I bought this new notebook to keep in my pocketbook for writing random notes and stray thoughts, but have been hesitant to write anything in it because it seems too nice (elegantly embossed red faux-leather cover) for stray notes and random thoughts.

From the November 10th issue of Fortune, in an article titled Shootout in Gadget Land: "In the world of consumer electronics, there's more role changing going on than in the dressing room of a transvetite burlesque show." Perhaps Fortune needs to get back to reporting business news and stop trying to be the Rolling Stone of the business world.

After taking off a couple of hours early from work today (I was supposed to have the entire day off, but shit happens) I bought some wine for Thanksgiving. I invited our family to a friend's home and figured this is the very least I can do (without actually cooking, that is). Also picked up a gift for the Thanksgiving hostess, along with Christmas presents for my secretary and hair stylist. I read Martha Stewart's description of how much to tip for Christmas and, in her alternate universe, you'd spend approximately 78% of your income on tips. A basket of ornaments is going to have to do.

I've been on a spending spree lately and also ordered a second headset for my cell phone after the first one would not fit over my ear. This one has "ear gels" that allegedly fit inside your ear. If you're Klingon apparently. I must have very oddly shaped ears, because, despite the fact that the ear gels come in S-M-L sizes and are molded differently for the left and right ears, they just fall right out of mine. Goldilocks had an easier time with those damn bears. After I did manage to, painfully, wedge an earpiece into my ear, I tried out the headset by calling my voicemail. Although I could hear fairly well, when I recorded a message (to my own account so that no one else would hear my pathetic multiple recording attempts) the message came out sounding something like: "Thz imtn warg nxzsty hefan czont." All this to avoid springing for the dashboard mount, which will become immediately obsolete the moment the installation is complete.

About 8 years ago, in a moment of total insanity, I took a job on the west coast and commuted between San Francisco and Philadelphia on a bi-weekly basis. I was cleaning out a few things in my office today (read: I was bored and didn't feel like doing actual work) and came across the Franklin Planner I was using back then. In it I found a scrap of paper I had discovered in the seat back pocket of a flight I was on that I used as a bookmark. At the time I didn't realize there was writing on the paper, but later saw that it contained someone's random thoughts. I eventually realized they were notes that one of the flight attendants had made, probably to use in writing a letter. She was Asian, spoke English haltingly, and was very young. She was also the chief flight attendant on the flight I was on. Here are the notes I found, with no editing:

FLL palm tree cockloches
NC Chinese white flower
short flight - up and down - some of them 26 min. flt. (no way to serve 100 people) (don't get out of airplane sometime)
crew meal
captains - easygoing
always thinking about emergency procedure
my friends also are new, nervous, also make mistakes but enjoy the job
when I get to work with classmate a lot of fun
hands get so dry and peeling. In the airport dry in airplane dry
forgot apron went back to pick it up
First class people tough?
when airplane lands, big noise
people are nice

First, I've always felt a little queasy about reading another person's private thoughts that were clearly not meant for public consumption. But then the content takes over and it's impossible not to think about this woman, probably far from her family, in a strange country, trying to remember all she's been taught, responsible for the safety of hundreds of people during the course of a day, dealing with those tough first class passengers, but concluding on such a positive note that "people are nice". I'm glad I uncovered this torn piece of paper once again.