Monthly Archives: January 2005

Is this a great company, or what?

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I was kind of irked with the company I work for. This past December 20 was my five year anniversary, which is longer than I’ve worked for any one company.

With other people who reach that milestone (and the 10, 20 and 30 year milestones), they get a gift of some sort, usually at the quarterly company-wide meetings, which we don’t do anymore. So December 20 came and went, and no email acknowledgement or nothin’.

But today, at our department meeting, I got a framed certificate and a very nice, heavy, crystal vase.

That, and an extra week of vacation. Which is the greatest gift of all.

2004 Book Log in Review

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20 books. That’s all I read in 2004. It seems light. I feel like I must have missed some. But perhaps I just had a toddler.

  1. The Cartoon History of the Universe Book 1 – Larry Gonick
  2. The Cartoon History of the Universe Book 3 – Larry Gonick
  3. The Mismeasure of Man – Stephen Jay Gould
  4. Business Lessons for Entrepreneurs: 35 Things I learned before the Age of Thirty – Mark D. Csordos
  5. The Fun Of It: Stories from the Talk of the Town – New Yorker – Edited by Lillian Ross
  6. Shadow Puppets – Orson Scott Card
  7. Quicksilver: Volume One of the Baroque Cycle – Neal Stephenson
  8. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced look at the Right. – Al Franken
  9. How to Buy & Manage Rental Properties – Irene and Mike Milin.
  10. Dress Your Family in Coruroy and Denim – David Sedaris.
  11. The Well of Lost Plots – Jasper Fforde’s
  12. Fluke Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings – Christopher Moore.
  13. The Rattlesnake Master – Beaufort Cranford
  14. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal – Eric Schlosser.
  15. Running With Scissors: a memoir – Augusten Burroughs
  16. The Richest Man in Babylon – George S. Clason
  17. Monstrous Regiment – Terry Pratchett
  18. The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2002 – Edited by Dave Eggers and Michael Cart.
  19. The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer – Doron Swade
  20. Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin – Stephen Jay Gould

Currently on my reading table are:

Value Investing with the Masters – Kirk Kazanjian
The Confusion: Volume Two of the Baroque Cycle – Neal Stephenson
The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World – A.J. Jacobs
Made In America: My Story – Sam Walton (with John Huey)

—–Edited to add:
21! I forgot about:

21. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason – Helen Fielding