It's been a while since I last updated, mostly since I've been putting in a few extra hours at work and have been too tired when I come home. I've never been a morning person, but now I've been getting up around 6 am to get to work. And sadly, going to work early never means getting out of work early---I usually end up staying until well after 5 pm. By the time I get home, I'm exhausted. Partly it's because there's so much work to do (our group is very lean and stretched out), but I wonder if partly it's because I'm not as efficient as I can be. As with most of this generation, I can feel my attention span dropping and have trouble focusing. It would be easy to blame all of the distractions of modern life, but part of it is I think due to simple fatigue. I'm just not getting enough sleep.
And it's not just me. According to a study in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 38% of surveyed workers reported "low levels of energy, poor sleep, or a feeling of fatigue" during the past two weeks. It's estimated that fatigue costs an average of 5.6 hours a week in lost productivity. Interestingly enough, this is one disadvantage is demographically opposite of the standard---fatigue hits white workers harder than black workers.
The National Academies estimate that fatigue costs businesses around $150 billion annually, with another $48 billion lost in vehicle accidents. I suspect those numbers are actually a little conservative since fatigue is such an undefinable factor. How do you quantify fatigue? How do you measure lower efficiency and performance? It's like a vicious cycle---you're tired at work, so you don't get as much done and you feel more stressed, which makes it harder to get a good night's sleep, rinse and repeat. On top of that, each night adds to your overall sleep debt so that by the weekend you can hardly move. And sadly, my body is so trained at waking up early on the weekdays that I have a hard time sleeping in on the weekends.
I think that I'm doing pretty well at work, but I've always wondered how much more productive I could be if I could only get an extra couple of hours of sleep. Instead of starting the day before 8 am, what if I didn't show up until 10 am? I'd lose a couple of hours, but I'd feel a lot more refreshed and recharged at the start of the day (which is why I think this is better than having a nap time in the afternoon). I bet I could recoup those two hours with more energy and efficiency and get even more things done. Which is better, having a good solid 30 hour work week or a tired, cloudy 40 hour work week? I guess this is related to that innovative idea that quality of life can improve quality of work...I think the answer is pretty clear, but that's why I'm not in management...
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
A Morton's Fork
Updates have been a little slow recently, partly because of late hours at work but also because our home internet connection has been flaky recently. It's been cutting in and out, with outages lasting from minutes to up to hours at some points. It's been a little frustrating and it's made me realize how much we depend on the Internet.
I remember first learning about the Internet and being able to go online when I was in high school. At that point, it was using a modem to dial into the local university bulletin board service and then using Lynx as a crude text browser. You had to wait until no one was using the phone line so you could dial in with your modem (some of my dedicated friends even got a second phone line to use with just their computer!) When Mosaic and Netscape first came out, it was a revelation of colors, blinking text, and midi music as the idea of home pages exploded. Since then, it's been an exponential increase in the rise of the Internet. I was able to get my first taste of high speed internet access at college, where all of the dorm rooms had ethernet wired in. In grad school, I was able to escape the anchor of having a heavy desktop computer with the freedom of a laptop and wireless internet access. And in the last couple of years, mobile computing with smart phones and tablets has exploded.
During this evolution, the Internet has taken over more and more of our lives. We manage most of our financial and shopping online now, as well as most of our personal and social networking. We download news and upload our ideas. It's come to the point where people have been diagnosed with Internet addiction---they can't turn it off. This was the unenviable pedestal that television had reigned over for decades. Hours spent staring at the television screen has been replaced with staring at computer and phone screens.
So, now which would you rather choose? A life without television or the Internet?
Well, with our flaky internet connection, we now had to face that dilemma, that Morton's Fork or even Sophie's Choice. We had been using a cable splitter to connect our television and cable modem to the same line, weakening the signal. While our television was okay, it wasn't enough signal for our cable modem to use. It turned out that if we cut out the splitter and hooked the cable modem up directly, we got a robust signal and internet access at the cost of our television. You could only have one without the other. So now we had to choose---television or internet access? The real answer: get Comcast out here to fix the problem (woohoo, deus ex machina!)
