I have a few services and sites that I recommend in the right sidebar, and today I’d like to add another: 37 Signal’s Backpack.

I use a lot of the products from 37 Signals, including Backpack, Tadalist, and Basecamp. I’m very happy with all three and would recommend them to anyone looking to stay organized, share lists and information, or manage projects.

Later tonight I’ll hopefully update this post with a larger review of the products as well as update the sidebar with a promotional link to Backpack.

From time to time there are certain events, or things I observe that make me feel like we are certainly experiencing the holidays in an appropriate manor.

What’s appropriate, you ask? Well, to me, it’s the expectation of smiles being returned on the street, of hands wrapped around warm drinks by mitted hands, the general goodwill of your fellow man. I’m not really concerned with trimmings on trees, holiday lights, or other such dressing. Hell, I’d even forgo snow if it meant that people were cheery.

So what makes me think we’re experiencing the holidays? Well, for me it’s the comparison of holiday or goodwill images from my childhood resurfacing here in Seattle. For one, as a teen living in Europe, the holidays always meant hot gluehwein (pronounced “glue wine”) in cauldrons on street corners (there’s the cheery-eyed, mitten wearing people holding warm drinks). Just the mention of gluehwein by someone in Seattle makes my ears perk and a smile come across my face (even if, upon further discussion, the Seattleite mentioning gluehwein states that they’ll be making in in a coffee tumbler - yuck!).

Secondly, I ate at McDonalds today. I know, I know, “chicken claws” as Justine says about McDonalds, but it was fast, cheap, and warm as hell inside (did I mention it snowed?). I ate at 12:30, prime lunchtime downtown, so the amount of available seats to ‘dine in’ was very limited. Once I got my order I was happy to see someone leave their ‘table for one’ sized table and I quickly grabbed the seat. Once seated, I noticed that there were now no seats for anyone else in line behind me. What were the next patrons to do? I anticipated the grumpy looks from the next few people holding trays with no place to sit, but I never expected the European “ist dieses freie?” to take effect.* To my amazement, each person that couldn’t find a table of their own was either invited or invited themselves to sit with a total stranger.

The first was a young businessman (I’d say about 25-30, looking sharp, spent too much on the suit and is paying for it during the cold) who was invited to sit with a young black man in full yo-boy getup (hat on sideways, Jordans unstrapped, pants big enough to catch air in a stiff wind). Followed quickly behind was a very small Asian woman who found her own booth, only to be sharing that booth minutes later by another woman. They barely spoke to each other, not out of shyness or rudeness, but because of a language barrier. They did, however, communicate cheerily over coffee (they both had gotten a cup of water and a coffee with their lunch - how cute).

All in all, I was quite impressed by the mixing of lifestyles and race, sex, creed, etc. that went on at McDonalds. Is this a normal occurrance year-round that I have just been missing since I rarely eat at “chicken claws?” Does this happen every day since the restaurant is small, or is there something going on here that can only be explained as the holidays?

I’d like to think the goodwill has something to do with the holidays, the snow on the ground, the cold, and the like. I’d also like to think that the feelings will last as far into the new year as possible.

* “ist dieses freie?” means “is this free?” as in “excuse me, is this seat taken at your large table, and would you mind if I sit here with you?”

Danny Westneat posted a new column on Sunday discussing racial segregation, or more specifically, the argument of needing to consider race when assigning school admissions.

It’s an interesting column, but I fear that the true solutions to school admissions, and finally getting beyond a necessity to consider race, are being ignored or considered impossible.

As an example, read this excerpt from Danny’s Column: “To me, there’s another way out of this endless debate: Give admissions preference to poor kids.” It’s a shame to think that poor over minorities over any other criteria are considered in order to send a child to a ‘better’ school.

Shouldn’t the true solution be “Let’s improve all our schools so every child has the best possible educaction opportunity, regardless of income and geographic location?” Is this solution, something I’ve always felt was the most basic answer, a solution at the core of the problems, is this solution so difficult and financially impossible that we’ve abandoned it and now have to look towards using a ‘pick and choose’ or lottery or other such random selector to pick the ‘lucky ones’ that will go to a ‘better’ school than the one in their own neighborhood? If there are 100 students that are either poor or in a minority, but the ‘better’ school can take only 10 students, which 10 get selected? Do those students have such a greater opportunity for success (which Danny’s article suggests via the examples of Seattle Supersonics players backstory) than the 90 left behind? Is it fair the the remaining 90 students will have a life limited by their income or their geographic location, or worse, the color of their skin?

Sorry I don’t have any good pictures this year from Franksgiving (there’s some good ones on the old Corinthians Viewer). However, I do have a good picture of dad and I on their deck, enjoying a cigar and some almond tequila (holy crap that was good).