Air Travel

I'm posting this from my spot in 19D and I have a funny feeling it will come out as more of a rant than a blog post.

I am having a bad day.

First, a good friend of mine, with whom I have nothing in common, is leaving my everyday life. I got to hug him for about five seconds and never got to have a real conversation with him and I know I will miss him. I wanted to say, Honey, I love you and I will miss you, and I want nothing but the best for you. But, of course, you don't say that at work.

Second, work is over. There is simply no way that I can see that staying there is a viable option for someone in my spot in life.

Third, I just put down one of my elderly cats and the other is the same age. And I'm trying to blend her into a new family. She's ... doing ok.

Fourth, I just moved in with my boyfriend, bk, and I have six years of inattention to address. We need organization!

Fifth, I got an inquiry today to see if I am interested in leasing my house in Richmond (and the answer is YES). So, I now have this new future to consider: Income property? Remember, I practically own it.

Sixth, Air Travel sucks. There were three open seats in First and I was on the stand-by list in 4th. Also, my first flight of the day, a commuter flight, had a cool 4-ft drop followed by the pilot doing this unusual weebles-wobble-but-they-don't-fall-down kind of wavery wing thing, so that flight attendant gave me tissues (of her own volition) and the flight attendant on this flight attendant kept saying (in view of all the other passengers near 19D) "Are you ok?"

Seventh, I need to get a new job. I love what I do. I love the people I work with. I can't stay there. And all of the jobs I am best suited for involve travel. See Sixth.

Eighth, I am sick. I have allergies that are causing me to time my doses of Mucinex (WHAT team came up with that name? That's a totally different blog post) and Benadryl.

Ninth, some idiot passenger just spilled coffee down my arm. If I had a camera you would be shocked. Half a fricking cup of liquid poured down my sleeve. WTF?

Tenth, I gave my friend a travel mojo when he left/I left. Did I give him my travel mojo? Was it worth it?

Eleventh, well, yes, probably, yes, it was.

Denver

Denver
Originally uploaded by CharmedLife

I was in Denver late last month and went geocaching. This spot was my second find. Let me just say that urban caching is for the birds.

Henry Aaron Jones, 1993 - 2009

Henry passed away this morning under the very best and most peaceful of circumstances.

She will be missed for her quick temper, her inability to hold a grudge, her joy in playing with puffballs, her beautiful green eyes, and her ability to make six pounds sound like sixty coming down the stairs.

She loved being brushed and had a tendency to sit at the utmost edge of the countertop. It's there we will miss seeing her the most.

Keeneland!

bk and I are off to Keeneland on Friday. We've got friends who made reservations in the Equestrian Room so we'll have the best of both worlds in that we can wear comfy clothes ("Denim is permitted"), and we're right on the finish line sitting down.

I might even have a cocktail!

p.s. Old broads need to stick together so my money is on 5-year old Candy Cane in the 9th.

Henry is dying.

I know that is not the most encouraging phrase to title this with ... but it is very true.

Henry is dying. She has a tumor. It's a large tumor. If she was a person they would make a National Geographic special about it and give her a name -- she would be The Golfball-Face Kitty.

But she is, nevertheless, dying.

I have great confidence in my veterinarian. He gave me the expensive option and I choked up and said, "Serious?" and then he gave me another option and I said I like this pet, I don't want that, and he said, that's the right choice. If it was my kitty, that's what I would do.

It's all tragic. I hate oozing ointment in her eyes at night. I distrust every unevenness in her coat. I wonder where she is when she hides under the bed. I wonder how much is fear of the butt-sticking vet and how much is fear of pain. I miss her.

I miss her, already. Good luck, Henry.

Elliott and I wish you well. We miss you, honey. Please, sleep through it.

Ikea

This is so wonderfully cheesy! I love Ikea, and what's great is that the murder that happens at about 3:30 -- I have two of those pillows and I love them!

IKEA Heights from DaveAOK on Vimeo.

The Swell Season

I love these folks and saw this video on NPR.org so it's probably not new.

The best link you'll follow all year ... maybe ...

I think all 33:43 minutes are lovely.

What a class act. Wait -- who let them in here?!

You know the wedding video was really fun, I have watched it a couple of times, but I never realized who sang the song. Apparently that video went viral, and the young couple shown at their wedding decided to try to do something good with their 15 minutes.

Good on ya, crazy kids.

