Comments on: Friday Fun Thread: All Carrot, No Stick

By: philosophyerin

philosophyerin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:58:19 +0000

My thing is kind of a stick-like carrot. I tend not to get much house cleaning done when I’m up against a deadline, which means that things get a little (to put it mildly) on the messy side. So my “reward” is often “now I get to clean up!” Which is actually kind of satisfying, if you’re a work-aholic who doesn’t typically get to do the kind of stuff with really tangible results. I find that cooking (as others mentioned) also brings about this kind of satisfaction, so I’ll put off big or time-consuming projects like “make my own curry paste” until after all the work is done, too.

And if that fails, well, then I buy some new shoes.

By: rodriguez

rodriguez — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:18:38 +0000

Browsing is too much like researching without a question.Today's FB status. Thank you Nadia!

By: Nadia

Nadia — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:40:30 +0000

Deadlines are better motivation for me than rewards, but I certainly never pass up the opportunity to go out and talk to people after an extended period of Being Good and getting my work done. I’ve also recently discovered shopping, though I’m still of the ‘go there for a specific item’ type of shopper. Browsing is too much like researching without a question.

By: PhDork

PhDork — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:42:40 +0000

yvan–I can only inflict my karaoke crooning upon others after a significant quantity of shame-numbing drinks, but my, uh, “specialty” is Dee-lite’s “Groove is in the Heart.” And I may be convinced to sing back-up on any B-52s song; the Dude does a *killer* Fred Schneider impression.

By: Ocean_breeze

Ocean_breeze — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:28:36 +0000

A huge glass of something cold and alcohol-y, a clove cigarette and at least one fabulous friend who will chat up a storm with me while we discuss how fabulous we are because of…

By: Cimorene

Cimorene — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:23:32 +0000

For me, it depends. If I am working hard and exhausting myself, it’s usually sleep, and maybe some bubbly wine if it’s very hard work, and YA fiction. This year after finals, which included a last minute rewrite of my essay for PhD program applications and the applications themselves, I took myself out to a nice restaurant for some bubbly wine, then came home and read all of Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching books, doing nothing but sleeping, eating, reading, and walking my dog until I finished all three.

If something exciting happens and I’m not exhausted, my partner and I go out to dinner together and eat yummy food. After I got accepted to those blasted PhD programs, we went out for pork cheek and french gnocchi and homemade mint ice cream from our favorite restaurant. It was delightful.

And when in doubt, easy, funny, fantasy fiction, either via the television or a book, is the sure fire way to celebrate.

By: Rachel_in_WY

Rachel_in_WY — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:39:51 +0000

@Becky: I know, aren’t they The Best Docs Ever? In my experience docs automatically put you in the “punk” catogory here, regardless of what the rest of your outfit is like. But that’s OK since rockabilly is pretty big around here and there are some really great local rockabilly and punk bands, and quite the punk scene. It seems like the kids who grow up here who reject the whole cowboy thing go with a punk identity in order to place themselves firmly outside of the cowboy regime. When I was a wee teen girlchild growing up in Seattle, docs were only punk if you wanted them to be, but whatever.

By: Endora

Endora — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:18:17 +0000

I tend to go the ‘experiences’ route. My mainstay is a night drinking with friends, but sometimes I’m classier. I got a scholarship application done last week and treated myself to an afternoon (including tea!) at a lovely museum of 19th century art the next day.

Sometimes I use it to justify yet another Amazon purchase.

I’m motivated more than I like by fear though: fear of failure and fear of disappointing others. I’m working on it.

By: Tall-in-Heels

Tall-in-Heels — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:05:41 +0000

JennyK: We’re in CO now, and we’ve also driven across the two states many times during the last couple of years. I actually love that drive. We’ve traveled through some amazing storms that just unleashed over the open prairie. And although we generally avoid fast food in our everyday life, it was our ritual to stop for Mickey D’s in Colby.

By: emilyanne

emilyanne — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:50:22 +0000

Honestly, ok this is pretty detailed: I purchase the following – one bottle of single malt whisky and one box of violet creams and one trashy bonkbuster. In the bad old days I used to also add one carton of cigarettes to this. I poor myself a good shot of said single malt, run a very hot bath with lots of bubbles and get in. While wallowing in bath for an hour I eat the violet creams and read the trashy novel and sip the whisky. I tell everyone near and dear to me not to disturb as i may be some time. The end.