Some Thoughts on the Last Few Weeks

It's been a busy last few weeks and there's been a lot to reflect on. The tragedy in CT, the holidays, the "fiscal cliff" and the start of a new year. While I certainly could devote an entire blog post to each topic, I felt like changing it up a bit and just offering up some comments and food for thought.

What happened in Newtown, CT was horrible. As a father of a child right around the age of those killed, this event hit especially close to home. I know the desire to find that single entity to place blame upon and "fix" so something like this doesn't happen again, but blaming guns and placing greater restrictions on them won't prevent events like these from happening in the future. The shooter killed people -- which is illegal -- with stolen guns -- also illegal -- in an area in which the possession of guns was... wait for it... illegal. Everything he did was already against the law and it didn't stop him. No new gun law (unless it's to relax restrictions on guns) will change that.

On a lighter note, my family and I, along with my maternal Grandparents, went to Disney World for the week between Christmas and New Year's. If you want to talk about amazing customer service, they're your poster child. They understand it's all about the experience, and Disney management has clearly instructed their "cast members", as they're called, to say "Yes" whenever possible, even moments in which it probably would have been much easier to say "No." But even where "yes" was not possible, an alternative option was always presented to help get the customer thinking about something else positive. We all had a great time and definitely want to go back again, something I'm sure is part of how Disney defines success.

Ah, the "fiscal cliff." A fake crisis if there's ever been one. But if I'm reading the reports correctly, the bill essentially consisted of zero spending cuts, and tax increases for everyone (unless you're Warren Buffett or Hollywood, of course). Who ever said Congress couldn't get anything done?

I've never really been a fan of New Years resolutions. If I'm going to give myself goals to achieve, 365 days is a very long way away, and I've always been a procrastinator. I like setting more short term deadlines, like each quarter. 90 days is a long enough time that you should be able to complete pretty much any task, yet soon enough that you won't forget or lose focus. My Q1 goals are to finish reading the books I have on my Kindle and to finish my new design for my freelance company, Arconix Computers. I have a feeling the 2nd goal is more attainable than the first, so I may push the completion of the first goal into Q2... we'll see what happens.