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 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 . . .
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!
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.”
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 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 . . .
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 . . .
Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Morgan Tsvangirai and that guy from the Miller High Life commercials . . .
From TIME magazine
It’s chilly tonight in Orange County — temperatures in the low 40s — but the dog still needs to go out for a walk so I ask my son to please take care of it.
“It’s kinda cold,” he says.
“It’s okay,” I reply. “He’s got fur.”
“I don’t have fur.”
“You should have thought of that when you asked for a dog.”
The situation could not be more serious. It is inexcusable and irresponsible for any of us to get bogged down in distraction, delay or politics as usual while millions of Americans are being put out of work. Now is the time for Congress to act.
Bah-loney. The American economy will bounce back as it always has, as surely as day follows night, no matter what anyone does or doesn’t do.
The only urgency in passing a stimulus bill (which doesn’t work, as I’ve explained previously) is so President Obama can take the credit for the recovery when it occurs . . .
And I know a father who had a son
He longed to tell him all the reasons for the things he’d done
This story needs a quick setup . . .
My son’s two-year-old birthday party was a festive event. The whole neighborhood was there!
We had a bounce house, a clown . . . the only thing that marred the day slightly was that as everyone sang “Happy Birthday,” his mom lifted him up so he could see the cake, and he stuck his finger out and touched a lit candle.
It wasn’t a bad burn but he did cry for a while.
We have a video of this. That’s why he remembers it.
So — we’re having a late lunch today at Souplantation. A kid who looks about four years old runs down the aisle, turns the corner and runs back up the next aisle over.
I ask, “Why is it a good idea as a parent to let your kid run through restaurants?”
My son, totally off topic, says, “Why is it a good idea to let your kid stick his finger in a candle?”
I say, “I don’t know. You didn’t do it again though, did you?”
His mom says, “Maybe you shouldn’t have a birthday party at all if you want to complain about it.”
“A two-year-old shouldn’t have a birthday party?!” he asks in disbelief.
I say, “Mom makes a good point, if you’re just going to stick your finger in a candle and ruin it for everybody.”
My son’s dribbling a basketball in the family room, working on some moves. His mom comes in and tells him to knock it off.
He responds by posting her up and backing her down . . .
Wednesday was national signing day for college football. Looks like UCLA got a good group of kids.
One of my Facebook friends, a UCLA grad, updated his status to say that he thinks UCLA will now rule the city in basketball AND football.
I posted a comment on his status: What about SAT scores?
And within minutes he had dropped me from his friend list, after sending me an angry email saying that USC is getting smart kids internationally and out of state while UCLA has to take California kids and besides that they’re manipulating the stats and blah blah blah . . .
To fully appreciate that, you need to know that traditionally the perception has been that the rich SoCal kids go to USC while the smart kids go to UCLA. In recent years though, USC has moved ahead in SAT scores, GPA, National Merit Scholars, etc., and continues to widen the gap.
So now the USC kids are richer AND smarter and the Bruins aren’t taking it well. Not at all.
FIGHT ON!
It was after 11 p.m. last night. I was already in bed but my son was still downstairs doing homework. He’s got a hockey game tonight in Huntington Beach and he wanted to work ahead a little bit.
Then I heard: “WOOOOOOO! WAAAAAAAH! BABABABABABABABABABABABABA!”
I got up, went out to the stairs and yelled down, “What are you DOING?”
“It’s my homework war cry!” he yelled back.
Hmmm — having a homework war cry actually sounds like a pretty good idea to me so I let the matter slide and went back to bed . . .
We place the highest value on actual implementation and taking action. There are many things one doesn’t understand and therefore, we ask them why don’t you just go ahead and take action; try to do something? You realize how little you know and you face your own failures and you simply can correct those failures and redo it again and at the second trial you realize another mistake or another thing you didn’t like so you can redo it once again. So by constant improvement, or, should I say, the improvement based upon action, one can rise to the higher level of practice and knowledge.
I’m supposed to be doing some stuff in London today, but the snivelling tossers cancelled all the trains and buses because there was a bit of snow. On the bright side, shutting down our financial services industry for a day will save the country billions.