I remember first learning about the Internet and being able to go online when I was in high school. At that point, it was using a modem to dial into the local university bulletin board service and then using Lynx as a crude text browser. You had to wait until no one was using the phone line so you could dial in with your modem (some of my dedicated friends even got a second phone line to use with just their computer!) When Mosaic and Netscape first came out, it was a revelation of colors, blinking text, and midi music as the idea of home pages exploded. Since then, it's been an exponential increase in the rise of the Internet. I was able to get my first taste of high speed internet access at college, where all of the dorm rooms had ethernet wired in. In grad school, I was able to escape the anchor of having a heavy desktop computer with the freedom of a laptop and wireless internet access. And in the last couple of years, mobile computing with smart phones and tablets has exploded.
During this evolution, the Internet has taken over more and more of our lives. We manage most of our financial and shopping online now, as well as most of our personal and social networking. We download news and upload our ideas. It's come to the point where people have been diagnosed with Internet addiction---they can't turn it off. This was the unenviable pedestal that television had reigned over for decades. Hours spent staring at the television screen has been replaced with staring at computer and phone screens.
So, now which would you rather choose? A life without television or the Internet?
Well, with our flaky internet connection, we now had to face that dilemma, that Morton's Fork or even Sophie's Choice. We had been using a cable splitter to connect our television and cable modem to the same line, weakening the signal. While our television was okay, it wasn't enough signal for our cable modem to use. It turned out that if we cut out the splitter and hooked the cable modem up directly, we got a robust signal and internet access at the cost of our television. You could only have one without the other. So now we had to choose---television or internet access? The real answer: get Comcast out here to fix the problem (woohoo, deus ex machina!)
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Photography: Misty Spring Mornings
One of the things that we like about living in the Northeast compared to California (and there aren't that many...) is that you actually get to experience all four seasons rather than just slightly drier or wetter variations of the same weather every day. Autumn is probably my favorite season, but spring is a nice change coming out of the cold, dark winter. Unfortunately, at least in New Jersey, it does feel like spring gets short changed. Real spring only seems to last for a few weeks before we head full on into summer. Usually the seasons is punctuated by heavy rain before the summer heat rolls in.
Although it only lasts for a short while, one of my favorite things about spring is the fog that forms in the morning before the sun has had a chance to warm the air. It makes everything, even the morning commute, feel a little more mysterious and ethereal. It makes you wonder just what's around the corner. Early one morning, I decided to stop at a park on the way to work to just sit quietly in the fog for a while.
Although it only lasts for a short while, one of my favorite things about spring is the fog that forms in the morning before the sun has had a chance to warm the air. It makes everything, even the morning commute, feel a little more mysterious and ethereal. It makes you wonder just what's around the corner. Early one morning, I decided to stop at a park on the way to work to just sit quietly in the fog for a while.
Getting ready for summer
Monday, May 30, 2011
Food: Roast Chicken Comfort
Pardon the interruption, it's been a while since the last update. It's been a busy month, both at work and at home. We've been making a conscious effort to try and cook dinner most nights, which usually means that our whole night is taken up. By the time I get home, I have to start dinner. By the time we finish eating and cleaning up, it's almost bedtime in a vain effort to get enough sleep for another day at work, leaving little time for other things. Rinse and repeat. It takes a lot of effort to break out of the routine, but now that the summer is almost here, it's starting to get easier to try and get out of the house.
Since we've been cooking a lot, even if we don't have time to make something fancy, we'll still try and cook a something quick that doesn't sacrifice taste. One of those dishes that everyone should know how to make is a roast chicken. It's one of those meals that is deceptively complex---it looks like a gourmet meal, but is actually very easy to make. It's also a great meal for a budget, since often buying a whole chicken is cheaper than buying the separate parts! Not only do you get more meat, but you can use the bones and giblets for making stock. It almost spiritually brings you closer to the food---you're not just working with processed, unrecognizable fillets of protein. You use the whole animal without wasting any part. It's comfort food and very Americana and it wasn't that long ago that most politicians promised a chicken in every oven. Yet I think the roast chicken has sadly been replaced in most households with chicken nuggets.
