Bryan J Busch / re-run

When I was a kid there was a Ziggy comic that said something like:

The President should tell all Americans to drown themselves in the ocean. Those of us who are smart enough to ignore him can then figure out what to do next.

This plea from Texas Governor Rick Perry for people to fast “like Jesus did” is the closest I think we’ve come to the sentiment of that Ziggy comic.

The Extreme Couponing show you won’t see on TLC

What do you do for fun?

That’s the question I often ask people when I first meet them. It’s just a little suffix on the more expected question “what do you do?” but I prefer the answers I get.

“What do you do?” is the after-school equivalent of “what’s your major?” You could tell me you were a business major or a puppetry major or that you studied ornamental horticulture at a vocational technical school and I still wouldn’t know anything about you.

I work for Norcom.

It’s not that I don’t care about how people earn the money to buy dog food… I’m sure I’ll learn that sooner or later, and it might be fascinating, but it’s more likely that prompting someone to think about their day job will instead dredge up thoughts of mediocrity, bureaucracy, frustration, or at the very least, boredom. If I’m trying to meet someone, I want them to feel positively, and not just for selfish reasons.

Most people don’t like their jobs. Most people like their hobbies, and that’s what I want to hear about. I encourage you to want the same thing.

The best waiter that ever waited

Sometime before I hit puberty, during one of my family’s several annual trips to a square dance convention, we stayed in a hotel that had a restaurant and a small video game arcade, with both a Pole Position machine, and one for the newer Return of the Jedi video game. Pole Position was old hat to me at the time (though hats themselves were not), so I spent most of my spare time playing as much Return of the Jedi as I could.

Over the weekend, my family grew friendly with a particular waiter, because there were only so many waiters, and only so many tables, and only one place to eat. Imagine one of the younger and friendlier Jasons in your life, and that about sums up our waiter. Anyway, he also spent a lot of his free time in the arcade, and we traded high scores for a few days. I finally managed to get the #1 spot on Return of the Jedi, and during our last meal, the Jason-y waiter presented me with a trophy, homemade label and all. Nobody asked him to do that. I don’t even know where he would’ve gotten a blank trophy. Who does that?

I hope that someday I can be that awesome to a kid.

The machines are never gonna take over if they don’t learn how to spell.

I had a fun time interviewing this author who wrote a book about complaining, specifically why we’re doing it badly and how to do it effectively.

That @openapple is one of the best friends a guy could hope for.

82ºF at my house. The first summer of 2011 has come to Texas.

Bastard isn’t even changing course.

The Apple Store: we go down more before 9 AM than most hookers do all day.

I was looking forward to subscribing to the new True Blood season in iTunes, but it’s not there. Are they really going to make me steal it?

RT @paulandstorm: [S] Kinect looks awesome, but we’ll have to wait 3 more generations before it’ll have Pret-ty Sneak-y, Sis technology.

“@_BMF_: @bryanjbusch please add that to your act. That one was good.” always great to get feedback!

In honor of the World Cup, I got “sport strip” band-aids for my dishwashing injury. twitpic.com/1w6z26

RT @LynNever: Well, that was certainly a good reason to drink beer in the early afternoon. #worldcup