Wow…Almost a month between posts.  That was not supposed to happen, however I have been most busy and updating the personal blog sadly fell somewhat by the wayside.  It has been good, though.  For the most part, I’ve kept myself out of trouble and accomplished quite a bit, especially leading into Christmas.

Anyone and everyone who knows me understands well how much I enjoy the holiday season.  It is, despite the occasional storm, a wonderful time of the year.  Yes, there is a lot of commercialization (and a little note to Costco – September is much too early for Christmas gear to be on sale), but that goes hand in hand with the season.  You can choose not to participate in any sort of gift giving and still have a great time with your family and friends.

I however, choose to give out presents.  I like seeing the faces of people light up when they have a gift to open.  Especially children.  It warms my heart and is something that I truly look forward to.

One of the reasons that I have not updated recently is due to the fact that I have been putting in a lot of overtime at work.  I have been good about it; usually around 2-5 hours a night so that I do not burn myself out.  At my previous job I had that happen a couple of times and the effect is not at all pleasureable.  You walk around in a haze and you have a constant headache.  Furthermore, you are less effective once you pass the daily workload of eight hours (so studies say, and I would concur with them).  In order to have some extra time off at Christmas, with pay, the lieu time has to be put in.  My goal is to get enough time in so as to have a paid summer holiday as well.

Christmas shopping has taken up a decent amount of time too.  I enjoy it, but venturing out to stores, checking sales, and scouring the Internet take time.  I have found some great products at some great prices this year though, so I’m happy.  I always tend to overspend at Christmas, but such is life.  I like to find gifts that people will enjoy and appreciate as opposed to giving out cash, gift certificates, or something equally impersonal.

I came across something the other day that I found very inspirational.  Has anyone ever heard of a gentleman named Randy Pausch?  Randy was a tenured professor at Carnegie-Mellon University and pioneered some simply amazing software.  However, he was more known for his “Last Lecture.”  I will not spoil it for you, but I urge you to take the time to watch it.  The first video is the short version of the talk that he gave on “Oprah.”  The second video is the full speech that he gave at Carnegie-Mellon University.

I have to admit, this talk brought a tear to my eye.

In other news, Tiger Woods is the biggest item in the news right now.  It has been pretty much confirmed everywhere that Tiger was unfaithful to his wife on more than one occasion.  There is mystery surrounding his car crash, and exactly what has transpired.  Personally speaking, I don’t care.  The man is worth over a billion dollars, most of which are from endorsements.  What he does outside of golf makes for great tabloid fodder, especially in light of the fact that Tiger is not generally considered media-friendly.  As a result, the media probably has it out for him a bit.  I’m sure A-Rod, Barry Bonds, Mike Tyson, and all the other sports celebrities that do not have the best of reputations are silently saying a prayer of thanks to Tiger Woods for taking the heat off of them.

Tiger should have handled this the way David Letterman did.  Letterman had an affair, and is notoriously public shy.  Yet he handled it the right way.  He went on his show, spilled the beans, took a bit of flak, and poked some humor at himself.  Guess what happened?  His ratings went up, his public approval went up, and the media went away.

That’s about it for now…I’m sure I’ll think of more later though.