45 minutes. That is the amount of time I will now wait for someone before going home.
I spent an hour driving to a park on memorial day, my day off of work, only to sit under a tree with no phone reception for an hour and a half and then drive another hour home because no one showed up. I was also intentionally 30 minutes late because I knew everyone else would also be late. Don't get me wrong, I like hanging out with my friends but a lot of them have a complete disrespect for time. I understand that its hard to estimate arrival times and things come up. It's difficult for me to arrive on time especially since I live far away from most things, but I think anything over 45 minutes without a good reason for being late is unacceptable.
It's simple. If you value my friendship, you should value my time. Don't value my time? I will place less value on our friendship.
This post was a little more personal than I want this blog to be but I need to get it out. I would have also contacted everyone personally of my decision but I'd rather not spend the TIME right now: )
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
In Defense of Food...a book review
I just finished reading a good book that my good friend Charlie had me read. It's called In Defense of Food. It's definitely a must read if you care about your health and what you eat. Even if you think you're eating healthy, it may not always be the case...
The book follows a basic idea. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants". The author backs up this idea mostly with common sense. When he says "Eat food", food is considered to be anything edible in its natural form, nothing processed. He argues that "food" is what we've evolved to eat, not something that comes in a box and includes 30 different ingredients. Lately, most grocery stores sell very little "food". Even if you're buying something that you think is healthy because it includes essential vitamins & minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, etc...these nutrients are not being digested by your body as well as it would in real "food".
Much of the real "food" has been pushed out of supermarkets in the last 40 to 50 years. Even fruits and vegetables sold today are grown in industrialized soil and contain about 1/3 of the nutrients of a fruit/vegetable grown in organic soil. Also the animals that feed on industrialized grain diet lack these nutrients as well. The author believes that this is a good reason for the kind of obesity we see with the western diet. Since much of the food we eat is lacking in nutrients, our bodies tell us to eat more of it. Cultures who do not follow the western diet have much lower rates of chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
One interesting part of the book talks about a group of Aborigines that developed diabetes from eating the western diet. This group agreed to participate in an experiment in which they reverted back to their non-western diet. After only 7 weeks on a new diet, their diabetes symptoms were either completely gone or significantly lower.
I strongly recommend that you read this book. There are tons of tips on how to eat healthier. And my review pales in comparison to the knowledge that you'll gain from reading it. I was so motivated by this book that I spent a couple hours today planting a vegetable garden. So I will soon be able to eat tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet peppers that I grew myself!
The book follows a basic idea. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants". The author backs up this idea mostly with common sense. When he says "Eat food", food is considered to be anything edible in its natural form, nothing processed. He argues that "food" is what we've evolved to eat, not something that comes in a box and includes 30 different ingredients. Lately, most grocery stores sell very little "food". Even if you're buying something that you think is healthy because it includes essential vitamins & minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, etc...these nutrients are not being digested by your body as well as it would in real "food".
Much of the real "food" has been pushed out of supermarkets in the last 40 to 50 years. Even fruits and vegetables sold today are grown in industrialized soil and contain about 1/3 of the nutrients of a fruit/vegetable grown in organic soil. Also the animals that feed on industrialized grain diet lack these nutrients as well. The author believes that this is a good reason for the kind of obesity we see with the western diet. Since much of the food we eat is lacking in nutrients, our bodies tell us to eat more of it. Cultures who do not follow the western diet have much lower rates of chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
One interesting part of the book talks about a group of Aborigines that developed diabetes from eating the western diet. This group agreed to participate in an experiment in which they reverted back to their non-western diet. After only 7 weeks on a new diet, their diabetes symptoms were either completely gone or significantly lower.
I strongly recommend that you read this book. There are tons of tips on how to eat healthier. And my review pales in comparison to the knowledge that you'll gain from reading it. I was so motivated by this book that I spent a couple hours today planting a vegetable garden. So I will soon be able to eat tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet peppers that I grew myself!
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Not Showing Off...Not Falling Behind
A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Literally. I'm carrying no school books in my bag to work. Ahh...feels good. Anyway, so I guess I should post something.
I used to think that the harder you try, the more you get out of life. I don't think that's necessarily always the case. If you're good at something, there will always be someone else trying to leech off of your hard work. The gnats will always be most attracted to the sweetest fruits...
When I started my professional career, my boss and coworkers kept repeating the phrase "Not showing off, not falling behind". At the time I thought it was a little ridiculous but it'll be 5 years since I've been with my company and I am now a firm believer in the phrase. I spent the first half of my career busting my ass and trying to show off. My reward for this behavior was more work. I get the logic, if you're efficient at something, why not maximize the amount of work you do? Well, this logic is flawed because just like a sweet piece of fruit, you will attract all of the gnats until your body lay eaten and useless. Managers don't realize that maximizing their workers too much will eventually lead to demotivation from feeling overwhelmed and from not receiving reciprocal benefits. So before I ended up a devoured pit of a peach, I decided to tone my skills down. Now because of my decision to slack off, I'm less stressed and able to focus on just a few projects at a time. It seems like everyone else follows suit as well. If I need a column added to a database view, it takes a month. This is a task that literally takes 2 minutes but I know the "developers" on the other end are in the same boat as me so I understand. Sure there are the necessary hoops and red tape to go through but still a month seems crazy for this kind of change. But I don't stress. I just tell everyone a project is on hold until that change is made. I wonder how much money businesses would save if they actually valued their efficient people and didn't try to "maximize" the output of their skills. Whatever happened to quality not quantity?
Well it seems like my slacking off has paid off. I received an award yesterday and will get a check for $300 for the 5 minutes of work I did on a project. Granted this was a team award and it wouldn't be right for me to not be included but I doubt I would have received an award like this if I really did fully exemplify "excellence". In conclusion, don't show off in life. I guess Office Space is a very sad reality.
I used to think that the harder you try, the more you get out of life. I don't think that's necessarily always the case. If you're good at something, there will always be someone else trying to leech off of your hard work. The gnats will always be most attracted to the sweetest fruits...
When I started my professional career, my boss and coworkers kept repeating the phrase "Not showing off, not falling behind". At the time I thought it was a little ridiculous but it'll be 5 years since I've been with my company and I am now a firm believer in the phrase. I spent the first half of my career busting my ass and trying to show off. My reward for this behavior was more work. I get the logic, if you're efficient at something, why not maximize the amount of work you do? Well, this logic is flawed because just like a sweet piece of fruit, you will attract all of the gnats until your body lay eaten and useless. Managers don't realize that maximizing their workers too much will eventually lead to demotivation from feeling overwhelmed and from not receiving reciprocal benefits. So before I ended up a devoured pit of a peach, I decided to tone my skills down. Now because of my decision to slack off, I'm less stressed and able to focus on just a few projects at a time. It seems like everyone else follows suit as well. If I need a column added to a database view, it takes a month. This is a task that literally takes 2 minutes but I know the "developers" on the other end are in the same boat as me so I understand. Sure there are the necessary hoops and red tape to go through but still a month seems crazy for this kind of change. But I don't stress. I just tell everyone a project is on hold until that change is made. I wonder how much money businesses would save if they actually valued their efficient people and didn't try to "maximize" the output of their skills. Whatever happened to quality not quantity?
Well it seems like my slacking off has paid off. I received an award yesterday and will get a check for $300 for the 5 minutes of work I did on a project. Granted this was a team award and it wouldn't be right for me to not be included but I doubt I would have received an award like this if I really did fully exemplify "excellence". In conclusion, don't show off in life. I guess Office Space is a very sad reality.
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