You know you’ve watched too many children’s videos when
(1) you get the jokes when the Daily Show mocks children’s programming (love those Boohbah’s)
(2) when a coworker doesn’t show up on time for a meeting the tune from Bear in the Big Blue House thing of “where is, where is, where is shadow?” becomes “where is, where is, where is Derek?”
(3) Bach’s symphonies now conjure up visions of toys and puppets
(4) The theme from Elmo’s World (go ahead, tickle him) seems pretty catchy to you
Month: January 2004
Badge off
Cora’s a pretty sharp little kid. Before I headed to work today, I hung my requisite identity badge around my neck. Cora’s response: “No badge, no badge!” But wait… it gets better. Calling home, my usual late afternoon reminder to both me and my family that the workday is soon to be over, Cora got on the phone and said “Badge off! Badge off!” When she figures out that Mommy can’t get into the building without her badge, I’ll be lucky to ever find it.
Where are the Women?
Fast Company magazine’s cover asks “Where are the Women?” The starting point of the article is to ask why there aren’t more women in corner offices / executive positions, given the number of women in the workforce and the number of years we’ve now had to make it into the cushy chair. The article basically examines a study done by a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business that determined that men are almost exclusively the ones in executive positions because men compete harder and sacrifice more of their personal lives than women. Women are just as competent, just as skilled, etc, as men, generally, but men are m ore willing to work longer, relocate, and just generally give more of their lives to work than women are. This is actually the second article I’ve seen that’s based on this study. The first was in Fortune magazine, entitled “Power: Do Women Really Want It?”.
Particularly in article in Fortune, the spin seemed to be that women just aren’t willing to go that extra mile for the executive spot, and that, hey, that extra mile is required for those who want to reach the pinnacle. Two thoughts come to mind: one, is that extra mile really required for the job itself, or is it just more of a barrier to entry, a way to winnow the competition? Couldn’t companies figure out better ways to use their top job resources, so that above and beyond all call of duty _isn’t_ the required duty? Seems like then the company would be less about the man (nearly always) at the top, and more about its mission of producing something that produces value (to shareholders or some other ownership).
Second thought, and more interesting to me to explore… If the reason that more women aren’t at the top is because they value other things in life over the rewards gained via sacrifices for work, why is it that men don’t value those same things? The articles pointed out that women aren’t stepping aside merely for the “mommy track”, that they’re often stepping aside for other jobs that provide a better balance of work and life. Lots of folks seem to look at that as “settling”, as somehow demeaning what you could have been. But that supposes that the best you could be was the person wholly focused on beating the competition out to win the top spot in this one arena of business, and thus necessarily losing focus on other areas in life. Those other areas – family, personal time, other interests – why are they of so relatively less value to the men examined in this study?
Selling Tech Toys to Women Geeks
I’ve been hunting the perfect PDA for a while now. I generally carry a phone and a PDA, and worry about dropping one or the other. Women don’t tend to wear the Bat-belt setup that guys do, with a pager, PDA, and phone all strapped to them like either techno bombs or Batman’s equipment belt. We just don’t tend to draw attention to our waist, particularly not with things that stick out from it. And it doesn’t matter if we’re geeks who’re just as excited about the newest toy as the guy in the next office: we’re not going to strap that thing to us and have someone pay close attention to whether we’re quite as tight in the abs as we want to be. The woman thing of wanting to look thin beats out the geek excitement any day. For guys, that whole thin waist thing doesn’t seem to apply for any but the very few. Given the “street cred” a cool geek toy gives to a techie, women need to find an appropriate way to wear their PDA. PDA armcuffs? A mini purse? (A real purse is generally too bulky to pick up and lug into meetings.) More thought required… both on the case and that perfect PDA.
Humor in government contracting
Seen referenced in some Florida government contracting guidelines and documentation:
“Cone of Silence” requirements.
Seems specific to Florida, given my brief check via Google. So, if you’re at a purchasing conference and you see someone wandering around with a shoe to their ear, you can pretty well assume they’re from Florida.
Comment blather ads – continued
Was amused to discover, as I deleted the latest comment hawking the opportunity to buy generic Viagra, that this particular comment was posted to my rant on comments that hawk products. Brashly obnoxious, rather than merely obnoxious.
Atkins invasion
You know the Atkins plan has taken over the collective consciousness when 7-Eleven, home of the Big Bite hot dog and the Supersize Slurpee, hawks Atkins products. (Subway and T.G.I. Friday’s are similarly on board, but somehow those product pairings don’t seem quite so obscene.)
I can’t help thinking that the success folks’ get on Atkins has more to do with _controlling_ their carbs, rather than controlling their _carbs_. E.g., if you watch what you eat, you generally eat less. In full disclosure, our one attempt to do Atkins succeeded for only two weeks or so, after which point I lost next to nothing and hubby lost only a smidge more, so I have a bias as to the plan’s results. My dad-in-law, though, has had great success – but those pork rinds he gets to eat for snacks just strike me as wrong, somehow…
Gastro-exploration
It’s rare that I go out to eat for lunch. Takes too much time, between getting somewhere, ordering, eating, socializing, … And either I’m just generally too cheap, or I don’t value the experience enough, because spending $10 or so on a midday meal doesn’t strike me as reasonable, no matter how big the portion sizes are. (Cut my portion size and charge me less: I’ll eat less, making me happier both for my wallet and for my waist line.) Today I decided to venture out, though not for a dine-in experience. I was looking for a Caribbean restaurant that I had heard mention of on Chowhound. For whatever reason, I was craving something different, some sense of culinary adventure. Jason and I used to regularly hunt out new dining experiences when we were dating, but the required marital attention to budgets and kid-friendly dining have severely limited those expeditions.
Didn’t find the Caribbean place, but did find a Latin restaurant / take-out. Latin to the point of Spanish television channel on, other patrons speaking Spanish exclusively to the wait staff, and a Spanish beer other than Corona being featured prominently. Picked an order nearly at random and headed back to the office. Ordered the rotisserie chicken, fried yucca, and fried plantains. Yum! I’ve had plantains before – I think we had them on our honeymoon. The chicken smelled wonderful and was absolutely delicious, but still, it was chicken – nothing particularly adventurous there. Yucca was a new experience. At first I thought the server had goofed – this stuff sure looked like french fries to me. Doing a bit of poking online, discovered that they’re supposed to look/taste like potatoes. And that they have vitamin C, as well as are a good source of dietary fiber.
Cora’s a fan of french fries – she’ll happily ignore the entree in any kids’ meal and scarf down the fries. That causes me no small amount of mommy guilt. But I see yucca possibilities here…. Definitely worth a venture to a Latin restaurant with our two year old – see if we can pull off the Folgers’ yucca switch. And I think I may regularly try to find other interesting dining around my work… woman cannot live by brown bag lunch alone. (Or she could, but it’s a lot more interesting if she doesn’t.)