It's my birthday. I'm going to give a gift to myself today. I'm going to post five posts that make me happy.  I hope you will like reading them. I hope you haven't read all of them already.

Also, maybe in the comments section, you will post your favorite post back to me. And tell me why it makes you happy. That would be a good gift.

Top Ten Jobs to Have, April 2006
I like this one because it is one of the first posts I did. It reminds me that each time I've tried something new I have been tentative, and largely terrible at it. This is not really a post as much as a start of a post. But I like the last line.

My financial history, and stop whining about your job, March 2007
My personal finances have been sort of a wreck since about 2001. It's very scary to have a messy financial life. It's even scarier to be a career advisor in a financial mess. I was so scared, all the time, that people would find out and then hate me. So it was a huge relief to write this post and come clean about who I am, and how I got here. And there were absolutely no negative ramifications from writing this post. It taught me so much about the value of being who I am, and trusting that it will be okay to be me.

Gen X updates outdated work and family goals, September 2007
I don't write a lot about gen X. Because I have a company that is an anthem to generation Y, but also because everyone who is not gen X hates hearing about gen X. We're a generation that has nothing to lose, so we take huge risks all the time. In history, it is the marginal, overlooked, overshadowed generations that are revolutionary. That's how I know that history will mark gen -X as the real revolutionaries of this era. And this post collects the data I have running through my head to support this conclusion.

Try to be funny, even if you're not, March 2008
It took me so long to realize that I have Asperger Syndrome. It was a result of lots of tiny little pieces of information piling up. One of them was after this post. I lamented the fact that I was funny but men don't like funny, they like hot. And my friend told me, "You're not funny. I mean, you are, but you don't know when you are." At first I thought this was informative because now I could just focus on being hot. But really, it was informative because it's true that I am never really sure when something's funny.

Tips for coping when your startup is out of cash, May 2009
I remember this day so clearly. I thought I was going to die from the pressure I was under, and I felt so totally isolated in a room full of parents with overachiever violin students. I wondered if they could tell I was falling apart. I wondered if my son thought I looked like other parents. The only way to keep myself sane that day was to write the post as the post was happening. It makes me happy that I have a place to publish something like this.

People ask me all the time how they can get more readers to their blog. The answer is that you have to be learning on your blog. If you're not learning, no one else is learning. You can't fake it. It's safe to talk about what you know, but it's not that interesting; no one likes a know-it-all. My favorite posts are the one's when I was doing something scary, but doing it with grace. In fact, I actually think those are my favorite times of life.