(Junk) Food For Thought

[ase]

It's official: I am banned from making triple chocolate cookies (with all of one serving instant coffee spread across just under 50 cookies) without the following controls:

1.) Finish baking before 1 PM
2.) All cookies in the freezer or out of the house before 3 PM

I am two for two on making these cookies, eating 3 - 5, and being hyper until one in the morning. Everyone at work is right: these are dynamite cookies. They're dynamite because you're wired while metabolizing that much sugar.

I realized today that I need to learn the polite way to tell people their music is artistically questionable and disruptive to my concentration. Whoever thought up smooth jazz and the soprano saxophone has much to answer for.

Less than a week until I'm on vacation! I need to call dad and arrange to steal his dSLR. Maybe by telling him it's an excuse to return his DS9 DVDs. Yep.

Comments

[twistedchick]

Re the music, have you considered full-coverage headphones?

[ase]

Tried, nearly lost an earring into a biohazard box. Also, it's weirdly distracting not hearing background noise.

Unless you mean offering headphones to the person piping it through their computer. Which sounds like it needs more tact or chutzpah than I've got.

[twistedchick]

Another possible alternative: industrial-strength earplugs, like the ones I wore when working in factories. They may be available from factory supply places online; unfortunately, I don't have any spares to give away any more. They are very dense rubber that turn loud noise to indifferent background sound but allow voices to come through clearly (don't ask me how.) I've worn them to rock concerts for years, and they've preserved my hearing nicely.

[av8rmike]

Are these the same cookies you tried to bribe me with? =)

[toraks]

those cookies sound great!

hmmm... I'm not so good at the polite thing, I just get annoyed and let it build up. I've got a smoker next to me now and I'm getting headaches from the leftover smell argh.

yay for vacation!

[ase]

Did I try to bribe you with cookies? If so, this was the recipe. Mmm, sugar.

[ase]

If notes weren't so passive-aggressive, I might suggest leaving one for your smoker.

It's worth noting that the music issue can't be that prominent in my life, since I went to ask someone about a protocol and a tactful way to handle the situation and never got past the protocol.

[ase]

BTW, nice icon. (Wow. The movie did not suck!)

Earplugs maybe, I think I've got a set of the cheap foam type kicking around somewhere. Fortunately, this isn't a problem more than twice a year. (I hope.)

[toraks]

yeah, I just really don't know what to do about the smoker thing. It's not like he does it on purpose & he's not to blame for the fact that I have a supernaturally sensitive sense of smell & get headaches easily from odors.

And I'm not sure what he could do about it, to be honest. Not smoke and directly come sit at his desk when I'm there?

Ah well, hope the music issue turns out not to be too much of an issue. :-)

[ase]

Smoking's kind of a charged issue, since it sets one person's nicotine fix against another person's health/dislike of smoking. It's banned at restaurants and bars here now, and at least once someone introduced a county ordnance banning smoking where the smoke could drift across property lines. (In the more densely built townhouse and condo regions, that pretty much means you can't smoke outdoors anywhere residential.) If it's affecting your work, you might be able to swap desks with someone else? That's the best compromise I can think of, off the top of my head.

[toraks]

Yeah, smoking's banned on the premises - actually anywhere indoors these days, I believe. And nowhere on the premises, outside too, for the university & hospital - sad to see the sick people in wheelchairs/suffering, on the corner near the hospital so they can get their hit. But this guy comes back in from his smoke break reeking. It dissipates quickly enough, but if he's just gone for a smoke break and comes straight back to his desk and I"m right next to him, it's strong enough to have the effect.

I'm just at this desk temporarily as is, just moved here at the beginning of March and I'm only here till August. And I'm not sure I really want to make the effort & fuss it'd take. Besides, I like the guy, other than this thing.

I'm not worried about health, just that it does give me a headache sometime, which I"d rather not have. Wish he'd make coffee more often, that helps, love that smell! ;-p