Here’s a picture of me with some of the guys from work on a lunchtime geocaching expedition.  It’s my first test of Sticky Image, which is a wordpress plugin for my website that lets me post pictures and automatically resizes them for me.  Sweet.

Improv Everywhere’s 5th Annual No Pants subway ride was busted by cops last Sunday, and eight pantsless riders were handcuffed and issued court summonses. 

I love Improv Everywhere.  I love the NYPD too, but I just wish they wouldn’t do stuff like this.  Since when is it a crime to stand around in a pair of boxer shorts?

Anyway, I think this picture from the AP speaks for itself.

For your entertainment, another genius mission from Improv Everywhere.

Excise tax on your phone bill may be on way out 

Rep. Gary Miller, R-Calif., recently introduced legislation in the House â?? supported by 98 co-sponsors â?? aimed at repealing the tax, which was imposed in 1898 to help pay for the Spanish-American War. The war was over in six months, but the tax stayed.

The general excise tax has so far cost consumers about $300 billion, says the Congressional Research Service. The entire Spanish-American War cost only about $6 billion, adjusted for inflation.

Is it a little bit worrisome that for over 100 years Americans have been paying a tax with no existing purpose and never questioning it?  Then again, you never know when we’ll have another war with Spain, and then we’ll need that $300 billion.  I certainly hope our government has been saving it all in a safe place …

Democrats and Republicans both adept at ignoring facts, brain scans show.

Then, with their minds made up, brain activity ceased in the areas that deal with negative emotions such as disgust. But activity spiked in the circuits involved in reward, a response similar to what addicts experience when they get a fix … The study points to a total lack of reason in political decision-making. 

“…because god made it so,” says the Kansas school board.

This past Monday I delivered my second speech at Toastmasters.  It was titled, “Three Rules for taking Great Photographs.”

At every meeting there are three or four speakers who deliver a prepared speech.  After all the speeches have been delivered, the audience is asked to vote for their favorite speaker for that night, and an award for Best Speaker is handed out at the end of the meeting.

I joined Toastmasters for three reasons.  1) I wanted to be involved in a social activity.  2) I wanted to improve my overall social and communication skills.  3) I wanted to learn how to give a dynamic speech or presentation.

I’ve since discovered a fourth reason for going to Toastmasters each week.

On Monday night I won the blue ribbon for best speaker.  It’s the third ribbon I’ve won (I’ve also won two for ”Table Topics,” which is a short, extemporaneous speech). 

Toastmasters is the farthest thing from a competition.  It is a place for people to learn and improve themselves in a supportive environment.

But still, I like to win.

A physical pain
 
again, day of mental pain.

Love pain and love life.

– Thanks to Mike for this morning’s Haiku!

Dropped in a blue box,

a journey that can’t begin

without two more cents.

Lance Berkman

Brad and I were hanging around the city waiting to go see the Mets play the Houston Astros later that night.  Walking by the Hyatt Hotel on 42nd St., we spotted a big bus idling next to the hotel and a small crowd just outside the hotel entrance.  When we stopped for a look we found Houston Astros star left fielder Lance Berkman amongst the crowd signing autographs.  It turns out that the Astros were staying at the Hyatt and were just about the head to Shea — just like us!

Jim J. Bullock

I spotted Monroe from Too Close for Comfort while walking down 8th Avenue.  I never would have believed it was really him had Michelle not immediately said to me, “Was that Jim J. Bullock?!”

Ok, I lied.  I don’t really hate you, Alex Tew.

For those who don’t know, Alex Tew is the 21 year-old student from England who, while contemplating how to raise some money to help pay for school and also buy some new socks, conceived of the Million Dollar Homepage.  The idea: make a webpage divided up into a grid of one million small boxes and then sell each one of those boxes for one dollar each.  The new owner of the box may place a picture and/or link in each little piece of virtual real estate.

In about four months Mr. Tew has sold all one million of these little boxes.  Allow me to repeat: HE HAS SOLD ALL ONE MILLION.

His webpage became such a phenomenon that he auctioned off the last one thousand boxes on EBay and they sold for over thirty thousand dollars.

It’s a powerful lesson on the value of a good idea and a little ingenuity, and a reminder that work imparted and money earned do not have a linear relationship.

In truth, I don’t hate Alex Tew at all — I admire him, and if there’s anyone I hate, it’s me.  Not because I didn’t think up the idea of a million dollar homepage first, but rather because in my 27 years to date, the best idea I’ve come up with has me working on a clock every day and cherishing two weeks of vacation time every year.