vanderwal.net

New Digital Web issue out with the feature article by yours truly, entitled SXSW and Between. This is the first weekly issue that Digital Web has done.

Ever had those days when you are dead tired at 8pm and know the next day is going to be hellish? One prescription is getting and putting everything in writing.

Things are messed up when the daytime high temperature in Washington, DC is 15 degrees higher than Palm Springs. On January 29th, mind you. We have been sleeping with the windows open in January and it is still a little too warm at night. Then only to find out it snowed in Northern California and many, many, many people caught it on film and/or wrote about it. This is disturbing for me as I love the seasons and really like Winter, only after Fall. I left San Francisco in 1993 tired of eternal Spring. Now what on earth is this.

Hoya Saxa

Yesterday was the first snow of the season. It was a wonderful day out running errands and meeting friends of Joy's in Old Town last evening. The white snow on the limbs of dark baren trees gave the world an Ansel Adams view. Snow in the DC area brings most everything to a halt and everything gets wonderfully quiet. When I lived in Arlington I would walk down to the Iwo Jima Memorial and watch the snow fall listening to the flag wave and stare out at the monument light down the Mall across the Potomac. It was so quiet you could hear the snow land upon the blanket of snow that had landed before.

A benevolent Secret Santa, I believe from the Boxes and Arrows project (using the Secret Santa - Mystery Menorah application I built), dropped of two wonderful gifts today. One was The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World, by Lawrence Lessig, which has been on my highly desired list since hearing him speak at Web2001 in San Francisco. I have been really liking and agreeing with many of Lessig's articles of late, so the book should be quite juicy. The other was Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985-1995, by Bill Watterson, which not only contains many C & H Sunday newspaper strips, but includes Watterson's background on the drawings. Many of the snippets I read this evening make for very good understanding of layout and visual presentation and tie directly to Web design. This seems to be similar (or a lite version of) to Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, which Peter likes.

New Year's resolutions? I don't do resolutions at New Years. Resolutions I reserve as a term for images. I collected too many bad habits years ago and waiting for one special day to dump them was sorely unproductive and left me feeling like I was not succeeding. Now I try to make positive corrections as I find need for them. Oh yes and being married, as my wife Joy finds need for corrections for me (some of these I may revive as New Year's resolutions next year, shhh, don't tell Joy. This is your and my little secret).

Happy New Year!!!

Things have been quiet here you say? Yes, the holiday season has been a busy one. My parents swung through beginning on Christmas Day for a quick visit, it has been wonderful to see them so much this holiday season. I have been battling a cold and possibly allergies, which have really worn me down. I have also taken some time out for life to read (Lance Armstrong biography, which is wonderful, and pick through Patrcia Wells, "The Paris Cookbook" a fantastic journey through recipies and restaurant insights of Paris) and watch movies on DVD.

I am still very worn down and in need of some serious sleep, exercise, and relaxation. Hopefully that will come in the next week or two.

The Beeb and local public radio stations have been running The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, live from King's College Chapel, Cambridge, England. To me it is a wonderful preparation for Christmas Day, while doing my final wrapping of presents. It plays again on Christmas Day.

I wish everybody safe and peaceful travels and a wonderful holiday season.

I have been battling a cold or some other grungy bug the past few days. Last night it still had not taken hold so I used my 4 cloves of garlic in one bowl of chicken soup potion to ward off the evil. I am still not great, but I do have a wonderful garlic scent. The trick it always seems is using the potion early enough.

In some ways it is good to be back home. After spending the a long weekend filled with both my family and Joy's family in Spokane, Washington, it is good to be back home. There was not a lot of very needed rest, but it was wonderful to see family at this time of year, heck, any time of year. Joy and I were amazed at how wonderfully friendly people are in Spokane. We was also amazed at the customer service in the stores and restaurants, which is a wonderful change. The people take their jobs seriously and they know where items are in their stores and will go out of their way to find something for you. This may be my favorite place to shop from now on, okay it is a long way from home, but it is a wonderful change.

Things have been a little quiet here as I have been digging out of a few very busy weeks. I will be heading off to the great Pacific Northwest for a few days of family time that is long over due.

Unfortunately I have not bought a new laptop so that I can keep up with news and post the good things in life. I am sure a few days away will do me good, but the e-mail is going to be deep. I am getting around 150 e-mails a day, of which two-thirds are news updates and listserves, but the rest much be attended to (this is just personal mail, by the way). Upon returning I will starting a new job, more on that later.

This week may be a little slow here. I am on vacation this week and was not intending to work. This means time away from the computer and work environments. It has been scheduled for quite some time and it just happens this week I am between jobs. I start work for a new company on Monday the 17th and I am trying to ENJOY my time in between time consuming events. I have a few days to dabble with my own side projects, read, decompress, was to have spent a day in NYC (but a meeting has side-tracked that wonderful plan). My last vacation was a working vacation (as most of them are) in San Francisco at the Web2001 conference and the 9/11 events. I will be taking sometime this later this week to escape completely where I can not be called into meetings. I was hoping to have time to focus on my favorite side project Boxes and Arrows, but that has dwindled too due to circumstances.

Oh, NOW the power comes back on in our building. Just another reason to get a laptop, so to work from the local coffeehouse where they had power. Now it is time to get ready and go to the ever loved office holiday parties.