turn the soil, digging deeply into the ground from one end of the fields to the other. They find nothing and, bitterly disappointed, abandon the search.

The next season, the farm has its best harvest ever...!!!

R.S. Zander and B. Zander, "The Art of Possibility"
* * * * *

"How to Deal with Criticism"
When Jay Leno replaced Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show", he started to take some heat. Critics unfavorably compared him to Johnny, and from all that criticism most people thought his stay as the host would be short-lived. Realistically speaking, however, Jay never really worried. In fact, the record shows that he kept a stack of unpleasant reviews on his desk for inspiration. One critic said, "Too many soft questions." Another said, "He's being too nice." These unkind words didn't bother Leno, though, because they were written in 1962 and were directed at Jack Paar's replacement -- "an awkward nobody named Johnny Carson."

Zig Ziglar, "Breaking Through to the Next Level"

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*** Rick's Recipe of the Month ***

"Grilled Beef Kabobs"

Alright...... let's get out the charcoal and get ready for summer cookouts. Here's a recipe I've been making for years, and it's easy and very tasty. You can add to the ingredients about anyway you want. Have fun with this one and try something different each time you make these.

Ingredients:
2 lbs sirloin steak, cut into 1" cubes
1 large sweet onion, cut into wedges
1 large yellow squash, cut into 1" pieces
1 large green pepper, cut into wedges
1 box mushrooms, don't cut
1 box miniature tomatoes, don't cut

Preparation:
The day before, mix together some Worcestershire sauce, water, crushed garlic, salt and pepper and put in a sealable plastic bag with the sirloin cubes and refrigerate overnight.

Prepare kabobs by arranging all the cut meat and veggies on the skewers. be sure to make a good mix on the skewers, so the flavors mix together while grilling. Keep the extra marinade so you can brush this on the kabobs while grilling.

Put the kabobs on the grill, but not directly over the coals. Generally, I'll arrange my charcoal on one side of the grill so I can put the kabobs on the opposite side, then cover while cooking. Cook approximately 15 - 20 minutes on one side, then brush with teh marinade sauce, then lightly sprinkle on some Lawry's seasoning salt. Cook another 15 - 20 minutes, turn, brush, and sprinkle lightly again.

Now you want to put the kabobs directly over the coals for the last 5 - 10 minutes, and the meat should get a good sear from the heat. Check to insure everything is cooked until done.

You can experiment with a host of different ingredients for this recipe. Try any of the following: pineapple slices, scallops, shrimp, chicken, red or yellow peppers, sausage cuts, jalapeno peppers, etc. You get the idea. Be sure to have some of your favorite cold beverage available while cooking...!!

Ummmm, Ummmm....!!!!!

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