To make a roast chicken, all you really need to do is sprinkle some salt and pepper all over and plop it into an oven for a couple of hours until the internal temperature registers 180 'F. That's it, it's so simple that anyone can do it. Taking a step beyond that, the variations are almost endless. Since it's such an easy recipe, a roast chicken serves as a springboard for almost any culinary directions. For this recipe, we decided to make a slightly stronger rub to give the chicken a slightly deeper taste. We used:
Dry Rub
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of cayenne
Freshly ground black pepper
We patted the dry rub over the chicken and then placed chunks of butter around the bird---we were lazy, since you could rub the butter all over and under the skin for an even crispier taste, but this way the butter melts and bastes the bird during the cooking process. We threw a few garlic cloves and half of a lemon inside the cavity for good measure. The bird was then placed over a pillowy bed of roughly chopped vegetables, including potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, garlic cloves, and onions. The breast-side is placed down so that it doesn't overcook and dry out while the thighs and legs are still cooking.
Since we've been cooking a lot, even if we don't have time to make something fancy, we'll still try and cook a something quick that doesn't sacrifice taste. One of those dishes that everyone should know how to make is a roast chicken. It's one of those meals that is deceptively complex---it looks like a gourmet meal, but is actually very easy to make. It's also a great meal for a budget, since often buying a whole chicken is cheaper than buying the separate parts! Not only do you get more meat, but you can use the bones and giblets for making stock. It almost spiritually brings you closer to the food---you're not just working with processed, unrecognizable fillets of protein. You use the whole animal without wasting any part. It's comfort food and very Americana and it wasn't that long ago that most politicians promised a chicken in every oven. Yet I think the roast chicken has sadly been replaced in most households with chicken nuggets.
To make a roast chicken, all you really need to do is sprinkle some salt and pepper all over and plop it into an oven for a couple of hours until the internal temperature registers 180 'F. That's it, it's so simple that anyone can do it. Taking a step beyond that, the variations are almost endless. Since it's such an easy recipe, a roast chicken serves as a springboard for almost any culinary directions. For this recipe, we decided to make a slightly stronger rub to give the chicken a slightly deeper taste. We used:
Dry Rub
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of cayenne
Freshly ground black pepper
We patted the dry rub over the chicken and then placed chunks of butter around the bird---we were lazy, since you could rub the butter all over and under the skin for an even crispier taste, but this way the butter melts and bastes the bird during the cooking process. We threw a few garlic cloves and half of a lemon inside the cavity for good measure. The bird was then placed over a pillowy bed of roughly chopped vegetables, including potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, garlic cloves, and onions. The breast-side is placed down so that it doesn't overcook and dry out while the thighs and legs are still cooking.
The fully assembled bird ready to go into the oven.
The whole assembly was placed into an oven pre-heated at 475 'F. The high heat is to avoid the initial temperature drop after everything is put in. The heat was then reduced to 375 'F and the chicken was roasted for about 2 hours, checking for done-ness using an internal meat thermometer.
And that's it! The chicken came out great and the vegetables were nice and soft. Even better, the vegetables had soaked up the butter and chicken drippings, giving them a nice savory flavor. After taking out the chicken and vegetables, you can use the residual drippings to create a gravy---you just need to add a little bit of flour and water to the chicken drippings and bring to a simmer.
The finished product
Not only is this easy, but it also makes the entire house smell wonderful. Even better, it doesn't actually take too long---we were able to prepare this after coming home from work. Unlike slow cook recipes, which require the whole day, the chicken meat is still firm and the skin is a nice, crisp, golden brown. Since we're using the whole bird, there's enough leftovers to last for several meals---this makes a nice lunch and sure beats bringing a ham sandwich to work.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Science: Migration Patterns
As the threat of another layoff approaches, I've noticed that my workplace has become younger and younger. It's becoming tough to find older workers as they've been "retired" in the past several years to make room for younger (and cheaper) kids coming out of school. (How does this loss of experience impact the industry? My guess is we're not doing ourselves any favors...) The idea that you can get a single job out of college that will last you until retirement feels naive and there's a feeling of general acceptance that you're going to have to move jobs several times over your career. In fact, it's become almost a cliche that the fastest way to rise in your company is to leave to go to another company for a few years and then come back for a promotion and higher salary. It's not a coincidence that there are dozens of pharmaceutical companies littered across New Jersey---you can literally shuffle between all of them during your career. Still, moving feels like a huge commitment, particularly if you're a homeowner rather than a more mobile renter.
