Mo' Money Mo' Problems

I've been noticing how some people are very focused on getting more money. They are usually so focused that they will work way more than 40 hours a week to get that extra money. I think that's fine if you are really dedicated to your job or you are extremely poor and have to work that much to make ends meet. But I think there is a point at which more time spent with those you love or doing the things you love outweighs working overtime for a little extra cash.

I've had jobs where I was required to work overtime, and I will say there were many times I wanted to quit because I didn't need the extra money as much as I needed time with my family and friends.

I feel like people who already have a lot of money who work long hours, are missing the point of life. The goal in life should not be how much money you have and how many things you bought. It should be about your relationships and time spent doing things that make you happy.

Many people think buying things will make them happy, and I agree to a certain extent. If you want to work overtime so you can buy that one thing you have really been wanting, then go ahead. But if you make a habit of it, you run into a vicious cycle of always wanting more and needing more money to maintain what you already have. I would argue that you can be just as happy with your life with buying less things.

I know my words won't mean much to those who are already working themselves to death to maintain a lifestyle. But maybe I can make them think a little more about what they truly "need" and what is important in life.

Getting Risky

I really wish I was blogging more, but this full-time-job-business is just like it sounds. It takes most of your time. I do enjoy the paycheck, but sometimes I still wish for the days where I had oodles of free time. On the other hand, this is probably the best full-time job I have ever had. It isn't too hard or stressful and the pay is decent. So I really can't complain.

Last night I was reading Thinking Fast and Slow, (Yes I am STILL reading it. Work takes away from more than just blogging.) and I learned that most people weigh losses much more than gains. In other words, people will try much harder to avoid risk than to gain something. You may think this is a good thing because who wants to risk their health, life, or regret on something that could have been avoided? But the author suggests that it is more beneficial to balance risks with playing it safe. Yes, there is the chance you will regret your choice, but if the odds are in your favor, you should probably go for it. Otherwise, nothing will ever be gained.

The author calls avoiding risks the precautionary principle and he says,"when interpreted strictly, it can be paralyzing." He then goes on to list some things that would have never been invented if the precautionary principle was followed - airplanes, air conditioning, antibiotics, automobiles, chlorine, the measles vaccine, open-heart surgery, radio, refrigeration, smallpox vaccine, and X-rays. I think we can all agree these are some pretty great things that we wouldn't have if people had been "too careful".

The author says that being loss adverse is embedded in our subconscious. But I think there is hope for more people taking calculated risks because of all the wonderful inventions I just listed. You can overcome your avoidance of risk by remembering there is risk in every decision, and there will be always be some losses and some wins. It is how you look at these consequences that makes it easier to take risks. When you feel regret about a bad decision, just remember - without some risky behavior, little is accomplished.

I am probably the worst person to be giving advice about taking risks. I am as afraid of making a wrong choice as anyone. But if I can work on taking more risks, so can you. So get out there and get risky!

Rudeness

Please excuse me while I get something off my chest.

Is it just me, or is it incredibly rude to ignore a text from someone? I know not everyone is into the whole texting thing, and that is fine. But if I know you can and will text when you want to, and you don't respond within a few hours, then I will take it as a huge insult.

Why is it ok to totally ignore someone just because they are not talking to you in person? If some walked up to you and said,"Hi! How are you doing today?", would you feel perfectly comfortable pretending like you didn't even hear them? NO! So why is ok to do the same thing via text?

One of the great things about texting is convenience. If you are busy when you get a text, you can put it aside until you have time to text back. If you don't know what to say in response, you can think about for a while before you respond. When I send a text, I don't expect a response immediately. I give the other person the benefit of the doubt, and wait up to a full day for a response. But any longer than that, and you better have a pretty damn good excuse, like your phone blew up the moment you got my text, and it was impossible for you to get a new phone because you where lost in the Grand Canyon. Something like that. Even then, I might have an inkling that you are blowing me off.

So what can I do about other peoples' bad texting manners? Not much. But if I seem really annoyed with you next time we meet, try to remember if you ignored my text.

In The Negative

I really feel bad for neglecting my blog, but maybe this way someone can stop by my blog and get a little surprise because I finally posted. We like surprises, right? I have been a little busy lately with the house, the new job, the dead yard, and whatnot. What? You have no idea what I am talking about? Oh, that's right! I haven't written about any of that! Silly me. Well, the house is fine, except for the window screen that Bear devoured so that she could jump through the window. I didn't know she had it in her, but apparently a second more than nine hours away from Mike and I is just too much for her to take. She had to jump out the window to get to us. Which brings me to the next topic - the new job.

I was hired where Mike works for a seasonal job checking tax forms. I can't say it's exciting, but since it is full-time, the pay is enough to excite me. If you want to know more about it, just imagine reading tax forms all day and looking for things like missing commas and periods. Are you asleep yet? WAKE UP! I do, however, like working in the same building as Mike and being able to go to lunch with him everyday. On the other hand, Bear does not like it at all. She is a bundle of nerves when we get home. I guess she doesn't appreciate us bring home the bacon. She would rather just spend time with us. What's that all about? Geez, you would think she loves us or something.

