Author: Dave

North Wales explorer

Getting Focused on Work or Studying

On By DaveIn BusinessLeave a comment

Get a binaural beats study ‘soundtrack’ on youtube:

Proven (to a certain extent) to aid focus, mood, reduce anxiety and some aspects of creativity.

Set and start a Pomodoro timer – http://tomato-timer.com/

This allows you to work it ‘sets’ of 25 minutes, with 5 minutes break in between. Ideal for focus.  Wait until your 5 minute break to think about what else you need to do etc.

And off you go…

 

If you don’t like binaural beats, instrumental rock (or any music without vocals and with a beat) seems to work just as well for focus.

 

Here’s an interesting infographic too – cancel all meetings is the basic, underlying message by the looks of it!

optimizing-workflow-infographic.jpg

Image Source

 

 

Your Children are Not an Extension of your Own Ego

On By DaveIn Parenting, RandomLeave a comment

Having being brought up under the giant shadow created by, and constantly compared to Graeme ‘The Rock’ Sutcliffe, competitive parents and parenting has long been something that annoys me greatly.

Want to make your child feel not good enough?
Then quote your Mum-friends comments to your own children, and paraphrase their totally genuine anecdotes about how great their children are…and how your child must do better

Want to make your friends feel shyte?
Then tell them how great your child is, how they came 1st in every exam ever and are destined to be the next saviour of the free-world.
This in turn will no doubt lead said-friend to evaluate their child’s relative short-comings and pile tonnes of pressure on to their yet-to-fully-develop shoulders, so that they may then bask in the vicarious success of their own offspring when this fantastic parenting technique starts to pay off.

I’m working on some default responses for when a parent attempts to passive-aggressively put-down my child…these include:
“oh wow! your child is amazing! please tell me more…”
“Go away before I punch you in the throat”

Obviously, it’s best not to react to any type of boasting. It’s generally a sign of insecurity on the part of the person doing the bragging.
Just see it for what it is – a knobhead move

 

On a slight tangent – there’s a pretty cool article here  – If you want your child to perform well at Sport:

Based on psychological research, the three healthiest statements moms and dads can make as [kids] perform are:

Before the Competition:  

Have fun.

Play hard.

I love you.

After the competition:

Did you have fun?

I’m proud of you.

I love you.

 

 

How Watching Made in Chelsea is Consuming your Soul

On By DaveIn Parenting, RandomLeave a comment

Now I realise that TV producers find the biggest morons possible to make these shows more ‘entertaining’, and that the likes of Joey Essex pretend to be thick as pig-poo just to market themselves – for example by pretending he can’t tell the time – you didn’t believe that one did you?

Even with this awareness, watching horror/comedy programmes like TOWIE and Made In Chelsea is rotting your soul.
But Why?

Jealously!
Even though every philosophical book and self-help book tells us not to compare ourselves to others, we can’t help it.  Jealously is regarded as a secondary emotion. Triggered by anger or fear.  In this case, we all tend to get angry by watching a group of idiots, live amazing lifestyles that are way beyond most of us.

This ‘unfair treatment’ makes us angry – we work hard all week, and we can only dream of a lifestyle like that – unless we take out a ruck of loans that is.  Don’t do that.

Anger at what we perceive as unfair treatment, such as unequal-pay for doing the exact same job as someone else, is such an instinctive reaction, that even monkeys display it:

The only remedy to this anger is – not to watch the tripe in the first place, and find some intelligent friends who can see through the ‘consumerism culture’ and can enjoy doing things that don’t cost any money. Like blogging.Made-In-Chelsea--007

22 Things to Know for your First Day on a Building Site

On By DaveIn Random, UncategorizedLeave a comment

What to expect first day on construction site

Disclaimer – don’t actually do any of this stuff (but it is the kind of thing to expect on a building site)

1. Don’t worry about where you put anything. There is officially no official place to leave equipment; in fact, you’ll spend 60% of your time, running around looking for a bucket for mortar

2. If you worry about health & safety people will either presume you are a some kind of snob or an aristocrat.

It is common for brickies to leave bricks for example, standing upright, on the edge of walls above you and it is also common practice to leave as much crap as possible, including packaging, broken bricks and cable ties strewn across the scaffolding for people to trip over

3. Say “f*cking” every other word

4. Establish yourself as the alpha male as soon as possible by being the first to take your top off at any glimpse of sunshine, and by shouting the loudest during the ‘banter’

5. Eat pies & pasties, smoke 20 cigarettes per break, and then tell the middle-class guy that his hemp protein powder is bad for him and going to destroy his kidneys. In fact, being a builder gives you superior knowledge and life-experience, so be sure to put across your strong opinions on nutrition, education and politics 🙂

6. If the boss tells you off, just say “I’m really sorry la, won’t do it again”. He will love you forever as most apprentices can not take feedback at all (feedback = getting a bollocking).

7. Lift exclusively with your back.  People who lift with their legs are also presumed a ‘posh bellend’

www.cafepress.co.uk

8. At break, talk about how hard your mates are, and smoke just inside the door of the portacabin to ensure that it is completely ‘hotboxed’ with tobacco.
It’s important that you are seen either smoking, or using a gambling app on your phone.

9. If you don’t smoke, it is assumed that you are some kind of shifty bugger

10. Never ask anyone’s name, or introduce yourself; it’s just not done.  Call the person “la” and “mate” until you know their life story and it’s too awkward to ask their name

11. If the boss ever has to go off site somewhere, stop all work immediately

12. Once you are an established brickie, it is important to remove your hard-hat whenever the site manager is out of sight

13. Try and pretend you’re interested when the older brickies tell you stories about hod carrying, and saying stuff like “when I was your age…” and “you don’t know you’re born kid”; whatever that means

brick1

14. Pay someone to spread a rumour that you once killed a gorilla with an uppercut. Or something similar.  This will make you less of a target for pranks and the high-brow banter

15. Stop watching documentaries and QI, and make sure your ‘read’ the Daily Sport and Star, just so you can hold a conversation with one of your associates. It is crucial that you hold aggressive right-wing opinions that are reliably informed by tabloid newspapers.

