Many of you, over time, discovered that emailing me was darn near as fast as IMing someone else. I’ve long since largely signed off of AIM and MSN and Yahoo and the others because of the time vacuum they became for me, but now I’m even rolling back how frequently I check my email.

I’ve come to the realization that multi-tasking is a farce. Truly. It seems like you’re doing more, but in reality you’re doing more of less. So where a blog post will take me ten minutes to pound out. If I’m reading the news, emailing, talking on the cell phone and blogging, I can do all of those in 45 minutes, each of them has lower quality in the end and if I did them sequentially it would only take me thirty minutes to do all of them.

So, over the past week, I’ve begun experimenting. First, I removed the mail notifiers in Firefox. But even then I used the easy to access bookmarks and checked it even more frequently to see if I had any new email. So the next step was to actually create a second profile in Firefox solely for the use of email. When I open that account my start pages are my two main personal email accounts. That’s all that profile is for.

I was astounded by how much more I accomplished in my day. So I took it a step further.

I removed Google reader notifications, so I no longer have a new blog post to distract me every 3 minutes. Now I check my reader twice or three times a day. Yes I still read 70+ feeds, but with the mastery of the Google Reader key controls I can skim through them in a matter of ten minutes usually. Sharing or starring entries of interest to be read later.

I check my work email when I get to work, since I come in when the other employees are halfway through their day I have to catch up on any events or changes, but it doesn’t need me to keep Thunderbird open on the laptop. Now I check it after the completion of other tasks. At this point, I can pretty safely avoid opening Thunderbird for the rest of the day, everyone else is gone and it’s just me here.

It’s amazing how much more productive I am when I make tasks sequential rather than simultaneous.

Brian, Stephen and Patrick bring you another pod-tastic episode of WhatTheCast … and it contains no references to Paris Hilton or the iPhone

Comments? E-mail feedback@whatthecast.com Leave voice mail at 206-333-1931 (voicemail down until further notice). (more…)

I’ve had a lot of ideas this past weekend, most of them silly and pointless, but two of them stand out as standup ideas that could have a big effect.

Orlando was one of the first cities to adapt the RFID tags for use in tolls on our toll roads. We called it “E-Pass” and it’s been quite successful. Recently the units we have in the car for E-Pass have begun to beep in the vehicle to alert us that the account has been charged successfully. But what if the units didn’t charge your bank account, instead it plays a short commercial whenever you drive through a toll. Thus the advertiser is paying for your tolls. Now I realize that few advertisers would pay $0.75 per play, but I still think the idea has merit.

Update: My friends and I kept tossing this idea back and forth and the idea has it’s definite set of problems. The price for ads would be steep. There’s no way to guarantee the driver is listening. The radio could be on or they could muffle the speaker. But it isn’t an unsolvable series of problems.

The other idea is the one I think makes the most sense. Paypal has a stranglehold with online payment. A few companies have come up and tried to break the grip, Obopay is the most recent one I know of. Google Checkout is also gaining a following. But the most logical answer would be for Bank of America, or some other big bank in America, to start a competing company. They could waive the fees for any transaction which uses one of their bank accounts and charge fees for those who don’t use their bank. It’s so simple it seems like pure brilliance.

I went to the park this morning with K. We walked around for a bit and then suddenly I spotted this tree that was perfect for climbing. It wasn’t too large and had a number of solid off shoots. And K could only laugh as I yelled “TREE!!!” taking off like a bullet out of a rifle. Then I surprised even myself as I scurried up it, to declare it “Fort Jarrett” and also declare the tree a girl free zone.

I’m 23 folks. Who does this? I don’t know. I don’t even know the last time I climbed a tree. It was so much fun though that I think I may make it a habit to do more often. It was good to know I could still do it though. Now the sign of fitness will be how well can I do it rather than if I can do it.

Oh and for anyone curious, I finally got the Hydroxycut back to GNC. I tried once earlier this week but I had forgotten my receipt, so today I got it returned. No pills were taken and I’m much more at peace with myself.

Though, speaking of being healthy, if you have time to hit your grocery store I was happy to see they were carrying Rainier cherries. I highly recommend them. They’re sweeter than most cherries you’ll find (and naturally that sweet, not the soaked in HFCS sugar sweet of the ice cream cherries.)

After a slight hiatus, Brian and Crispy return to your MP3 player! Brian rants about US Customs at the Atlanta airport, Americans looking stupid on the international news and how to keep athletes from breaking so many laws. Crispy tries to get a word in edgewise while making strange references to professional wrestling.

In related news, Crispy has our MySpace profile up and running (if you’re into that sort of thing), and it’s not terribly ugly (unlike a lot of MySpace pages). Check it out!

Time to Take a Break from the Studying

Guy #1: I’d totally hit that.
Guy #2: Dude, I’d hit that so hard whoever could pull me out would become the King of England.

–College Walk, Columbia University

Overheard by: King Arthur

via Overheard in New York, May 8, 2006

I think the fear of asking things is a horrible horrible thing. The most clear cut example is in school when kids are afraid to ask questions, worried of slowing the class progress. Professors and teachers address this repeatedly, even with the horrid quote “There is no such thing as a stupid question.” I’m guilty of it to a certain degree I suppose, but I’ve gotten quite better in recent times.

