Check out the video, then think about what you would do.
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/care-for-a-brain-chip/
p.s. You'll have to read the comments on the Freakonomics blog to see my decision.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
When Less is More
I had the opportunity to ask for something, and I took it.
The client manager where I am currently working as a contractor asked for me to reduce my hours slightly, so she can adjust to a recent budget cut. I'm thrilled to death that there is still a place for me here, so I agreed. Her request was that I work 14 less days between Sept 1st and the end of the year. Now I love vacation as much as the next person does, but I don't have that much! Nor do I have the money to travel, nor do I have anyplace to go. What to do? What to do?
Then the Devil That Sits on My Left Shoulder (DTSoMLS) whispered in my ear, "Here's your chance...take Fridays off through the end of the year."
The Angel That Sits on My Right Shoulder (ATSoMRS) was horrified. "How will that look? They will think you are not taking your work seriously! And anyway, they would never let you do that!"
But, Me, being in the middle of this debate, thought it was an interesting idea. The client couldn't disagree - she had ASKED me to do this. The problem was lack of vacation days. Then the Devil spoke again.
"Ask to take the time off UNPAID."
Unpaid?!?! What the...!?!?!? Hmmmm... Wait a second. That's not a bad idea.
So...I gathered the data, prepared my case and ASKED.
And...be careful what you ask for. I got a "Yes"! I didn't even have to push much. Just a little.
And, as it turns out, I have quite a few vacation days left. How it's going to play out is that I'm going to use vacay days until they are gone, then the rest of the Fridays will be unpaid. This will add up to a whopping 2-3 days unpaid for the year. Big Whoop. 2-3 days multiplied by my daily pittance..er, income, in exchange for Fridays off for the rest of the year? Hey, sign me up!
So I signed up.
Now the Angel wouldn't let me get off easy. She insisted that, "you must accomplish one big thing each Friday that you are off." And I agreed that it was a good idea.
Then the Devil chimed in, "Oh yeah! Well she also needs to do one fun thing each Friday that she is off."
Then we all had a group hug and a big smile at what we had accomplished.
The client manager where I am currently working as a contractor asked for me to reduce my hours slightly, so she can adjust to a recent budget cut. I'm thrilled to death that there is still a place for me here, so I agreed. Her request was that I work 14 less days between Sept 1st and the end of the year. Now I love vacation as much as the next person does, but I don't have that much! Nor do I have the money to travel, nor do I have anyplace to go. What to do? What to do?
Then the Devil That Sits on My Left Shoulder (DTSoMLS) whispered in my ear, "Here's your chance...take Fridays off through the end of the year."
The Angel That Sits on My Right Shoulder (ATSoMRS) was horrified. "How will that look? They will think you are not taking your work seriously! And anyway, they would never let you do that!"
But, Me, being in the middle of this debate, thought it was an interesting idea. The client couldn't disagree - she had ASKED me to do this. The problem was lack of vacation days. Then the Devil spoke again.
"Ask to take the time off UNPAID."
Unpaid?!?! What the...!?!?!? Hmmmm... Wait a second. That's not a bad idea.
So...I gathered the data, prepared my case and ASKED.
And...be careful what you ask for. I got a "Yes"! I didn't even have to push much. Just a little.
And, as it turns out, I have quite a few vacation days left. How it's going to play out is that I'm going to use vacay days until they are gone, then the rest of the Fridays will be unpaid. This will add up to a whopping 2-3 days unpaid for the year. Big Whoop. 2-3 days multiplied by my daily pittance..er, income, in exchange for Fridays off for the rest of the year? Hey, sign me up!
So I signed up.
Now the Angel wouldn't let me get off easy. She insisted that, "you must accomplish one big thing each Friday that you are off." And I agreed that it was a good idea.
Then the Devil chimed in, "Oh yeah! Well she also needs to do one fun thing each Friday that she is off."
Then we all had a group hug and a big smile at what we had accomplished.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
A Goofy Experiment
The Goofy household was becoming the Chubby household, so I took matters into hand and decided that we would go bread/pizza/rice/pasta-free for one week. An experiment of sorts. This was decided on Sunday night. We had some chicken and a vegetable for dinner. Easy enough.
Then Monday came.
Lunch was hard. No sandwiches....eek! No slice of pizza from Whole Foods (my favorite 'no brainer' lunch). And no Pei Wei (most dishes come with rice or noodles). I ended up going to Pei Wei anyway and getting Lettuce Wraps. Score!
Dinner was hard too. We ended up each having something different. I had a salad with some of the leftover chicken on top. Goofy Junior (who had a free pass from the experiment) had a PB&J sandwich. Mr. Goofy had soup.
Rinse and repeat.
Roundabout Thursday, as Mr. Goofy was falling asleep on the couch at 6:00pm and I was getting ready to yell at him for doing it, we realized...we live on Carbs. Very few items in our pantry are NOT carbs. In fact, we have a full shelf dedicated to pasta of every shape and size and pasta sauces. We have several types of bread. We typically have pizza once or twice a week, and Mexican at least once. We eat sandwiches quite a bit. And toast. And grilled cheese. We rarely eat just 'meat n' potatoes'. And veggies are an afterthought.
So the lack of our beloved carbs was:
(A) Making Mr. Goofy sleepy, and thus, crabby
(B) Making me bitchy
(C) Confusing the hell out of Goofy Junior
(D) Making my back feel better (something about glutens causing inflammation - my doc confirmed that this was a good experiment for me)
So, alas, Mr. Goofy withdrew from the experiment. I persisted, as I was not as tired and was actually starting to see some good results in the form of a weight I haven't seen in about 4 years. Since he wasn't crabby, I wasn't as bitchy (funny how that works). And we are both more aware now of how what you eat effects your mood.
Then Monday came.
Lunch was hard. No sandwiches....eek! No slice of pizza from Whole Foods (my favorite 'no brainer' lunch). And no Pei Wei (most dishes come with rice or noodles). I ended up going to Pei Wei anyway and getting Lettuce Wraps. Score!
Dinner was hard too. We ended up each having something different. I had a salad with some of the leftover chicken on top. Goofy Junior (who had a free pass from the experiment) had a PB&J sandwich. Mr. Goofy had soup.
Rinse and repeat.
Roundabout Thursday, as Mr. Goofy was falling asleep on the couch at 6:00pm and I was getting ready to yell at him for doing it, we realized...we live on Carbs. Very few items in our pantry are NOT carbs. In fact, we have a full shelf dedicated to pasta of every shape and size and pasta sauces. We have several types of bread. We typically have pizza once or twice a week, and Mexican at least once. We eat sandwiches quite a bit. And toast. And grilled cheese. We rarely eat just 'meat n' potatoes'. And veggies are an afterthought.
So the lack of our beloved carbs was:
(A) Making Mr. Goofy sleepy, and thus, crabby
(B) Making me bitchy
(C) Confusing the hell out of Goofy Junior
(D) Making my back feel better (something about glutens causing inflammation - my doc confirmed that this was a good experiment for me)
So, alas, Mr. Goofy withdrew from the experiment. I persisted, as I was not as tired and was actually starting to see some good results in the form of a weight I haven't seen in about 4 years. Since he wasn't crabby, I wasn't as bitchy (funny how that works). And we are both more aware now of how what you eat effects your mood.
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