Edited for Content

Rant follows:

I remember a couple of years, ago, I was on a site I frequented and I mentioned the iPad. The dude running the site had to make a comment about how I *had* to mention the iPad - as if the statement I made was an excuse to bring up the device. I don't need excuses. I do my technological dance-of-joy with NO SHAME.

You know what, no one says these things when someone mentions their car, their computer, their house, their husband, their wife, or their lavish vacation. Well, I'm sure someone does, but the point is that most of those things have just become a part of our every day lives, just like smartphones and big, flatscreen televisions have become so common.

It's not (always) about bragging when someone mentions something they have - just because someone else doesn't have it. These are the people, the places, the events, and the things that make up the totality of our lives so no one should feel bad about mentioning their management position simply because there are those who wish they had them. It's when that's all you know how to talk about, when you value nothing but displaying your accomplishments or your things, hoping to make someone else feel inadequate.

Your success does not equal my failure and vice-versa.
So, yeah, I'll mention my girlfriend, because she's a part of my life. I'll mention my job because it's a part of my life, and I've had times IN that life when I had NO job, so I value the good AND the bad. I'll also mention the new and interesting technology that fascinates and inspires and empowers me. Because that's a part of my life, too.

Feel free to do the same and I'll do my best not to make comments that, years later, make you feel a twinge whenever you mention your successful relationship, career, home purchase, or iPad, as if you're doing a bad thing and should somehow filter that experience out of your conversation.

Field of View

If you've never done it before, wherever you are, stop and focus on one area without moving your head or your eyes around. You'll soon become acutely aware of every swaying blade of grass, every crawling ant,.. every movement, every change, in your field of view. I think the same is true of friends and family and anyone or anything close to us.

Everything normal about these people and relationships slips out of focus and every... single... flaw... in our friends and family members sticks out like a sore thumb, no matter how small or insignificant. This is natural, but it is also something to be cautious of.

Let's not take the best of these familiar people and places for granted so much that all we can see is the worst in them.