Guilty Pleasures

Sleeping in an extra hour this morning and ditching the first few hours of work to enjoy a breakfast burrito with my good buddy Uncle Matty. That's not the guilty pleasure part though...that was just fun. The guilty pleasure was the extra cheese and hot sauce on the burrito....oh yeah.

Update 1:30pm

Apparently, the guys at TMZ.com caught my buddy going for a post-breakfast burrito ice cream at B&R. Guess the burrito wasn't guilty enough, huh?

Click here to see the juicy photo.

Favorite Bloggers

One of my hobbies is taking photos, and every now and then I'm surprised when one turns out. Most of the time they don't.

I'm amazed by those who really have talent at what they do. Many of my fellow bloggers are excellent photographers; one of them being my newest addition to the blogroll, Brienne Michelle Photography.

Whether it's a coffee cup or a full blown wedding shoot, Brienne's creative eye and skill using her camera are stunning. She's a captivating writer too!

By all means, please visit her blog and you can see even more of her work on her web site.

I went to school with her husband (another talented person), and about the time we were deciding to become hetero life-mates, we met our future significant others. Thank God, we are much better off now.

Rickrollin'

Yesterday's double post was my meager attempt at an April Fool's Day prank.

There is a strange Internet phenomenon called "rickrolling" in which people post links leading to one thing but actually point to a YouTube clip of 80's pop star Rick Astley singing "Never Gonna Give You Up".

Google rickrolling to learn more about it.

Besides being a meager attempt at a prank, it also wasn't original either. I got the blog idea from one of my favorite bloggers, Bean, at Strongly Worded Letter. His post wasn't as safe for work as mine, but he got me good...especially considering his post on March 31st was all about rickrolling.

Google got into the rickrollin' act as well. Their Blogger.com homepage listed an exciting new beta version of Google WeBlog set for release. They had a preview video that promised a first look and many never before seen features. The link pointed to a YouTube clip of Tay Zonday (Internet star famous for singing Chocolate Rain) singing "Never Gonna Give You Up".

I can't figure out if I got rickrolled or taytossed!

Photoblogging Monday!

After two fun & wet days at Disneyland, it is back to work. I will post my review of Club 33 tomorrow if I remember.

This shot was taken at sunset on Wild Burro Cove (long after resident burro left). The problem with sunset shots is that they all look the same after a while, so it is hard to pick one over the other.

Thanks to Fortune, who already posted a photo with our house boat during sunset, it was easy to eliminate any of those.

Sunset Behind The Temple

Nothing much to say

I'm brain dead this week from 48 hours of lake cruising then the glory that is tax preparation.

I have little motivation to write or read anything, and nothing interests me. But that's OK.

Since you took the time to stop by my humble blog, I'll leave you with some interesting words of wisdom snagged from Seth Grodin's blog:

It's too easy to criticize hope. And in the end, cynicism is a lousy strategy.

Favorite Bloggers

One of my favorite blogs is by marketing guru Seth Grodin. I'm always fascinated with the workings of corporate America. His bits of wisdom that he shares for free on his blog are not only marketing gold, they also carry over into to real life.

For example, a recent post talks about getting 'soggy':

"New organizations and new projects are so crisp.

Things happen with alacrity. Decisions get made. Stuff gets done.

Then, over time, things get soggy. They slow down. Decisions aren't so black and white any more."

He then describes reasons for this - new, successful projects draw attention and review. Such scrutiny tends to slow progress.

Another issue is the fact that the longer a project is around, the more often decisions are made that may overturn past decisions. The may me admitting that those decisions may not have been as good as previously though. Not something someone is going to be in a rush to do.

Now this stuff obviously pertains to new product roll-outs, revamping a web site, or tightening a production schedule. But when I start thinking about things I do, like deciding to exercise (woohoo, I finally spelled exercise correctly my first attempt!), or moving junk on Ebay, it starts as a great idea. I'm highly motivated for a week or a month, then it slowly fades back to the status quo, which for me, is eating cookie dough and playing Wii.

Unfortunately, Seth doesn't give a fix for this (you probably have to buy the book), but he does say that just being aware of this phenomenon helps.

Ellen's 12 Days of Christmas

Yesterday started with a funny and prophetic read of one of my favorite bloggers, Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame). His post discusses "The Wonderful Time" between when you hear wonderful news and learning it is wrong, or not as good as you thought.

My beautiful wife had a ticket for the taping of Ellen yesterday. She was pretty sure it was during her "12 Days of Christmas" series where she gives away loot to everyone in the audience.