BTW - the reference on their page to "the circumstances surrounding the song" are that it's sung by Chris Brown, a tad bit famous himself for beating up his girlfriend an hour before the two of them were supposed to perform at the Grammys.

Weddings!

OK, I've already told bk that I want people to dance at my wedding. I'm not sure that he knows this is what I have in mind. (Fun, even if you aren't interested in my wedding plans.)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm catching up!

Basiljaz posted about her favorite covers and I was searching YouTube for recordings of them and came upon this. Totally unrelated (but nice).



If you don't really watch the video it hits home for real people since, aside from the fact that the protagonist is obviously 10, she could easily be 23. Or 37. Or 49.

Golfing!

bk has taken up golf.

He played for the first time in his life (although I'd gone to the driving range with him once) when we visited Chetek in early July. Since then, we've been three times out to a really lovely "Executive" course near his house. It's 55 par (there is a single par 4, the rest are 3's) and we are hideously bad. The good news is that everyone who plays that course is also hideously bad. It's also great exercise and a good way to spend time together because we walk it (obviously).

It's lovely there -- I wish I had a picture of the really wonderful old trees -- but the chances of being hit by a ball at that course are substantial. The fairways are extremely narrow so I almost always end up on the 6th fairway when I tee off on 1. Ok, always. So far.

Anyway, I've updated my golf scores (new list up on the right) so you'll see that I'm improving in very small ways. I shot less than double par today.

I consider it a victory.

United Breaks Guitars

I saw this story on Fark.com yesterday and I don’t know if it’s because it’s such a funny video, or because the guy has a great smile, or just that I find his reaction to a bad situation so … plucky. Anyway, I think it's awesome.

Here’s his story (in his own words), followed by the first video.

In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise.

More Patty Griffin!

This is a great Patty Griffin song. And we were talking about her, right? Right?

It starts with a short interview with a woman who appears to be quite sweet and humble, but it ends with a strong and assured performance of one of my favorite songs.

(The audio of the interview is poor, but I think that's owing to the fact that they wanted to segue into the better audio of the performance -- trust me, it's worth it!)

Surprise!

I had a fantastic weekend!

First, I got up on Saturday and worked out, then I went and had a fabulous mani/pedi that bk got for me as a thanks for working in the yard, then bk and I jumped in the car for our trip to Cincinnati and my surprise that he's been not telling me about for two months.

I had once said something about loving Patty Griffin, so I had a funny feeling it would be her, but I had checked her website and there were no tour dates so I didn't think so. I really didn't know.

But it was. PATTY GRIFFIN! Not only that, but Patty Griffin playing with Shawn Colvin (!), Emmylou Harris (!), and Buddy Miller (?). The show was called Three Girls and Their Buddy and it was amazing. The artists each sang a song (accompanied almost always by Buddy on guitar and Patty singing backup and playing a little drum), and then passed it on to the next person. I think there were five rounds plus encores, so we heard a lot of music.

(bk took this picture with his cell phone, that's why it's so small. That's a tiny joke. Heh. You can click on it to see the bluriness larger.)

Shawn Colvin's voice is like velvet and she is strikingly beautiful in a way that does not come through in pictures or video. She's a goddess. She sang some of her own stuff, but she also sang a Beatles cover that was really nice ("I'll Be Back" -- you would know it you heard it, it starts out "You know, if you break my heart I'll go, but I'll be back..."). Buddy Miller was awesome as hell -- he's one of those guys that just plays the hell out of a guitar and sings the hell out of a song. I know it's not quite accurate, but imagine the Blues Brothers and throw in a bit of a country flavor. Emmylou Harris forgot the words to a song she was singing and she started over and I was really kind of afraid for her, but then she got going and she OWNED the song. It was probably one of the best performances of the night. All of that said, Patty Griffin was amazing and moving and I enjoyed it. Her first and last songs were my favorites of the night. She just has that pure voice and she seemed invested in all of the performances (which wasn't the case for Emmylou or Shawn), and her songs are so great. She sang, among others, Heavenly Day (which I had heard before, but did not know is about her dog - heh), and then they closed the show with Mary. I had tears pouring down my face it was so wonderful. (Thanks bk.)

I found this video of Mary, and this performance is similar to the show we saw. Enjoy.



Local review

Exhaustion

I am so tired. I can't keep up with anything.

I'm exhausted. I don't sleep well, I don't eat right, I can't do enough fast enough, I can't not be miserable and fat. I am annoyed with everything.

I keep running up that road, keep running up that hill.

