Logitech MX Master 2S Wireless Mouse | $67 | AmazonImage: Amazon

It’s been more than a few years since we last asked our readers to vote on their work mouse recommendations. So it seemed like as good of a time as any to crack our collective knuckles and debate which mice deserve a spot on your desktop.

Check out the rules below, then scroll down to the comments to nominate your favorite, or add your own pick with details on what you like (e.g. comfort, button placement, etc.).

1) Your nomination should contain the name of a specific mouse, why you think it’s the best, a link where it can be purchased, and an image.

2) Vote by starring someone else’s nomination.

3) Please do not duplicate nominations.

Photo: NASA

If you can brave the cold long enough to find a clear patch of night sky, you can watch two bright astronomical phenomena this December: the 46P/Wirtanen “Christmas comet” and the Geminid meteor shower.

The comet will be closer to Earth than it has been in the past 400 years, but it will be difficult to see with the naked eye. For the best chance, find a place away from light pollution, and look for a diffuse, dim area of light a little below the Pleiades. (The Pleiades are the stars that form a tiny cluster near Taurus, not far from the constellation Orion. EarthSky has a helpful map showing where in the sky to look.)

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Binoculars or a telescope will make the comet easier to see. It will be closest to earth—less than 8 million miles away—on December 16. You can also watch the comet online. Virtual Telescope will have showings on December 12 and 16, starting at 5pm EST.

Can’t see the comet, or just want an extra light show? The Geminid meteor shower is also occurring this month, peaking around 2 a.m., your local time, of December 13 and 14. The meteors will appear to be coming from the area of the constellation Gemini, but they travel pretty far across the sky so NASA just recommends you find a dark place, let your eyes get accustomed to the dark, and look up.

Image: Shamia Casiano from Pexels

While we’re thinking about money goals for 2019, one of your key considerations should be the small steps you can take each day or week to get you where you want to go.

For Fast Company, Becky Kane explains that people have such a hard time reaching their long-term financial goals, like saving for retirement, because our brains aren’t hardwired to do so. She writes:

Put in practical terms, when thinking of yourself in a month or a year or a decade, your brain registers that person in ways similar to how it would register Taylor Swift or the mailman or the lady driving the car in the next lane over. Understood in that way, saving for retirement is the neurological equivalent of giving money away to someone else entirely.

That’s not exactly news, though what is crucial here is that this means that some of the steps behavioral economists have taken to encourage people to save, like showing them age progression photos of themselves, aren’t likely to be effective if you still don’t think of that person as you.

So, if our brains are more or less hardwired against our best long-term interests, what can we do to circumvent that? We crave the instant gratification of accomplishing something in days or a week, rather than a year. One actionable step, then, is to focus on making short-term goals easy stepping stones to accomplishing long-term goals. “Whatever your long-term goals may be–getting in better shape, launching your own business, writing a book–thinking about your deadline in terms of days rather than months or years can help you wrap your mind around how close the future really is,” writes Kane.

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If your long-term goal is to save more in your Roth IRA, for example, then making a weekly or monthly savings goal that you know you can cross off will help you get there, and make you feel happier and more accomplished in the meantime.

Taking it one step further, you can reframe what you’re doing in terms of its immediate rewards. Kane uses writing her article as an example of how this could work:

I’m going to focus on the sense of accomplishment I’ll feel in just four hours time when I will no longer have to feel guilty about not finishing this thing I’ve put off for so long that it’s started to feel like a squirmy eel in the pit of my stomach every time I think about it.

This is important because the process of accomplishing goals is just as, if not more, important than checking the goal off your to-do list. Take this example (which Kane notes) from Kaitlin Woolley of Cornell University and Ayelet Fishbach of the University of Chicago, who study goals and people who accomplish them:

In one study, we asked people online about the goals they set at the beginning of the year. Most people set goals to achieve delayed, long-term benefits, such as career advancement, debt repayment, or improved health. We asked these individuals how enjoyable it was to pursue their goal, as well as how important their goal was. We also asked whether they were still working on their goals two months after setting them. We found that enjoyment predicted people’s goal persistence two months after setting the goal far more than how important they rated their goal to be.

The researchers observed these results across a variety of goals, including fitness, eating healthily and education.

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Woolley and Fishbach recommend that people factor pleasure into which activities they choose to accomplish their goals. That might seem obvious, but the immediate gratification is what will keep you going. So find a workout class you actually like, or a way to save that feels fun for you.

Then try mixing in more immediate benefits, the researchers suggest. “We found that high school students worked longer on a math assignment when they listened to music, ate snacks, and used colored pens while working,” they write. “Making activities more enjoyable, by listening to music while exercising or working in your favorite coffee shop, may help you persist in your goals.” Just because you’re working toward something doesn’t mean it needs to feel like work all of the time.

And finally, reflect on the benefits of immediate gratification as you work toward your goal. If you’re saving, check in on your account balance and revel in your progress. If you’re trying to get in shape, take time to notice when the five-pound weights no longer feel as difficult to lift.

