Should employers fine smokers? Today I was reading an article on Lifehacker on that subject. Initially, most of the comments were on the side of the employers. I'm not sure I agree though. Don't get me wrong. I think that smoking is a terrible, dirty habit that puts the smoker at risk and all those around him. However, many of the comments were about lost productivity (as you might expect, with the article being on a productivity blog). And, on those grounds I have to disagree.

One comment in particular caught my attention. The author claimed that he knew of smokers at his company that took 10 minute smoke breaks every hour. His contention was that that added up to 80 minutes of lost time every day. On the surface, that seems like a very simple calculation. The guy is outside, away from his computer, smoking a cigarette. Obviously he isn't working. However, in the day and age of the knowledge worker, it's not that simple. I look at it much like a professional athlete. You rarely see an athlete in for the entire game. Every so often, even the most skilled players are given a short rest. The reason for that is obvious to any one who has engaged in a strenuous activity. Your muscles just need a rest periodically to regain your energy level. Many researchers in the area of cognition describe the mind as just another muscle. That 10 minute break may be just what the person needs to refocus, and regain their mental energy. In addition, that is 10 minutes that the person isn't exposing themselves to the eye strain of looking at a computer monitor, the repetitive motion of typing and mousing, and it gives them an opportunity to stand up and get their blood flowing.

A few years ago, I was given an "ergonomic evaluation" at work. The result of that was a list of recommendations, including an ergonomic keyboard, chair height, and a 10 minute break every hour. Admittedly, part of this recommendation is likely due to the fact that I've already experienced some RSI problems (due to a stupid workspace setup when I worked from home during college). This may seem excessive, but some sites I've read actually recommend a 30 second break every 10 minutes, along with a 15 minute break every 2 hours. Add it up, and you're talking about 1 hour 48 minutes a day. Now, I don't take the breaks like I'm supposed to. When I get working on something it's hard to tear myself away. But I do try to do 2 15 minute breaks a day to get up and walk around campus. I think there are 3 benefits to this. First, that short period of exercise gets my blood pumping and helps me to stay alert. Second, I often will use that time to think about the work I have been doing, and refocus my efforts for when I return to my desk. Third, By scheduling in my break, I become more productive by saying "I'll work on this task for 2 hours, then I'll take a break." It helps break up day a bit and gives my day some landmarks to help map it out.

So, smoking may be a dirty habit. But I don't believe it to be the productivity loss that many believe it is.

You oughta be in pictures!

Candy sales for Camp Fire Kids begins this weekend. Normally, I really don't enjoy the whole selling candy thing, but this year something special has happened. A picture that I took of one of the kids in our group (Ciera Schmidt) was entered in a national contest, and was chosen to be on one of the boxes of candy that the kids will be selling. Aside from not being mentioned in any of the press coverage (let's face it, Ciera is a much cuter subject than the 30 something amateur photographer who took the picture), I'm pretty excited. I've only seen a picture of Ciera holding up the box of candy, but it feels pretty cool to have one of my pictures getting national exposure. I'd like to think it won't be my last!

Now that I've seen the picture, it appears they edited it a bit (I've never been great at post processing... need to work on that.) and blurred the background. The picture looks great. Here's my unedited version:

Missed opportunity

I've started reading a blog called Digital Photography School. The first day that I began reading it, they had a post titled "5 Reasons to Take Your Camera Everywhere in 2008." As I read it, I thought that I really wanted to make sure to take my camera everywhere I went. However, the next morning as I was leaving the house for work, I looked at my camera bag, and decided I didn't want to deal with the hassle of carrying it around and left the house. As I drove down the road, I saw the most amazing sight. On a nearby hill, there are a number of windmills, and some clouds had enveloped the hill. The sun had broken through the clouds, and so the windmills were encompassed by a soft golden mist. I found myself thinking "I wish I had my camera right now!"

So, yesterday morning, I did take my camera with me. And I was glad I did. I'll edit this post later with one of the pictures I took that morning.

Trash Talk

One of the difficult things about being an electronics junkie, is finding ways to dispose of old equipment safely. I currently have a several failed motherboards, video cards, sound cards, etc... just lying around taking up space in our closets. Until recently, I wasn't aware of any place that would take that type of waste, but on the Linux club mailing list, someone pointed out a local business that handles electronic waste, and will do so for free (within reason, they do charge a storage fee for monitors). So, without further ado, here is the contact information for this company:

Bachand Electronics Corp, of Richland, has an unofficial service. The really great thing is that they'll even take monitors (although they are going to charge you $5, which is a bargain). They will take most any electronics, and here's the cool part:

If you give them a computer that still has working components, they'll scavenge, and build working machines out of them, and then donate them to worthy efforts that would otherwise go unfunded. I just spoke with the owner, and am planning on taking my current collection from the garage to them, this Saturday.

Bachand Electronics Corp
1351 Wyman St, Richland, WA
(509) 943-6203

If components are truly dead, they store them on a pallet, which gets picked up by an electronics recycling firm...

