Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with reward

The Dare Essentials

Sully — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:38:18 -0800

I am thinking of organizing a "two-dollar dare" party and I need simple dares that can be performed in front of a lot of people, and achievable right there. Props are fine, as is the use of another person. So far, I have things like, picking your nose, licking someone else's foot, peeing in a pair of adult-diapers, letting someone slap you hard, letting someone give you a haircut, simulating an orgasm. The idea is that if the people at the party want to see it, they can up the "bid" to a double-dare ($4) or a triple-dog-dare ($6) so I am looking for a good selection of tame dares and rather more outrageous ones. Can the hive mind help me?

Food is nutrition, not entertainment

arniec — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:03:34 -0800

How can I change my mindset to think of food as sustinance and not food as entertainment/reward? I've searched and was shocked to not see this question come up before, but if I missed it, links?)

I am turning 35 in a hair over a month, and I'm trying to get my life in order. A big part of this for me is losing weight and getting fit. However I have a mindset that is ingrained from the past 34 years that I need a way to get around.

I am quite the foodie. I've traveled across the US and some other countries and love to try the culinary delights there. To me, food is entertainment. When traveling, the food is part of the tourism, and when home food is part of the entertainment. Special occasion in the family? Eat out! Going to a movie? More fun with popcorn!

Worse is after a hard day at work (long hours, stressful work environment) my wife and I turn to "comfort food". This is not emotional eating, it's just that after a hard day we can relax a bit better with a pitcher of margaritas and some hot wings (for example). The enjoyable eating experience is a good amount of the enjoyment, and the relief of not having to cook and do dishes, two more chores at the end of a long, hard day, are rewards to ourselves. Instant gratification is the downfall of many an American...including us.

So yes, like dogs, we are food motivated. But to achieve our fitness goals, we need to stop thinking in those terms. How can we do that?

(And hint: as part of "getting my life in order" I'm also cutting back a lot of spending in order to pay off credit cards, so the option to replace the food reward with some monetary reward won't work).

Short-term reward for running?

Mrs. Pterodactyl — Sun, 10 May 2009 20:15:20 -0800

What are some good (non-food) rewards to keep me motivated as I try to start jogging? Mr. Pterodactyl and I have started jogging and I would like to create a standard treat to keep myself motivated. All of the rewards I can think of are food related and not only would that help defeat the purpose of running, it also seems like it would be a good way to develop an unhealthy relationship to food.

The main activity I use to relax is reading, but I'm not going to stop doing that in order to make it a reward for running, so that's out. Our bathroom is not attractive or relaxing (even by candlelight) so bubble baths are unfortunately not the pleasant experience they were in my old apartment.

Any suggestions you might have for something simple and enjoyable (and cheap -- the Pterodactyl household's riches are all of the spirit rather than the material world) that someone physically exhausted would find pleasant would be very welcome. Thank you!

Reward for Information?

TurquoiseZebra — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:20:23 -0800

Have you had any luck obtaining information after a burglary by offering a reward? So my condo was broken into and pretty much everything was taken. (including ALL OF MY SHOES - Over 150 pairs! *sob*). I'm very, very upset and want whomever did it to be caught and subsequently prosecuted.

I live in a mid-size complex, but my condo is close to the entrance and right next to the mailboxes, so there are a lot of people coming and going at all hours of the day & night. I'm pretty sure someone HAD to have seen something, even if it didn't register as suspicious at the time.

My question is this - Have any of you had any success getting information by offering a reward? (I'm willing to pay several hundred dollars if someone has any information that leads to an arrest.)

If I DO end up offering the reward, do I have the people contact me or the police?

Thanks in advance!

How to to offer as a reward for returing a wallet?

otherwordlyglow — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:50:57 -0800

I lost my wallet yesterday and received a call from a man who found it and we're arranging for its return. Should I offer him a reward? How much? So I drove away from a parking lot with my wallet on the roof of my car. Went back 5 minutes later, retracing my route and couldn't find it. I canceled the 2 credit cards immediately and wasn't too upset about the whole thing. I don't think there's much cash in it and the wallet itself wasn't too valuable. So then I got a call from my doctor's office today saying someone called their office about my wallet. The guy who found it used the only thing in it with a phone number (my insurance card) to call my doctor's office and have them relay his number to me. So I called and yep, he has it. He even knew what my car looks like 'cause he saw me drive off and tried to get my attention by honking his horn but I must not have heard him. He was only here for the day but will be back in town next week and has offered to meet me somewhere to give it back to me. This is all super super nice of him. He went to some effort to track me down and will probably have to take some time out of his day to meet me. I'd like to offer him a reward but have no idea what's appropriate. My initial thought is that I'll offer him $20, does that sound fair?

