Ten of the best April Fool's Day hoaxes

Check it out:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070329054603.f2i8t0mu&show_article=1&catnum=9

The two reasons people say no to your idea

"It's been done before"

"It's never been done before"

Even though neither one is truthful, accurate or useful, you need to be prepared for both.

- Seth Godin

My next diet...

The Shangri La Diet
You can read the background story here

I’m a poet and didn’t know it

Dana Gioia, a Harvard graduate and published poet, bemoans the modern trend to analyze and critique poetry as though it were an intellectual thing.

He says that the goal of public education in the arts is not to create more artists, but to create complete human beings in an age of technology. “We're failing our children, especially our young men. We provide them a cognitive, analytical education, but we are failing to educate their emotions."

David of Israel was a warrior poet. His son Solomon was a scholar poet. Neither of them was considered effeminate. Just ask Goliath. Yet David and Solomon gave us deep treasures of poetry in Psalms and Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Songs of Solomon.

We should immerse our children in the arts. Let a storyteller or poet perform in a way that leaves an audience breathless and every child in the room saying ‘I want to learn how to do that.'

Do this and we will create better readers, better writers, and more complete human beings.

Thoughts on the Iraq War

I read an article from a very conservative website and was surprised at what it said. I’m tempted to agree, but I’m not aquainted enough with Bush’s policies to have a strong opinion. The article basically said that Bush is a great conservative with very poor execution and that what our country needs is someone who’s both. Here is a summary:

“…the battle for perception of the Iraq War has gone entirely against the United States. In the eyes of both the American public and the Islamic world, we have lost—and lost badly. “

“Where Clinton seemed a man of enormous political competence and no principle, Bush has been a man of principle and very little political competence…”

Regarding the upcoming 2008 elections:
“Iraq needs an American president who embraces Bush’s principles—and rejects his policies.

Gladys Hardy from Austin, TX

Another blog worth checking out

Bookmark: http://www.consumerist.com/


They are an advocate blog for consumers. Today i read this article about not buying expensive cables from electronic stores and I also signed Anna up to recieve a free Dove Sample.

(I'm a sucker for anything that's free!)

Debt Free !?!

We finally sold our apartment! The first buyer was a pain to deal with and the deal fell-through. The second buyer was great!

His name is Kenton Regehr and he and his wife Cheryl were good friends of ours while we lived in Abbotsford. Unfortunately we didn't meet them until we were already planning to move to Texas. Nevertheless, they became good friends and we've enjoyed hearing from them on occasion. Kenton was also the guy who gave me a summer job. God certainly knew what he was doing when he introduced us!

(Kenton and Cheryl... if you are reading this, thank you! Make sure you stop by DFW on your way to visit family this summer. We'd love to hang out and then treat you to dinner!)

Anna and I are going to take the money from selling our apartment, then cash out our canadian mutual funds (which recieved GREAT returns thanks to Jared) and then pay off my student loan. We'll wire-transfer the rest down here and hopefully pay off our car loan too. Then we'll be debt free!

If Crack Dealers Took Lessons From Walgreens, They Really Would Be Rich

Here is an interesting read from one of my favorite blogs.

To summarize: Buy your pharmaceuticals from Costco or Sams Club.

http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/?s=costco

Weekly Update

Highlights from this week:

1.) We house sat for our parents and looked after our Grandmother and Aunt who were also staying there. My Grandmother is the one who needs the most care, but our Aunt needs the most attention (if you know what I mean). Our car got egged but it’s ok.

2.) Yesterday Anna and I had a date and went out for Mexican food. We bought two CD’s from Barns and Noble (John Fogerty Hits and Sara Groves)

3.) We bought a new bed for Fraser’s kennel… but he ripped it up the next day.

4.) We rented the movie Hollywood Land and the Departed (which was great!)

5.) Still trying to start my own trash business. Leaning towards color scheme and name.

6.) Anna booked a flight to Mexico so she can meet with her friend Laura Dekay for an all-inclusive trip scheduled for mid-March.

7.) Still trying to sell our Condo in Abbotsford. Our buyer has been giving us the runaround. A friend has made another offer that is a little lower and I might take it so that we can close on paperwork before March 28th (deadline).

8.) Anna’s friend from Huston is driving up to visit this weekend. We have got plans to go out for dinner three nights in a row this weekend which is unusual for us.

9.) I deposited a $2000+ check and forgot to endorse the back of it. My bank sent it back via snail mail and it never arrived. They refuse to take responsibility and now my employer must cancel and write me a new check. We are for sure changing banks. I have been without this money for 2 weeks. I have had troubles with them before. If you are reading this, don’t use WASHINGTON MUTUAL!

10.) Collectively Anna and I filled out three NCAA March Madness Brackets. We’ll see how we do!

Turn Google into your own Napster

I found this on my favorite social news site digg.com.

Copy and paste this in the serach bar:

{-inurl:(htmhtmlphp) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wmamp3) "DIGG"}

Replace DIGG with your favorite band. You will only find open indexes that contain downloadable music files. This really works. Right click on the link and then save to your computer.

The yolks on who?

Over the last few days, Anna and I have been house-sitting for our Texas family. They are vacationing in California for Spring Break and arrive home later tonight.

Perhaps it is just a coincidence, but last night the house was Toilet Papered. Anna and I theorize that this prank was done by Maria’s Jr. High friends. If the prank was done by guys, we figure the prank would have been twice as comprehensive.

It would have been a harmless joke if it weren’t for the eggs on the car. I’ll keep you posted as this saga continues…

Beta Ball

Everyday I sit at my desk and I look at my Beta fish. He was a valentine’s gift from Anna and has provided me with hours of entertainment. Sometimes, to make his (and my) day more interesting, I put a mirror beside his bowl. I’m sure you’ve all seen this done where the fish flares his gills and swirls rapidly around his bowl.

And then one day, it occurred to me… the perfect invention. The Beta Ball!

It would be a floating mirror in the shape of a ball. The fish would get daily exercise and stimulation and the owner would be thoroughly entertained as ball was knocked around. This invention would follow in the footsteps of other great pet inventions such as the Hamster Ball, The Hamster wheel, and Cat-nip.

Expect to see this product on the shelves in 2008.

Fraser's Fears

Anna and I were talking today about how we should document Fraser’s Fears.

Here is what we have so far:

Vacuums
Baths
Baby’s with grocery carts
Old people with walkers
Soccer Players
Helium Balloons
Little furry stuffed chairs
Paper dolls / puppets

Maintenance Guys

Anna and I share a car and every morning she drops me off at work. In the underground parking we always see the two maintenance guys from my building taking for a cigarette break. This morning Anna said:

“Maintenance guys are like junior high girls going to the bathroom… they always travel in pairs”

And I laughed out loud.

You see, the guys in my building are not the sharpest tools in the shed. They kinda look like George and Lennie from Mice and Men… one is very tall and stocky and the other one is really short. They both have very thick Texas accents and when you see them spend a lot of time talking and very little time fixing anything!

It's just so funny to group these two maintenance guys in the same category as chatty school girls going to the bathroom. Anyway, i hope you found this funny too.