This post is just for me

Well, mostly at least. Up to this point, most of my pictures have been taken using the auto mode on my fancy DSLR camera. I've gotten lucky and had several pictures turn out very well. I've wanted to learn how to use more of the manual settings on the camera, but haven't taken the time necessary to do so. But, recently a blog I read (life hacker) has had a couple of posts about using the fancy features of DSLR's. I've bookmarked the articles, but just so the links won't get lost, I'm posting them here as well.

Master your DSLR camera pt 1
Master your DSLR camera pt 2

Family week!

It's been a crazy week. Last weekend, I flew down to Utah to join my family in celebrating my Grandma's 80th birthday. It was kind of a crazy trip. I hadn't intended to go, as I had some other obligations scheduled for that weekend. However, those got moved until the next weekend. I did have to get back for an appointment on Sunday, so after a lot of deliberation, I decided to fly instead of driving down with Lori and the kids. It was a pretty crazy flight schedule. Interestingly enough, It was cheaper for me to fly if I bought a package that included 2 nights in a hotel in Salt Lake City. My flight back was at 6:00 am, so I needed a 4 am wakeup call. Pretty crazy. Anyway, the party was great. We had a family dinner for Grandma at noon on Saturday, and then began an open house at 3. She had quite a surprise. I think she knew about the party, but she didn't expect me to be there. Even more, my uncle Don, who lives in Hawaii, flew over to be there, and my aunt Ronella and her husband Clay made it as well. Grandma was moved to tears, and the look of joy on her face as she saw Don and Ronella was precious. All of her children were there for the party, and a large number of her grandchildren also. We took a number of family photos, then had a nice lunch. Most of the family pitched in, either cooking, or decorating the church cultural hall. My mom and siter-in-law did the table decorations. The center piece was a vase of Grandma's favorite flowers, and photos from early in Grandma's marraige. During lunch, my uncles and aunts did a little program. Each of them talked about things they remembered about Grandma as they grew up. They recorded the stories, so hopefully they'll digitize the audio and share it around with the rest of the family.

After the lunch, an open house was held at the church. I think it went very well. It wasn't so busy that Grandma felt overwhelmed. Several distant relatives came to visit, as well as some of Grandma's neighbors over the years. It was good to see so much of my family. I've missed the family reunions over the last several years, so it's been quite a while since I have seen many of these people. All in all, it was a very satisfying trip. On the way back, I again had a short layover in Denver. While there, I ran into a family that goes to our church, and sat next to them on the flight. It was a pleasant surprise, and a lot of fun.

My birthday also happened this week. Lori totally surprised me. I thought she had forgotten. I wasn't really all that concerned about that. We really didn't have anything planned, at least as far as I knew. I teach at WSU on that day, and Lori had called me earlier that day to tell me that she had a meeting at 7:00 that night, so I told her I'd meet her at Sierra's gymnastics so that she could attend the meeting. When I arrived, Lori took me out of the gym and told me of her plans. She had a friend taking Sierra home from gymnastics, and a babysitter at home for the other two girls, and we had a few hours for a dinner date. It was a lot of fun.

Anyway, that's all that's happened this week :)

Procrastination

So, I mentioned in a (much) earlier post that I had purchased a book on procrastination called "The Now Habit," and that I'd be posting my thoughts on it periodically as I read it. Well, I procrastinated reading the book on procrastination, and so I've only recently spent some time in the book. I'm nearly halfway through it at this point, but already I think it's having an impact.

One area the book discusses is the procrastinators internal dialog. You see, procrastination is actually a defense mechanism (and an extremely effective one at that). According to the author, people don't procrastinate because they are lazy (I'm not sure I agree with that assessment totally), the procrastinate to avoid something that is painful or undesirable. It could be that the person is a perfectionist, and is afraid that they will produce something that is not totally perfect. However, if they procrastinate, they could say that the reason that their work wasn't perfect is because they didn't give themselves enough time to complete the task. If they'd only started earlier, the project would have been perfect. That way, they can keep their sense of self worth intact. He also points out that people can be afraid of success. Yeah, I did a double take on that one myself, but after reading what the author means by that, I can actually relate to that one. Being afraid of success means that you fear what comes after success. Not the recognition, but the assignments that may come your way after you are successful or that if you are successful, there might be less work for you to do. The procrastinators internal dialog can give a lot of insight into what motivates the procrastinator to, well, procrastinate. Phrases like "I should do this," or "I need to do this," are attempts by the procrastinator to will themselves into action, but usually have the opposite effect. By saying that you "should" be some way, you are comparing the imperfect now with a perfect vision of now. Finding yourself lacking can be depressing, leading to even less motivation to improve. Saying that you "need" do something sets you at odds with some authority figure. You are being forced to do something that, given the choice, you wouldn't be doing. This allows you to play the victim, and by procrastinating, you are "sticking it to the man" to some degree. Though I haven't made many changes to my internal dialog, the book has made me far more aware of how I talk to myself with regards to tasks and assignments.

The author also points out that procrastination is very successful as a defense mechanism. That's why people use it. Procrastination almost immediately relieves stress (though it piles it on later!), and often, if one procrastinates long enough, someone else may step in and do the job that they were supposed to do. This reminds me of the Demotivator poster on procrastination "Hard work pays off over time, but laziness always pays off right now."