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I am participating in history tomorrow and going to the Inaugaration to stand in the Purple Zone.  Should be a logistical nightmare, but I think it will be worth it. Photos to come later…maybe.

From the other side of the pond in the United Kingdom…I wish you and your family a Happy New Years. My New Years Eve was nuts, it was one of those great times where you go in with low expectations and pull off an awesome evening. It was full of laughs and good times.

The 30 second version? Basically ended up at a random bar in Oakwood (Northeast London), drank until 4am, caught the underground home.  Stayed up until 7am and then finally fell asleep. Didn’t wake up until 3pm later that day.

It was a lot of people watching and checking out the “scenery.” I have to say it was one of the better New Years Eves, because as my friend Mike pointed out…when you go in with low expectations it is really easy to exceed them. And this evening did. With that I need more sleep.

This year, unlike previous years, I vowed to myself I would do much of my shopping online. And this year, I did it! I think I only went to mall on one day yesterday down in San Diego. It wasn’t so bad, but then again I was shopping during the day. The economy has affected this holiday season, but not enough to make the malls less annoying. It is still a fight to find parking, a cashier to check you out, and someone in the store to help you.

I spent a lot of time this year trying to come up with gifts that were thoughtful. And in the spirit of a recession, I tried to shop sensible and keep it low key this year. I even created a budget and pretty much stuck to it all shopping season. I was impressed with myself, and felt good about not running myself into debt this year. Hope everyone is having/had a Happy Holidays.

When I moved out to Washington DC earlier this year in April 2008, I never had thought the weather was so unpredictable or so varied. I had been to DC once in the Winter and it was mild-ish, and two times in the Summer and it was hot and humid. In all instances my memory must have been short lived, because this Summer I barely survived the weather out here and this Winter has been bitter cold.

Everyone I meet thinks I am nuts for leaving San Diego for DC, but I think a few of my friends who live in San Diego know that there is only so much perfect weather you can take before it gets boring. That being said, it has not snowed here in DC too bad yet, and when it does I heard the city pretty much shuts down. I always wondered what the “Snow Route” signs meant in DC and why you couldn’t park on those streets.

I normally never, NEVER blog while at work. It is risky and dangerous in my mind, but today’s news really made me feel obligated to spend a few minutes of my lunch break to blog. I don’t know if you have been reading the news about our economy (who can avoid it right?). But there were two articles in our company’s daily email “updates” that I think were foreboding of things to come.

The Wall Street Journal in their article today (which you can read here) talks about how in November a half million jobs were lost, pushing our unemployment to about 4 million. This is the highest it has been in 15 years, which to me hearkens back to the 1980s (when most of my dear readers were not even born) when we had a horrible recession.

The second article was from USA today (which you can read here) talks about how 60% of 101 surveyed CEOs were planning on cutting their workforce over the next 6 months. This is awful news, especially for those friends of mine who just survived their first round of layoffs, it would seem there is a second round circling back. Sadly, nobody is really safe, and even I am concerned for my own job. Anyone who wouldn’t be, would be foolish.

All this doom and gloom in the business sections of our newspapers really paints a bleak picture for this Holiday Season. Later this month I will reflect on some observations I noticed while in London.

I can’t believe that terrorists have attacked in Mumbai, and it is scary how quickly they took over those tourist spots. I know Soft Targets are always easier to take over because they lack the same protection Hard Targets have, but it made me realize that can happen almost anywhere. It could happen in any major city.

Talk about a sobering way to wake up and celebrate my Thanksgiving. Crazy.

I am thankful this year that I have good friends, a great family, my health, a good job, and a nice apartment. I am really fortunate, because I have friends who are lacking, health, jobs, or shelter. And that is a tragic thing especially around this time of year.

I am excited I get to return to California this week to spend time with family and friends. This is the first time I will have been back since I left in April. Wow, it seems like just yesterday I put all my stuff in a moving van and waved to my car, hoping it would all arrive in Washington, D.C. safe and sound. One of my projects I want to do is get all of my photos shipped back to Washington so I can have them scanned in and eventually posted up. That is one of my many projects on my plate this 2009 year.

Until then, I am thankful that I can spend my Thanksgiving with Family. And with that, I better get back to work…so I can keep my job.

Ode to my new sofa, thank you for not slowly killing me like the old one I had. When I moved out here my Dad offered up their spare couch, and nice couch that had down cushions. The funny thing is that am allergic to down, and this particular couch actually sent little down fluff into the air which only irritated my allergies. I foolishly and stubbornly suffered with this couch from May until just this month, being to lazy to really deal with it. But now, I have my new couch which is much more hypoallergenic.

There is only one real problem with this new couch…it is covered in microfiber. Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal but I literally get shocked 5 - 10 times a night sitting on the couch. Apparently, microfiber is a fantastic conductor of static electricity. I sit up, and walk to turn on the water and ZAP, touch a door knob, ZAP…type on my keyboard and ZAP! I actually have been shocked a few times trying to type on my keyboard. I am not sure if this is going to be an ongoing thing, but I am hoping it is because of the dry winter air.

Someone suggested I get a humidifer to put some moisture back in the air to stop gettign shocked. I may do that, but I think people would think I was a little odd if I had a humidifer in my living room. Heh.

I noticed I stopped reading the news on the web or watching it on TV, because the surmounting layoffs are really, really depressing. Just today Citiannounced they are going to reduce their workforce by 14% globally, which is about 52,000 employees. Now I understand that there is a need to cut costs and reduce the workforce to become leaner and meaner for 2009…but my question is, how many of those people who were laid off were Senior Managers who put the company in their predicament in the first place?

I have a few Citi insider friends who I want to chat with, because I bet they’ll know the truth behind the latest round of massive layoffs. The article I read is here and one of the things I am a bit mystified is that in September Citi was trying to buy out Wachovia and then in October got a cash infusion from the Government to keep them propped up. My thoughts are, what the hell? Here is a company who is claiming their are financially strapped for cash and they make a bid to buy a bank. If they had succeeded the Federal Taxpayer would have foot the bill of that purchase when we gave them money to bail them out.

Sometimes I seriously wonder how business works the way it does. And I fear for my long term financial well being. Don’t get me wrong, I want Citi to succeed…I bank with them.

As many of you know, I was lamenting that I wish there was a way to keep track of the layoffs occurring around the World. Back in the day we had FuckedCompany.com and now we have TechCrunch.com (but that only focuses on dot coms). Anyway, I digress, I got an email from my brother today informing me that his company Current Media was having a round of layoffs. Here is the link to the article.

Some of you may not be familiar with Current, but this revolutionary TV Station was co-founded by Al Gore and has won an Emmy for its innovation. They are a great outfit that has tried to change how we think about news by allowing people to provide homemade video and have them submitted for editing. These Pods were edited and often broadcasted on both their website and on the television.  Now they are supposedly moving away from this independant type of videos to more mainstream 30 minute shows, which really in my mind kills some of the appeal that Current had when it first launched.

I hope for my brother that he escapes any further rounds of layoffs that may occur, because I believe companies usually do a 1st round…then realize, “hey we can save more money if we execute another round of layoffs.” I have been there before back during the dot com fallout and survived my company’s 2 rounds of “stealth” layoffs. Now I ponder whether I will survive if we decide to layoff people at my current employer, and debate whether to even post this. Maybe later this month, when things settle down. Until then, it’s a draft.