Friday, February 09, 2007
It’s Magic!
We are now three days short of Luke’s second birthday. Every day he’s turning into more of a “person,” which is very interesting and amusing. It’s weird to see an inanimate blob slowly develop a personality. And Luke’s sure got an interesting one. My favorite thing he’s doing now is “magic.”
Luke likes to hide things from us now and ask “where’d it go?” For example, he’ll put a car behind his back (while we’re watching him, of course) and say, “where’d car go?” That of course morphed into Luke hiding his hand in his sleeve and asking “where’d hand go?”
I think I understand how Luke’s brain is working. Before, if he didn’t see it, it no longer existed. (This is why peek-a-boo amuses babies so much.) Now Luke understands that they continue to exist. But if he doesn’t see them, they disappear. And more importantly, if HE doesn’t see them, then neither does anyone else.
And that’s why the other day, he closed his eyes and said, “Where’d Lucas go?” What I love about this is that in his tiny, feeble mind, he completely disappeared from everybody’s view, like David Copperfield. It’s hard to not laugh at him when he does this. And so far, I haven’t been successful.
Luke likes to hide things from us now and ask “where’d it go?” For example, he’ll put a car behind his back (while we’re watching him, of course) and say, “where’d car go?” That of course morphed into Luke hiding his hand in his sleeve and asking “where’d hand go?”
I think I understand how Luke’s brain is working. Before, if he didn’t see it, it no longer existed. (This is why peek-a-boo amuses babies so much.) Now Luke understands that they continue to exist. But if he doesn’t see them, they disappear. And more importantly, if HE doesn’t see them, then neither does anyone else.
And that’s why the other day, he closed his eyes and said, “Where’d Lucas go?” What I love about this is that in his tiny, feeble mind, he completely disappeared from everybody’s view, like David Copperfield. It’s hard to not laugh at him when he does this. And so far, I haven’t been successful.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Falling Behind
Awhile ago, I promised to provide summaries of all 24 episodes. Then a funny thing happened. I got REALLY busy at work. So I had to break my promise last week. (Don’t worry, nothing much happened. Then again, a nuclear bomb went off in the prior episode. So the next one had to be a bit of a letdown.)
One nice thing about being an actuary is that the workload isn’t too high. Generally 45-50 hours a week will get the job done. Last week was a killer for me, though. I put in about 65 hours, which included nights and weekends at home.
Last week got me thinking about other jobs. Not because I hated what I was doing and wanted a new career. Rather, it was because I know that other careers expect at least that much time from you. Take lawyers, for example. I recently read that entry-level lawyers fresh out of law school can expect to make $145,000 a year at the big law firms in Chicago. Read that again. That’s a ridiculous amount of money for a 25-year-old to be making. That said, they’ll probably work about 80 hours a week and only half of them will last more than 2 years. (Note, I’m pulling a famous Dow trick, making up statistics. But since they’re in “print”, they’re believable. 84% of all people know that.)
When I was getting my MBA, I toyed with the idea of being an investment banker. They’re expected to work 80-100 hours a week. (I don’t know if that’s even physically possible.) Of course, they’re very handsomely rewarded. And if I were 25 with no family and no social life, I might have considered it. But not today. And probably not tomorrow either. I’d rather spend my free time playing Grand Theft Auto: Des Moines (due out in 2016) or training to do my first triathlon (scheduled to be completed in 2032).
One nice thing about being an actuary is that the workload isn’t too high. Generally 45-50 hours a week will get the job done. Last week was a killer for me, though. I put in about 65 hours, which included nights and weekends at home.
Last week got me thinking about other jobs. Not because I hated what I was doing and wanted a new career. Rather, it was because I know that other careers expect at least that much time from you. Take lawyers, for example. I recently read that entry-level lawyers fresh out of law school can expect to make $145,000 a year at the big law firms in Chicago. Read that again. That’s a ridiculous amount of money for a 25-year-old to be making. That said, they’ll probably work about 80 hours a week and only half of them will last more than 2 years. (Note, I’m pulling a famous Dow trick, making up statistics. But since they’re in “print”, they’re believable. 84% of all people know that.)
When I was getting my MBA, I toyed with the idea of being an investment banker. They’re expected to work 80-100 hours a week. (I don’t know if that’s even physically possible.) Of course, they’re very handsomely rewarded. And if I were 25 with no family and no social life, I might have considered it. But not today. And probably not tomorrow either. I’d rather spend my free time playing Grand Theft Auto: Des Moines (due out in 2016) or training to do my first triathlon (scheduled to be completed in 2032).
