I had a guy write me a bad check back in January.  He made it good with another bad check.  And another.  Finally, when I got back to Knoxville and could rip him apart for it, he made it good.  With another bad check.
     Today, I followed him to two banks.  I got my money.
     “Don’t ever, ever, call me again,” I told him.
     He gave me an extra hundred.
     “I just want to make amends,” he said in the voicemail.
     Some things, you just can’t undo. 
     In my opinion, I deserve more than a hundred for putting up with his ass for 15 years.

     I’ve been working on cars a lot lately.  Weird stuff. 
     There’re some youngsters who have some pretty good ideas, but they really don’t know anything about cars.  That’s where I come in… and it’s kinda like butting heads sometimes… and since I don’t everything about every car, I do my own bit of screwing up, too…
     But… if we can keep this project on track, man, it could be worth a small fortune.
     Anyone wanna invest in an unknown, really kickass project, lemme know.

     I got a used ‘96 Delco CD player off Ebay.  After installing it, I found that the motor doesn’t spin.  I stuck my original AM/FM/Cassette back in.
     Tonight, I tore it down to the mechanism — after locking my keys in my car and using Jim’s Super Bar and a coat hanger to get ‘em out — and found that, sure enough, the motor is toast.  That sucks.
     Thanks, butthole!  Appreciate ya!

     Today, I went to Catscratch Jane’s for a burger.
     “Mark!  Where’s your Wildcat?” asked Shirley the bartender.
     “Uhhh, in Kentucky,” I replied.
     “Hey, wait a minute,” she said.  “You all are still together, right?”
     “Yeah, it’s just hard right now.  I moved up there, and all Hell broke loose, so I’m back here.”
     “I thought you moved…. Why isn’t she here?  She loves you.”
     “I know, and I love her more than anything in this world.”
     “She needs to get her ass down here!”
     “Yeah… It’s just hard right now.”
     “Didn’t you all get married?”
     “Nah, not yet…”  I didn’t feel like going into those details.
     “Listen, Mark, you two are in love.  A blind person could see that.  The next time you talk to her, you tell her to give old Shirley a call.  We’ll straighten that out.”
     “Will do.”
     I paid for my burger and beer, and left thinking about it.

     I miss you, baby.  I love you.  Maybe you oughtta call Shirley. 

     There are a few people who tell me I waste money.  Like, every now and again, I’ll throw down $8 on an apparently useless domain name.  Funny thing is, I’ve gotten some pretty decent traffic out of most of them.  This blog has done very little in the way of pushing Advertising, but still, it has consistenly made eight-to-ten dollars every month.
     Paid for a domain, got a few more readers.

     I watch a lot of people throw $5 into the lotto twice a week.  Most of them have never, and will probably never, win much of anything.  Case in point, a friend of mine won $3 after ten years of $10 a week.  That’s a lot of money to waste.

     To me, throwing $5.25 down on an Ebay listing that’ll probably go nowhere is fun.  It’s certainly more productive than a lotto ticket, and it might actually sell…

     Some people just don’t get it.  One of the best thing to know is that every dollar counts.  The more spend-$8-and-make-$9 things you can do, the more chance you have at coming out $1 ahead each time.
     Sometimes, I’ll do one or two from time to time between job silliness.  Other times, I’ll sit and do it all day.  Though boredom often starts the process, the process is certain anything but boring.
     Those days are fun, because I’m bouncing around doing three or four hundred different things.  So how much do I actually make on what most people consider a “waste of time?”

     It’s fun stuff to think about. 

     Just before leaving to go out and do some onsite work, I got a Contact Email from a Richard Carrion:

This is a penis shaped fry bought from Jack in the Box restaurant 12/5/2006.  It’s being sold on ebay and already has 6000 visitors, 191 watching and $460 in bids.  That’s news, alright.  It still has 3 days to go!

     Thanks, Richard, for that interesting tidbit.

     I couldn’t help but be reminded of a thread on Tiki Central a couple years ago, making fun of a potato chip formed in the image of the great, stone idol Maoi… And the cartoon I made about its demise as the item was re-listed…

     I could make an animated GIF of a Jimmy-in-the-Box for this new one, but I digress. 

     Someone sent me a link to an Ebay auction a few minutes ago….

     It just made me think … Job pissing me off?  I press the “Easy” button.  “That was easy!” it says.
     A moment later, I realize, the job is still pissing me off.  I press the button again.
     “That was easy!”
     Sooner or later, after numerous attempts, the chiding sound of “That was easy” begins to piss me off as much as whatever job I’m doing.  Yet, I press it again.
     “That was easy!” it mocks.
     I destroy the button with a closed fist, only to find that its plastic innards are sharper than expected.  A trail of blood drips quickly down my forearm.

     But there’s good news….

     I just saved a ton of money by switching my Auto Insurance to Geico™.

     Now if I could only find an “ouchless” Band-Aid…