Here's a great little YouTube video for anyone using FB, with a friend who refuses to join in.

When I woke up this morning, my Zune was frozen. It was stuck on the "Zune" page and I haven't been able to turn it off or restart. I was on the Internet searching for an answer to no avail. In the meantime, I had posted my frustration on my FB status. One of my friends Carl then alerted me to a story on MSNBC about this freeze which is widespread and affecting many Zune owners. Apparently the Zune team is working on this issue right now. I hope they get it fixed--I've notice my screen feels a little warm.

Thanks Carl! I love social networking!

Note to Zune team. It's nice that you put a note about the problem on your web site, but you should already have it in the troubleshooting FAQ, and you need to make it easier to report the problem.

Oh, man, I love lists! http://www.listropolis.com/

Here are the books that my 4 year old and I enjoyed the most this year. We are both definitely going through a fancy princess phase and we enjoy reading books that showcase family life.

1. Fancy Nancy We love Fancy Nancy and the whole series. Fancy Nancy loves dressing glam and using fancy words. She decides to give her family lessons in being fancy. The artwork is wonderfully detailed.
2. Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Williems. Trixie and her family return in this sequel to Knuffle Bunny. Trixie takes Knuffle Bunny to preschool where she meets up with her doppelganger and the stuffed animals go home with the wrong child. Williems is also the author of the hysterical Pigeon series of children's books.
3. Too Many Toys! by David Shannon. From the author of the No David! series and the illustrator of How I Became a Pirate! comes another hilariously illustrated book by Shannon. Spencer has way too many toys and his mother decides he needs to box some up to give away.
4. Pinkalicious After eating too many pink cupcakes, Pinkalicious turns pink. She has to eat vegetables to get back to her normal color.
5. Tea for Ruby by Duchess of York. Illustrated by Fancy Nancy's Glasser, Ruby gets ready to have tea with the queen.
6. Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy. Another in the Fancy Nancy series. Nancy's family decides its time to get a dog. While Nancy's family wants a "plain" dog, Nancy tries babysitting the neighbor's frou frou papillion. 
7. Fancy Nancy Bonjour Butterfly. Nancy has to miss her best friend's butterfly themed birthday party in order to attend her grandparent's big anniversary party.
8. I Spy Christmas. The whole I Spy series is a lot of fun.
9. Berenstein Bears. Too many in the series to name, but these are fun and entertaining little paperpacks that teach good lessons. I almost always pick one up whenever I'm at B&N.
10. How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I love reading this almost as much as she enjoys hearing it.

An interesting look at women today and where we could be by DeeDee Meyers. Some might be scared away by the title, but she raises some very interesting points throughout the book. This would make an interesting book club choice at my place of work which despite some efforts in the past few years, still lacks enough women in leadership positions.

I find this quote telling, "Too often, women are not invited to meetings (or alternately interrupted and ignored if they are); left off of distribution lists; excluded from informal networks; or invited to events, like Saturday morning golf, that conflict with other obligations. These "micro-inequities" are like pebbles in the road that, taken together, become boulders."

It reminds me of a focus group I planned and then moderated. I had invited a group of small business students from the local community college in for a focus group. It was informal and I served as the moderator and a small group of guys on my then extended team were there to observe. After the focus group ended I helped pick up the pizza boxes along with one of the other woman. None of the guys helped, but I heard them discussing going out for food or drink. I waited for an invitation, but none came. And then as I got in my car in the parking garage, they waved goodbye and I watched them leave as a group.

I have rarely felt overt discrimination, but it is these small deaths by a thousand cuts that I hear of repeated by women in the business place.

Huff Post on Buying Books for Xmas:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glynnis-macnicol/save-the-books-famous-peo_b_151830.html

Book Market in Iraq:

http://baghdadbureau.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/then-and-now-a-new-chapter-for-baghdad-book-market/?hp

Bail Out Writers:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/books/review/Greenberg-t.html?scp=1&sq=writers&st=cse

Thanks to my Visual Bookshelf on Facebook for reminding me what I've read this year. Here's my top 10 favorite books I read this year.

1. The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of...The wizard of Omaha has a lot of cool things to say about life.
2. The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Fail Important book on the skills we all need to brush up on.
3. Stuff White People Like So accurate you aren't sure if you are supposed to laugh or be embarrassed.
4. The Exception: A Novel Office politics at its finest.
5. When You Are Engulfed in Flames C'mon a new essay collection by David Sedaris? This also wins my favorite book cover of the year.
6. Heart Like Water: Surviving Katrina and Life In Its Disaster Zone Joshua Clark stayed in the city during the hurricane and was a witness to the aftermath.
7. Tim Gunn: A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style I need more style in my life and Tim tells me how to get it.
8. Don't Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood classic memoir of a white African
9. Bel Canto A South American official hosts a famous opera singer at a party, terrorists break in, take hostages...let the love story begin.
10. Dead Until Dark Much better than the Twilight series and the basis for HBO's True Blood series.

Interesting article in NY Times by Alex Williams about the slowdown between Christmas and New Year.