As for the yard, we received at notice from our city that we have 15 days to green it up or we get a $125 fine. Never mind that is was already dead when we moved in, and that we have no secondary water, and that we have more weeds than grass, and that it costs $50 just for a few bags of mulch. NEVER MIND ALL THAT! We will just wave our magic wands and make it beautiful! If that doesn't work, all we can do is hope the city will work with us. It is tricky knowing if they will, since almost every attempt we have made to contact them has been ignored. So here's to hoping that 15 days from now, we won't be $125 poorer. (Oh yeah, plus all the money we have to pay to fix up the yard and water it.) I guess I have already passed the $125 mark.

Reasons

When I was growing up, I would always hear people giving reasons for why bad things happen to good people:

"That person died because God wanted to put him out of his suffering."

"That person died because God had a special plan for her."

"That person is disabled to help others appreciate not being disabled."

"I went through some hard financial times so I could learn to appreciate what I have."

"That person is terminally ill because God wanted to teach us to appreciate the time that we have on earth."

I have heard all of these phrases in some form or another over the years, and many other similar ones. I don't want to say I don't believe in God (although I don't accept his existence as readily as most people do). All I am saying is that people have no way of knowing these statements are true. They say things like this to make themselves feel better when they are going through hard times.

I have no problem with people thinking of reasons for their suffering, but I would also like them to realize that it is possible that there is no reason for their suffering. Most times, people don't want to admit that because it makes them feel worse. I understand that, believe me. But it seems crazy to me to believe anything you come up with as a hard and true fact. Some people are even willing to die for these ideas, even though they have nothing to show their truth.

I don't want to debate the whole "faith" issue because people get way too heated about it. I just want people to open their eyes to other possibilities. Is it possible you are wrong whether you think you are are not? Yes! But most people will never admit that, especially if they are very religious.

I know I am writing a loosing argument, so I will just say this - Think of reasons to ease your suffering if it makes you feel better, but leave a little room in your mind for other alternatives.

Yeeeehaw!

Yesterday, Mike and I went to our first ever rodeo! I don't know if that sentence warrants an exclamation mark, but I feel that it should for people who love the rodeo. Since I was trying to blend in, I thought I should get excited about it.

We went to the Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo, and the reason we decided to go is because it takes place only a couple of blocks from our new house. We wanted to see what all the hype is about, because around here people seem to love the the rodeo as much as air conditioning on a hot day.

When we got there, I have to admit it seemed promising in the excitement department. There was music playing, and a very energetic, cowboy-sounding announcer. There were plenty of concessions, horses, and people walking about in cowboy gear. Let me stop right there and say I DID NOT DRESS LIKE A COWGIRL. I wanted to blend in, but those outfits have never appealed to me. Thankfully for us, there were plenty of other people not wearing their rodeo getup.

When the rodeo began, I was loving it because there were lots of horses, and I am practically in love with horses. I like to watch them, but after a while, I start to wish I had my own horse, or that I could at least go horseback riding. This jealousy was part of what spoiled the rodeo for me.

The other part that made the rodeo not-so-appealing was that it seemed to be like a long advertisement for various businesses, beer, and patriotism. This advertisement was only periodically interspersed with horse riding, cattle wrangling, and a very un-funny rodeo clown. I have nothing against advertising and patriotism, but when I go to a rodeo I want to see a rodeo. I don't want to spend half the time standing with my hand over my heart for America or listening to incoherent babble from the rodeo clown.

Mike and I ended up leaving about halfway through. I didn't hate the rodeo, but I probably won't go back either. Next time I have a horse craving, I will find a place where I can ride a horse myself. The rodeo is just not for me.

Communication

I am getting really lazy about posting, so hopefully I can pick it up. Today I don't have to work and I think I am coming down with a cold, so it is a good day to relax and do some blogging.

Lately I have been more fascinated with how people communicate. When someone speaks in your language, you know instantly what it means. Not only that, but speech can promote a wide array of thoughts and ideas and convey huge amounts of information. Think about if you were looking for something. If you can speak to someone, you can easily ask where it is and that person can just as easily tell you where it is if they know. But now think about trying to find something without being able to speak or write. It would be much more difficult if not impossible.

I think we take speech for granted a lot of the time. We get lazy about our communication, and that's when misunderstandings happen. We don't give allowances to people who have a hard time communicating such as deaf people, blind people, autistic people, people who can't read or write, and many others. Why are we so harsh on those who can't do what we take for granted and those who communicate in a different way? We should try our best to understand everyone, no matter how they communicate.

Maybe the reason I have been thinking about communication is because I have been reading a book called Thinking Fast and Slow. This book deals mostly with the way people think, as the title indicates. It describes two systems of thinking - System 1 and System 2. "System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control. System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations."

Anyway, I won't go into the book too much because I haven't finished it and I also wouldn't do it justice. But it is very fascinating, and I would highly recommend it.
I only mention it because System 1 makes me think of nonverbal communication because it allows us to do things like understand someone is mad just by looking at their face or detect hostility in a voice. Although nonverbal communication cannot convey complex ideas, it can sometimes give as much information as verbal communication.

I think I don't write as well when I am sick, so at the risk of being convoluted, I will wrap up this post. I just think communication is interesting, both verbal and non verbal. I think it is important to not take communication for granted and to be careful how you communicate, because you might end up communicating the wrong message. Also, go easy on those who have a hard time communicating because someday you may be the one who no one understands.