The Savvy Life

Yes, 68% of the Bloody Mary mix market is held by Mr. and Mrs. T Blood Mary mix and there are two reasons for that. The first is the mix itself isn’t bad. The second is people are lazy. It is easier to grab a bottle and let it sit in your fridge until you want to make a Bloody Mary.

The following recipe is my take on the Bloody Mary mix. Honestly, the Bloody Mary is a great drink to let personal ‘mixology’ shine through.

The very first thing I do is buy either spicy pickled carrots or make them. I use a variation on Alton Brown’s Firecrackers using carrot sticks instead of mini carrots.

These hot carrots combined with a mild cherry pepper make the garnish for the Bloody Mary and have little to do with the mix. They are just an important highlight.

When it comes to the mix, since I store my mixes in 8 oz water bottles (allows me to quickly chill the mix if needed and those water bottles are easy to come by), I tend to work in small batches.

Bloody Mary Mix
6 oz tomato juice (I actually use a generic Jewel brand vegetable juice, their rip-off version of V8. I find the overall flavor is better)
1/2 tsp garlic powder (skip this if you are using a V8 or other ‘enhanced’ tomato juice)
1 oz distilled white vinegar
1 tbsp hot sauce (don’t use tabasco, try to use something that is more than pepper sauce)
1 tsp black pepper

Give this a good stir, especially if you are using a thick hot sauce.

Bloody Mary
2 oz Absolut Vodka
2 oz Bloody Mary mix
1 tsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder

Set an 8 oz glass, fill it with ice, vodka, Bloody Mary mix, and lemon juice. Pour the drink into a shaker and give it a good chilling shake. Rim the glass with the combination of salt and chili powder. Now pour the drink back into the glass and garnish with one of the spicy carrots and a cherry pepper.

I know for a blog that is devoted to more hedonistic pursuits, I spend a lot of time talking about work issues and money. Since work represents such a huge amount of my day, I really desire it to be as worthwhile as possible. This means I strive to earn the most I can while there and make it a pleasant experience. One of the ways to make work pleasant is to always be learning, advancing, and experiencing new things. AllBusiness.com produced a list of ten tips to assist in career advancement.

There are two elements in this list I’d like to highlight, because I think these two specific elements are the bane to most people.

Sell yourself. Learn the fine art of self-promotion. If you have had major accomplishments or created successful programs, make sure people know about it — especially those in influential positions who could help you advance professionally. Let it be known that you are seeking a promotion or the next step up in your career.

Build your reputation. In business, your reputation is the most valuable thing you own. Be known for being dependable, professional, and cooperative. Act and look the part by dressing professionally. Make a name for yourself by attending conferences, delivering speeches, or writing articles.

Most skilled people I know do an awful job in selling themselves. It is the paradox of education. The more knowledge you gain, the more you realize you don’t know. This situation makes it difficult to promote yourself. Additionally, it is hard to promote yourself without sounding like bragging.

Coupled with this issue is building your reputation. The two are easily combined. The first step is effective communication while working on projects. Keep superiors and peers informed on the progress you are making. Make sure they are aware of key breakthroughs, insights, and successes as they occur.

The second step is a bit harder. Be passionate about what you are working on. It is possible to no really like your job, but really enjoy certain projects. Focus on those aspects and when talking about your job, don’t drone on about how so and so annoys you or how the corporation won’t budget for this thing and that, but discuss the project you are working on and why you enjoy doing it.

I know personally I get caught up on the things I dislike about my job but fail to acknowledge the parts that I find exciting and interesting. It is always easy to talk casually about the things you like and enjoy. It will come off natural and not seem like you are bragging so long as your accomplishments are tangible.

How are some ways you promote yourself within your workplace or within your circle of peers?  How about ways to build your reputation?

I adore wine. Wine is a drink that is about bonding, celebration, bringing people together. Sharing a bottle of wine is one of life’s better things. Knowledge of the wine being drunk can enhance the experience immensely.

Bleu over at Bitespot highlights an article by Eric Asimov where he discusses the methodology he is using to educate himself about wines. Eric advocates buying cases of assorted wines and learning about them by drinking and taking copious notes. Bleu details the article and points you to Eric’s blog where he goes into deeper detail about his wine experiences.

