Thoughts at the start of 11 days

Somewhere a few weeks ago I was traveling. Vancouver, Bellingham, Whistler, Vegas. That's quite a bit. I felt the 'harshness' set in. Lack of gratitude with simultaneous expectation. They go hand-in-hand. Then the pressure seemed to seep out, slowly but steadily, and I realized that I was somewhat glad I don't do that anymore more than maybe twice a year. The back-to-back cities and the crappy weather (generally 90% of the world's weather is crappy compared to Southern California so really when you travel anywhere North or East you basically are going to get worse weather any time of year).

I like home. I like my bed and my too-comfortable home and my wardrobe. I like my local yoga studio and I like my instructor. I like my girlfriend (more than so!). I like Calypso on my head in the morning and I like Tangerine asking for treats (at 9:37am even though the rule is no treats before noon).

But more importantly, with 11 days of peace and quiet -- on my own terms, with my own needs first and my own best wishes to fulfill -- I intend to appreciate all those joys of life listed above and then some. I'm taking this time of year called "the holidays" to just appreciate everyone and everything. I am grateful.

Happy Holidays!

Holiday Inspiration

First off, hats off to one of our vendors who sent my team a "Cubicle Bling Kit" which is absolutely hilarious. It came with instructions on how to "pimp out" your cube and has a corresponding website. Unbelievable Holiday efforts. Good job guys.

Secondly, I found this on Slashdot today which I found to be absolutely hilarious. Pretty much everyone in my generation, the generation before and the generation that followed is a Star Wars fan in some way. So hopefully folkis can appreciate 30 Years of LucasFilm Holiday Cards.

Elf Yourself

The usefulness of this application is absolutely in question. However, without a doubt, the integration of this application online and the phone/voice mail component is really unbelievable.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1374336897

Go ahead and try it for yourself. You build the elf first, then you can record a voice greeting and the website knows in real-time what you're doing on your phone. Very cool integration.

Chinese Food On Christmas

7th Day of Channukah is tonight and my Dad sent me this. How true, how true.