I refuse to make any New Years resolutions! It is a waste of time and down right discouraging! The idea that one day a year promises to myself will be kept any better than the ones I make during the rest of the year is just crazy talk. Last year I made some pretty big changes in my life but they didn’t come on new years day. Lets review the crazy things we promise ourselves.

1. lose weight! yeah, right! I am still eating the leftovers from Christmas. Now I will drink a bunch of alcohol laden egg nog to celebrate my new plan.

2. Get in shape. It is a misnomer that you are not in shape now. Apple, orange, pear are all shapes and we got ’em. don’t be fooled, that gym membership is still gonna go to waste.

3. Be a nicer person! Really? If you suck as a friend you are gonna continue unless you find yourself alone on a deserted island then you better make some friends quick!

4. World peace? I don’t even know why anyone would even think this is possible? It isn’t religion as John Lennon sang of that is the problem, it is us! See points 1-3. We make promises we don’t keep. We treat others badly and think only of ourselves. We don’t get along in this world because we don’t want to. World peace has never been the goal, it has been personal wealth and satisfaction. Stop dreaming of world peace and start creating some in our own home!

I know, I am pretty cynical. I should really be happier about life and all the gifts I have. Maybe instead of making promises I know I will break, I am going to spend today looking back on the year of blessings and thanking God for the promises he kept!

While technology might be the gift everyone wants I think it is the hardest gift to get right. These days it usually isn’t hard to get tech that works. I don’t care if it is Windows-based, Android or iOS, it all works. You can get to the internet, check your email and do just about all you need to on any of these devices. It is no longer an issue of capability but of preference. Everyone has a preference so picking which one is right isn’t about what it once was. They all use similar hardware, and keep leapfrogging each other on speed so the one you pick today will be out-done by another tomorrow. It comes down to the system which you have the most invested in. Building up accessories is expensive and create a kind of eco-system around your device. The decision to change it means spending many times more than the device itself to support that choice. So when someone gives you a gift of technology it either has to fit that eco-system or require a wholesale change of it. Unless the gifter is aware of that, they better just give a gift card.

Ended up in San Francisco today. Drove up the coast, stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge ate lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf. You know all the things you have to do when you go to San Francisco. With all those beautiful things to see I sometimes think it would be a cool place to live. Then I drive around a bit and realize I could stand living in a big city. Parking anywhere cost as much as taking my family to the movies. We thought about getting ice cream at Ghirardelli but so did about 100 others who were in line. We wanted to drive down Lombard street. So did the other half of the city. Everywhere we wanted to go, including trying to get out-of-town were made difficult by all the others with the same idea. So for me it was worth a visit just to remember why I live where I do!

Today my aunt came over to my parents house and made her tostadas we all love! And so ends the three days of food that was by all, and is known as, tradition. We made tamales on the 24th. Ate the tamales at midnight with re-fried black beans while the kids opened there presents. We had breakfast at my mom and dad’s and then went over to my aunt and uncles for a big sit-down dinner. Today closed out the events and as my family all return to their own homes I am sitting back and digesting all the food I ate and wondering why I have a big smile on my face. Perhaps it is as Tevya said. “Without traditions our lives would be as shaky as…, As a fiddler on the roof!”

Sometime in my forties some crazy things starting happening to my eyebrows. They started, along with nose and ear hair to grow at ten times the previous rate. I want to know what causes this? it seems to happen over night. One day I get up and look in the mirror and it looks like the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland is resting just above my eye’s! Is it some natural phenomena? Is it just me, or does this happen to all of us? The rate of growth seems directly related to the amount of gray which has  appeared on top of my head. I think someone should fund a study to determine if it can be reversed. Maybe if we figure out why unwanted hair has no issue with growth, we can get it to grow where some men really need it.

Well we now know the Mayan’s didn’t predict the end of the world! I guess this means I have to pay my VISA bill today! While I didn’t want the world to end there were a few things I would not have missed.

1. “The fiscal cliff” if our elected bozo’s get this right it will be a miracle.

2. “The demise of Hostess” How will I get my deep-fried Twinkles now!

3. “Returning all my fat pants” I went from a 42 to a 34 in one year. I gonna get some big pants as gifts.

4. “My New Years resolutions” I don’t know what I would have done mid-January without all the guilty feelings about not making it two weeks.

Remember when you went to the movies as a kid? You had one theater with one screen showing the movie. I just tried to buy tickets to go see the Hobbit. My choices are iMax 3D, Standard 3D or standard. I hate all these choices. Do I go to see it on a screen bigger than my house, with a ticket price that is close to a house payment? Do I go in regular, because I’m cheap? Then of course my kids have something to say about that. They each want to do something different. I want it to be simple, but I guess those days have come and gone! One thing is for sure, I am not paying for popcorn and drinks. I want to be able to put gas in my car next month!

The early 1970’s were the best for Christmas specials. Rudolf, Little drummer boy, and every other stop action specials are the best! Who can also for get the Charlie Brown special. I don’t think it is really Christmas until I watch a few of these on TV. Of course today I can find them on YouTube any time I want or even buy them on a DVD. But it is still the best to be flicking through the channels and stumble on to them. Last night I flicked through the news channels, the CSI channels and even the hoarding and surgery channels when I came to the Charlie Brown special. I smiled when Lucy calls Charlie Brown a blockhead and I got a lump in my throat when Linus stands up and gives the Christmas story. Now I feel like it’s Christmas, all I need now is an Aluminum tree to make it complete!

The joke is. If technology just worked, I would be out of a job! It’s true, I just had to drive across town to reboot a network switch because it was kicking people off the internet. I could have done that remotely but I had to tell everyone before I could reboot it and no one would answer their phone. This is the part of technology that is really the issue. If I had just rebooted it I would have gotten a nasty call about my lack of people skills. Technology is not the real issue. It is our ability to use it. The switch wasn’t down I could still get to it. It was that users were not consistently able to get out to the internet so it seemed down to the users. Of course if it had been just the front desk that couldn’t connect or even one of the users it would probably waited till tonight for me to reboot which would have affected no one. But because the boss was having issues, it was an emergency. So really the joke is. If it were not for users, technology would be easy!

My birthday is Dec 24th. I am not a fan of being born the day before Christmas. Rightfully so my birthday is overshadowed. As a kid this really bugged me. Everyone gathered round  waiting for midnight so we could open our presents when someone would remember it was my birthday. Usually when my mom came in with a cake. Here are the batteries wrapped in Christmas paper for your birthday, the present is under the tree. One year I got a motorcycle helmet for my birthday and the motorcycle under the tree the next morning. Ok that one was cool but most of the time I felt ripped off. That was until I was in my forties! Now I wish no one would remember how old I am. I started running this year and lost some weight all so I can feel more like that ripped off kid. I guess I should really get over it. I’m getting older, my birthday isn’t going to move and when I am dead my birth date will only be something to put before the dash.