Incentives for Jaded High Schoolers?

Alabaster — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:58:34 -0800

Think-Back-To-High-School-Filter: What incentives / prizes / privileges really motivated you? (Aside from grades) I'm looking to compile a huge list of incentives for high school aged students who, on the whole, do not care about grades.

I'm not looking for general motivation or classroom management tips -- I simply want tons of ideas for incentives that the students can work towards.

Looking for individual, small group/team, and whole-class incentives -- to be awarded for meeting certain checkpoints, going x days with y behavior, winning competitions/games, successfully attempting extra-credit assignments, and other, more silly or random .

I think I have the "stuff" covered -- candy, small toys, goofy prizes, etc., although I'm always willing to hear more ideas.

But I'm mainly looking for privileges, honors/accolades, team prizes, whole-class activities (e.g. pizza party), etc. Less "stuff," more

Silly and outlandish is OK, for example:

-"The person with the best answer will be called 'Your Majesty' for the rest of the day"
-"The group who meets the following objectives fastest gets to sit in comfy teacher chairs for a week".
-"Any student who makes
-"If the entire class successfully completes these 10 projects by the end of the month, I'll show you my (very bad) breakdancing moves."

The kids are fairly cynical but they tend to respond to silly things, and just about *any* positive reinforcement tends to perk them up a bit. Unfortunately, grades aren't enough -- for most of my kids a D is just as good as an A, as long as they pass.

I'm not looking to get cutesy here, just to keep it interesting, keep the tone of the classroom a bit silly, and give kids something tangible to compete for. The longer my list of ideas, the more I can keep them guessing.

So think back to your high school days. What kinds of things made it worth your while to put a little extra effort into that project? What made you want to help the remedial kid along so that the class would excel? Did you have any teachers with strange/silly (or just effective) reward systems? Bring 'em on.

(While you're at it, I could also use a few some strange or unique consequences/punishments for small-time "offenses." Consequences the students would want to avoid but won't stir up a lot of hostility in the room--e.g. if a student forgets his book, he sits in the creaky wobbly chair for the day, if anyone in the class gets question 4 wrong, I play polka music in class for 3 days, etc.).

How to reward a group for returning a lost item?

nzydarkxj — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:47:01 -0800

Rewarding a good deed - We accidentally left something sentimentally and monetarily valuable in a pastry/bread store. A week later they returned it to us. What is a fairly inexpensive reward/gift that all the employees could enjoy? My initial two ideas were to bake cupcakes or cookies but, being a store that specializes in that type of thing, it would be a pretty useless gift.

Some relevant details:.
--This type of honesty doesnt seem too common here among strangers. It seemed more likely someone would have given it away or sold it, especially after so many days. We'd like to do something but on a small budget, probably similar to the price of giving cookies, etc..
--I live in Chile. (Everything thought of might not be available, but if not maybe we could work off of it). Gift certificates are out.
--We think that multiple workers were involved and probably all of them were temped or gave advice on whether to wait around to see if the owner (us) came back. Hopefully this reward could be enough to go around/be shared by all the employees, we're guessing around 10.

Feel free to be creative. I have a lot of time on my hands and am excited to reinforce such a good deed.

Help me spoil my cat!

CrazyGabby — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:42:52 -0800

Catfilter: How do I reward positive behavior in a cat that doesn't like anything? My cat, Gabby, doesn't like cat treats. The only "people food" she really likes is cookie dough. She doesn't respond to catnip. She hates to be brushed. She will occasionally play with us but usually gets bored and wanders off. She doesn't like to be held and petted unless it's on her terms. She's a loving cat, but it just needs to be when and how she wants it. She's also rather skittish.

