the view from across two ponds

I have been traveling around the world since about the time Obama announced that he would be running for the presidency, and here and there I have heard people talk about him and ask me what I think, etc etc. But I could not believe the excitement of all the people here in Tel Aviv about the election, almost every person I encountered yesterday on my first day here was just as excited for the election as I was; they were equally as excited about the prospect of Obama winning.

Which brings me to the point I wanted to make... I have a lot of respect for McCain and I don't think our country would be in a bad spot with him at the helm. But the amount of hope and excitement that Obama brings to the entire world is something that just can't be equaled.

Seeing everyone out in Grant Park tonight while I am out in Israel made me kind of sad, I wish I could have been in Chicago for this historic moment in our history, but I can't wait to see what is to come for the next 4 years.

we really do need a 20 foot wall on the border

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27407564/

This is truly a fantastic story.

If I had a dollar for every time someone said "I wish I had a nickel for every time _______ happened," I’d be a lot fucking richer than those idiots.

my life's calling

is it too late in life to quit everything i'm going and become a video game tester? i think i missed my calling with this whole finance thing...

Spell "I cup"

What fricking moron designed the modern day urinal? Anyone who understands even the simplest aspects of physics understands that if you shoot something at a flat, vertical surface it is extremely likely that it will shoot right back at you. Why isn't the back of the urinal angled away from you (from top to bottom) so that it shoots DOWN instead of right back out of the urinal???

for those days when there isn't enough change between the seats

thanks to EBell for finding this one

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27167122/?GT1=43001

There's always next year

Appanently nobody told this guy about next year...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-talk-cubs-auction-newoct08,0,6835728.story

And although this year's awful playoffs (just like last years) were painful, at least on a positive note all those old folks in Chicago will probably live another year to see if next year is the year.

I wonder if gullible jokes have changed with the times. You remember the old ones right, where you'd say something like "hey did you know the word gullible isn't in the dictionary?" and the poor idiot who hadn't heard the joke yet would actually look.

I'm thinking nowadays kids are getting more inventive. Like "hey did you know that the word gullible is written on top of the Sears Tower if you look it up on google earth?"


Do you ever think of something then wonder why the hell you thought of it... yup. This was one of those.

I got a $60 ticket for parking on a street where a sign right next to my car said it was ok to park, yet some sign 50 feet away and covered by a tree said it wasn't.

Since September 23rd, I have tried almost every day to contest the parking ticket online, and every day the City of Chicago website (www.cityofchicago.org/revenue) states that the part of the site where I can contest my ticket is experiencing "temporary difficulties." Since when is a week and a half temporary?

Of course, the part of the website where I can pay the ticket is fully functioning...

Good enough for government

Yesterday I ended up working pretty late at the Chicago office because I have a lot to do before heading to Cancun for my buddy's bachelor party. Which, in itself, is quite exciting.

Anyhow, I'm walking to the L from the office and I see this mail truck pull out of an alley. I then proceeded to watch in disbelief as the back door swung open and two huge mail bins fell out of the back of the truck. The guy wasn't even quick about stopping, he got about a whole block down the street before finally stopping the truck.

That's not even the best part. So the dude is picking up the mail which is now kinda scattered on the street a little bit (he was probably really lucky it was the end of the day cuz they were mostly empty) and putting it back in the bin. Then the guy, about 50 feet away from the mail truck with one more bin to pick up and sort out, decides he will just push the first bin as hard as he can back towards the mail truck. Well... THE CART DIDN'T GO STRAIGHT AND FLEW DIRECTLY INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC!!! I seriously almost fell over laughing, some car almost demolished several Chicagoans' mail.

And with people like that working for the government we wonder why this state can't balance its budget...

it's always the same story

I think if you were to survey every person who changes their cell phone number these days, you would find that a vast majority of them are doing it to get away from a member of the opposite sex.

effing netmeeting

I was just about to blog something and I get an IM from one of the guys on my team saying

Mike: I'm watching you ;)
Mike: you blogger

Then I realize I just got done with a half hour meeting of showing him how to do something on netmeeting and I hadn't closed it yet and he was watching what I was doing. Stupid netmeeting.......

* names in this account have been changed to protect the innocent

You know how I know you're gay?

So I have a tendency to overuse the term "gay" to describe things which I think are lame. In fact, the term "gay pains" has made it into my regular vocabulary (for those not familiar with the concept of gay pains, think of how you feel every time you hear Wham! on the radio. yup. that's gay pains).

Apparently this aspect of my speech makes certain friends/coworkers unhappy. People love to get self righteous when they feel they are somehow protecting a minority group from offense even though they are not a part of that group. Of course I would be more considerate, except that my friends who are in those minority groups never care the slightest bit.

Anyways I'll get to the point. Last night we are sitting on the beach just outside our hotel in Tel Aviv drinking a bit and just enjoying the waves. Out of nowhere, all the sudden there are 4 dudes on horses trotting slowly down the beachfront.

GAY PAINS!

Undeniable.

say goodbye to the next 10 hours of your life

http://www.oddee.com/

the beginning of the end

and on the 6th day, god created the Information Superhighway, and on that highway he created his very own blog. And he saw that the blog was good.

And then 70 million other people around the world created one too.

I hereby announce myself to be # 70,000,001.