This is kind of an amazing (but slightly awful) cover, and it captures how I felt about the original. If I only could.



Go ahead, tell me to shake it off. You may lose a toe (but I promise it will be a small one).

p.s. Is it time to reset the dang layoff/slash/resignation clock yet? I am dizzy.

Trees and Whatever You Capture In Pictures

I don't know where I was going with this one. Obviously not for a real tree.

In terms of capturing things in pictures -- for me, it has always been trees. I've seen several really nice ones, but it isn't only that, it's the idea of trees. Here's a pretty one.


I think, next time, I'm shooting for a pithy, punny, funky, funny, and... uh, rhyming post. We'll see how we go. Here we are with trees.

Bears, Beets, BSG

Basiljaz asked when I was going to post again and also, what the heck BSG stands for.

In answer, I'm posting today, and unfortunately I could only find the grainiest, recorded-on-a-cellphone-directly-from-the-tv-next-door version of one of my favorite scenes from the American version of The Office.

The clip should answer that nagging second question.



p.s. Yeah, and I'll be following up on the trip to AZ, posting some pics, sharing some pics on my Flickr page, etc.

Home Was Nice

Eagles. Glass. Family.

Pictures to accompany each of those. We'll start with glass. Do they look like real plants? Except maybe shorter? Except not shorter. 10 or 12 foot fixtures of amazing glass. YES. It's GLASS.



And the family rocked it too.

p.s. OK, damn it, here's a closeup. (pssst. just click)

Home

I'm really, really looking forward to going home on Thursday. I miss the sky. I miss the mountains. Dang it, I miss my family. I love you Susie and Rick and Mom. Miss you, Mom!

I miss the sky.

I think it's normal to need to hug someone who would love me anyway.



p.s. And there really IS an Arizona. Dufuses, I don't know what travel agent they use, but I -- personally -- would switch!

Reset

We had to reset our layoff clock today. To zero.

As far as I know, today is the first time that someone who was not laid off was comforted by someone who was laid off, as the person who was not laid off was bawling her eyes out over the news. (No, not me, although that was my initial reaction.)

Here's the funny part (in a rather long story). OK, so P (good guy) was talking to PH (good but boring guy) and P (good guy) asked, hey PH (good but boring guy), what's up this afternoon and PH (good but boring guy) said, well, I just have this meeting with me and the AH (corporate guy) between 2 and 3. So at 2:40, P (good guy)gets a text from the AH (corporate guy) and it says, hey are you available for a call? So P (good guy) says sure and the AH (corporate guy) calls P (good guy) and says, well, we're laying you off, you have thirty days to clear your stuff, see ya later (end of the AH's (corporate guy's) involvement in this story). So P (good guy) goes to PH (good but boring guy) later in the day to explain what happened and PH (good but boring guy) says, No! No Way! I had a meeting with the AH (corporate guy) during the hours you say that happened. He would have had to put me on hold, converse with you for three minutes, then come back to me as if nothing had happened.

((cricket noises))

What kind of company --- nay, what kind of people, stretch a series of layoffs over 12 days?



Edited to fix identity problems.

I don't think...

... I am going to make 30 in 30. It sounded like a nice goal (I think it still is), and I could definitely double up and .. whatever, but it's not like I was productive for 30 days, which is what I hoped for. IV'E BEEN VERY DISTRACTED WHAT WITH THE LAYOFFS AND ALL. It's fine.

I had a great weekend. We hiked. The redbuds were glorious.



And, if you follow bk's blog, you know we went to a Horsemen game and he won season tickets in the football throw. (Please don't be disappointed in the audio quality of this clip. I'm planning on getting a better mike, and I'm really hoping to do the next one when I've only had two glasses of wine. It will get better!!!)

((Edited to add that that stuff did just not work at all. Try the link!!))

Yeah, that's right, this link!

Edited to add that this did not work well. I'll have to tinker and tweak and let you know. But there is a future here.

Tree

Today was kind of a weird day because it was the fourth day where I really spent a lot of time waiting. Waiting to see what would happen, when the other shoe would drop, who would still be working there, trying to focus on what I can do to improve everything. Then after work I stopped with a friend to offer comfort to another friend who won't be going back to the office tomorrow, and when I left I saw this.

It really made me wonder why we think what we do is so important, after all, when there's this.

Brackets

Ha ha ha ha ha!

I got second place! I won $62.50 worth of March Madness!

(Which, really, just proves absolutely that there is no skill involved.)