Bleu writes,

If you can’t afford a case (and at the moment, I can’t, otherwise I’d try and follow along with Asimov) there’s nothing wrong with buying by the bottle. The most important thing to understand is where to buy it and what a good wine shop is. As I heard Diana Hammond, the Wine Goddess of the Chopping Block, repeat over and over: the grocery store is not a good wine shop, nor is Whole Foods or the World Market.

All of this is great advice and I feel anything that increases exposure to new experiences is a good thing.

Unfortunately, I personally don’t have any good spring cleaning tips and have been scouring the blogosphere for advice that suits my lifestyle. In this effort I’ve come across a lot of different tid bits of information that are either amusing, pointless, or interesting.

The Scented Home offers advice on the use of scents in the home which I enjoyed. During late spring, summer, and early fall, I like to have my windows open and have fresh air blowing through my living spaces. Yet, for a variety of reasons, I can’t always have the windows wide open. Take this spring as an example. In Chicago where I am located, it has been remarkably cold.

Now I wouldn’t say my home stinks or smells funny, but it has a certain staleness to it that I believe contributes stongly to the feelings of cabin fever.

One of the ways this article suggests enhancing the olfactory charm of your home is by scenting your linens.

Lavender is one of the strongest natural scents available with a “clean” fragrance. I grow lavender plants in my yard each year and at the end of the season when it’s time to cut the plant back for fall, I take all of the cut debris, place it in a cloth bag and pound it with a hammer. This breaks up all of the material which releases every bit of it’s wonderful fragrance.

I then fill potpourri bags with the lavender and seat them between sheets, blankets and towels in the linen closet. When you take out fresh linens, you will find they have all absorbed the lavender fragrance. I also hang these bags between clothes from hangers in the closets and place them under the kitchen and bathroom sinks. It’s a wonderfully inexpensive way to enjoy the freshness of spring lavender all through the winter months.

I know that The Savvy Life is about urban bachelor living, so this is not advocating moving to the suburbs in order to grow lavender, or even start a container garden on your city deck when that space is better used for a party. I am not even saying lavender is the appropriate scent for a bachelor. There are other options that might be more masculine if that is important. What is important is creating a space that gives the impression you want.

On NPR this morning, there was a story about weight loss and behavior modifcation.  One of the methods discussed was carrying around a list of benefits of losing weight.  The list was the essence of why the person wanted to lose weight.

I immediately saw a wider benefit to this method in application to other things.  One of the important aspects of developing a list of 8 reasons is I will be able to determine if this is truly something I want to do or if it is something I think I should do.  The difference is important.  Right now, I think I should do a lot of things, but I have little motivation to do them.  Part of being motivated to do something is understanding why I am doing it.

One of my most troublesome issues I have is exercise.  I know I should do it for general health reasons and to help lose weight, yet I lack motivation.  When the opportunity presents itself to go running, I don’t.  Part of building the motivation to exercise would be consolidating my reasons.  Create a list of eight reaons why I want to exercise.  Once I have developed that list, when the time comes to go for a run, I can use those eight reasons to push myself up off the couch and out into the world for a jog.

Whether it is saving money, networking, dating, or changing other elements of my life, of your life, sit down and write out eight reasons why you want to do something that you currently aren’t doing.

Why do you want to network more?  What benefits will you derive from exercising?  Why should you be more extroverted and ask more people out for dates?

As a practical example, here are my eight reasons why I want to exercise:

1. Stamina.  I want to be able to have more than twenty minutes of physical activity before becoming completely winded.

2. Improved self image.  While I’d like to lose weight, I’m more interested in toning my muscles.  I have no reason to look like a Spartan from 300, but I’d like to at least lean more in that direction in regards to my physique.

3. Improved mental ability. Exercise and mental acuity go hand in hand.

4. Enjoyment of food. By exercising regularly, lapses in what I eat aren’t as detrimental.  I encourage hedonism as a lifestyle, not as a form of slow suicide.

