I bought a tempur-pedic earlier this year and I have to say it's the best sleep I've ever had. I used to toss and turn during the night and I usually had back pain in the mornings, but not with the tempur-pedic. I get uninterrupted sleep and no morning back pain.
My previous mattresses were decent spring types and they were comfortable, but nothing compared to the tempur-pedic.
I have chronic back pain (torn muscles, annual lumbar tear, now bulging, etc). It worked great for several years, but, for some with back pain a more stiff matress (or a very light foam cover on the floor) seems to be the most beneficial. This is what I am transitioning too.
Also, Tempure Pedics (and most foams) tend to retain heat, person dependant, a lot. So much that I'll wake in hot-sweats and uncomfortable. I am now also seeking alternatives because 1) Tempur is too hot, 2) Tempur has become too soft for my needs.
A foam "cover" on the floor is working much better at the moment.
Also in the interim, for cooling down the foam, I have ordered:
http://coolingmattress.com/ from Amazon to give that a whirl.
From my experience, it takes total immersion in the language to become fluent. I spent two years in Brazil and it took 6-8 months before I reached the point where I began to think in Portuguese. It's a pretty amazing thing though, once you reach that point. You're thinking and even dreaming in another language. I still have dreams in Portuguese even though it's been 15 years since I returned to the US.
But it's completely different if the person works in the IT industry. I do live in Brazil (Sao Paulo), and I can't hire a GOOD web designer for my company paying less than $3.000 USD/month (R$ 5K). Here, an experienced designer can easily ask $5K USD/month for working fulltime.
Out of curiousity, are people with these jobs considered high status in Brazil? Is the profession held in high esteem in the sense that being a Doctor in the US is? That seems like a lot of money compared to the median salary, and I'm trying to imagine what impact salary discrepancies like that would cause.
Consider that the middle class is only 15%~20% of the population in Brazil. So if you have a university degree you're automatically high status.
Also, IT jobs pay in average better than most white-collar jobs. An IT manager or a very good lead developer might even make more money than a mediocre doctor (but that's true in US too, I guess?). That said, given that there's no regulatory barrier to entry, IT professionals in general aren't seen as high status as doctors or lawyers.
It would be nice if you allowed us to rename our corkboard (corkboard.me/[my_name_or_whatever]) to something more meaningful, then I can get to it from work or home without checking my delicious account.
My previous mattresses were decent spring types and they were comfortable, but nothing compared to the tempur-pedic.