(Whoo hoo! Who cares?! Free money!)

Busy Weekend

Well, since bk *complained* that I loaded a post with a prediction of what I was about to talk about (implying that might be cheating! As if!), let me summarize our weekend (three days -- one post!).

Friday night the tribe went to Pikeville with their uncle and grandmother (I think the Blue Crystal, their mom, had a date!). So bk and I went to see a one-woman play called Bad Dates. It was the best. The actor was so good that I had no hesitation standing up at the end. It was essentially a 90-minute monologue and you loved her by the end. Frankly, you loved her by the beginning. She was winning.

We found out from the boys today that the best part of their trip is that they got to stay in a hotel! Yay! I forget sometimes what excitement novelty is.

Then Saturday we got up and went and played tennis for well over an hour (we are getting better!), then we went back to his place, fired up the chainsaw, and filled three dumpsters (no, really, three) with ice storm damage. I mowed and raked and dumpstered, and bk sawed, and carried, and dumpstered. I'm really excited about how great the yard will look. bk is not into the lawn, but I discovered hostas and other desirable plants lurking and I think the yard will be heaven soon. Even if it does become my own personal project.

Today, we played tennis, went caching (1 for 3, boo hoo), planted in the back with the tribe, and prevailed at HORSE with the tribe.

Also, I am pretty convinced we are going to win the lottery this year. That's how good weekends like this make me feel.

I just have to say....

I really, normally, try to say happy and kind of upbeat things in this blog. It is public, after all. I assume the folks reading it are bored and have little better to do right at the moment.

Today my work team (which I regard almost as family since we've been together and spend more time in each other's company than many actual families) was notified that two of us were gone, two of us were about to be adopted out to other teams, one of our treasured members was goaded by a member of senior management into saying things he probably would keep to himself in clearer-headed hours, and his comments were greeted by heckling from a second member of senior management.

I know that layoffs occur. I know the entire nation is struggling. But today was distasteful. I'm very sad.

Don't worry, I will probably take down this post later (on the good advice of Basiljaz and bk) but I wanted to say it. I'm sad. I feel like I've lost family.

House For Sale!

Yes, yes, the house is back on the market! I hope someone likes it and wants to buy it, the old website is still good, take a peek. Send your friends.

This is a wonderful place to live and I hate to leave it, but I want to be in Lexington close to bk and the tribe.

Check out my house!

BodyBugg Update

This ... thing (my Body Bugg) ... is amazing. I've thought a lot about diets and about some research that I read and, essentially, all diets boil down to burning more calories than you consume. That's it. It shouldn't be anywhere close to the billion dollar industry that it is since it's really just simple math.

But having had a somewhat long term personal success on Weight Watchers (about five years ago), and shorter term success on weirder diets, I think I've realized that the whole thing about a diet is what ever works for a person on an emotional level. If you like meat and butter and don't like depriving yourself, you'll do great on Adkins. If you like the meetings and emotional support, you'll love Weight Watchers.

The Body Bugg appeals to me because I can tell how many calories I burned (the thing is strapped to my arm all day) and because if I'm honest, I tell it how many calories I consumed. The bug makes me want to go take a walk around the parking lot at 3:00 because I know that will pump my metabolism. It makes me NOT take a candy from someone's candy dish because I know I will have to log it.

Short version of this story: I have been dieting since January 1st, and I got my bug two weeks ago. I have lost nine pounds since the beginning of the year, four of which were lost in the last two weeks.

This thing rocks. Look out candy! I can win!

Open Letter to Alanis Morrisette

This is the definition of ironic, silly.

Lynn Blogdgett inducted into the Outsourcing Hall of Fame.

Lynn Blodgett wins award for taking pictures of homeless people.

I think this is symptomatic of what is wrong with America in that not a single professional journalist caught on to the fact that he is being rewarded for documenting a situation that he is systematically helping to create.

I cannot wait until they develop a way to tax poor corporate citizenship.

p.s. A death row pardon ten minutes too late is actually the definition of "seriously fucked up shit, dude," but it's not ironic. Sorry girl. Love your work.

Posting From Behind

Ok, well, as Basiljaz pointed out, I am behind. But -- in weird news -- I suddenly have a ton of things to say.

* I'm worried about what's happening to America - no, really. Worried!
* I want to give you an update on progress with my bodybugg!
* My house! My house!

I don't know if I'll get all of those covered tonight, but I think that this one makes the count 26 in 30.

