Tricks Are For Ids

Finally, sweet, sweet Friday! What a week of working lots of extra stressful hours. I knew I'd have a monster day so I threw all these tricks at it:

1. Dressed comfortably in bright colors.
2. Ate breakfast.
3. Took my vitamins plus extra magnesium.
4. Wore lipstick AND earrings.
5. Made my son take the bus to school so I could go in early.
6. Closed my office door when I really needed to hurry.
7. Went to lunch early off-site someplace I hadn't been for a long time.
8. Listened to rock and roll instead of NPR.
9. (Forgot one.) Put a picture of my family on my "desktop". What a lovely surprise between tasks! : )

Sorry if this is boring for you, but I may need this list later! It must have worked, I'm through the day.

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Stupid things to do: When you're a junior in high school, spend a week's worth of afterschool hours learning to sing "Alone" by Heart. Practice the high note even though it sets off some kind of resonance in your head that makes you pass out. Do this every day.

What to Do With Bad News

Mitigate it.

I like this quote from an interesting article:

"For example, one toxin handler at a transportation company was told by her boss: "Tell those idiots out there to get their act together and finish the job by Friday, or else they'll be sorry!" Her response was to pull her staff together and put the directive in a form that conveyed the task but not the sentiment. "The boss needs us to complete this task by Friday," she told them, "so let's put our heads together and see what we need to do to meet this deadline." By taking the sting out of the boss's message, the toxin handler helped everyone to focus on the challenge rather than seeing the directive as an attack on their capabilities."

I screwed up once, I passed along the news to my guitarist that the guy who arranged a benefit show we were in didn't even put us on the list to play and the sound guy was desperately trying to squeeze us in.

Two things: First, don't play in benefit shows unless you have a lot of time on your hands. They are organized by people who don't know what they are doing. And the band member who books your band should be the busiest most practical one not the most bored. Second, facts are not to be passed on all dramatic and juicy like gossip. There is no point. Waiting is waiting and the reason won't change a thing. Actually if my loved one was in surgery, I wouldn't want them to come out and tell me, "It will be just a little bit longer. We're trying to stop the bleeding."

One of my friends has a strategy. After talking about something, say it's no problem. Leave it up to the listener to decide if and how much of a problem it is. Not conveying anger at all, just gee, this is interesting...

Time, Time, Time

Woke up this morning thinking about what it would be like to have a time machine. Wouldn't it be cool to go back and redo things, take the opportunities? How hard would it have been for me to pull out "Silent Night" for my boss at the Christmas party instead of letting a moment pass awkwardly frozen?

I'm pretty sure I would mostly use my time machine to cancel out mistakes. Like don't comment on someone's tailgating if there is no actual accident. I think eventually, given enough time, which I would have, I'd probably end up canceling it too far.

Spinning Wheel

Hamsters are nocturnal. Just thought you should know. (The pet store should've had a big sign.)

E spent his birthday money and they are cute. The camera is broken. They're like this except one is brown. They don't have names yet, both girls.

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Mashup I am not going to make: "Hamster Dance" and "Oh, What a Night"

Love in the Time of Algebra

I dropped my son off at school this morning and saw a boy and girl walking down the road, holding hands. How cute! How scary!!
8th grade.

You MIght Be a Chemist...

...if you win first prize in a chemistry contest!

Here is Z and little bro, E. Z won a chemistry quiz and he's going to the Nationals in Philadelphia in June! I am so thrilled. It was exciting. At the end of five elimination rounds, two kids were tied. So they had a tie breaker. That was also tied. On the seventh round he came out ahead. We are going to be chemistry studying fools now!

Projecting

Having trouble with a project. My boss just told me to split it apart and continue forward with the 90% that is fine and set the other 10% aside for more work later. Wow, that was so obvious and helps so much! : ) Will do. Right after lunch.