I felt a twinge of guilt at spending so much on an alarm clock... until I used it. Money well spent - nay, invested - in peaceful, natural wake-ups that have positively impacted the tone of entire days.

Damn. I can't believe that all these years no one told me that it was just that simple. I'm throwing out my alarm clock right now! I hope my boss is okay with me rolling in four hours late, though. The students can entertain themselves while they wait for me, right?

It's also not a door. ;)

It's a lot better than being a jerk.

Same here. Love it. The bird audio alarm is also a nice touch for those days when I don't wake up to the light (or wake up and then ignore the light). The only problem is that I now wake up to the birds outside my window when I'm trying to sleep in on the weekends! :D

VOTE: Philips Wake-up Light

It's bad luck to be superstitious!!!

Probably because few people know about it. I'm still astounded at how many professional presenters still don't know that you can save a PowerPoint presentation as a PowerPoint show (.pps) by which you can skip directly to the presentation.

YES! I just learned about this despite being a nerdy computer user for over three decades. Very useful.

If you use Chrome, get StayFocsd. It makes me much more mindful of the time I spend on my limited-use pages.

Three more letters: NPR. Nothing makes my commute fly by like "This American Life" or "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!"

Seeds are cheap enough in my book that I don't worry too much about spacing when planting. I overplant a tad (or more than a tad with tiny seeds) and then thin out as they grow.

Yep. And if you're smart, you only need to unchain and rechain part of the cable, thus making yourself an easy adjust-to-measure cable. It's such a perfect method that I also use it for eliminating the excess length of my headphones.

Ha! Well, you gotta know your audience! Giz obviously knows theirs.

All depends on cost, availability of artists, and UI (can I play on demand, ban songs/artists, customize stations, etc). Don't really care who I get my streaming music from, as long as it's the best out of the available options.

Correct. As a teacher, not answering is certainly no option, and no matter how nice I try to be in response, things sometimes escalate no matter what. Best advice I've heard: once you hear a touch of anger or frustration in his/her email, pick up the phone. Second best advice I've heard: if your response takes more…

Oh, that's such a nicer word than I was going to use. (My word starts with "bull" and ends with "shit".)

They're not common, but I have gotten some slips that don't have a spot for tips. Or, with one place I frequent, if I order ahead of time on the web, there's no chance to indicate a gratuity.

Same here!

Well, I hope you now realize how phallic chess pieces are. ;)