Vampire Movies

bk loves a good slasher/vampire/zombie flick as well as the next person. Better than the average person, I should say. And I, often shrinkingly, try to be supportive. This movie however, I wanted to see.

It was a coming of age story with a twist, it had vampires, humor, pathos and -- damn it -- it was foreign! Then, unfortunately, we watched it. We got it on Netflix and watched it and we turned to each other at the credits and said, WTF?

The story has good pacing, good photography, it was appealing both visually and auditorily (where did I come up with that word), but it was emotionally flat and the story didn't make sense in places. What the heck had we been fooled into watching?

A few days later, we heard about the controversy. It seems that the DVD releasers did not want to pay the same clever subtitler who had so effectively subtitled the Finnish movie for English-speaking audiences and made its sweetness and humor so apparent to theatre-goers.

Long story short, they have decided to redo the subtitles of the DVD.

Here's an article about that (with links for more information).

Linda Holmes writes on NPR.org

And here's a trailer that tells you why we thought it would be so special (and apparently is, if you watch the right subtitles). ;-)

Octomom

I am absolutely enthralled by how skanky Nadya Suleman has turned out to be. From the very moment I saw her I said, "Omigod! She wants to be Angelina Jolie!" which is kind of freaky because now everytime I see a picture of AJ, I think, "Omigod, it's the octomom!"

It's a car wreck that I can't turn away from. Everytime she fires a nanny or has a press conference or gets another pair of her 14 children home I can't tear my eyes from it. So I especially enjoyed this:

29 in 30

Second, I got a bodybugg! It's a device that you wear on your arm (all the time) and it measures your calories burned for the day. It is an amazing tool and it's like a Jiminy Cricket because it keeps you from cheating. Er, well -- it nags you incessantly for cheating.

The way the system works is that you plug in what you consume (and I've been really good about being honest, I know that when I talk to a counselor they will say, well, 32 oz. of wine a day is really not ideal...) and the bug measures what you burn and they tell you if there is a deficit. Simple. It's my first week. I'm expecting a good, solid, 3 pound loss for the week on Sunday. And I've worked my butt off for it so will be very disappointed if it's not that.

But I will still think it is a great tool.

30 in 30

So, yeah, that's my goal: 30 blog posts in 30 days. I have to warn you, it's not so much because I have 30 interesting things to say. And I freely admit I'm going to post two tonight because I probably won't be posting tomorrow.

First, let me say that I found a short series of pictures from the ice storm that I think are really pretty and that I haven't altered at all (and that's post 1!). Go ahead and click on them! (They are pretty pictures.)

Alex

DSCF0020
Originally uploaded by BillJKirby

I guess technically I shouldn't post this, but I'll let bk put the kibosh on it if he desires. This is one of those pictures that's outstanding when you know the kid involved.

That's Alex. Outstanding!


p.s. Edited to add that the other character is from Trilogy of Terror. Don't mess with his belt!!!

Complications

bk hangs on the smoker's dock. Not that he smokes and not that they're allowed to do it on the loading dock anymore (they are now relegated to an area they refer to as "The Slope").

We have a friend who is a bit tough to describe, she's probably about 110 pounds, short and spiky red hair, heavy smoker (she rolls her own), and wears jeans so tight they look painted on. Her attitude hovers somewhere between absurd optimism and radical cynicism.

The other day they were on the slope and she turned to bk and said, "Why are you so quiet all the time? You so fucking happy you have nothing to say?"

He just smiled.

(Mentioned by way of commenting on my own silence.)

And now, your moment of zen...

Let me be the next person to point you to this bit of loveliness ... it's called Her Morning Elegance, by someone who is new to me, Oren Lavie.

Storm Update

After the power came back for me yesterday, bk and I put on our WinterTrax (I repeat, I cannot recommend this product enough) and went for a walk around the golf course. Saw a lot of animal tracks in the snow, including rabbits, ravens, and deer.


It's better here, the storm itself has passed; it hasn't actually warmed up any since we got the ice, and then snow on top of that, so trees and power lines that have done well up to now are starting to fail. I just got word that the power went out in the building where I usually work (I'm working from home today). And then, one by one, services I was accessing remotely started to fail. I guess I'm pretty much done with working today except for some reading I have to do.


It will all be fine, I will personally be fine, it's just aggravating and a bit scary. There are over half a million people in Kentucky who are currently without power, and -- based on what I just heard from the office -- that number is going up, not down.