16. Be grateful for being given a chance.  Many people, in many types of work, never get chance to put their qualifications into practice

17. “Bucket of sh!te” = bucket of mortar

18. Energy drinks are compulsory for under 35s. If you don’t have an energy drink and 5 cigarettes in the morning, you’ll be deemed an outsider.

'Hank, can I level with you'

19. “Customer Service” is not a known term. Once the job’s done, it’s done.

20. Always rub your chin 3 times before quoting a price

21. Aggression is the go-to emotional state for any good tradesman, whenever conflict, misunderstanding or frustration occur. The more aggressive you are, the better tradesman you become

22. Passing the buck is an art form on the building site. Just don’t expect anyone to know what ‘passing the buck’ actually means.

23. Crack open a can of beer as soon as you get in the car to drive home*

*Don’t actually do this. Although this did happen regularly when I was lift-sharing

A poem about the great men of the building site

O brickie oh brickie what will it be?
A tea with 3 sugars plus an extortionate fee,
A red bull with 5 fags is the fuel that we need, to lay those bricks 4 u at an exceptional speed,
Ale for us, no yoga or weed,
6 pints in town, its the way that we breed.

Cash in hand for our holiday in the sun,
No receipt 4 u tho its not how its done.
Customer service is our number 1 aim,
But if anything goes wrong, its the previous workman that’s ta blame

builder

Actual Tips for your first day on the job:

  • Arrive there early
  • Don’t make excuses or blame other people
  • Work hard, don’t mess around
  • Be polite – you will stand out as a good worker
  • Be willing to learn everyday
  • When I was labouring, I found beta-alanine helped amazingly

A lot of the youngsters that I worked with were incredibly defensive. If you can be humble, say sorry and that you’ll do that or try harder next time, you will stand out a mile as a good worker. If you actually do some work as well. Try and get the punters/customers to like you as well by smiling and being polite. Again you will stand out a mile.

Baba Sling Review

On By DaveIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Pro’s 
– Very quick to put on
– Support at the top for baby’s neck
– Attractive design (!?)
– You can breastfeed in it – although you do need one hand to support baby whilst you’re breastfeeding
– Convenient – nipping out, or driving somewhere and then nipping into the shops – quicker than a pram
– Close to your chest so baby feels secure and happy
– Good for attachment parenting

Con’s
– Weight is ‘across’ so not 100% evenly balanced
– Have to be mindful baby doesn’t slip down – small risk of suffocation

Baba Sling - great for breastfeeding
Baba Sling – great for breastfeeding!

 

A Few Things I’ve Learnt So Far…

On By DaveIn ParentingLeave a comment

…about babies, or at least my baby.

Don’t get tops that are anywhere near tight fitting around the neck – button up tops are much better. Baby goes proper mental if you try and pull a top over her head, she thinks you’re trying to kill her.  Loose fitting ones or button-up ones are much better

Music often, not always, but often stops her crying.  I’m guessing this is okay to do(?)  just wack on some music and it seems to distract her:

 

3. You don’t really need a pram if you have a sling. Never used it.

4. I also thought child-birth took about an hour, not 3 days! (if you include all the stop-start contractions)

 

Everyone’s an Expert at Parenting…

On By DaveIn ParentingLeave a comment

I think, one of the most annoying things, then I never realised before having a child, was that everyone is a complete, fountain of overwhelmingly assertive/aggressive knowledge when it comes to parenting.

Whether you should leave a baby to ‘cry it out’ or not, whether breastfeeding is best (surely it is?), how long to breastfeed for, what kind of routine you should be in, to get jabs or not, etc etc.

I think this is a classic example of Type 1 thinking.  Which I like to call “Lazy thinking”.

Basically it costs less energy to retrieve information that’s already established in your ‘memory-banks’.  Comprehending, and obtaining new, especially contradictory information, takes a lot more effort and energy, and therefore people are often very reluctant to do it – even though learning new things is a proven way to keep the brain healthy.

So if you every catch yourself saying “oh, don’t be so stupid” in the face of a logical argument, you’re probably carrying out Type 1 thinking.

Wish is the kind of response you get when you try to explain the research behind attachment parenting, and the studies that prove you cannot apply Behavioural Psychology to babies.

In regards to the parenting opinions, I’m not sure whether to respond with an abrupt – “oh just fcuk off will you”, or to pretend to cry…

Crying

The Importance of a House-T0-Do List

On By DaveIn HomeLeave a comment

One very effective and easy way to reduce stress and constant thoughts of ‘am I forgetting something’, is to set up a “To Do” board in the house. We have ours in the kitchen.

It’s handy for organising yourself, but the real benefit is when you sit down for dinner after work and your spouse reels off a load of jobs for you to do – “can you remember to…and..did you do…?”

Tell him or her to put it on the To Do list, and you’ll get it done.  If you can both agree on this, it makes life so much easier and you’re not constantly trying to remember stuff that you were told when you were hardly listening over dinner.

Here’s our, kind-of legible version:

todolist

Here’s a video, that is kind-of about the same thing.  Put ‘things-to-do’ into some kind of system or organisational-protocol that you have, so that you can forget about them until you need to do them.
Frees up your ‘psychic bandwidth’ apparently