for your VINformation

How, Gentle reader, do you focus on the task in front of you? What tricks to you play on yourself to get things done?

Personally, I like deadlines and due dates – it gives me something to be accountable for, but when it’s me giving me the deadline, I’m usually ok with giving me an extension.

I would love to know how you do it…

…I’m talkin’ ’bout fresh baked mac & cheese and a steaming mug of hot coco on a blustery winter’s day.

I’m talking, food that brings comfort; which wraps around you like a blanket on a chilly night; which make the woes of the day slip away.

I’m not talkin’ food that gives you a false sense comfort during the bad times – like, for me, Peanut M&M’s and Devil’s Food Cake – I’m talkin’ Mom’s Meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

I’m talkin’ grilled cheese and tomato soup.

What are your comport foods, gentle reader, inquiring minds want to know?

…do I insist to watch a movie I own on DVD on commercial television?

Why not just pop in the DVD and watch without the commercial breaks?

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…I got ‘em!

I spend a lot of time on buses and subways and have great spans of uninterrupted reading time.

While I love my books – non-fiction, memoirs and personal essay collections are my escape of choice: favorite authors; Burroughs, Sedaris, Jacobs, Radkoff – I spend a lot more time with magazines.

I read something recently that said print media is dying, but you wouldn’t know that from my mailbox…

I currently have subscriptions to:

• Details – Monthly
• Readers Digest – Monthly
• Entertainment Weekly – Weekly
• Men’s Health – Monthly
• Advocate – Monthly
• New York Magazine – Weekly

I think it’s a good mix of health, news, pop culture and escapasim.

I no longer subscribe to:

• Genre – Folded
• Best Life – Folded
• Time Out New York – Canceled, due to constant late delivery
• Backstage – lapsed – easier to get online…
• Out – Boring
• Real Simple – Too “Woman-centric”
• Men’s Fitness – Too “Straight-man-centric”
• TV Guide - when it stopped being digest… oh, who am I kidding, talk about a luxury… who needs it!?!
• Wizard Magazine/Toyfare - I subscribed for years, then started working at DC Comics and started getting them for free. After leaving h DC, I certainly wasn’t going to pay for it again… now I get it for free again because my brother-in-law sends me his copies after he reads them – it’s the best of both worlds…

Magazines I get and have no idea why:

• Elle – I accidentally clicked something on a VistaPrint order and ended up with a free Elle subscription. When I called to cancel it, the subscription department said I wasn’t allowed to do that, because it was a gift subscription. I told them I didn’t want the magazine or a refund or anything – so now my upstairs neighbor gets Elle – I really hope that runs out soon, that magazine is huge… it takes up far to much room in my mailbox.

Magizines to which I’d like to subscribe:

• Weight Watchers Magazine – I think I’d like the tips and recipes…
• Writer’s Digest – subscription lapsed years ago – would like to re-subscribe
• The Writer – subscription lapsed years ago – would like to re-subscribe

To what magazines do you subscribe?

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…does one run out of necessities, soap, tp, Paper towels, cat food, etc., etc. at the same time?

…do people insist on using golf umbrellas in  NYC?

…are they called Breathsavers?

If your breath is stinky, wouldn’t you what to change it, not save it?