Tomorrow we expect temperatures above freezing for the first time in days so that will give some relief to the trees and power lines. And it should stay warm (if you can call high 30's warm) through Monday, when we get a new storm (but probably not so bad).



Before it started snowing again this afternoon, we had a nice patch of sunshine. It made the ice shine so I grabbed this shot of my favorite stand of trees just across the 13th fairway. You'll probably have to click on it to see the sparkles.

Winter

Today felt a lot like a jigsaw-puzzle-doing, hot-chocolate-sipping, can't-see-out-the-ice-covered-windows kind of day. Unfortunately, I didn't do any of that except the not see out of the windows part.

I wish I could express how awful is this season. I know that it makes us appreciate the other three seasons all the more, and it pains me to say it, but I count every single day.

Basiljaz asked me where I've been hiding and I wanted to tell her I've been hiding under all this snow and ice. Look for me in the spring.

Bluegrass Kentucky doesn't get a lot of snow, but it gets enough, and it's cold enough that we see a lot of ice. This morning bk's car got a lovely frosting from what the weather folks call a "wintry mix."

As you might imagine, I stayed home today because we had an advisory and (as I tell anyone who will listen), "I'm from Arizona and -- pffft! -- I don't drive in this."

bk and I both worked from here this morning (on my new wireless network!!!). He had to go get his tribe this afternoon so he warmed up the car and we started chipping away. Secretly, that part was entirely awesome because a lot of it came off in great unwieldy chunks that we were able to hurl around the yard under the guise of laboring against the elements.

I didn't actually get a lot of work done today, mostly because I was pretty distracted by the world outside, but also because I received more or less constant updates on who was working from home and how I can reach them, as well as the seriousness of the condition of the parking lot at the office and that everyone really needs to understand that it's a solid sheet of ice, people! We are closing the switchboard!!!

So then I thought I might take some pictures. I tried on my new WinterTrax (instant traction when you need it and they slip into your glovebox when you don't. One size fits most. Awesome product. $15 at Meijer.) and went out for a bit.

I didn't see much. My neighbors' patio set looks almost Victorian with all the icicles (you really have to click on the picture above to appreciate it). My gas meter looks otherwordly with an inch of ice across the top. My grass is amazing and crunchy and clean looking. Now that the sun is down the streets are shiny and treacherous.

The power blinked twice today.

Everything is quiet.

Like a Deer in the Headlights

Bill took this picture over the New Year's weekend, but he took it with my camera so here it is.

I like to think of it as the less popularly known "Headlights in the Deer."

Looking Forward to 2009

I have been on vacation since Christmas, so it is probably not surprising that I have done very little of any use or consequence since I got home on Christmas Eve.

One of the things I have done is give a lot of consideration to my resolutions for 2009. I read a blog called The Happiness Project (oooooh, more about that later) because she had an interesting discussion about making personal commandments for yourself. Things like thou shalt or thou shalt not, followed, as you can imagine, by typically unattainable behavior.

I think I'm going to set some goals - rather than commandments - and that adjustment is based on the fact that violating a commandment must obviously incur an actual penalty of sorts. I saw one sample (heh, a sample commandment, God should have tried that) that struck such a chord with me that it is where my list of goals for the year starts. Some of it might not make sense or you might think, duh, of course, that goes without saying. Lucky you, not having to think about it.

Goals For 2009

• Don't rehearse unhappiness
• Fit into all three pairs of jeans that I love, or give them up
• Do something nice
  
• Say something nice
• Set a good example
• Do something useful and important every day
• Enjoy drinking responsibly
  

Wish me luck.

* * *

Here's a great video of an interesting musician who is new to me (although she did vocals for Zero 7, which I've always loved). The sound quality here isn't great, but it's a cool performance. If you want to see some inventive music videos, go to YouTube and search for Sia. Buttons is especially cool.

* * *

All that said, let us step back to The Happiness Project. Go ahead, click on the link, take a look, jump on back, I'll wait here.

Now that you're back, what the hell is up with her picture? I mean, this is a professional person, she's a Yale Law graduate, she's working on a book, she does podcasts, she has written two books -- and that's the best photograph they can find? I don't mean to be shallow, but lord, I can't help myself. It's an awful photograph and I just don't get why she chose it. She looks ill and peevish.

p.s. And if my goal to "Say something nice," had been a commandment? I'd have to lose an eye right now.

That's just one more advantage to my approach to 2009.