Lottery winning done right

At last! A person won the lottery and, get this, actually did something normal with the money! I'm talking investments, college funds, paying off bills, starting a consulting company. Check out the CNNMoney story on Brad Duke, 34, who won $220 million (only got $85 million), and what he did w/ his lottery winnings:

• $45 million: Safe, low-risk investments such as municipal bonds
• $35 million: Aggressive investments like oil and gas and real estate
• $1.3 million: A family foundation
• $63,000: A trip to Tahiti with 17 friends
• $125,000: Mortgage retired on his 1,400-square-foot house
• $18,000: Student-loan repayment
• $65,000: New bicycles, including a $12,000 BMC road bike
• $14,500: A used black VW Jetta
• $12,000: Annual gift to each family member

I'm just happy he didn't waste it all on a brand new trailer home ...

Finding time to post

So I'm going through a bit of a crunch time in school. With a couple midterms, a paper, and a project I find little time to look around for interesting bits of information, or the energy to complain about anything other than my lack of motivation to study due to a MAJOR case of Senioritis.

I am sure I am not alone in this ... so I send my sympathy to anyone else who is hunched over research, books, finance problems, and anything else that has to do with your college education ...

Spring Break is just around the corner!!!

"Reserved for Expectant Mothers"

So I was at the Century City mall today -- doing some Saturday afternoon shopping -- and I saw this sign in the parking garage, it said "Reserved for Expectant Mothers." My first though was, wow, that's great, its the equivalent of a lactation room at the office but a parking spot...

And then I thought about it... how can do they know if you're an expectant mother (other than the obvious belly)? I mean, is there a certain time frame where you are considered to be an expectant mother where you are allowed and not allowed to park? Is it just in the third trimester or is as soon as you get pregnant?

The purpose of the sign is obvious -- but I couldn't stop my brain from coming up with all these questions... Thought I'd share...

Why my life would be easier if I drove a Hummer

I have a bone to pick with moronic LA drivers and road repair workers (or actually the people who decide when/where to do roadside construction).

The last two days has been hell on wheels -- an hour to get to downtown from Venice (a 15 mile drive, on the highway) and another 20-30 minutes to get from Downtown to the Parking Structure on Hope St. (a 2 miles drive on city streets) [in LA we count miles, not minutes]

The blame can be equally distributed between a number of causes:
1) Morons who don't know how to drive but somehow got their licenses and were able to purchase a car (which I guess means they're somewhat functional enough to hold a job yet not bright enough to figure out how to use turn signals or switch lanes)

2) Road construction on Main St. just before Pico Blvd., blocking my way to the 10 (detours are available but thats not the point!)

3) Construction on Flower St. and 6th St. -- b/c whoever is responsible for deciding when to do construction apparently can't even fathom the idea of MAYBE just MAYBE doing construction at night when there aren't 100 cars and 20 buses on a tiny little 3 lane downtown street

4) And last but not least -- the weather -- in LA (in case you don't live here) people tend to forget how to drive when there is a drop of rain. I almost feel like it's enough for the car in front of you to clean their windshield and get cleaner mist on your windshield to freak you out enough to make you forget how to operate a vehicle.

These are just SOME of the problems NORMAL LA drivers are faced with every morning, and I didn't even mention the people who like to signal left and go right and the ones that slow down to 2 MPH on Abbot Kinney/Main St. about a mile before they actually decide to turn (that IS once they figure out which fucking street they're turning on!!!)

As you can see -- although we try to say that "you get used to the traffic and the drivers" you NEVER get used to it and it's never OK

So if I drove a Hummer, and had no concern for the cost of my car insurance, a lot of people would be fixing the back of their cars -- daily!

Two Clowns Shot Dead in Colombia

So how disturbing is this?! I am reading BBC News (b/c as we've learned it is so much more informative and relevant than CNN) and I see this headline Colombia clowns killed on stage

And I'm thinking -- who would ever want to murder a CLOWN, let alone two, and on stage no less!! So I'm continuing to read and apparently it's not the first time this has happened! A prominent clown named Pepe, was murdered just last year!

I'm not one to poke fun -- but these people (or person?) had some serious clown hating issues. Just something I think parents should keep in mind when deciding to throw their kids clown-infested birthday parties...

New Favorite Comedian

So I discovered a new comedian -- Gary Gulam. Apparently he was on Last Comic Standing -- he's Jewish (as you can tell by the name) , but looks Italian and is apparently 6'6 even though he really doesn't look that tall on stage (maybe it was just the TV).

