Chanukah and other December musings...
Happy Chanukah!
I hope that everyone is having a good holiday. I've always liked Chanukah since it's always been close to my birthday (last year was one of the few that it was late enough to be on my birthday! I did feel a little bit gypped, but my parents always made sure that I got the "big" present on my birthday, and I also usually got a few extras with the post-Christmas sales. Over Thanksgiving, my brother gave me the second "family" menorah that we had. This one had a music box built in and a separable shamash holder so that you didn't need to hold the candle to light the others. But I've been using the other menorah that my mother gave me years ago (with 9 Maccabees in a row) so far this year. Perhaps tonight, I'll switch.
Smofcon 24 was fun at the beginning of the month. I'm sorry that there were a few organizational problems. I suspect that those didn't help the KC in 2009 bid very much. It is always a bit dangerous for a bid to be too much in a spotlight... It is a bit ironic that the theme/focus was "Improving Our Communications."
Pre-Smofcon (and during and after!) I've was working on the new website for Smofcon 25. gerisullivan and I swapped a bunch of emails, and I stayed over her house before Thanksgiving for some more work. I was pleased that we had a working site that I was able to push live during the Smofcon selection session. And when debgeisler sent me the initial membership list that night, I immediately updated the membership page. I was told that people were impressed that we had a membership list live so fast, and some were disappointed that five seconds after they joined on Sunday there wasn't a Real Time update. ;-)
I'm pretty please with this website since I always try to make each site I do a bit better than previous ones. And learn new skills along the way. I'm also happy with the redesign of the NESFA Press website that I worked on last spring/summer/fall.
I'm always glad to get passed Winter Soltice since I like seeing the days getting longer again.
I don't have any special plans this weekend, I was thinking of going to a movie on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I wanted to see Stranger Than Fiction, but it only seems to be playing in Kendall Sq or Danvers. Is any one on my flist interested in that? Or another movie? I might also be interested in another "chick flick" The Holiday or something else.
I hope that everyone is having a good holiday. I've always liked Chanukah since it's always been close to my birthday (last year was one of the few that it was late enough to be on my birthday! I did feel a little bit gypped, but my parents always made sure that I got the "big" present on my birthday, and I also usually got a few extras with the post-Christmas sales. Over Thanksgiving, my brother gave me the second "family" menorah that we had. This one had a music box built in and a separable shamash holder so that you didn't need to hold the candle to light the others. But I've been using the other menorah that my mother gave me years ago (with 9 Maccabees in a row) so far this year. Perhaps tonight, I'll switch.
Smofcon 24 was fun at the beginning of the month. I'm sorry that there were a few organizational problems. I suspect that those didn't help the KC in 2009 bid very much. It is always a bit dangerous for a bid to be too much in a spotlight... It is a bit ironic that the theme/focus was "Improving Our Communications."
Pre-Smofcon (and during and after!) I've was working on the new website for Smofcon 25. gerisullivan and I swapped a bunch of emails, and I stayed over her house before Thanksgiving for some more work. I was pleased that we had a working site that I was able to push live during the Smofcon selection session. And when debgeisler sent me the initial membership list that night, I immediately updated the membership page. I was told that people were impressed that we had a membership list live so fast, and some were disappointed that five seconds after they joined on Sunday there wasn't a Real Time update. ;-)
I'm pretty please with this website since I always try to make each site I do a bit better than previous ones. And learn new skills along the way. I'm also happy with the redesign of the NESFA Press website that I worked on last spring/summer/fall.
I'm always glad to get passed Winter Soltice since I like seeing the days getting longer again.
I don't have any special plans this weekend, I was thinking of going to a movie on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I wanted to see Stranger Than Fiction, but it only seems to be playing in Kendall Sq or Danvers. Is any one on my flist interested in that? Or another movie? I might also be interested in another "chick flick" The Holiday or something else.