The early bird gets the worm

The early bird gets the worm is an expression that means if you get up early in the morning, or arrive somewhere before the others, you will have an advantage.
America is famous for keeping early hours, especially compared with Europe. Spain may have the latest hours, especially when it comes to meals (lunch at 2:00 pm, dinner at 10:00 pm), so Spaniards are sometimes surprised when they travel.
The sign here is a typical one that you might see in an American restaurant, giving a discount to people who come to dinner between 4:00 and 5:00. You could see the same kind of discount for breakfast or lunch.
I have to confess that after living in Barcelona for a few years, it's hard for me to imagine having dinner at 4:00 pm! Here, we might still be finishing lunch...

Quit smoking

When you stop smoking, we usually say quit smoking, or give up smoking. After quit or give up, we use the verb in the -ing form.
There could be many things to give up or to quit, but smoking might be at the top of the list.
I'm writing this because I was just at the English Lunch that we have once a month here at InfoJobs, and we were talking about smoking, and giving it up.
Here in Spain, you can't smoke in restaurants or bars anymore, but a lot of people here still smoke. Maybe not as much as they used to, but they haven't quit yet. I can sympathize, because it seems very difficult to quit!
Nonetheless, It worries me about some of my colleagues. I really care about them, and I don't want them to have health problems later on that they could avoid by quitting. I hope that they'll decide to quit as soon as possible!

This cartoon is by Gary Larson, from The Far Side, and this post is dedicated to my mom, who finally quit smoking after over sixty years!

Paradigm shift

A paradigm is a concept or a way of understanding things, a model. A shift is a movement, a change of direction. So a paradigm shift means a change of concept.

I had a pardigm shift the other day when I read the Valve Handbook for New Employees. Valve is a game company, and the way they work is really different. I recommend reading this if you're interested in collaboration and new paradigms for work and for companies.

Have a great rest of the week, and if you have a paradigm shift (related to something in the Handbook, or anything else) it would be interesting to hear about it.

Fritter away

To fritter away is to waste or squander something. You could fritter away a lot of money. You could fritter away your time. The key idea here is that you're wasting money or time slowly, bit by bit. Here are a few examples:

John inherited a lot of money from his grandfather, but he frittered it all away.
Don't fritter the weekend away watching TV!
It's easy to fritter your money away if you're not careful.
He was supposed to save money during the summer, but he frittered his paychecks away going to clubs.

Jaywalk

To jaywalk is to cross the street outside of the crosswalk (or zebra crossing), and without a traffic light, or against a red light.
When I was in high school, there was a policeman who used to hide with his motorcycle near the school, and wait for kids to jaywalk. Then he would come zooming out and confront the jaywalker, and write him or her a ticket (with a fine that had to be paid). I don't know how much this activity changed kids' habits, but it was memorable!
Of course, jaywalking can be dangerous. One friend who jaywalks routinely will never do it if there are children waiting to cross the street, so as not to give them a bad example.
What about you? Do you jaywalk? Is it typical in where you live? Is it dangerous?

"I'm rubber, you're glue!"

A few weeks ago, one of my favorite colleagues asked me what this expression meant and I had no idea! So he looked it up and we discovered that it means: when you say something about me, it bounces off of me (because "I'm rubber") and sticks to you (because "you're glue").

Your colleague: "Late again... Typical!"
You: "I'm rubber, you're glue. You're almost always late!"

Expression: Bogged down

A bog is a place that has a lot of mud (wet earth). The problem with a bog is that you can get stuck there, unable to move. Have you ever driven a car into a very wet and muddy place, and gotten stuck? Being bogged down is a lot like that: it means that you can't move very well or very quickly. It works as an adjective, and we usually use it with the verbs be or get. Here are a few examples:

The project was going very well until we got bogged down trying to choose a provider.

Don't get bogged down by the details! You have to focus on the main objective.

The team was bogged down and couldn't seem to produce any interesting work.