Okay, so I go to Chipotle very often. Probably 3-5 times a week, depending on how I feel. And I picked up this flyer they had the other day, where if you bought one of their burritos, you could get free admittance to a local art show. The flyer started with something like “Elegant Burritos, Fine Art”, which is unremarkable, but ended with the line “Go get your art on!”, exclamation and all. I was thinking “wow”. Just thinking that a company would be witty / cliche-ee / cheesy / that hip really took me back. I really like it though … they really don’t take themselves seriously at all which makes me happy. And then the other day I went to McDonald’s. Normally I would never go there, as I am a die hard Carl’s Jr. / Wendy’s fan, but I was at the mall, had just gotten a haircut after enjoying the shitty weather, but before waiting an hour and a half for service- which is a whole story in itself – and I got a hamburger and some nugs. Now, I’m a huge fan of nugs. I luuvv me some nugs. But these nuggets were rediculously fake. As was the hamburger. What the fuck do they make these things out of? Surely not out of actual chicken and grain and beef. I ate one nug, and was done. I took one bite of the burger, and was done. That shit was *gross*. McDonald’s officially gets a thumbs down. The white stripes piss me off. God. Welcome back to the 80s. With an extra dose of “are they siblings? Married? WTF is *WRONG* with that guy!?” thrown in for good measure. I normally don’t watch TV at all, but today I decided to watch some MTV of all things, and they were on. Man. Quality = sinking. So I’m doing well, minus a couple things. I’ll go through those first, then tell you how fine of a life I am leading. The first thing that is on the top of my mind is Steve (steve-o / grooveman) Chapin. He and I are great friends, and I totally screwed him and a bunch of his friends last weekend. We had a lockin that night, and he and a bunch of guys were coming down from Denver, and had told me this a while before. I told him that he was on the list. I guess I did not tell him that I did not *save* them seats, as they weren’t prepaid or anything, and it was a packed lockin. Short story is that he called before leaving Denver, and I had the pleasure of telling him that his spaces were already filled. God I feel terrible. I really go out of my way to not shaft my friends. Poke fun, piss off, abuse and generally agitate my friends? Absolutely. Shaft, screw, or short change? Never. And I did. I feel pretty bad about it. I mean, sure, I can totally rationalize the situation down to dollars and cents and business, but you know, that’s really callous – and I’m a person, not a calculator. So, instead of fluffing the blame off onto miscommunication and just relying on the numbers in defense, I’m going to feel bad. And boy, I sure do. Sorry Steve :-/ Ian Garfunkalow and his crew … wait, posted about that in the last post. Wow, long time between updates. Oops. I’ve read a lot of books recently. Recently meaning like 6 months. I’ve read Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, Atlas Shrugged (2nd time), Runaway Jury, Unbearable Lightness of Being (2nd time), Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, Microsoft: Reflections, 4th Perimeter, Politika and a couple others I’m sure I’m forgetting. Actually, that’s not that many books. Hmm. Regardless, I would like to re-read the Tim O’Brian book “The Things They Carried”, simply because Nick has read it, and it was the first book to introduce me to the word “Cooz”. I really like Blink 182. Not the music so much as the guys in the band. I watched this sorta-documentary thing about them and they’re a bunch of cool guys. The drummer sorta freaks me out, but the other two guys are not only great musicians, but also really smart. I didn’t expect that at all. But you know, I’m wrong a lot. Also, Linkin Park’s “Numb” gets played *way* too much. It’s a decent song – “All I Want to do is be more like me and less like you” and all – and the video is actually pretty good, but 2x an hour is too much. Oh wait, this is MTV. Have you ever been sitting there online, when you glance at your buddy list – as you compulsively do once a minute or so – and see somebody you really like be online? Oh, yes, they’re online, but of course they don’t talk to you because they’re busy / important / not there / whatever. However, they are there. Comfortingly there, like a little sign that “Hey, I’m not dead. I’m just too busy / important / whatever, but I am still alive and kicking. Here is my witty away message or what have you”. I don’t know why, but I very much like being able to see that particular people 1. Haven’t blocked me *cough*EMILY*cough* and that 2. They’re still around, somehow. Tore is a good example of this, as is Sammi, and a couple other folks. Me, though, I’m nearly always online, so I doubt anybody gets such a thrill from seeing me on their buddy list. So back to where I was, I am okay. The business is doing super – we’re nearly paying the bills! From there, it’s only a matter of years before we can draw paychecks! Yay, Capitalism! We’re throwing a huge lockin next weekend, so I’m sorta prepping this week by sleeping a lot – probably going to do the whole don’t sleep for three days thing. (Mona Lisa’s Smile looks like a good movie). HPI is doing well, but is more stressful than the store and I don’t know why – I haven’t given it a lot of thought, as stress is a way of life, but I think I will. The weather has been bad of late, and although I really like my winter wardrobe, the cold really sucks. Oh, and I’m going to my parent’s place with Keen for Thanksgiving. And I made a casserole tonight, but I sorta burnt the cheese layer on top. So it’s yummy, but doesn’t look too appetizing. Sounds about like everything else right now – doesn’t *look* too good, but underneath it all it’s pretty good nonetheless.