For example, my parents have had a relatively stable career. They've mangaged a restaurant business in the same town for over thirty years. As a result, we never really moved around too much when I was growing up. We stayed in the same city in the same house. In fact, we only moved once from a duplex to a single family house when I was only a couple of years old.
That got me interested in seeing how usual that is---do people usually stay in the same home working at the same job? It feels like more and more people are no longer considering their current jobs permanent or even long-term. As a result, it would seem like people must be moving homes more often as well. Particularly since it's so easy to move around now, you're no longer confined to your hometown to wait for jobs to come.
It turns out that you can do some digging in the US Census Bureau's website and find out a lot of interesting information. For example, the average American moves 11.7 times in their lifetime. At first that seemed remarkably high to me, but after thinking about it, I've moved 7 times so far in my life. The first time was with my parents as a toddler, the last was buying a home for the first time, and the rest inthe middle were various apartments I had through college and grad school. We now live in a rather petite townhouse and it seems quite likely we'll have to move at least once or twice more even if we end up staying in the same local area, let alone considering the possibility of moving to another state.
If we look at the demographics of moving, not surprisingly people in their twenties have the highest percentage moving rates before settling down in the thirties and forties. Interestingly, there's a relatively high percentage of chilren from 1-4 years old who move, likely due to new families moving into larger homes.
So how has the average moving rate changed over time? If there is a sense that jobs are less secure now, then I would expect average number of people moving should be increasing. Plus, the decade experienced the housing boom and more and more people buying homes than ever before. The Pew Research Center has an interesting report from the recent Census data and their own surveys. Overall, surprisingly to me, the annual American migration rate has been declining the several decades.
One of the possible reasons is that the overall American population is growing older, and thus settling down. Another reason cited is the rise of the two-body problem and couples with two careers. This may deter moving since it it is more difficult to relocate both partners. My wife and I certainly experienced that anxiety as we searched for post-doctoral and industry positions in the same area. And I guess with the downturn in the economy, there simply aren't that many jobs out there to even leave home for. Interestingly, the downturn in mobility appears to have started all the way back in the 90s (there's an interesting blip of increased moves in 1985, which I wonder what was the cause for), which spans periods of economic growth and decline. I wonder if there is a sense of trying to make your home a more permanent place, particularly in an age of increasing consumerism and the rise of a superficial, throw away culture. If you have to replace your belongings, your gadgets, even your job on a regular basis, maybe we're trying to make our home give us a sense of grounding.
For example, my parents have had a relatively stable career. They've mangaged a restaurant business in the same town for over thirty years. As a result, we never really moved around too much when I was growing up. We stayed in the same city in the same house. In fact, we only moved once from a duplex to a single family house when I was only a couple of years old.
That got me interested in seeing how usual that is---do people usually stay in the same home working at the same job? It feels like more and more people are no longer considering their current jobs permanent or even long-term. As a result, it would seem like people must be moving homes more often as well. Particularly since it's so easy to move around now, you're no longer confined to your hometown to wait for jobs to come.
It turns out that you can do some digging in the US Census Bureau's website and find out a lot of interesting information. For example, the average American moves 11.7 times in their lifetime. At first that seemed remarkably high to me, but after thinking about it, I've moved 7 times so far in my life. The first time was with my parents as a toddler, the last was buying a home for the first time, and the rest inthe middle were various apartments I had through college and grad school. We now live in a rather petite townhouse and it seems quite likely we'll have to move at least once or twice more even if we end up staying in the same local area, let alone considering the possibility of moving to another state.