5. Better clothing options. When you have a gut, certain clothing choices aren’t very flattering.

6. Dating potential.  Being lean and more athletic increases dating opportunities.

7. Vigor. Exercise will improve my overall health, increasing torso strength, forestalling ailments associated with aging.

8. Disciplined escapism.  Exercise routines will add an element of discipline in my week where I disconnect from all the electronic media, and focus inwardly.

I so far have attempted to avoid negative postings. If I think something is bad, I just won’t write about it unless it is a review of a product/movie/etc. There is a lot of bad advice out there and I don’t need to spend my time pointing it out and commenting on it.

Yet, sometimes there is advice that on its surface seems like something good.
17 Things you Should Stop Doing falls into this category. Again, on the surface this all looks quite good at helping you save time and save money. Once I really read through this list with a critical eye, I couldn’t help but think some of this was pretty weak and poorly thought through advice.

The better points include:

Stop “manually deposting paychecks”, “looking for lost keys and cellphones”, and “partially filling up with gas.”

Yet, it also gives the following advice which seems specious at best.

Writing Checks for Bills — That is what the bill pay service from your bank is for. Use this time for something worthwhile.

I only have need to write two checks a month. It takes me a full minute to do this. In some cases, such as with my rent, it is easier to do it via a check than bill pay at the bank because my landlady would probablly be suspicous of a check that isn’t coming from me for my rent. This bit of advice on the surface seems great, but I contend that it is good to spend fifteen to thirty minutes a week looking at your checking account.

Watching Commercials — Use Tivo to skip them. Use Netflix and just skip television all together. Buy the shows you want to watch off iTunes. If you had a friend who spent 20% to 30% of your time trying to sell you things you didn’t really need, would you put up with it? (If you have a friend in network marketing, you may have already experienced this.)

How much does Tivo cost per month? How much does Netflix cost per month? Buying television programs from iTunes costs how much? I don’t watch so much tv that commercials represent that much time in my day. I do have a Netflix account, but that really is just to have a movie I really want to watch on hand. This advice is asking you to pay money in order to save a small amount of time. I have no doubt that being able to timeshift your programming is desirable and a good idea in general, but it only works if you can fit it in your budget.

Use commercial time to write emails, make brownies, sweep the floor, or shred documents.

As a general rule, I don’t find these types of lists helpful.  They make too many assumptions about how other people are living their life.  When we start listing the things we should stop doing, there is a clear indication that there is something better we should be doing instead.  Value judgments like that need to be made by the individual.

Worrying about things does have its place, but sometimes it is too easy to get caught in a cycle of worry. Worry then shuts down action. Without action, nothing can change.

Over at the Ririan Project, the post See How Easily You can Overcome Your Worries addresses the concept of worry in life. What I like about this article is it doesn’t say ‘don’t worry’, instead it attempts to point out the difference between productive and unproductive worry.

This method allows those of us (me) who tend to overthink and worry about things to engage in a small amount of that, but then provides a way of shutting it down. One of the points made really resonates:

8. Reclaim your imagination.
Creative people are usually particularly prone to worry. If you think about it, worry takes a lot of imagination. It’s as though your “inner film director” is running amok, churning out paranoid thrillers or ghastly horror movies about all the awful things that could happen to you. But instead of trying to ignore these internal images, why not “re-direct” them as different genres (comedy? romance?) and add a happy ending for you to look forward to? Imagine your current situation as just one chapter of an inspiring story about overcoming challenges – how does that change the way you feel about it?

This point ties into something else that I know works but haven’t been focusing on very much… positive thinking and positive visualization. Nothing succeeds like success and oddly enough the human mind has a hard time differentiating between actual moments of success and visualized moments of success. So essentially, to use the example provided in the Ririan post, there is no reason to worry about getting lost in Paris if time was spent visualizing successfully using maps and asking for assistance.

On one hand it sounds a bit hokey and I have a hard time accepting hook, line, and sinker, but when I see positive results to positive visualization, I have a hard time maintaining my cynical reaction to it. The really odd thing is I know I do this already. I day dream a lot about certain activities, like downhill skiing. When I finally get on the slopes, even though it may be a full year since I had been skiing, it is all second nature to me. I visual success and success happens.