Well, a whole lot of people must have given/gotten TGI Fridays gift cards for Christmas because my phone is ringing off the hook. So far, most people seem to be hanging up and trying again (or trying 2 or 3 more times), but a few are leaving messages to let me know that they got the wrong number (listen here). Who leaves a message on an answering machine for that? Don’t most people just hang up instead? Thank you Florida.

Today I’m averaging 1 call per hour. At that rate, my toll free charges just for mistaken callers could reach $90 this year, which means I better get at least one message this awesome to make it worth the cost of keeping my number.

UPDATE 1/14/2009
Today I even had someone from TGI Fridays in Everett, MA call my number on accident.

Other posts like this one: Hello Shreveport, Making Great Voicemail Accessible

My buddy Adam went home to the Buckeye State for Christmas. While at church in a singles ward, he noticed this flyer on the bulletin board:

He snapped a photo and sent it to me saying:

“I think they need to have a lesson on immorality in the ward…or at the very least a lesson on birth control.”

Single and pregnant? Apparently you’re not alone in this Ohio singles congregation.

This post was written Monday, so i don’t have the headache anymore, but as I re-read it, my blood pressure is going back up. Sorry for the bad mood, but thank you to the Internet for allowing me to vent.

The Next Notebook Trend: Cellphone-Like Contract Deals
Yeah, here’s a great idea- lock people into stupid notebook contracts like cell phone companies do so that they end up paying 3 or 4 times what the product is actually worth. The only thing stupider: the people who would actually fall for something like this. No offense, iPhone users, it’s nearly unavoidable in your case.

15% Fat Tax:
With “the troubled economy,” state budgets are coming up short. Their solution? Tax the people. Here’s what somebody isn’t understanding: People were not made to support government, rather, government was made to support the people. Remember that whole “by the people, for the people” line?

Who is the biggest, most bloated, grotesquely obese entity on Earth? The U.S. Government. And they want to tax us for being fat?

Instead of penalizing the people because of a desire they have for a certain type of food, government should be cutting ITSELF down to make up for the hard times, not cutting the people down to make up for their own glutenous, fatty, short-sighted spending habits. The government should be doing what American families are doing to weather the hard times—cutting back, re-evaluating programs, canceling cable, re-budgeting and adjusting appetites that sometimes get out-of-hand when times are too good to be true.

How any elected representative can, in good conscience, even throw this idea around in his head for more than 3 seconds is completely beyond me. And the one thing stupider:

North Carolina’s idea of a Mileage Tax
Are elected officials going completely insane? Charging you for every mile you drive? So they want you to pay taxes out of the income you worked for to build the roads, tax you again to buy the car, tax you again every year to own the car, tax you again to buy the gas, and then on top of all that, TAX YOU AGAIN WHEN YOU ACTUALLY DRIVE THE CAR?!

I’m sorry, but when a government has to insert itself to take money from the people at every single exchange and interaction—and it still can’t support itself, it is time for that government to go. And I’m not kidding. I’m blowing a gasket. That’s WITHOUT mentioning that they propose to track the mileage by installing a GPS unit so that they know where, when, and how far you’ve gone? This is like a bad dream.

How long can the American people support what has become an un-manageable, irresponsible, corrupt government who, instead of solving problems, creates them at every turn? I have a headache.

Anybody else made this connection yet?

Thanks to cboyack for the image.

Since a lot of the stuff I’m doing these days isn’t of much interest design-wise, I’ll be posting up some of the other stuff I’ve been working on that won’t otherwise see the light of day. Abandoned Work: The Series.

This was an awareness poster for an internal communication tool à la Barack Obama.

The BBQ never actually happened. Might have been for the best though—looks like we would have been serving radioactive lettuce on the burgers.

Just a quick note in what I hope will be my last political post for a good long time.

Congratulations to Barack Obama on becoming the next president of the USA. Good luck. You’ll need it when you take over what has to be the worst job in the country.

Congratulations to John McCain for being an incredibly gracious loser. If you would have spoken during the campaign with the heart you did in your concession speech, you may have fared better in the final election results.

I didn’t vote for either of you, but am glad we can finally put campaigning behind us and work on the things that really matter to our country. The wonder of it all is that in January, the Executive power will pass peacefully from one man to the next, and the country will continue to move (hopefully forward).

Congrats to Karen Mayne, Dan Liljenquist, and the Hogle Zoo.

Congrats to Superdell who somehow convinced over 22,000 people that having a complete loon in the governor’s office would be a good thing for anybody.

Shame on the crackpots who voted to re-elect Chris Buttars.