We recently got a new kitten, Zappa, and Gabs has been behaving very well with him. She hisses plenty, but hasn't attacked him, hasn't run away to hide, hasn't acted out in other ways, even let him use her litterbox (THAT one floored me). She's been more standoffish than usual with us, but I'm not surprised - she needs quiet and calm before she'll come up to you for some love. The kitten is an attention whore, so I think she's feeling a little neglected. I want to give her some sort of positive reinforcement for behaving so well, as well as make sure that she knows we love her and haven't replaced her...but how?

OMG! Dramatic friends.

xo — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 12:51:01 -0800

What are the best ways of dealing with dramatic friends, to give them the love and support that they need without rewarding their dramatic strategies? I like people that are unusual and/or artistic and so, at any given time, I have a few "dramatic" friends. These are people in their 20s or 30s who will abruptly stop emailing when they're feeling low, go to parties and sit in a corner glowering if they had a bad day, delete their LiveJournal or MySpace accounts when they perceived they've been slighted by other friends, etc.

In the past, when a friend suddenly stops emailing me, I get in touch right away and ask them how they are, give some listening and attention, and follow-up every few days with little notes and things so that their inbox isn't empty. It always results in my friend cheering up and communicating their feelings to me, so I feel like I've done a good thing. But at the same time, I feel like a sucker, because invariably the friend was just peevish or depressed in the way that strikes all people, and the drama wasn't necessary. So I feel like I'm being tested to see if I care about them, because it's on me to notice their mood or behavior and then come to them and ask how they are.

I like lots of the other attributes of these friends, so I don't want to ditch them entirely. Also, these snits or depressions never directly have to do with me (I've never caused the slight/hurt); I'm just the compassionate listener and advice-giver. So I'd like to continue to contribute to these friendships in a caring way, but I'm really tired of the tests and drama. How can I be a good friend without rewarding or playing into the dramatic tactics of these people?

American Express Reward Points

curiousleo — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 13:39:03 -0800

American Express Reward Point... Any Tax implications? Our family has gathered a lot of AMX Reward Points over the years. I know we can buy items or services with them.

Are there any tax implications with using the points to purchase ... say business computer or personal equipments? Does it matter who in the family is using the points?

What if I buys some home depot gift cards and resell them on ebay...? What are the tax implications with the cash procede? Is there any?

I would like to know the technical/law view of this.

thanks for any help...

I lost my pants!

joshuak — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 16:21:05 -0800

I left some pants in the dryer at my dorm and when i got back they were gone. How can I make an effective poster asking for them to be returned? This was a week ago and I just found one of them in there today. I think maybe someone didn't see them and took them by accident with the rest of their clothes. They would be very recognizable because they're from a brand that I'm pretty sure no one has heard of.
I would really rather not offer a reward because they've kept them for over a week.
Also, I'm at a high school college program with international students, in case it matters that they're all under 17.

American Express Reward Points

curiousleo — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 07:30:53 -0800

What is average value of American Express Reward Points? I have a lot of American Express Reward points....Enough to buy serveral computers, plane tickets, etc...

What is best use of the points? I guess I can keep saving the points until I figure out what I want.. but I feel unsafe to keep these points so long.

Getting actual cash out of those points will make my day but.. I gotta feeling the conversion will not be as valueable as buying something with the reward points.

I want to get some Dell products or southwest airline tickets...

What will be the best use of these reward points?

What makes people come to work on time?

bilabial — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 07:39:38 -0800

My assistant is usually late, help me get her to make me look better. I manage a dental practice and not only is my assistant late, so is the doctor's assistant. We schedule patients to begin at 8:00 and sometimes both of these girls arrive at 8:15. Sometimes they'll call and say they're stopping to get gas, or that they overslept. Usually they don't call. This morning's excuse was that the doctor's assistant was "in the ER with boyfriend's dad since 2:00 in the morning." How do I make this stop? Rewards? Punishment? I'm only a month into this job, it's my first true management title, and they're both about 2 years younger than me. I'm 24. I don't want to be that asshole. We can't afford to fire the doctor's assistant, and she knows it. She has expanded dental assisting certifcate, which makes her very valuable. I agreed with her that she can come in at 8:00 when I started (I want her here at 7:45, but again, I don't want to lose her). This is embarassing in front of patients, many of whom do get to our office at 7:45 and expect to be seen at 8:00, not 8:15. Not only does this make me look bad, it reflects poorly on the doctor!

My assistant is a little better, but she's only here two days a week and is a student the other three days. They don't drive in together, so it's not like one is making the other late.