If we look at the demographics of moving, not surprisingly people in their twenties have the highest percentage moving rates before settling down in the thirties and forties. Interestingly, there's a relatively high percentage of chilren from 1-4 years old who move, likely due to new families moving into larger homes.
So how has the average moving rate changed over time? If there is a sense that jobs are less secure now, then I would expect average number of people moving should be increasing. Plus, the decade experienced the housing boom and more and more people buying homes than ever before. The Pew Research Center has an interesting report from the recent Census data and their own surveys. Overall, surprisingly to me, the annual American migration rate has been declining the several decades.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Spring Thoughts
Although spring officially started over a month ago, it usually doesn't really feel like spring is in full swing until around Easter. Spring awakening seems to go hand in hand with the Easter idea of rebirth---the world seems alive again after the long, cold winter. The days are longer, the air is warmer, and you can smell life stirring in the air, often literally as pollen starts to take flight.
If there's been a year that's needed a spring, it's this one. The Northeast is coming out of long, hard winter where it seemed like every week there was another blizzard to fend off. Work has been going at a grueling pace. After several years of regular layoffs that you could set your watch to, the office is now as lean as it can be. Morale is low and people are overstretched. And it's not just my office---this does feel like one of those jobless recoveries. The stock market is doing better and housing prices are starting to creep up, but the jobs aren't there. One of the unfortunate lessons that companies have from the recession learned is that in tough times, you can stretch people out and make do with less. But in the short term memory of business, this situation soon becomes the new baseline. Tantalizingly, we were actually interviewing for several positions in our group before the mandate came down to stop all hiring. And worse, that there will be another series of layoffs again this summer.
Still, it could be worse, and I'm not here to complain, especially with the thousands of people with similar experience that are jobless. However, it has been a tough couple of months for our group. There's been a lot of hardship and heartache, particularly at a time when everyone is overwhelmed already. The husband of one of my coworkers suffered a heart attack recently. Luckily, he is now recovering, but it was a dangerous situation. The doctors had to perform emergency bypass surgery and he's been trying to recover since. Another coworker discovered that she had a relapse of ovarian cancer. She just had surgery last week to try and prevent the cancer from spreading, and hopefully the news will be good. And probably worst of all, another coworker tragically lost her 9-year old son last week to a sudden, unexpected infection.
At some point, signing a card and sending flowers just doesn't seem like enough. How do you react when someone loses their child or faces death? What can you do? What can you say that doesn't feel trite or trivial?
Luckily, I have not been in a situation where I have lost someone very close to me. The closest I've come is when our cat passed away last summer (which, incidentally, was one of the drivers for starting this site). Even writing that makes me feel bad---as heartbreaking as it was to hold our cat while he passed, it sounds incomparable to losing a child or husband. Part of me wonders whether it would have been luckier to experience death at an earlier age to help make it easier later. Then another part of me condems that thought as possibly the ultimate selfishness---death is likely not something that you can prepare for or that ever becomes easier with experience, and I'm sure that friends who have lost loved ones would find it reprehensible to wish to experience it sooner.
In the end, these are reminders that life can be tough enough as it is without people trying to make it tougher on each other. Hopefully spring is truly here and to make things better.
If there's been a year that's needed a spring, it's this one. The Northeast is coming out of long, hard winter where it seemed like every week there was another blizzard to fend off. Work has been going at a grueling pace. After several years of regular layoffs that you could set your watch to, the office is now as lean as it can be. Morale is low and people are overstretched. And it's not just my office---this does feel like one of those jobless recoveries. The stock market is doing better and housing prices are starting to creep up, but the jobs aren't there. One of the unfortunate lessons that companies have from the recession learned is that in tough times, you can stretch people out and make do with less. But in the short term memory of business, this situation soon becomes the new baseline. Tantalizingly, we were actually interviewing for several positions in our group before the mandate came down to stop all hiring. And worse, that there will be another series of layoffs again this summer.
