I for one hate meetings. Unless they’re donuts and cookies meetings, where the topic is to eat donuts and cookies. But for those of us who work in an office, meetings are an unavoidable thing. You might be able to ninja your way out of a few, but the house always wins. My way of getting through them have been to zone out but keep alert for key words (such as ‘action item’ or ‘make 600 copies’). I know that probably isn’t the best way, but it gets me by usually. I’ve been lucky that there’s usually meeting minutes to give me a recap on all that I dazed on.

For a more tactical approach, go grab this month’s GQ (the one with Stephen Colbert on the front holding an oddly frightening Colbert baby) and flip to page 128 for a great article. Read More

Your morals are probably the most important and valuable things you can have. In other words, they are priceless. And yet, we sometimes find ourselves in a position where we consider jeopardizing our moral values in order to get ahead in our careers.

So I ask you this–If you were put in a position where in order to get ahead in your career, you would have to screw over one of your co-workers that you considered a friend, would you do it? Would you be willing to play the villain so you could reap the benefits and keep the treasure for yourself?
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Lately a few of my friends have complained to me about being single. Either they aren’t dating or aren’t finding the right better-half to marry, but both types eventually converge on the “I don’t want to die alone” fear. I myself am getting married soon, as are quite a few people I know. This leads me to think that dating and finding someone isn’t impossible, but question if it is a prevalent occurrence in our time now to be single.

Going through collected data from the US Census Bureau, doing some Excel showed a steady rise in the percentage of age 18+ Americans who are unmarried Read More

I recently started eating 3000calories a day to try and put on weight; this resulted in my grocery bill doubling. This made me wonder if I was spending too much on food. Obviously everyone needs to eat, but some people try to save money by skimping on food (ramen eaters of the world unite). Continuing on this thought, I wondered what others in our age group spent on food every year.

According to surveys done by the USDA,

In 2003, U.S. urban households with incomes in the lowest quintile (bottom 20 percent of the income distribution) spent $1,769 per person for total food, or 37.3 percent of total household income. Households in the highest quintile spent $2,737 per person for food, or 6.6 percent of total household income. Wealthier households, however, spent more of their food budgets on away-from-home food than other households.

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During lunch today with a good friend, we talked about something that really made me think. The situation is this: You decide that you will be the stay-at-home parent once you have kid(s). Is it better to marry someone that you are really compatible with and have a lot of fun with, or someone that is less awesome but will be a better provider than the other person? What if you are already dating the former? Is it better to recognize the deficiency and move on? Read More

-I don’t have time.
-The weather is bad.
-Gyms are expensive.
-I’m so out of shape I’ll be embarrassed at the gym.
-I don’t know how to exercise.
-My gym is always crowded.
-There’s a hottie at my gym, and if I go she’ll see how pasty and scrawny I am.
-I could hurt myself.
-I’m too out of shape to get back in shape. Round’s a shape, too.
A lot of people I know, including myself, worry about not getting enough exercise or not exercising at all. This is especially a concern once we have responsibilities like work or a family. However, while not exercising is causing guilt, worry, and other anxieties, many aren’t pro-actively taking any steps to deal with the issue. Read More

I don’t know about you but I feel that everyone should have a motto, some kind of small creed that can stay close to your personal foundations and beliefs. At the end of the day the last discussion or thought is always with yourself and having a base on which to go about your daily meanderings is usually a good thing. Mine’s “Do a Good Turn Daily.” Sound familiar? Yea well I am an Eagle Scout and I kind of poached their slogan. But I feel it is a good creed to live by since life is mostly a series of interactions. We all could use a little more happiness right? So what is your motto?