I just finished up Chris Guillebeau’s latest book and in two words, do I recommend it? Yes. I only needed one. My reason for that is it had me stopping midway through and taking some action. That doesn’t happen very often.

The Happiness of Pursuit is Guillebeau’s takeaway from studying people who have embarked on some pretty ambitious quests. Oh you know, little things like walking across Turkey, sailing the world solo or completing the MIT computer science curriculum in a single year. No big whoop. Then there’s his own quest of visiting every country on the planet, which he completed by the age of 35. So yeah, the dude has some street cred to write about these things.

Chris interviewed to people around the world about their quests to discover what motivated them, what they had in common and what we could learn from them, no matter what our personal ambitions are. He discusses some areas that any of these adventures have in common: courage, routine, struggle and the importance of community.

While I’m not going to try and cover everything in a short blog post, I will say it was inspiring to hear these stories about people attempting such radical missions. It was comforting to hear that no matter how hard-working or talented these people were, there’s always self-doubt, failure, patience and mundane routine involved. I think it’s important to be reminded of this because all we often hear about is the sexy grand finale achievement.

If you haven’t read any of his work before, it’s a good introduction because it references some of his earlier material like annual reviews (also recommended). Chris doesn’t give you an opportunity to make excuses about not going after what you want in life, but stays humble and open to what your personal quest might be. Really you just get the sense that his end goal isn’t just selling thousands of books, but helping others do some remarkable things. Even if you have no interest in running marathons weekly or setting the world record for the most bird species sighted, there’s a lot you can take from this book and apply to your own career or side projects.

p.s. If you were curious about what the action it inspired me to take, it involved creating a life list (while listening to John Lennon’s Imagine on vinyl, of course).

And p.p.s. We just so happen to have an extra copy of the hardcover. Tell us why you’re jonesing to read this in the comments and we’ll pick a winner on 10/16.

You might have seen it as a Kickstarter project late last year, but if you haven’t, Projecteo is a tiny projector for your Instagram photos. Simply connect your account, choose the photos you want to include and they’ll send you a projector along with your wheel of images. I recently got a chance to borrow one and was able to display images pretty clearly as large as 8 x 8 inches. It’s definitely a way fun way to show off your photos besides your smartphone and I’m feeling like Slinkachu has to use this for a drive-in movie scene.

The good folks over there are awesome enough to let us give away one, so we’re doing just that. To enter, just tell us what would be on your reel(s) in the comments below. We’ll pick a winner at random on Friday (or most likely just the comment that makes us laugh hardest).

I’ve been known to karaoke, but one thing I haven’t done is participate in an air guitar competition. I actually haven’t attended one either, but as Dave assures me, it’s absolutely worth going. In his words “There’s something amazing about these guys who could be total nerds in other areas of life, but are quasi rock-stars in this arena. It’s rad, especially from a sociological standpoint.” That wins me over, but we’d still like to give away a pair of tickets to either the San Diego (July 12th at Soda Bar) or San Francisco (July 14th at The Independent) regionals.

To enter, just like this post and tell us what song you’d be riffing out to if you were on stage. We’ll pick a winner at random on Monday. For now here’s a recap of the action from NYC.

Our pals at Furni have just released three hot new digital watches for summer. They feature 1980’s style LCD with indiglo backlight, stopwatch, countdown timer and multiple alarm features. These bad boys are gonna fly off shelves faster than you can say Saved By The Bell, but before they do, here’s your chance to win one. To enter the giveaway, just drop a comment below telling us why watches are awesome. The top 3 most creative comments will be announced July 31st (in the comments section) and we’ll hook up each of you with a brand new watch. For bonus points, drop a tweet mentioning @holidaymatinee and @Furni_Mike.

GOOD Magazine has taken the initiative to declare this Sunday April 25th the 1st annual Neighbor Day, a day of local community and getting to know your neighbors. Besides the fact that I’m an instant fan of non-traditional holidays, I think it’s awesome to celebrate something that makes our lives so very rich. It’s so easy to get involved that you won’t even have an excuse – just throw a potluck, support local independent businesses or finally introduce yourself to that person you’ve passed by every day for the past 3 years without knowing their name. For extra credit we’d like you to vouch for the San Diego neighborhood that rocks hardest and tell us why. The best response we receive within a week from today will get a shirt reppin’ their ‘hood in the colors of their choice. Now, let’s see some love for your neighborhood!