Travis Smith: my resume, bio and photos back to the main blog page

You know, I sat down once again for that annual “me” ritual—to make a Christmas list—and I was stumped in a different way than before.

I have a rather long Wish List on Amazon.com, and I thought I ought to go through it and see what I so dearly wished for, in case I’d changed my mind or already bought it.

Well, it turns out that, not only are there still a lot of things I haven’t yet got, there are several things that were on my list that I can’t even remember adding.  Things I have barely even heard of.

In other words, the things I wanted enough to Wish for—and a Wish is a powerful thing, in case you haven’t been watching enough kids movies lately --I now hardly even know what they are.

The lesson is a little obvious, so I’ll tell you what I did figure out—I have enough stuff in my life.  My bookshelves are full, my garage is full, my closet is full, and what I really want is time.

So, if you are among my present-buying circle—and certainly, a lot of folks on this list are not, and that’s peachy—my column of two years ago still stands. Make a donation to a charity in my name, and tell me about it.  I’m not about to tell you who to donate to, though I personally have a lot of sympathy for free speech, literacy, and the prevention of certain diseases that have afflicted my close friends and family.

I am, however, adding a new, selfish item to this year’s Christmas list.  I would absolutely love it if you bought a gift certificate to your favorite restaurant, and then KEPT that certificate, and gave me a card that invited me to dinner.  A dinner for just the two of us.  No significant others, spouses, friends, etc.  just a quiet (or perhaps loud, if that’s your style) meal and a chance to catch up, and some good food to make my tummy as happy as my head and my heart.

Merry Christmas to you.

Overheard

“BBFF (Best Bacon Friends Forever)”

...who said it?

“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.”

...who said it?

“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.”

...who said it?

“Ever have something in your teeth that you cannot stop tonguing?”

...who said it?

“ . . . the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage.”

...who said it?

Comments

 

 

There are no comments for this entry ... yet. So leave one already! Go on!

Add a Comment

 

 

Name:


Email:


Location:


URL:


Submit the word you see below:


 

 

 

Your comment:


Remember my personal info


Email me about follow-ups


 

Syndication Links


Click here for the main
XML feed for this blog.



Column only



Side links only



Quotes only

 

I'm Listening To

2007/07/29 11:50

Zero 7
Garden State

MetaBlogs

AboutBlogs

Clients

Humor

Journalism

Los Angeles

Mac

News

Personal 1

Personal 2

Photos

Politics

Other A-F

Other G-Q

Other R-Z

SocialNetworking

Tech 1

Tech 2

Travel

Vancouver 1

Vancouver 2

Vancouver 3

Vancouver 4

BizBlogs

Back to Main

 

Powered by
Expression Engine

 

Copyright 1995 - 2005

 

 

Want Column?

Enter your email address:


It will NEVER be shared.
Unsubscribe

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.)