Headline of the Day
Taco Tuesday
Hangintherejack.com has coupons for two free tacos, valid ONLY today — Tuesday, February 24, 2009 — from 12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.
I know this because my son printed out a sheaf of them last night and asked me to take him to Jack in the Box at midnight for a bedtime taco snack.
When that idea sputtered, he laid out his plan for today as follows:
- Drive through Jack in the Box on the way to school and get two free tacos for breakfast.
- Drive through Jack in the Box on the way home from school. His mom will get two free tacos in the drive-through lane while he gets out of the car, goes inside and orders two more free tacos.
- For dinner, repeat Step 2.
So You Want to Be a Writer
The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.
This book would be a great gift from a parent to a child who is interested in becoming a writer. When Junior discovers that winning the Nobel Prize in Literature at age 69 entails spending most of one’s decades depressed, impoverished, ignored, and bitter, he will likely knuckle under and agree to pursue radiology.
The Facebook Comment I Didn’t Write
Here’s the status update I did post:
Paul is shoehorning the limitlessness of life through the limitations of the present…
A woman whose son plays on a roller hockey team with my son posted the following comment:
Wow. That’s actually pretty profound & it took me a few seconds to process that! 🙂
And here’s the comment I didn’t write in response:
That’s why I bring a book to hockey tournaments, so I don’t have to spend the time between games trying to talk to people who’d always be 5 seconds behind me.
It’s Not Safe to Live Here Anymore
IRVINE A man is dead — and his wife and son injured — after his daughter’s ex-boyfriend allegedly took the family hostage for five hours beginning late Friday, police said.
That’s the second murder in town in the last two weeks!
PACK YOUR BAGS HONEY! WE’RE MOVING TO SANTA ANA!
It’s Oscar Night!
What’s with all these awards? They’re always giving out awards. Best Fascist Dictator: Adolf Hitler.
LOL! Woody Allen cracks me up!
I’m not going to watch the Oscars but I hope Slumdog Millionaire wins a lot of awards because my owner says it’s good and because I love movies about dogs.
Unless Owen Wilson is in it.
— Lightning 
Facebook Competition
We don’t just want more friends than everybody else; we also want the highest score in Word Twist and the most virtual Easter Eggs. I recently spent nearly 24 hours playing Scramble on Facebook until I had a higher score than my friend Dough Dough. Why? Because I knew Facebook would send him a note that said; “Raina has beaten your personal high score on Scramble.” When he commented on his complete and total defeat, I just said; “I didn’t know Facebook would tell you that. OMG! LOL!”
Ryan Davidson, 1993-2009
Ryan was one of the greatest competitors I’ve ever known and I’m so thankful for his inspiration.
Ryan Davidson, a member of the USC family, passed away today on his 16th birthday. Very sad news . . .
Nerds
Someone left a box of Nerds on a cubicle wall in the IT department. (The door in the back left is my office!)
What is that supposed to mean? We are not (just) nerds!
The Chicago Tea Party
This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage? President Obama are you listening? How about we all stop paying our mortgage!
I’m rolling over in my grave, as the gentleman from Chicago has already noted. Count me in for the Chicago Tea Party!
A little revolution now and then is a good thing; the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
I’ll bring Samuel Adams along. Not the beer, you yahoos, the patriot! He has experience with this sort of thing.
P.S. Medary.com has provided a Chicago Tea Party broadside, or whatever you call them nowadays.
A Lesson in Trust
The dog has a stuffed bear he likes to sleep with. Unfortunately, it’s now bedtime and we don’t know where the bear is.
“Have you seen his bear?” I ask my wife.
“I think he had it upstairs,” she says. “Either in our room or Casey’s room.”
“Upstairs” and “bear” are two of the words the dog recognizes so he’s already charged upstairs and waiting for me on the top step.
I walk up and ask him, “Where’s your bear?”
He runs into my room. We look around in there and can’t find it so we go down the hall to the boy’s room where he’s sitting on the bed doing homework.
I say to him, “Where is it, you bear-stealin’ varmint?”
He gets up and walks out of the room.
“Thanks for the help,” I call after him. “Come on, Lightning, we’ll conduct the search without him.”
A few moments later, the boy walks back in with the bear in his hand.
“How lame are you?” he asks.
“Where was it?”
“I walked downstairs to the sofa, lifted up the blanket and it was right there,” he says. “Why couldn’t you find it?”
“I didn’t look there because Mom said it was upstairs. See, that’s what you get for trusting people.”
Living on the Edge
I’ve just poured myself a Diet Pepsi when my son announces that diet sodas are unhealthy.
“They add things to the diet sodas so they’re even more unhealthy than regular sodas.”
I ask him, “What do they add?”
“I didn’t get that far into it,” he says, “The article started to get boring.”
“In that case, I’m going to go ahead and drink this thing.”
A Trade, Not a Steal
We were watching the NBA All-Star Game yesterday when someone — Marv Albert, I think — said that Pau Gasol was acquired in a “steal” by the Los Angeles Lakers.
My son takes exception.
“That wasn’t a steal,” he says. “It was a trade. Javaris Crittenton is a very capable player.”
I Got a Passport
I got my first passport yesterday. I can go anywhere! The world is my oyster!
Although I really don’t like to travel . . .
Some people get annoyed with me when I say that, including members of my own family. It doesn’t make sense to them. My mom, for example, has been to like 30 countries. Maybe 50, I can’t keep track.
For me, I start out thinking I’d be happier somewhere else but after I’ve spent all the time and money to get there, I realize I’m still the same person with the same problems I had at home.
Not to mention the possibility of being drugged, robbed and killed, or hit by a tsunami.
I’m not saying there’s nothing positive about travel. It’s just not worth the investment . . .
Don’t Tase Me, Bro
Physicist who invented the Taser gun dies
Come to find out, the guy who invented the Taser lived right here in Orange County, in Mission Viejo!
I’m shocked!
Happy Valentine’s Day
Who knew Carrie Fisher has a blog? —
I happen to be the possessor of a very big personality . . .
When I date someone, I generally have about three months of a personality available and then I finally come to the end of it. I need to refuel, I short-circuit. And then whoever I’m with shows up, and a lot of the times I don’t like him so much.
Now wait, I just got a little quieter and what’d you just say? You didn’t read this? You’ve never seen that? You don’t know who that is? You really think that about me? He bothers me – not that I’m so great, but the enchantment wears off, and then the sleeping giant wakes up and says, “Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of someone dumb.”
Happy Caturday
A cat in Seattle is having a photo exhibition! I have to admit that a couple of the photos are pretty good.
I don’t have a camera. 🙁
— Lightning
The Art of the Possible
The role of the economist in discussions of public policy seems to me to be to prescribe what should be done in light of what can be done, politics aside, and not to predict what is “politically feasible” and then to recommend it.
Take out the references to economics and public policy and you can probably apply the “what should be done in light of what can be done” approach in your own work. It’s the art of the possible . . .
To Live and Die in Irvine
IRVINE – A group of solemn people sat around tables at a fast-food Chinese restaurant off Jeffrey Road on Wednesday night after a man was shot and killed while sitting in a white Lexus parked behind the eatery.
At least he died in a nice car. It’s Irvine, Jake!
This happened a stone’s throw from my house. Well, more than a stone’s throw but let’s say a hard 5-iron with a good bounce off Trabuco Road.
I’ve been to that Chinese restaurant many times. (It’s a dine-in restaurant, not a fast-food place, despite what the Register says.)
Don’t worry about me though. Irvine is still the safest city in the country.
That guy must have gotten himself mixed up in some kind of trouble . . .
Happy 200th Birthday, Charles Darwin
