Archive for the ‘quotes’ Category

On Children (or the lack there-of) and Family

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

I just read this and HAD to share:

http://apracticalwedding.com/2010/09/reclaiming-wife-why-wife-mother-do-not-have-to-go-together-part-ii

Especially this part because this is JUST how I feel:

Or as commenter Marina said last week:

As someone who’s sure I want kids, and soon (I mean, scared sh*tless, but sure) I just want to add that I am SO GRATEFUL that I have friends who want kids but not for a long time, and friends who do not want kids ever, period. I have friends in the first category who have told me they’re looking forward to babysitting duties and knitting little baby clothes, which, oh boy, I would be a LOT more scared about having kids if I didn’t have that kind of community around. And my friends in the second category, who do not want babies, who will never want babies–I am so thankful for them. I don’t want to get lost in my child(ren), and I feel so lucky to have people in my life who I know I will be able to hang out with and talk about things that are NOT related to babies. So all y’all who are decidedly against babies, or ambivalent, or all the other messy permutations of decision-making–I’m glad YOU’RE part of my community too. I know having lots of smart sassy women I can read at a moment’s notice will make me a better mom, and is already making me a better person.

Introversion

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
introversion

From: http://www.creators.com/advice/advice-goddess-amy-alkon/the-larva-of-the-party.html

Ever since Freud decided (sans evidence) that introverts were repressed, narcissistic trolls under the bridge, extraversion has been considered the ideal and introverts have been seen as socially stunted. Introversion is also wrongly conflated with shyness, but shyness is fear- and shame-based — quite different from seeing no reason to say anything to strangers unless you or they are on fire.

More and more, research points to a strong biological basis for personality. Brain imaging shows distinct differences in introverts and extraverts. Studies by neuroscientist Debra L. Johnson and others found that extraverts, who get energized from external stimulation like meeting new people, have increased blood flow to rear areas of the brain for sensory processing (like listening, touching, watching). Introverts, who tend to be more pensive and introspective, and are easily overwhelmed by too much external stimulation, showed more blood flow altogether (indicating more internal stimulation), over more complicated pathways, with more activity in frontal regions for inward tasks like problem-solving, reasoning, and remembering.

Put that together with a Chinese study adding evidence that introverts get socked with a higher level of cortical arousal from stimuli, and you get the idea that urging introverts to be more outgoing is a bit like urging scissors to be more like a stapler.

The funny part is, I have no problem understanding the differences between introversion and extroversion, but most of the extroverts I know are just utterly baffled by introversion even when I show them stuff like this. Which is why my catch phrase is: You don’t have to understand, you just have to accept.

This is why I started blogging

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

I didn’t want to write things 50 times, but I didn’t want to leave folks out either. Or overwhelm my busier friends. With blogging, everyone can choose how closely they follow my life, or not, as the case may be. You have the power! ;)

From: http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/

1. Email is inefficient.

Email is one-to-one communication and social networks one-to-many communication. (Here’s a good link about that.) If you have something meaningful or thoughtful to say, why not say it to many people? It would mean that more people share ideas and more people understand your way of thinking. Also, there are so many pieces of our life that we tell at different times to different people. Why not just say it once? We all have email overload: we parse our messages into 40 one-to-one messages instead of just a single one-to-many message.

Not the only one.

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

On the one hand, intellectually I knew that I couldn’t be the only one to do this, but on the other, to have someone else actually admit to doing it too…. feels so great. Not as good as knowing that I’ve mostly trained myself out of it, but still pretty darn good. What is “it”?

“It’s called the We’re All Going To Die Homeless And Alone Spiral.” – Dooce

Lazy Quote

Friday, July 6th, 2007
lazy-quote

Lifehacker quote of the day “Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.” – Robert A. Heinlein

Mostly been watching movies, working, applying for jobs and dealing with a headache. Oh, and I donated blood last week. I’ve liked all the movies I’ve seen recently. Pirates 3, Spidey 3, Shrek 3, Surf’s Up, Live Free Die Hard, Ratatouille and we’re going to see Transformers this weekend. And later this month Harry Potter comes out which I plan to see with MM. Oh, and taking magnesium seems to have done away with the headache thankfully.

Why I want to telecommute

Friday, June 1st, 2007
why-i-want-to-telecommute

Or work half time for twice the pay (same net take home). From all the readily available work on this topic, I don’t think I’m alone in wanting to break free from being a wage slave. I want to be paid for my work, not for the time my butt is stuck in an office.