After hearing the news, I entered 'Wonderful Time' when I started researching past shows and giveaways. Last year there were $1500 necklaces, $3000 fridges, Wiis, Xbox 360s. This year already looked promising with iPod touches, Wiis (again), Smartphones, gift cards, etc. This person went on day one and scored.

I began planning what we would keep and what we could sell off. Electronics that we didn't need like game systems and stupidly expensive cell phones would sell well on ebay. Home items we could unload pretty easily. Any cool stuff like iPods or jewelry or trips would be kept.

Towards late afternoon yesterday, I started getting the jitters wondering what was in store for her (and me too!).

When she finally called the first thing out of her mouth was, "It was designer day!"

While she got some great stuff and certainly deserved all of it, my personal "Wonderful Time" ended.

Here's the rundown:

• $150 gift card to Bliss for spa services
• Bliss body butter (?!?!)
• Head & Shoulders package - bathrobe, slippers, towels, body products
• Diamond Necklace - not sure of designer, this one's coming in the mail
• Calvin Klein Collection Sunglasses ($399)
• Gucci "New Britt" bag ($695)

Again, I couldn't be happier for my lovely wife; there isn't a better giveaway for her, except maybe if a cruise or some shoes were involved....but come on!

I couldn't get 1/10th of what the purse, glasses and necklace are worth thanks to all the fakes and knockoffs without a receipt. Not to mention the castration involved by even broaching the subject.

Yes, I'm spoiled (and a little whinny); however, the implications of these gifts dig deeper -with Christmas, our anniversary and her birthday looming just around the corner, my gifts will pale in comparison. Sure, it's the thought that counts...but whoever said that didn't know my wife and purses!

Thanks Fortune!

I've been thinking that I should have stayed in bed Thursday morning and kept hitting the snooze button through the weekend. Here's a run down of the last 24 hours:

Thursday

• Freak shaving accident in the shower leaving a chunk of ear behind (a la Mike Tyson)
• Flat tire on the wife's Saturn
• $358 to replace 4 crappy dealer tires that wear out in less than 50,000 miles
  
• Caltrans repairs that reduced the 14 South to one lane
• 1hr 45 min spent driving to work
  
• New freeway meter installed on my on ramp to get home
• 20 minutes spent driving the 2 blocks to get on the freeway thanks to said meter

Friday

• Caltrans feeling their oats and deciding to start the repairs two hours early, once again shutting the 14 down...this time at 7:45am during rush hour.

Who knows how my luck will change, but I don't really care now. I got to work this morning and checked out my good buddy Fortune's blog "To the thirst..." and read his last post on softball. Not only did it make me laugh at times, but really made me think about what is important in life. I also think his story would make a great movie script. Do yourself a favor and take a minute to read it...and maybe if you leave a comment it will motivate him to share more stories in the future.

I've made a few changes to the blog, and I know after only seven days many of you will be disappointed, but the straw polls are in and it's just time to change. I've done away with the day count and changed the title. Similar to those puzzles where you are allowed to rearrange only 3 toothpicks to change a star pattern into Picasso's Guernica, I moved an 's' and deleted an apostrophe to change the meaning of the title from my humble thoughts to world domination. Anyone notice? Probably not.

I love procrastination. Having to write a personal statement has been the best thing for me. Here is what I've done today:

• Two loads of laundry
• A load of dishes
• Ran 6.75 miles
• Watched last night's episode of Bill Maher
• Listened to two lessons of Pimsleur Japanese
• Took a shower and shaved (rare for a Saturday)
• Blogged
  

And it's not even 1pm. If I keep this up I'll be fluent in Japanese and have expanded Pi by a few digits by Sunday.

Some of the Best Things in Life Are Free

Who would have thought that reading my regular web analytics blog (don't ask), written by Avinash Kaushik, would lead me to much deeper insight into my creative life? If you are into web analytics, his blog Occam's Razor and his Google TechTalk are a must read/watch. One of his recent postings introduced me to Hugh MacLeod, author of the gapingvoid blog and the How To Be Creative manifesto. Do yourself a favor and spend an hour this weekend (or whenever you happen to read this blog), lock yourself in a room and read his manifesto. It was the best 49 pages I've read in months.

While I don't agree with all 26 of his points, most of them hit very close to home regarding the "Stupid Passion Thing"; the creative, artsy, monetarily void thing we all want to do but either a) ignore completely or b) dive into with no sense of reality. He shows how to be creative, out of debt, increase your chances at success, and most importantly remain in control of, and happy with, your art form.

Oh! There goes another load of laundry. Time to start folding.