Looking Forward To More Of This

Triangulation with Leo Laporte and John C. Dvorak. Episode 1 is with Professor Lessig and the group discusses Google Print. (I haven't listened yet but I assume the focus is on the Library Project?)

Infernal Things

Don't miss this week's Blawg Review, courtesy of Colin "Dante" Samuels. Or Evan Schaeffer's current podcast. Both are sure to entertain and inspire awe.

American Lit

For anyone who enjoyed my photos of the construction of Fashion Island's Christmas tree, Travis Kiger has a great shot of the fully assembled product.

Treed

We hardly ever do a tree. Seems like as soon as soon as I ponder putting one up it's New Year's and what's the point? But this year is a little differnt. This year we have a short, voluble family member who gets too big a kick out of the newly discovered holiday season let it go by in our usual spirit of malaise and apathy. So this was Tree Weekend. And I seem to have survived. Surrounded now by cheery lights and blizzarded by the "Sounds of the Seasons" cable station all day (oh — that's why people opt for satellite over cable, better musical selections), the Holidays have officially asserted their stranglehold.

There were a few items that made the weekend less onerous than it might have been:

• I finally got around, late Friday night I think it was, to watching Bad Santa. I could watch it another half dozen times and still be wearing the same headshaking silly grin.


• If you're not putting an ancient redwood of some kind in your living room, this Ideal tree stand is the one. No tools assembly (thank you!!!). Solidly made. Well balanced. Well priced. I do so love it when things just work.


• I sleuthed around a bit in search of the perfect under-the-Christmas-tree train. My criteria: inexpensive, plastic (but not primary colors plastic; I want it to look like a real train), battery powered (no cords), something that will look good and run well but not require any Gomez Addams-style post-holiday conversions of the spare room to house our newly acquired model train addiction. I think I found it in the Grand Canyon Express, we'll see. I'm feverishly optimistic in light of the reviews. (Just try finding a train like I described using only the Amazon site search. I double-dog dare you.) [Update:] Big thumbs up from us on the Grand Canyon Express, it's like they made it just for the under-the-tree run.

Oh, and I actually finished our holiday cards this weekend — does anything beat Shutterfly? If so, I suspect it doesn't matter; while there's a prominent "import" button for addresses, "export" seems to be a neglected concept — featuring a blawgworthy holiday joke:

Q: An honest politician, a kind lawyer, and Santa Claus were walking down the street and saw a $20 bill. Which one picked it up?

A: Santa. The other two don't exist.

(If you haven't received enough copies of the Lawyer's Night Before Christmas, Holiday Greeting, and much more in similar vein, look no further: Bill Stebbins has you covered.)

Suitts Me

Halley Suitt has been among my top ten reads ever since she long ago first put blog to Internet, so it's really nice to be included in her Top Ten Sources roundup. I agree with Jeneane Sessum (another top-tenner for both Halley and me) that it's excellent company to be in and even more fun to experience some writers on Halley's list with whom I was not already familiar.

If you haven't ever settled in with Halley's Alpha Male series, you're seriously missing out. Deprive yourself no longer. And in the face of the ongoing proliferation of blogging conferences, symposia, books (both e- and traditional), consultancies, business plans, value propositions, etc., etc., Halley's post of November 29, Blogging Can Just Be Fun, strikes a true, solid chord.