His 21st-century counterparts are an army of product researchers, academics and personal improvement gurus, who all agree we are frittering valuable minutes, hours and even entire days, though they can’t agree on how many.

American workers, on average, spend 45 hours a week at work, but describe 16 of those hours as “unproductive,” according to a study by Microsoft. America Online and Salary.com, in turn, determined that workers actually work a total of three days a week, wasting the other two. And Steve Pavlina, whose Web site (stevepavlina.com) describes him as a “personal development expert” and who keeps incremental logs of how he spends each working day, urging others to do the same, finds that we actually work only about 1.5 hours a day.

From: Time Wasted? Perhaps It’s Well Spent
NY Times, 5/31/07, By LISA BELKIN

More:

We are wasting time because we are working harder.

“The longer you work, the less efficient you are,” said Bob Kustka, the founder of Fusion Factor, a productivity and time-management consulting firm in Norwell, Mass. He says workers are like athletes in that they are most efficient in concentrated bursts.

And:

“The old thinking says ‘the longer it takes, the harder you’re working,” says Lynne Lancaster, a founder of BridgeWorks, a business consulting firm. “The new thinking is ‘if I know the job inside and out and I’m done faster than everyone else then why can’t I go home early?’ ”

And:

At the headquarters of Best Buy in Minneapolis, for instance, the hot policy of the moment is called ROWE, short for Results Only Work Environment.

There workers can come in at four or leave at noon, or head for the movies in the middle of the day, or not even show up at all. It’s the work that matters, not the method. And, not incidentally, both output and job satisfaction have jumped wherever ROWE is tried.

Love and Respect

Friday, June 1st, 2007
love-and-respect

From one of the columns I read regularly:

“Small moments of courtesy, gentleness and all that good stuff that rounds out your life together is the carefulness I have in mind. “Company manners” is one way to describe my idea of carefulness in love. To be used every single day, so it becomes normalcy. When love and respect are everyday parts of the relationship, careful relating is a seamless result.”

From:
Handle With Care
on Single File by Susan Deitz

That really captures my thoughts about why my friends and family are the ones I should treat with the most courtesy, be the most polite to. It’s a way of showing my respect and appreciation for them. But also, its the kind of person I want to be. I want to be able to show respect to any and all that I meet, and if I don’t practice it daily, with those who surround me, then it won’t come naturally.

Quote of the day

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
quote-of-the-day

Zen master who, asked if his practice of self-insight had enabled him to work miracles, replied, “My miracle is, I eat when I’m hungry, I sleep when I’m tired.”

From the article:
A Psychology of the Miraculous
By:Marc Barasch

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LifeHacker & WebMD Diet Tips

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
lifehacker-webmd-diet-tips

From a comment on a post about diet tips:

I read a great quote on WebMD that said, “There’s a difference between indulgence and overindulgence.”

The whole thing:
15 Best Diet Tips Ever
By Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD
WebMD Weight Loss Clinic-Feature

I’ve been using many of them without having seen this list before.

The ones I use are:

Best Diet Tip No. 1: Drink plenty of water or other calorie-free beverages.
Best Diet Tip No. 2: Think about what you can add to your diet, not what you should take away.
Best Diet Tip No. 3: Consider whether you’re really hungry.
Best Diet Tip No. 5: Enjoy your favorite foods.
Best Diet Tip No. 6: Enjoy your treats away from home.
Best Diet Tip No. 7: Eat several mini-meals during the day.
Best Diet Tip No. 10: Stock your kitchen with healthy convenience foods.
Best Diet Tip No. 11: Order children’s portions at restaurants. (unfortunately, many places won’t allow this, so I have to settle for ordering sides, or stuff that keeps well so I can box half or more of it up, or share with someone)
Best Diet Tip No. 12: Eat foods in season.
Best Diet Tip No. 14: Use non-food alternatives to cope with stress. (Though this really ties into #3 for me – am I really hungry, or am I craving food out of stress/boredom?)
Best Diet Tip No. 15: Be physically active.

Read the whole article for hows & whys and for the rest of the tips.

The Great Turtle Race!

Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
the-great-turtle-race

TC sent these links. Pretty cool!

From the Great Turtle Race site:

“We’re doing this “race” to raise awareness and invite donations to protect leatherback turtles on Playa Grande’s beaches and along the turtles’ migration paths in the ocean. These amazing animals have been around 100 million years, but may have only 10 years left. I think the world needs to wake up to the issue and urgently help. As we say in the race theme, “They are going faster than you think.” – Dr. Jim Spotila, turtle researcher, professor at Drexel University and president of the Leatherback Trust

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