And finally, as has been said in every livingroom in America tonight, God bless America.

I just wanted to make sure all you Utah voters out there were aware that the Presidential Race isn’t the only race you’ll be voting in on November 4th.

And, Since SuperDell is still the top keyword used to find my blog, I figured I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least post his blurb from the Utah Voter Information Pamphlet (the image is from his website):

Yes, that graphic actually says: “All of the Other Candidates Suck!”

“SUPERDELL is your only choice because YOU didn’t file. Huntsman took away your freedoms and raised taxes more than any governor in the history of Utah. Springmeyer has admitted that he doesn’t care about the constitution. The definition of the word insane is voting for the same people while expecting change.

“There is no question that Dell Schanze is different. There are only 3 people on the ballot and SUPERDELL is the only one that is NOT socialist. If you are unsure then fill your heart with love, completely open your mind and pray to God earnestly. You can’t afford to get this wrong and will be held accountable for your choice.”

I have no idea what most of that meant, but seriously—if you’re bored and need someone to entertain you, Superdell as governor would be 4 full years of entertainment.

Yes, there is no question that Dell Schanze is different. And if that’s one of his campaign promises, it’s one I’m sure he’ll keep if he ever makes it into the Governor’s Mansion.

Also on the ballot: John Huntsman, Jr. (R) and Bob Springmeyer (D).

PS- Before you vote for president, please read this.

PSS- If anybody uses that Einstein quote about insanity—including Chuck Baldwin, I’m seriously going to go insane.

I normally stay out of politics, but I can’t help it today.

Just a quick note. I have a friend who’s been buying gold and silver. You’d be amazed at how much gold you can get for $100. I mean how little.

Anyway, I decided to take a look at what the price of gold has been doing historically and especially in relation to the market swing of the past few days—just out of curiosity. As I did a google search though, I found a document that was making some good sense. It was written by Ron Paul in 2006. And while it wasn’t telling me much about gold pricing history, it was pretty interesting to someone who’s wondered about the dollar and the Gold Standard.

As I got deeper into the article, I read some things that blew my mind. Keep in mind this was Ron Paul in April 2006:

A soaring gold price is a vote of "no confidence" in the central bank and the dollar. This certainly was the case in 1979 and 1980. Today, gold prices reflect a growing restlessness with the increasing money supply, our budgetary and trade deficits, our unfunded liabilities, and the inability of Congress and the administration to reign in runaway spending.

The Fed tries to keep the consumer spending spree going, not through hard work and savings, but by creating artificial wealth in stock markets bubbles and housing bubbles. When these distortions run their course and are discovered, the corrections will be quite painful.

Then, probably the most telling part nails the bailout plan on the head:

Current policy guarantees that the integrity of the dollar will be undermined. Exactly when this will occur, and the extent of the resulting damage to financial system, cannot be known for sure – but it is coming. There are plenty of indications already on the horizon.

Me: hello, It’s here.

Even if it were recognized that a gold standard without monetary inflation would be advantageous, few in Washington would accept the political disadvantages of living with the discipline of gold – since it serves as a check on government size and power. This is a sad commentary on the politics of today. The best analogy to our affinity for government spending, borrowing, and inflating is that of a drug addict who knows if he doesn’t quit he’ll die; yet he can’t quit because of the heavy price required to overcome the dependency. The right choice is very difficult, but remaining addicted to drugs guarantees the death of the patient, while our addiction to deficit spending, debt, and inflation guarantees the collapse of our economy.

So what can we do? Pretty much…nothing. Maybe diversify a bit, buy some gold, start saving rather than spending on credit. While it’s no investment, it could be a great defense against the inevitable plummet of the dollar.

Oh—and maybe one more thing. Mr Paul says:

False trust placed in the dollar once was helpful to us, but panic and rejection of the dollar will develop into a real financial crisis. Then we will have no other option but to tighten our belts, go back to work, stop borrowing, start saving, and rebuild our industrial base, while adjusting to a lower standard of living for most Americans.

Anyway, I highly recommend the article. Take a 1/2 hour and give it a read, you’ll learn more than you ever did in that wretched Economics 101 course you took twice back in college.

And while our government continues (no matter who’s directing it in a few weeks) to create fake money in an effort to keep bubbles in the air, we might as well get a head start adjusting to the real world we live in. Tighten the belt, go back to work, stop borrowing, start saving, and adjust to a lower standard of living. Truth be told, you might actually find it to be more agreeable than trying to remember when your 0% teaser rate ends and what you’ll do with your balance then.