He's hilarious -- he has a new DVD out "Boyish Man" (I saw it on HBO -- the wonderful of joys of cable!)

Anyway ... I recommend!!

The $1 Coin Replacing the $1 Bill?

There's an article in today's CNNMoney.com about the unveiling of the Presidential Dollar Coin and it talks about how the government is considering replacing the dollar bill with the dollar coin. The article says that consumers are not as welcoming of the coin as the government would like them to be. Apparently the govt could save $500 million annually by switching to the coin -- not a bad deal!

Anyway so I was thinking -- it probably wouldn't be such a bad idea to replace the bill except for when we go out!

I mean what will happen when we're at the bar and we want to tip a $1? Will we have to carry change in our pockets? Will they make coin holder additions to money clips? B/c admit it -- no one carries change when they go out. And here's another thought -- will the $1 coin become the new quarter? In which case, I think that washers and driers should begin to accept $1 coins -- there's nothing worse than carrying $20 in quarters -- except for maybe $20 in dimes or nickels but no one uses those anymore, or pennies (and this opens a whole different discussion, which I won't go into b/c it will be entirely too long!)

Anyway ... just a thought!

The last thing you want to see before Valentine's if you're single

Turn up the volume -- the song is half the fun!

Venice T-Shirt

I saw this T-Shirt while I was washing my car today it said "Venice: where art meets crime" I thought it was pretty funny

Pelosi -- News Worthiness -- CNN v. BBC

Soo I was making my regular daily visit to CNN.com and I was thoroughly amused by the depth and detail of the Pelosi Plane Story. My first two thoughts were -- at last the White House is supporting her and second -- why do we care about this? So this made me want to visit the BBC News website and see what they thought was important to tell us about ... here are the front page stories from both websites, you be the judge...

CNN:

• Your e-mails: Anna Nicole charmed us | I-Report
  
• Gates: U.S. has evidence of Iran aiding Iraq fighters
  
• Pentagon report: Prewar intelligence manipulated
  
• Madam speaker's big luxury plane wasn't her idea
  
• Snow buries upstate New York | I-Report: Gallery
  
• Time.com: Why astronauts don't like shrinks
  
• Mom gave son gun, ordered payback, cop says
  
• Reports: Harvard set to name first female president
  
• Cops: Homeless paraplegic dumped on Skid Row
  
• Cameras, TV, cells just need touch, no buttons
  
• Fat dog skateboards down Arizona streets
  
• PGATOUR.com: Live video from Pebble Beach
  
• CNN Wire: Latest updates on world's top stories
  

BBC:

Jerusalem 'tense' after clashes
US air strike kills Iraqi troops
Upstate New York buried in snow

Other Top Stories:

Mauritania 'to let migrants land'

Pentagon 'twisted Iraq findings'

EU gets tough on 'green crimes'

Model's autopsy conducted

Bolivian troops seize key smelter

Martian moon 'could be key test'

ALSO IN THE NEWS

Missing Colombian, presumed dead, is rescued from rebels

Man saves grandson from snake

Okay so there are some similarities... So I went on to check the "Americas" page on BBC ... and even there -- no Pelosi. Apparently only people in the US care about which plane the Speaker of the House is going to take -- I think the world may be more concerned with what she's doing while she's NOT flying home to San Francisco. Just an observation ...

YouTube enforcing copyright

So there's this really funny comedian, Anjelah Johnson, and she has a skit on Google Video. So I wanted to post it on my blog and I went to YouTube so I could get the URL and it was unavailable due to copyright claim from Comedy Time -- how sad.

Anyway, here's the Google Video link in case you're interested, it's REALLY funny! Its about going to a nail salon, so maybe just funny for the girls ...

Anjelah Johnson -- Nail Salon

Google Execs earning salaries of $1 in 2005???

What do you think? A typo? I wonder if they read through this stuff before they publish ...

"Co-founders and Presidents Sergey Brin and Larry Page and Chief Executive Eric Schmidt received salaries of $1 each in 2005 and were not included in a separate 2006 plan for executive bonuses of up to $3 million each filed with federal regulators in October."

Google execs to get up to $1.5 million bonus
CNNMoney.com
February 2, 2007

O'Reilly on Colbert and John Stewart

You know you're doing something right when the O'Reilly Factor dedicates a segment to figuring out the Stephen Colbert-John Stewart Phenomenon.