A month ago, my little publishing startup, Blank Slate Press, launched a Kickstarter campaign to support our 2012 author selection. Since then, we’ve decided to add one specific author to our docket (we sent him the contract today), and perhaps one other author later in the year (she’s doing a significant rewrite on her novel … Read more
Naked parties. Or naked bike rides, for that matter. Do adults have these, or are they a college thing? Don’t you spend the whole time looking at other people’s private parts? Is it really not sexual at all, like they say? Ghostly encounters. Could ghosts actually be real? Have you ever seen or sensed a … Read more
I expect to get some flack for this one, so bring it. These things peeve me. If they don’t peeve you, tell me why. 28. Out of shape people who don’t take the stairs. (Or park in the farthest parking spot every time they go to the grocery store. Jared didn’t lose weight by driving … Read more
Back during a time when I was making many road trips for my first–and last–long-distance relationship, I wrote an entry about how I’d pimp my ride for long trips if I could. Today I have a few follow-up tips and thoughts for long road trips, particularly those for which you’re alone for 10+ hours. Crunchy … Read more
A year and a half ago, I wrote about the five love languages. I mostly talked about how they can be applied to improve romantic, familial, and friend relationships, but I briefly touched on how they can be effective at the workplace. Last week, I realized that I could expand upon that idea by polling … Read more
Specifically, this: You put a plate of leftovers–let’s say rice and salmon–into the microwave. Then you have what is really a very minor choice: How long do you wish to cook this food? There’s no real difference between 1 minute or 1:11 or 1:23, and yet we carefully choose our cook time to the very … Read more
Specifically, this: You microwave leftovers–let’s say spaghetti–for what seems like more than enough time. While it’s cooking, you set the coffee table with your milk, your diluted juice, your baby spinach salad (keeping one eye on it so Biddy doesn’t steal a leaf). Then you pull the steaming hot plate out of the oven. You … Read more
Women of the world, picture this scenario: You go on a first date with a guy. (I am not this guy. This is a hypothetical guy. Think of the last guy you went on a date with who you didn’t ask for a second date. Okay, maybe I’m that guy.) He’s nice, funny, smart. He’s … Read more
I have a proposal for maximizing efficiency and productivity. I would suggest that all workplaces enact this policy, effective immediately. The average American worker spends 27 minutes in the bathroom a day (Stegmaier 2011). Not only are workers moving bowels and excreting liquids, they are washing hands, examining blemishes in the mirror, and adjusting their … Read more
I love how games are creeping slowly into our daily lives. Sure, they’ve been around for a while in the form of airline miles and happy hours and coupons. But now we have games like Foursquare, Groupon, and Living Social that many of us play every day, even if for a few seconds when we … Read more