Bookworms, part 2 – a family thing

Since it’s “Booking Through Thursday,” it seemed like the appropriate time to put this up. This is probably another “preaching to the choir” item, but hey, “reading” is the first of the 3 R’s, so here’s a post from Lifehack.org about making reading a family pastime. I’m lucky to come from, and be part of, a reading family, and this post has some very good suggestions about how to keep that going. It’s possible that, […]

More parental perspective – a performance evaluation of sorts

“Kids! I don’t know what’s wrong with these kids today…” If you’re trying to understand how kids/young adults can possibly come to the conclusion that it’s a “responsible” choice to move back in with the parents after college, then this article is a must-read (thanks to the Work It blog for the link).Tom McGrath’s Philadelphia Magazine article “Bad Parents” is long, but worthwhile (and I think that title sentiment may be a little strong – […]

In case of emergency…

I’ve always had family in New York. Since June of this year, I’ve had family (my son) in Washington, DC. But six years ago today, I was the mother of a high-school senior in Germantown, Tennessee, and we were watching the news on TV. I’ll leave the remembrances of 9/11 to those who were touched much more directly, although none of us is really left untouched. Somehow, though, the following seems timely… This PSA comes […]

The “responsible” child (?) – A parental perspective

I know times have changed, and it’s a lot harder for young adults to get started on their “real” lives these days. The late-night phone calls and long-distance online counseling of my son the insomniac – who actually does seem to be making a decent transition to the post-college, living-on-his-own, working-adult world – have reminded me of this lately. Even so, I have some major disagreements with this post by Penelope Trunk’s recurring guest blogger, […]

How to be a “bookworm”

Chances are pretty good that if you visit a blog called “Reading, ‘Riting, and Randomness” more than once or twice, you may be a reading junkie and have no need of this advice. But via The Happiness Project, here are a few hints (the article lists 20 in all) for nurturing your own, or a loved one’s, reading habit, with running commentary: Keep a reading list. Either in a notebook, on a wiki, or some […]

Labor Day, and some people are working…

…or at least writing things to make us think about working. I’ve come to suspect that too much time spent with “productivity” websites can have the exact opposite effect, so I’m looking to sites like Lifehacker and Lifehack.org to find what’s worthwhile for me to check out, and Lifehack’s pointing to a few good ones today. This post about “being selfish with your time” addresses boundary-setting and the ways that “just say no” really can […]

Rules of the road

Stolen (with permission) from A Daily Dose of Zen Sarcasm: Yield ≠ mergeLeft Turn Only lane ≠ your personal merging laneNo turn signal = No letting your rude-person butt inFlashing RED light = Stop, then proceed with cautionFlashing RED light ≠ “Let’s see who can get faster to the intersection!”Flashing YELLOW light = Proceed with caution.Flashing YELLOW light ≠ “The road is mine, bitches”Flashing YELLOW light ≠ Stop. Go. Gooo….ssttttooopp! GO!Pedestrians ≠ Bumper fodder (unless […]

A little “liking your job” followup

Lifehacker points to a post on the Life Learning Today blog that offers “25 Tips to Become More Productive and Happy at Work.” I think I may have mentioned that this has been a challenge for me of late. Like many lists of this type, some of the “tips” are a little redundant, and they won’t all work for everyone all the time, but there are a few that caught my attention: Choose Happiness, Humor, […]

They probably won’t read THIS, either

I know there are bigger things to get wound up over, but my head-shaker of the day comes via Lisa at Books. Lists. Life – an AP poll finding that 1 in 4 adults didn’t read a single book last year. Not one. I know that some people aren’t readers, but I can’t grasp that concept any more than I can understand people who don’t like chocolate. Granted, this survey only concerned reading books, not […]

Tuesday, Part Two…

Following up on posts from a couple of days ago: Tall Paul read my list of “10 Things You Don’t Like About Your Job,” and since I’m usually no more than ten feet away when he reads my posts, he makes his comments in person.He told me that if you take out the commute (lucky so-and-so – he goes against the traffic flow and skips the freeways), and replace “pervasive low-level anxiety” with “pervasive medium-level […]

Home is not necessarily where you buy it

The rarely-dull, often-controversial “Brazen Careerist” seems to have an especially “brazen” tone today in her Yahoo! Finance column about “5 financial calculators you should use cautiously.” #4 on her list caught my interest: 4. Renting vs. buying calculator It used to be that the American dream was about buying a house. Today, the new version of the American dream is about time and personal development — and the best way to get more time is […]

Wives for everyone!

This strikes me as a twist on my post yesterday on the topic of “me” time – a New York Times feature on Monday about no one having time for anything, essentially. The article talks about women not only (still!) bearing most of the domestic responsibilities – or at least the worry about what’s not getting done – even if they work outside the home, but research that shows this “second shift” holds them back […]