Photo credit: Wallyg

Realization: I like nothing about cold weather. I want to go to Miami.

Is there ever a good thing to come when someone, when asked a question, says, “Do you want an honest answer?”

Ba-da-boom. The rest of the answer is never what the questioner wants. Oops.

When I was a kid we didn’t have parents hovering over us every second. I served 6am mass every morning at Immaculate Conception from the time I was in First Grade until I was in Eighth Grade. (Every day. I’m not kidding about that. They taught us the Latin Mass back then and I knew it cold when I was little.) I had a 20-minute walk to the basilica, and in the winter in Chicago it was mighty dark. Do you think my parents drove me? Nope. Not once.

We played “Army” with dirt clods in Powell Park. We rode our bikes everywhere. We were sent to the grocery store by our parents and we walked home with our arms aching from the paper bag loads. We went trick-or-treating without parents anywhere to be seen when we were 5 years old. Sometimes it would have been good if we would have had a little more supervision — like when Frankie Fick got shot through the liver when we were all 8 years old; or when Richard fell from the top of his garage onto the back of his head; or the time I fell down three stories right on my chin because I thought I could slide down our back porch support.

Things are different now.

Kids have helicopter parents. They don’t have any breathing room. They’re not toughened up. That’s why “Quit Coddling Your Kids” really resonates with me. Read it, especially the one about making them work for what they get. I like that idea.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to ya. Mithras has been out registering voters in Philly. (And I borrowed his very cool pin.)

I saw this quote by Dave Matthews today:

The future is no place to place your better days.

Which made me think about one of my favorite songs, These Are Days by 10,000 Maniacs. The video is below.

Many of you might know that I am eternally fascinated by Mount Everest. I read everything I can about climbing it. I watch and re-watch the Everest series on Discovery Channel. I’ve read The Ascent of Everest, Edmund Hillary’s account of being the first man to the top of the world’s tallest mountain. And so I was sad when I read that Sir Edmund Hillary passed away at the age of 88. The CNN obituary contains powerful information about the humble man:

He wrote of the pair’s final steps to the top of the world: “Another few weary steps and there was nothing above us but the sky. There was no false cornice, no final pinnacle. We were standing together on the summit. There was enough space for about six people. We had conquered Everest.

“Awe, wonder, humility, pride, exaltation — these surely ought to be the confused emotions of the first men to stand on the highest peak on Earth, after so many others had failed,” Hillary noted.

“But my dominant reactions were relief and surprise. Relief because the long grind was over and the unattainable had been attained. And surprise, because it had happened to me, old Ed Hillary, the beekeeper, once the star pupil of the Tuakau District School, but no great shakes at Auckland Grammar [high school] and a no-hoper at university, first to the top of Everest. I just didn’t believe it.

Contrast what Sir Edmund said about his triumph versus football players who act like they just scaled Everest when they catch a single touchdown pass in a losing effort.

Some day when I’m standing at Everest Base Camp (as high up as I’ll go), I’ll think about Sir Edmund Hillary, beekeeper.

I don’t know why I picked 50 things for 2008. Maybe it’s because it’s too much work to come up with 2,008 things for 2008. Here’s my list:

1. Eat more fish.
2. Eat no cheeseburgers.
3. Exercise more.
4. Or any.
5. Learn Italian just because it sounds so beautiful.
6. Go to Italy.
7. Go on vacation.
8. Open an office in NYC.
9. Think seriously about doing business in Sydney. Yep, Australia.
10. Move low-fi video to the front of what communication means to our clients.
11. Be mindful.
12. Be thankful.
13. Stop judging; go with celebrating.
14. Drink more good red wine.
15. Drink more tea.
16. Drink a lot less coffee.
17. Say goodbye to half-and-half.
18. Know that Ben & Jerry are not my friends.
19. Don’t give in to gravity.
20. Walk up stairs even though an escalator is right in front of me.
21. Ride my bike at least 1,000 miles.
22. Celebrate friends’ successes.
23. Lay off the horn.
24. Take fewer left turns.
25. Learn something new every day.
26. Be amazed.
27. Be bold.
28. Get rid of shirts I’m never going to wear.
29. Give other clothes I won’t wear to Purple Heart.
30. Go hiking.
31. Floss.
32. Try to eat more like a Mediterranean and less like an Irishman.
33. Watch more movies (Netflix is my friend).
34. Build something out of wood.
35. Play in a poker tournament.
36. Take more photographs.
37. Go to more places that merit being photographed.
38. Start in my backyard.
39. Write more.
40. Submit a book proposal.
41. Get up.
42. Get going.
43. Look good in a suit.
44. Wear my tux.
45. Smile more.
46. Scowl less.
47. Get my hernia fixed.
48. Plan to go to Everest Base Camp.
49. Solidify that Running with the Bulls trip.
50. Be successful with a good chunk of these. (It’s a start.)

Happy New Year everyone.

See that guy there? The one crowding that woman into a seat on the R5 even though there are at least 20 open seats around him? WTF is up with that?

The guy in the picture chose to wedge that poor woman in (he was huge). Then, on top if it, he didn’t do what good commuters do: He didn’t move when a seat opened up.

I’ve done a few social experiments on this when I’ve been crowded in. I guess I could say that some people get comfortable in their seat and don’t want to move until their stop comes up. I have a touch of claustrophobia, so when people crowd me in and a set opens, I get antsy. I give them one stop. Then I make them move while I theatrically move to the open seat. It’s my attempt to right one of the great commuting wrongs. It may be Sisyphean. We do live in the Land of the Clueless. See the photo evidence above.

That about says it.

[via Swissmiss]

Big realization for me: Some people believe in redemption and some don’t.