But this fear of asking questions is so deeply threaded in our society that the idea of haggling is almost taboo. You don’t go into stores planning to haggle except for local shops. This is such a sad thing. Sure you can’t negotiate a Snickers bar for $0.25 but you can most definitely haggle for that $2500 stereo.

Today’s lesson though is a bit of a victory for me. It has to do with the ever-evil credit card companies. I only have one credit card, and it’s one I’ve had now for almost two years I think. It’s an American Express Student card and since I originally got it with the $600 limit on it, they’ve since let me rise up to $3000 in credit. Something I took advantage of when I was out of school, off of financial support and living outside my means.

Now I’m struggling to pay it back. Though I realize my debt is measley compared to much of the US, and indeed it’s small compared against most people my age, I’m determined to make the right financial choices.

Sure I eat out a lot and spend fairly freely, but I always have enough to make $200 on my credit card (which I no longer use.) Well last week I come across a fantastic down to earth article about personal finance. If you haven’t read this article you all should: Become Wealthy by Clayton Cramer.

And he points out the evils of credit card debt. So I sat down and figured out how much my credit card was costing me and was shocked to discover that my AmEx had ballooned to just over 30% APR. I had missed some payments when I was in tougher times but I hadn’t kept a close eye on the interest rates. So they were saying my minimum payment was $85 and I was spending $75 on it just in terms of interest. Sweet Jezus! I nearly wet my pants when I read that.

Paying $200 a month meant 17 months before it was paid off (I used some online calculator, CNN Money’s credit card calculator is excellent.) So my $2600 was going to end up costing me $3400, on top of whatever I’ve already paid to them. Ugh.

This morning I decided to ask them what I could do. I knew they would change APRs for people struggling to make payments, but would they do the same for someone able to pay up and over their minimum payment? I called them and spoke to a chirpy gal named Lisa and after phrasing my question she asked to put me on hold while looking over my account.

About two minutes later she came back and told me they had changed my APR to 16%!!! Nearly halving my interest rate. So now still at $200 a month it will only cost me ~$2900 to pay off my credit card. Still not ideal but oh so much better than it was earlier.

Five minutes of my time saved me $500 in interest. Eat that Geico.

Now to just get a job where I make more money. Anyone out there want to hire me as their blogging liasion? Hey, it never hurts to ask.

Today began like most any other Thursday morning. My alarm goes off at 7am and I bleary-eyed make my way to the shower, trying to wake up enough to put the shampoo in my hair and the body wash on my body. After the shower, I finish some homework and head off to class.

Class proceeds as usual, I on my laptop half paying attention, until we’re dismissed. I know I know, I should focus. I’m just so tired and the teacher rambles off into all these random topics which don’t relate to the topics at hand.

After class I run home to grab a check to deposit, and my list of errands to run. I hit the credit union and then I hit Men’s Wearhouse where I snagged the shirt I’ve been looking for. From there I head across the street to GNC, I’m almost out of my Whey protein powder so I go in there to snag another container. While I’m looking around the sales clerk/manager comes over, his name is Marlon and he’s a decently built guy, good shape, muscular frame, and he sells me.

I mean, this was a great pitch, hook, reel and sale. I just went for it like a moth to the flame. He sold me on the diet supplement, Hydroxycut. I knew about it, but hadn’t done any reading in depth about it and so I bought a month’s worth to “tryout.”

I get home and I log online, I research it looking for reviews. This is the new formula which is without the now FDA banned ephedra, so according to most reviews I read what MuscleTech (Hydroxycut’s maker) did was to bump the caffeine up through the roof.

If I take the recommended 2 pill servings, I’d be ingesting 600mg of caffeine. SIX HUNDRED milligrams. A red bull has 80mg in a 8oz can. Sweet Jesus. One Red Bull at 4pm lights me up until 2 in the morning. 12oz of Mountain Dew has 55mg of caffeine. (I’m getting the numbers from here

Past the caffeine, there are no resounding positive reviews, sure some people say it helped but nothing definite. So I decide to return it.

I finish my stuff around the house, making my food for the day and getting ready for work. I grab the Hydroxycut and receipt and head out the door. I swing by GNC on my way to work and talk to the same guy, explaining that I’m pretty damn sensitive to caffeine and that I don’t think I should take it.

He tells me to ignore the recommended doses and just to try it out. Even if I have opened the bottle, if I keep the receipt I can bring it back in for a refund. I, at this point, am very dubious and aware I’m being resold on it, and yet I relent and head out to my car.

It’s at this point I begin to reason with myself. On the one hand, I’m not looking for Hydroxycut to be a magic bullet, I’m working out and eating better, I’m just trying to get a boost on the weight loss to get me off this damn plateau. The proverbial angel and devil perch themselves on my shoulder and each plead their case.

My gut (haha) tells me I don’t want to take it. Something inherently feels wrong about it. I’ve always been a guy to avoid medicine, I hate taking pain killers and such. And so to consider taking this unnatural thing is bothering me. But also I’m trying to lose weight and it can help me.

I’m on a very slippery slope and very aware of it. I don’t like slippery slopes. So I think I’m pretty well set that I’ll be taking it back, but it’s just so tempting to get that extra oomph in my workout, to get that extra leg up on my weight loss.

The devil is perched next to me, promising me kingdoms of gold.