All too often we see expansive marketing campaigns for diet pills and celebrity diet crazes that rarely emphasize a balanced diet and regular exercise.

Remember the good old days when people dressed in suits, wore fedoras, smoked, and drank at work? Ya, me neither. The closest I've come to a situation like that is watching parts of Mad Men episodes set in the 1960s. That depiction of work may look old-fashioned, but there's something us snippersnappers may still have in common with those times: a 40-hour, in-office work week.

I have a bad habit that I need to quit: collecting parking tickets. Since I started attending Oregon State University I have paid more in parking tickets than it would have cost to get a parking pass. A student parking pass per term is $59 and a year-long pro-rated pass is $118. My habit even gets worse. When I worked in Eugene (a nearby town) this past summer I used to have to move my car every two hours to avoid fines.

Say you got tickets to a show months in advance. It's your favorite band, and while they weren't that expensive or in danger of selling out, you just wanted to scoop them up. Then, two days before the show, something happens, and you can't go. Meanwhile, those $15 tickets are now selling for $50: your group has gotten hot lately. So what can you do?