My New Year's Resolution

This year I made only one New Year's Resolution: I resolve to have an interesting year.

I decided not to bother with the standard resolutions (lose weight, get in shape, train magic level to 45 in Runescape) because we all know that it would be pointless. There is no sense in making a resolution you are never going to keep. That just leads to guilt, and who needs that?

I haven't completely figured out what I am going to do to make this an interesting year, but I have a plethora of ideas. Here are a few...

• Try some new activities. I am off to a good start because I tried geocaching for the first time.
• Try something I would "normally never do". This is tough, to go against your conventional wisdom, but it can be really rewarding.
• Travel (preferably somewhere I've never been). Don't know where yet...
• Meet new people / Make new friends. Try to make at least one new connection a month.
• Be more colorful expressing myself. For starters, I am going to start using my favorite words more often (see bottom right of this blog).

Have any other good suggestions?

A Tax on My Dragon Shield?

Taxation of virtual goods has been making the news again now that there are reports of people making massive amounts of money off of land inside the virtual world of Second Life. The idea of taxing virtual goods without physical realization sounds crazy to me.


Original Post 1/23/2006:

As some of my friends know, I enjoy playing online role-playing games every now and then (Runescape is my current favorite). A recent article on ZDNET has me concerned. Would the government actually consider a tax on virtual goods? What do you think?

I Love the Fall!

Fall is the greatest season, by far. I love the way the trees change color. Fall is great for hiking and camping. My favorite holidays are in the Fall (Halloween and Thanksgiving). And, of course, there is the renewal of football season. I look forward to watching the Philadelphia Eagles without TO and with a healthy McNabb. And Penn State plays Notre Dame again for the first time since 1992 . I was still ATTENDING Penn State the last time they played. Aahhhh.

You're So Great!

One of the things I miss the most about being young is all the positive support you receive. When you are six, nobody comes into your office and says "you screwed up big time, dipshit". We always give children positive feedback and encouragement all the time. What is even more remarkable is that we always believed it too. When we came in last place in the race we still got a medal. Our parents looked at us with such pride and showered us with praise for how well we did. You always felt like a winner. Ah, to be so young and naive, it was great.

(To those of you who had lots of negative feedback as a child, I'm truly sorry. Drop me a comment and I will shower you with praise!)

MySpace Envy

I am suffering a severe case of MySpace envy. I decided to create a MySpace account a few months ago after hearing all the buzz about what a fun site it was. I was expecting to be showered with new friends and shout outs of love from old friends. When I browse other peoples' profiles it is clear that everybody is just overwhelmed with friends and good times.

However, my profile has remained painfully quiet. The only messages I get are from "members" spamming me about their other, I can only assume, porn websites. Only about 25% of my real life friends that I have invited to share in the joy of MySpace have decided to join.

The sad truth is that I must be tragically unhip, despite my best efforts. I'd like to blame that on being too old for myspace (I am not in high school or college), but I see plenty of folks in my demographic whooping it up on MySpace.

Random Thought on Press Photos

Did you ever notice that you only see serious expressions in press photos of nefarious people? Is this because the press select the most stern photos for their articles, or is this all that they can find? Do you think Osama bin Laden realized at a young age that he should never goof-off or make funny faces in front of a camera just in case he should become a terrorist some day?

Review: How the Mind Works

Part of me wants to say how fascinating and informative this book was. The other part wants to say how irritating and poorly written the book was.

How The Mind Works contains a lot of insight into the inner workings of the human mind without getting too technical for a lay person to understand. The author is good at explaining ideas with anecdotes and intelligent observations. My biggest problem with the book, though, is that it seems to be written with no thought to structure. I felt like the author was just pouring out ideas as they popped out of his mind. Desipite having an index, I doubt I could easily relocate a fact that I found interesting when I read it the first time. The author also intermixes his own opinions with such poise and confidence that the reader must be careful to not confuse them with the facts.

Still, overall, I'd recommend this book. Just make sure to keep an ample supply of post-it's ready if you want to be able to refer to you favorite parts later.