Tangled in a World Wide Web

Hard to believe but, yet another year has passed. As I sit here waiting for the ringing in of another year, or the passing on of another, I look back over the past 12 months and while there are several high points, there are just as many lows. More importantly, being the glutton for punishment and masochist that I am, I chose to review my post from a year ago regarding my thoughts on New years Resolutions. Sadly, and against my own better judgement, I chose to list the things I wanted to change or improve. So instead of creating a new list here of renewed futility, I decided to outline my own epic fail. * * * I have never been particularly vain, but here on the other side of forty, I do carry a few extra pounds and I listed this as one of the things I would work on. I buy Lean Cuisine "nuke-n-pukes" and mostly low-fat everything and, still I fight the battle of the bulge. * * * After falling backwards into a job I never would have looked for, and subsequently becoming somewha...

I like to think of myself as a curmudgeon 1 . Most people have different names for me. Most are not particularly flattering and if I had feelings or cared what anyone else thought, I might be upset. Luckily, I sleep soundly, never giving it or them a second thought. I remember I used to love Christmas... as a child, as a teenager, even as a young adult raising two kids. Somewhere along the way, the magic died, the stress, the financial burden, the greed and commercialization all took over and a Grinch was born - or hatched. As the kids got older, and particularly after they left home and I transitioned into a single, forty-ish bachelor living alone, I became less enamored and more jaded. This year has seemed especially hard for many reasons. The weather has been warm. I haven't had much money (big club, I know), I didn't see much chance of my getting back to my hometown and family for the holidays and aside from being a world-class procrastinator, I was working constantly and d...

Where can I get THAT, you ask... Over 700 online merchants are participating in the second annual Free Shipping Day from www.freeshippingday.com . In 2007, Luke Knowles of FreeShipping.org noticed that after about Dec. 10th, Internet shopping all but came to a halt. Many people are afraid that their orders won't make it on time or they'll have to pay exorbitant shipping to get it. An idea was born and in the Summer of 2008, preparations began for the first ever Free Shipping Day. When freeshippingday.com launched, it was expected to have 25 participating merchants. By the time Free Shipping Day came on Dec. 18th 2008, there were over 250. The site drew a quarter of a million hits over a 10 day period including over 100,000 hits on the actual day. It was such a huge success that Knowles started immediately planning and preparing for this year's event. The goal this year was a lofty 500 merchants. That mark was left in the dust about a week ago and as I write this now I just...