Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Seems like just yesterday

...that we were worried about Y2K. Was it really ten years ago?

What a decade it's been. From 9/11 to Afghanistan. iPods and smart phones are essentials. Reality TV has taken over the airwaves. The global economic meltdown, terrifying; the election of Barack Obama, amazing. Social networking replaced face-to-face contact with Facebook, Twitter, and Lifecasting. Hi-def became widespread, and TVs became flatter while DVRs replaced VCRs. Pluto is no longer a planet, and film actors are often not real actors (think CGI).

One fun way to review the decade is by watching Newsweek's The Decade in Seven Minutes.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

'Tis the season

...for catalogs, that is. No matter how often people sound the death knell for paper, there will always be another catolog being stuffed into your mailbox. And another. And another. And another.

Just this morning, I was at the dentist's office when the receptionist was going through the mail. She counted five holiday catelogs. In one day. All from the same company.

So here's my present to you: Catalog Choice.

This Web site allows you to opt-out of paper catalogs; and it's not an all or none kind of thing. You get to specifiy which ones you don't want to receive. It takes a little prep work on your part, becuase you have to have the offending catalog handy (so you can enter the right codes), but it's well worth the effort.

Me? I'm a catalog shopper, but I also try to keep my stack to a manageable level. Catalog Choice helps make that happen.