Part of the reality of starting a new job is having a completely different office environment that can dramatically change how you operate on a day to day basis. Specifically, the dominating issue of lunch. Some may try to minimize this routine daily observance, but I find that lunchtime can be that pendulum in your day connecting morning to afternoon, pre-lunch to post-lunch.

Most people start their work career in part-time jobs and the lunch spots available to them are brief and rushed. I spent most of my thirty minutes trying not to choke while I inhaled my hastily prepared fast food. How could you not look forward to that luxurious hour long lunch associated with real jobs. Little did I know that my first full-time job after college would come with an amazing perk: for the small pittance of working through lunch when we had clients, I received a meal from some of the best restaurants San Francisco had to offer. Granted, I also ate my fair share of tuna salad from The Roastery, the cheapest food offering from the deli around the corner.

After starting my new job in September, I was once again plunged into a new routine in unfamiliar surroundings. Hoping to get to know some of my coworkers and wanting to get a little sunshine everyday, I began going out to lunch. They pretty much know my name at Subway and Wendy’s. After a month (okay, two) of eating out pretty much solid, I made the decision to start bringing my lunch. Surely I could make a sandwich that could rival a turkey and ham with cheese on honey oat from Subway (the Wendy’s chicken nuggets would be a little more difficult) and save a little money to boot. So I made the prerequisite grocery store trip and started preparing my lunch every morning before work.

Which brings us to a very important part of bringing your lunch to work:

ACTUALLY BRINGING IT

Now today, as my lunch begins, I will unveil the lunch I made to eat, yesterday, and just be thankful that I remembered it today. Because tomorrow I would definitely be having second thoughts about that turkey sandwich.

The New York times published an article yesterday about the relative state of American education. “The study, released Monday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group based in Paris representing 30 nations, used tests given to students in 2003 and was intended to assess relative performance and to try to determine reasons for it.”

So far, so good. The US ranked 18th in reading and 28th in math. Out of 40 countries that’s pretty well straight down the middle average. Nothing to brag about and definitely something to keep in mind when reviewing the importance of education in this country. Note that only the word importance appeared in that previous sentence, not importance of funding. The study “noted that while the Czech Republic spent only one third as much per student as the United States did, it was one of the top 10 performing nations in the study, while the United States performed below the average of the nations surveyed.”

What really caught my eye was the following paragraph:

” The survey also questioned students about their own views of themselves and their work, and found that while good students were more likely to think they were good, countries that did well often had a large number of students who did not feel they were doing well. In the United States, 36 percent of the students agreed with the statement, “I am just not good at mathematics,” while in Hong Kong, 57 percent agreed. In South Korea the figure was 62 percent.”

Without knowing the full scope of questions asked, there seems to be a very important follow-up question about these views: “How do you react when you feel that you are not doing well?” I’m afraid, if the students were honest, you would find a large percentage that give up when they encounter that feeling. If most of the students in America would change their answer to that question from “I quit” or “I cheat” to “I apply myself even harder until I understand and succeed,” the United States would have no problem scaling the ranking ladder and becoming more than just average.

After swearing off football during college (a combination of marching band overload and a horrible college team) I have finally found the fun again. Even though I watched the spanking of UNT by Texas last Saturday (thanks for the pay-per-view Brad), this week marks the beginning of the football season in so much as my participation.

For the last two years I’ve been part of a friends and family pool for NFL games. Less time consuming than fantasy football but just as much fun. Of course it has as much to do with the company and “friendly” competition as it does the game, but I’ve followed the NFL much closer since I started playing in our pool.

My picks for the week are in and I’m waiting for the kickoff. Are you ready for some football?

Pulled a t-shirt out from the bottom of the stack to wear today. This wasn’t a choice, as in, “Hmmm….I think I’ll get my t-shirt from the bottom of the pile today.” It was more analogous to, “Well that pile of dirty clothes seems to be taking up all of the floor space in my room, I wonder if I actually have any clean t-shirts.” As Neil Young persuasively titled a song on Harvest, “A Man Needs a Maid.”

Amazingly there was a clean shirt, and one I hadn’t seen for a long time. I think I’ve kept it around because it illustrates both a strength and weakness in nontraditional advertising. Back in the summer of…okay let’s not date this…back when I was taking summer school classes at SWT (not TSU-SM but that’s another rant) I headed towards the coke machine during a ten minute break from an exciting lecture on something that happened in our American History. So fantastically exciting I needed a caffeine jolt to kickstart my attention span. I started to clink the quarters through the change slot and make my selection.

Side note: even though I said I was heading to the coke machine, anyone who knows me is aware that I mean Dr. Pepper and have just not been able to break free of the classification system that makes others say pop or soda. (Of course soda has to be pronounced so-DA in a thick Fargo accent.)

As I made my selection I noticed that the can seemed quieter or softer coming down the chute. Pulling out what roughly approximated a can of, uh… Dr. Pepper I was a little bewildered by the plastic-wrapped 100% cotton can. “This is NOT going to help me stay awake during the War of 1812,” I stood contemplating to myself. Allowing students behind me to get their fix, I stepped aside and unwrapped my present. It was the white t-whirt emblazoned with the logo of Citra, a drink I assumed was just being introduced or hadn’t been selling very well. They had pressure packed this t-shirt into the form factor of a cola can and randomly placed it in the distribution chain.

Every college student knows that free t-shirts are a wonderful thing. They must be or the credit card companies wouldn’t have lines at their booths to get their t-shirt for signing away your credit history. And Coke must know this too if they were advertising via slot machine handouts. It’s not quite Vegas but at least you know your going to get something from the exchange.

The good news for Coke, I’ve never forgotten their ad method or which product was being pushed. The bad news, I’ve never even tried Citra. I wasn’t completely convinced to try a new product. But to reinforce a brand, which obviously anyone standing in front of the red glowing caffeine distributor is aware of, the freebee is a powerful reinforcement of whose sugar you are going to consume.

For everyone out there saying to themselves, “Well, you paid 50

ain’t got no job, ain’t got… you know how the rest goes. After awaking ever so early and starting the water for that caffeine kick known to the world as coffee, cameron, chris oliver, and I went to play a round of disc golf at Searight. 5 minutes from the house and on a weekday morning, nicely abandoned. That used to be an advantage so I didn’t have to feel guilty about the constant foraging for lost discs but my game is starting to improve. Now we just worry about large groups of people in front of us drinking and smoking and pushing the baby in an unnaturally large SUV-like off-road stroller and not letting us play through.

Home to study for my interview Saturday. It was supposed to be a mixed day of studying and finishing some details on the Turbo Dwarf website. Alas, the banal plans were destroyed when Cameron’s girlfriend showed up with 4 friends in tow and asked why I wasn’t going to go down to Sculpture Falls. Not really being able to come up with a convincing reason to counter the arguments (all four of them) my studying would have to wait.

I’ve written before about the greenbelt here in Austin and Sculpture Falls adds another destination worth the hike. And it’s really a hike down a steep trail with lots of rocks and barbed wire. Of course you could drop in off of MoPac and take the long way in, but what fun would that be. No injuries to report and we spent the afternoon swimming and lounging and trying to not make those people not actively participating in our game of catch accidently active.

All in all, I can feel the summer winding down. School is starting and August is almost over. Of course, what that really means is all of the students are back in town and the temperate weeks in Texas (when you actually want to be outside most of the day without a swimming pool or jacket) are on the way. Not exactly a bad time to be in Austin.