“We found that people ate almost 50 percent more of a healthy food when they focused on the positive taste, compared with another group that focused on the health benefits,” they write. “When you are pursuing a goal, seeking out the positive experience—to the extent that it offers one—may aid your persistence.”

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We’ve long written about the necessity of taking small, consistent steps to reach certain goals. It applies to exercising, writing, playing the piano, etc., as much as it applies to money. As you look ahead to 2019, think of the small steps you can take now that will bring you the most satisfaction.

Photo: rarrarorro (iStock)

Next time you see pasta all’Amatriciana (more often than not, it’s bucatini all’Amatriciana) on a menu, don’t order it. I’m serious. Kind of. You’re better off making it yourself so you can see that it includes its most important ingredient.

See, I fell in love with the stuff after the first several times I had it at various New Jersey BYOB joints (my home state is quite stingy with the liquor licenses). But my beloved turned out to be a complete fraud. And, oddly enough, I didn’t learn this until a few years ago when I was in a high-end restaurant in Las Vegas. Pasta all’Amatriciana was on the menu, so I ordered it, and it was better than any other version I’d ever had.

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“That’s the guanciale,” the waiter said. (Please cut me some slack for my ignorance; I’d only been eating meat again for a year at that point following a long bout of vegetarianism).

Turns out that the import of guanciale, or cured pig jowl, had been banned by the FDA for decades, along with a vast array of other cured Italian delights. Prosciutto de Parma was the rare delicacy that was exempt. That didn’t mean American purveyors couldn’t make their own guanciale, but there just wasn’t enough of a market for it in the U.S. for those versions to be pervasive.

It’s still not the easiest meat to find, but its availability has expanded somewhat now that folks are more keen on authenticity in their recipes. It helps that it’s also the traditional pork product used to make spaghetti carbonara. American menus are more likely to feature Amatriciana and carbonara with pancetta or even bacon, but I’d argue you guanciale brings a richness that other pork products simply cannot replicate. Pancetta’s a serviceable substitute and there’s probably no harm in ordering a dish made with it, but just know that it’ll be a mediocre facsimile of the real, guanciale-flavored thing. (I mean, just think about how soft and supple human jowls can be. Then imagine them on a pig! That makes for some very tasty meat.)

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Amatriciana gets its name from its place of origin, the mountainous town of Amatrice in Italy’s Lazio region. It didn’t take long for it to become a staple of Roman cuisine—Rome, also in Lazio, is about 85 miles from Amatrice—just as carbonara has. Guanciale’s a specialty in Lazio, so it makes sense that the two of the Italian capital’s signature pasta dishes include it. The third, cacio e pepe, is meatless, but you can bet that if the recipe called for pig flesh, it would be guanciale.

Some versions of Amatriciana call for onions, while others don’t. Onions have become fairly typical in the Roman iterations, so I’ve always used them in mine. However, they’re mostly absent from the original Amatrice dish.

Bucatini usually has been my go-to pasta shape for the dish, as that’s the way it’s served at restaurants that make the most authentic versions. I’ve started mixing it up a bit since I visited Rome a couple of years ago and discovered that it’s just as common to get Amatriciana with rigatoni there. When I’m serving it at a dinner party and introducing guests to it for the first time, I stick with bucatini. I get more flexible when I’m just cooking it for my wife and me. It really depends on my mood.

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The hardest part of making Amatriciana is, as I’ve mentioned, the most important: finding the guanciale. There are recipes all over the internet for making your own, but unless you’re a hardcore meat-curing hobbyist, I’d advise against it. It should only take a couple of phone calls to high-end butcher shops, gourmet markets, and Italian delis to find someone local that carries it. Some online gourmet sites also sometimes carry it. I was lucky enough to find two places in my city that sell it, typically charging around $2.50 an ounce. I swear, though, it’s worth every penny (and it’s not like you’re going to be making amatriciana every week, so treat yo’ self). Once you’ve procured this divine meat, the rest is super simple.

Heat the oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven. Add the guanciale and cook until it starts to get crispy and a little brown, about 7 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the red pepper flakes and let their flavor infuse the oil for about 30 seconds. Add the onion and stir for about a minute. Next, add the garlic and cook until it softens and starts to get some golden-brown spots, about 7-8 minutes.

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Add the tomatoes and salt. Bring to a simmer and then lower the heat and let cook for about 15-20 minutes, stirring regularly. Test for salt and add more if necessary. (Don’t go too crazy because the guanciale provides ample flavor.) Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt the water once it starts boiling. Add pasta and cook until it is just shy of al dente. Reserve about ½ cup of the pasta water and then strain the pasta.

Add the pasta to the tomato-sauce pan and cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the pasta water little by little to prevent it from getting too dry. Stir in the Pecorino Romano. Serve with a little extra Pecorino if desired.

Green Monday TV Rollbacks | WalmartGraphic: Tercius Bufete

To celebrate Green Monday, Black Friday’s weird, procrastinating cousin, Walmart is lowering the price on a number of TVs. This includes the Ellen-approved, $380 55-inch 4K UHD HDR VIZIO TV.

This Chromecast-enabled Vizio set offers a lot for that price, e.g. voice control, mobile app control and, most notable of all, full array backlighting.