Still, it could be worse, and I'm not here to complain, especially with the thousands of people with similar experience that are jobless. However, it has been a tough couple of months for our group. There's been a lot of hardship and heartache, particularly at a time when everyone is overwhelmed already. The husband of one of my coworkers suffered a heart attack recently. Luckily, he is now recovering, but it was a dangerous situation. The doctors had to perform emergency bypass surgery and he's been trying to recover since. Another coworker discovered that she had a relapse of ovarian cancer. She just had surgery last week to try and prevent the cancer from spreading, and hopefully the news will be good. And probably worst of all, another coworker tragically lost her 9-year old son last week to a sudden, unexpected infection.
At some point, signing a card and sending flowers just doesn't seem like enough. How do you react when someone loses their child or faces death? What can you do? What can you say that doesn't feel trite or trivial?
Luckily, I have not been in a situation where I have lost someone very close to me. The closest I've come is when our cat passed away last summer (which, incidentally, was one of the drivers for starting this site). Even writing that makes me feel bad---as heartbreaking as it was to hold our cat while he passed, it sounds incomparable to losing a child or husband. Part of me wonders whether it would have been luckier to experience death at an earlier age to help make it easier later. Then another part of me condems that thought as possibly the ultimate selfishness---death is likely not something that you can prepare for or that ever becomes easier with experience, and I'm sure that friends who have lost loved ones would find it reprehensible to wish to experience it sooner.
In the end, these are reminders that life can be tough enough as it is without people trying to make it tougher on each other. Hopefully spring is truly here and to make things better.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Driving on Green
So now that we have two of them, we must really like the Prius. In fact, I think that the Prius is a pretty slick car that has a lot of things going for it beyond just being a hybrid. Some things that we like:
1. It's surprisingly roomy. It's a four-door sedan with a hatchback trunk, which really helps increase the amount of useable space. We've been able to go to Ikea and comfortably load up the Prius with boxes (yes, I know, another sign of yuppieness). The passenger space is roomy and you can easily fit five people. To be honest, if you're going to stick with a sedan, than the Prius is one of the better options just in terms of space---to get any larger, I think you'd have to go with an SUV or minivan, which we weren't enthusiastic about.To be honest, if you were going to get a run of the mill four-door sedan, I would think that the Prius is right up there even without considering the fact that it's a hybrid. So while it's still slightly embarrassing that we now have two Priuses/Prii parked in our driveway, we actually enjoy them quite a bit.
2. It's a very quiet ride. This is mostly due to the electric engine that assists the driving, but overall the Prius has a very quiet, very smooth ride. The first time we test drove one, it almost felt like we were gliding over the road. Maybe we aren't manly car men, but I've never really quite understood the need to have a loud engine. I vastly prefer putting on a cd and actually being able to hear the music in good quality.
3. Driving is fun. Okay, so a lot of people are going to pick on the fact that the Prius has a smaller engine and you're not going to win any races with it. But, I still find that driving it is fun, but in a different way. As I mentioned before, for me, driving was mostly a chore to get from point A to point B and with the amount of traffic on the East Coast, all you can do is just sit back and go with the flow. The live average mpg readout on the Prius changes that. Every ride now is a game to maximize your mpg. Can you get your numbers a little higher? How many miles can you get on this tank? You look forward to driving the next time to try and increase your score. There are loads of information online about how to best drive a Prius (e.g., search for "Pulse and Glide" and other hypermiling techniques) to improve your mpg. Currently, I've been addicted to the iPod game Tiny Wings---driving the Prius is almost like a real-life version. You look for hills to glide down and then fly off.
4. It's made me a safer driver. One would think that glancing at the electronic display would be distracting, but I find it the complete opposite. Focusing on the mpg readout has made driving much more interactive for me and has arguably made me a safer driver. I pay much closer attention to the traffic patterns and the road conditions all around me. I'm constantly watching where the surrounding cars are, where the traffic lights are, the incline of the road, all to maximize the Prius' efficiency.
5. And, of course, the tremendous gas savings are nice. I have a short commute, so now I can literally last nearly a month without filling up with gas and when I do, it's only twenty bucks out of my pocket. My wife has a longer commute, but now she can last nearly a week without stopping for gas, whereas for her older car, she was stopping for gas almost every other day.
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