December 10, 2003

Giving Thanks (a very abbreviated list)

Well, it is 4:30AM and I'm completely awake - bright and bleary-eyed This has been a tough few weeks, with both kids getting the flu (or something like it) - and they got it consecutively - first Melody, which knocked her out for a week, now Noah, who is busy snoring away in the swing because that's the only place where he gets any rest. Poor bugger, he can't even blow his own nose yet, so he's just plain uncomfortable.

This leads me to something I've been thinking a lot about lately, especially given the holiday season, and that is giving thanks. I learned a long time ago that having an attitude of gratitude is by far the most healthy thing for me, and especially in these somewhat difficult times of newborn bliss, giving thanks is a great way to remeber just how lucky and blessed I am. I was hoping to get this out for Thanksgiving, but better late than never, and as anyone who knows me well knows, time management isn't my strongest quality. :-)

So here goes. In no particular order.
  • My wife and kids, just for being great.
  • The rest of my family, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, everybody.  Thanks for your love and support.
  • All the folks at Sputnik - Dave, Art, Kathy, Scott, Tom, Bryan, Tony, Jeff - Kudos guys.
  • All the folks at Technorati - Dan, Kevin, Mike, Kriszti, Louis, Brendyn, Theresa - you folks rock.
  • Dan Gillmor, one of the few voices in mainstream journalism who consistently does great reporting on technology, media, and civil liberties issues
  • Steve Gillmor, tireless supporter for metadata and new journalism business models
  • Dave Winer and the folks at Userland for setting up weblogs.com, the granddaddy of the pinger sites.
  • Not to mention all the standards backed up by real money (and bandwidth) that Dave provides. Thanks, man.
  • Doc Searls - a constant voice of sanity, wisdom, and good judgement. And the best knack for writing weblog/article titles I've seen.
  • Jason DeFillippo and his wonderful Blogrolling service.
  • Ben and Mena Trott for producing great tools
  • The USA.  Yeah, even though this country isn't perfect (and right now, we're going through one of those periods of collective insanity), it is still a great country, and I'm grateful to be living here - only by accident of birth - rather than in one of dozens of incredibly repressive, war-torn, or dirt-poor countries.
  • Evan, Steve, Jason, and the folks at Blogger
  • Linus and the hordes of open source programmers out there adding to the collective codebase.  Thanks.
  • The EFF, for its tireless work and fight for our civil rights in cyberspace
  • Larry Lessig and the folks at Creative Commons, fighting to preserve the public domain and our collective heritage
  • Brewster Kahle and the folks at the Internet Archive, adding a Library of Congress every few months can get wearing after a while, thanks for doing it.
  • All you bloggers - who (a) help inspire and inform me, and (b) help make my current business possible.  There is a rebirth of civics going on, and you guys are making it happen (as well as posting great kitten photos)
  • Yahoo, Google, the New York Times, AOL, the Mozilla Project, the Apache project, the list goes on and on. Thanks.
This just starts to scratch the surface of the list. I am so lucky to be alive and to be right here, right now. Posted by dsifry at December 10, 2003 5:36 AM | TrackBack | View blog reactions
Comments

Backatcha man! Have a great holiday season!

Posted by: Jason D- at December 10, 2003 2:27 PM

Very touching post, Dave. I feel thankful myself for knowing some of the same wonderful folks you do, includng yourself! Sorry to hear about the kids' flu. Happy holidays!

Posted by: Tom D at December 11, 2003 3:19 PM

AN INTELLIGENT CHRISTMAS

I would like to remember you that for Christmas make an intelligent present is mandatory.

I would like to remember you that your company may grow up if you promote it doing something good for all.

By the way instead of making silly presents or notihing at all, you can help people spend only few money in good ethical products of poor people.

By the way instead of giving a diamond to your wife you can give an awkward surgical operation to a child tha absolutely need it, or a year of scholastic education to a whole children class in India or Africa at all.

I give you one of the many possible chances, whith no intermediate and waste as i like:
just go to the site of The Shantidhara Social Servcice Society, (click here
http://www.shantidhara.org/) and let you give a school to thousands children with a small donation;

they are used doing everything with only few money.

Here many other ways to start immediately and be useful to everyone: http://www.liberaassociazioneilpopolo.it/inglese/attivazioneimmediata.html

I know problably you know tand do these things, but don't be afraid to talk about with your friends!

So do your own act; cause it's too easy talking to stop wars, but where you don't sow love, there it's only hate that grows up.

Domenico Schietti
2010: Poverty Elimination
http://www.liberaassociazioneilpopolo.it/

Posted by: Domenico Schietti at December 13, 2003 8:18 AM

AN INTELLIGENT CHRISTMAS

I would like to remember you that for Christmas make an intelligent present is mandatory.

I would like to remember you that your company may grow up if you promote it doing something good for all.

By the way instead of making silly presents or notihing at all, you can help people spend only few money in good ethical products of poor people.

By the way instead of giving a diamond to your wife you can give an awkward surgical operation to a child tha absolutely need it, or a year of scholastic education to a whole children class in India or Africa at all.

I give you one of the many possible chances, whith no intermediate and waste as i like:
just go to the site of The Shantidhara Social Servcice Society, (click here
http://www.shantidhara.org/) and let you give a school to thousands children with a small donation;

they are used doing everything with only few money.

Here many other ways to start immediately and be useful to everyone: http://www.liberaassociazioneilpopolo.it/inglese/attivazioneimmediata.html

I know problably you know tand do these things, but don't be afraid to talk about with your friends!

So do your own act; cause it's too easy talking to stop wars, but where you don't sow love, there it's only hate that grows up.

Domenico Schietti
2010: Poverty Elimination
http://www.liberaassociazioneilpopolo.it/

Posted by: Domenico Schietti at December 13, 2003 8:19 AM

AN INTELLIGENT CHRISTMAS

I would like to remember you that for Christmas make an intelligent present is mandatory.

I would like to remember you that your company may grow up if you promote it doing something good for all.

By the way instead of making silly presents or notihing at all, you can help people spend only few money in good ethical products of poor people.

By the way instead of giving a diamond to your wife you can give an awkward surgical operation to a child tha absolutely need it, or a year of scholastic education to a whole children class in India or Africa at all.

I give you one of the many possible chances, whith no intermediate and waste as i like:
just go to the site of The Shantidhara Social Servcice Society, (click here
http://www.shantidhara.org/) and let you give a school to thousands children with a small donation;

they are used doing everything with only few money.

Here many other ways to start immediately and be useful to everyone: http://www.liberaassociazioneilpopolo.it/inglese/attivazioneimmediata.html

I know problably you know tand do these things, but don't be afraid to talk about with your friends!

So do your own act; cause it's too easy talking to stop wars, but where you don't sow love, there it's only hate that grows up.

Domenico Schietti
2010: Poverty Elimination
http://www.liberaassociazioneilpopolo.it/

Posted by: Domenico Schietti at December 13, 2003 8:19 AM

I don't have much to say, but I want to say thanks. thanks.

Posted by: california at December 17, 2003 12:05 AM

Hey Y'all,
All of us have something to be thankful for, so hope everyone gives thanks and
enjoys this special day.

Posted by: jerry at December 17, 2003 12:36 AM

Thats a pretty solid list...what I think is amazing is that with less than a year on the internet I think almost every single name on that list has effected me in one way or another.

Posted by: aaron wall at December 17, 2003 8:31 PM