Susie’s family left yesterday for home (Alexandria, Virginia, USA). Parents and brother and sister were here for the holidays. That was very very much fun. They are a very do-nothing group on holidays it seems—they only went off on a few excursions unlike some travelers who feel inclined to see three tourist destinations before lunch.
They did make it to the museum of television and radio, which was nice, if snooty. They also saw the floats from the Rose Parade, which are parked a few blocks from this house.
It was great having them here, and felt very comfortable the whole time, though there was a little confusion about their exact role: are they guests? Are they equals? Who takes out the garbage?
On the plus side, the gifts were plentiful due to the number of people in the room—when it’s just Susie and I, it’s pretty much a swap, but with 6 people, the math gets complicated.
I got the mother of all presents—a iPod, Apple Computer’s magical MP3 player that is super cool and easy to use and stylish and crashes very very rarely.
“I find myself thinking of a checklist Wozniak wrote a few years ago describing how to become a genius. His advice was straightforward yet strangely terrible: You must clarify your goals, gain knowledge through spaced repetition, preserve health, work steadily, minimize stress, refuse interruption, and never resist sleep when tired. This should lead to radically improved intelligence and creativity. The only cost: turning your back on every convention of social life.”
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.”
You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)