The other night I was walking through HEB picking up a few things for dinner and I thought I heard sleigh bells.  Sure enough, Christmas music was pumping through the speakers in the store.  November 10th.

I think I might post something about this every year, but I feel like stores and everyone in the retail market, push the Christmas season marketing and decorations sooner and sooner.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, but I just have a hard time walking around in November hearing “Let it Snow” and “Jingle Bells” non-stop in every store.

I also understand that given the current condition of the economy, retailers are pulling out all the stops simply trying to generate revenue in an already low spending consumer market.  Even Macy’s here in The Domain have set up their huge Christmas tree.  Invitations have already gone out about the lighting ceremony and big musical production to follow.  Even Jordan Sparks will be here.  (Which I admit was a little surprised to see)

All in all though, I just always feel like the Christmas season is pushed so soon with no regard to Thanksgiving.  Has it always been this way or am I just more aware now that I am an adult?

How soon is too soon for you?

Something that I thought was a thing of the past was to run cable and phone lines on the outside of the house and then drill into the wall from the outside where you want the lines inside.  As much as I thought this was a thing of the past, phone and cable companies still practice this today.

So to clean up the eye sore of these lines on the outside of my house, I have been installing cable, phone and internet lines throughout the house in hope of helping the resale value and conveince of my own life while still there.  It’s been a big job to say the least.

Whether you agree with the negotiations on who is wrong or right in this situation, I don’t really care.  What I care about is the fact that I pay Time Warner a lot of money for the services that I have with them and I want to get my money’s worth.  I want the NBC station back on the air.  If it’s KXAN, fine.  I am even fine with a San Antonio or Waco station being broadcast on the air, just bring it back.

I know full well that Time Warner won’t be crediting my bill for services that are no longer being provided.  Guess who is having to pay for this little dispute?  Their customers.

On my list:

• Hero’s
• LOST
• The Office
• 24
• Survivor
• ER (yep, last and final season)
• Grey’s Anatomy
• Brothers and Sisters

What are some of the shows that you watch?

Regardless of the location and patronage, do you think Starbucks grew too much, too fast?  I remember a few years ago when Starbucks was tooting their horn on how many stores they were opening each and every week. I also remember that some market analysts speculated that the rapid growth of the retail stores would one day come to bite Starbucks in the butt.  It looks like that time has finally come.

The majority of retailers out there forced to close 600 stores would consider this a huge loss.  Granted Starbucks is taking quite a hit for many of these stores.  The one in South Austin alone hasn’t been open for more than a year.  But given the 1000’s of retail locations they currently have open, is this truly a hit in the pants?

I love a Starbucks drink just like the next person.  But I have to admit it’s not always a place that I frequent.  I’m on a budget and Starbucks is one of those places that I use for a “treat” or the occasional meeting place.  I stick to the packaged Starbucks coffee and brew at home at a substantially lower cost.

Does anyone else think that Starbucks grew too much, too fast?

I saw the entire thing happen too!  As my headlights lit both the driver and passenger up, I saw the glass from their window completely implode on the car.  The driver of the other vehicle ended up being taken to Brackendridge hospital here in Austin and I walked away with very little damage on my truck and no injury to myself.  It really made me take a step back from life for just a quick moment that night.  My mind has been running since I hit her on Saturday.

It hasn’t been anything profound, but it has caused me to stop and just think about life, and what it is that I take for granted and value.  I hope and pray that the driver  of the other vehicle was more shaken up by the incident than actually hurt.  (no blood or anything) - The passenger walked away with no injury either.

One of the daily obstacals we face is meeting the design standards to ensure that our e-mails show up, or render, correctly on all the e-mail clients out there.  It’s no small undertaking and we are constantly haveing to keep up with new standards and clients that are making changes to their email platforms.  The web based e-mail systems like Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! are just a few the programs that able to change their standards and rendering systems on the fly.  It’s has been constant headahe that we face day in and day out.

There is a group of people that have started the Email Standards Project, that are working to help set the standard for e-mails and e-mail clients.  It’s an uphill battle, but they are trying to connect directly with team members from the development teams of the web and client based programs as well as spread the word in the design community about these standards.

If you are a designer or work for one of the major clients, please be sure to visit the project to read more about their effots.

If you haven’t read by now, the US has successfully landed on Mars. After a 10 month, 422 million mile journey to the red planted, the Mars Phoenix landed on the planet for a 90 day mission. NASA has stated that they are looking for signs of past, present or future ability for the planet to substain life. The Phoenix landed closer to the planets north pole, the Red Planet’s arctic plains, where winter is quickly approaching. The Phoenix relies on solar power in order to power up it’s camera, robotic arm and other instruments while on the planet.

When I was a kid I was always fascinated with the idea of space and what all is out there. The idea that there might be other galaxy’s just like ours with another “Earth” somewhere out there. Reading the stories and keeping up with the images coming in from the Phoenix is amazing to me. The fact that we can communicate with a device so far away blows me away. It’s hard to believe that NASA is able to retrieve images, control and communicate with an object 422 million miles away.

The Phoenix was originally scheduled to depart back in 2001 but was postponed due to a crash of the rover Polar back in 1999. Other explorations in 1997 and 2004 were successful and allowed NASA views of the terrain in order to better locate ice and water for this mission. In 2004, the rover Opportunity found evidence that a salty sea once lapped the shores of an area near Mars’ equator called Meridiani Planum. Astrobiologists generally agree that it’s best to look for life in wet places.

All this said, it still amazes me that we are not only able to reach planets millions of miles away, but we can communicate with these objects and explore for the future.