REPRISE: Christmas Past - Smokes, Guns, Chicken, and Beer

Note: The blog is taking some well-deserved rest for the next two weeks (that is code for I am pretty much out of decent ideas, and I doubt most folks are spending their holidays reading blogs anyway), and will be re-running some of best, or at least most interesting posts from 2013. Maybe you missed these the first time around or maybe you didn't really miss them, but either way they are presented for your consideration. Thanks to everyone who stopped by in 2013!

The below post re-runs my Christmas piece from a couple of years ago - a look back to a time when we were all far more innocent, less jades, and Christmas meant lots of firearms, booze, and smokes. 

Merry Christmas!

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Christmas Past: Smokes, Guns, Chicken, and Beer

Just a quick note to wish everyone a fantastic Christmas, Happy Holidays, and to simply take a well-deserved break from the hamster wheel.

Like many folks, sometimes I like to look back over the years and reflect on special occasions and holidays and think about what is different about them today, when compared to the sometimes sketchy recollections of wonderful and idyllic holidays of yore. Sometimes our memories deceive us, certainly, and we often color our memories to fit our pre-determined conclusion, whatever that conclusion might be.

After thinking about this carefully for some time, and trying hard to be as clear and unbiased as I could, I came to a conclusion: Christmas used to be WAY more fun. And here is the evidence that I submit in my argument that Christmases of year's past were much more of a white-knuckle ride of guns, booze, smokes, and chaos compared to the kind of tame celebrations of today.

Exhibit A - Nothing says Christmas like some unfiltered goodness. Ron Reagan would not steer you wrong!

Exhibit B - You know what is great to wake up to on Christmas morning? Guns!

Exhibit C - And after the gifts are unwrapped it's time to eat! Pass the bucket of chicken.

Exhibit D - Nothing like a cold drink to wash everything down. You know what would go perfectly with that bracelet? A cold Bud!

I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.

Anyway, I hope you have a fantastic holiday, even if your holiday doesn't include smokes, guns, greasy food and booze.

Happy Holidays!

Happy 100!

So I've hit the 100 post mark on the blog since I moved it over to Squarespace and figured a 'retrospective' post was in order.

Flickr - Chocolate Geek

Quite a few times in the short life of this little blog, a post that I spent many hours researching and writing and was really proud of fell completely flat, got very few hits and 0 comments.  Conversely, a few posts that I was not particularly proud of, garnered (relatively) high traffic and lively comments.

And once in a while, a post that I knew would be popular turned out to be just that, and for a minute or two I let myself think I was starting to figure this whole blogging thing out.

So, in keeping with a good 'retrospective', here are the most popular posts out of the first 100:

Your First 100 HR Twitter Follows - my list of 100 interesting, informative, and fun HR-related folks on Twitter

An Introduction to Twitter for the HR Student - my first attempt at the HR Twitter 'list'

Empty your cup - this was a recent post about my approach to teaching, and was helped greatly by being my 'featured' post for my short stay in the Fistful of Talent March Madness blog contest.

And here are the posts that I personally liked the most, but for one reason or another (probably because they were not about Twitter) did not rise up in popularity

Your HR Director should Blog - My fruitless attempts to find 'public' corporate blogs written by Directors or VP's of HR

Technology and the University - thoughts on what the future of college teaching/learning may be - more open, collaborative, and fluid

Cast of Characters - a post on differentiating yourself in the workplace.  This is probably my all-time favorite post because I used one of my son's drawings to help illustrate the point. It was also the post I submitted the first time I was included in a Carnival of HR collection.

Finally, I want to say thanks to everyone who has stopped by to read, comment, re-tweet, and otherwise help and support me and this blog.  I have learned much, met dozens of fantastic people, and have really enjoyed working on this little project.

I am not sure what direction I am going to take for the next 100 posts, but I hope that whatever happens, I am providing value to the HR community and to my past, current, and future students.

Cheers!