On June 18th, 2006, we began this journey together. Less than 4 years later, we have provoked each other to thought 1,000 times. I'm a lot smarter now than I was then (just read some of my early posts), and with your help, I'll be a lot smarter in 4 years than I am now. Thank you for pushing us all to think in ways that don't come naturally to us. With your continued help, we'll only be as dumb as the very smartest people around us. "The truth shall out-ring what is loud." Love, Eric

I jump on Facebook. Type a clever comment on one of my friend's walls. Press the enter button. No! I was logged in as my wife! Now, she'll get the credit for my hilarity! This happens in our household all the time. Having to log-in and log-out of Twitter, Facebook, iGoogle, Hotmail. It is SO annoying. And there was no super easy way around it. So, since the browsers/sites didn't have an easy solution, we made our own. I use Google Chrome. Kat uses Firefox. We're always logged in. No more mistakes. No more wasted time.

#39. Jimmy Carter


Capo 3

You're in a grocery store buying Skittles. An $0.89 purchase. Then your cashier tries to double your bill with a "Would you like to donate $1 to help St. Jude's?" This direct verbal assault produces more instant guilt than the offering plate being passed down your aisle at church. This is more like the usher walking directly toward you and asking for money. And besides St. Jude's, I don't really know who this is benefiting. I mean, maybe these companies are matching my donation? But, if so, tell me that! Otherwise, I just think you guys are trying to get credit off my guilt. Do they think this makes their company look charitable? Do some people like this opportunity to micro-give?

Most of you have health insurance. You pay a monthly premium and when you show up to your doctor's appointment, you pay maybe a $30 co-pay. That money goes to your insurance provider. Then the insurance provider pays the healthcare provider a varying amount, probably around $180 (the amount the insurance companies have agreed the service is worth - discounted for provider members). So, how about this? You advertise yourself as a Free Co-Pay Healthcare Provider. Now you're only getting a net gain of $150 ber patient (because you have to pay the patient's $30 co-pay to the insurance provider yourself) But think of all the hypochondriacs who would line up at the door, previously unwilling to cough up the $30 co-pay for the laundry list of diseases they thought they may have? Wouldn't that be worth the $30 loss from a financial standpoint?

Invite a few friends over for a little front-yard BBQ while your garage sale is happening. Because high-traffic garage sales get the most traffic. It's "the rich get richer" principle at work. If no one's there, it must be because it's bad. If it's hoppin', I want to see what they've got. So fake it. It'll work.

We're always surprised when we have dreams about people we've thought about that day. Maybe because the thought only lasted for a moment. Yet, just because our conscious thought forgets, the brain synapses that connected are still fresh, even later than night. But why do those synapses make it into our dreams? Because the hunter-gatherer role of your brain is for thin-slicing a situation. Quickly understanding the elements around you in order to make instant decisions. Your brain tries to create a full story based on the information it is. Even when we're sleeping and have no new information coming in. That's why you end up in your old house or high school, because it may be the only place that makes sense with the cast of characters dancing in your head. It's the same way your brain works throughout your waking life. It's why we all think we're so smart. Because our brains have made "sense" out of the infinitesimally small amount of information we have, and made a story out of it. Based on the foolish bit of information we have. Help your brain out. Visit your local library.

This statue by Jens Glaschiot contains the inscription, "I'm sitting on the back of a man. He is sinking under the burden. I would do anything to help him. Except stepping down from his back." It's a wonderful work of art. And fascinating to me how so many different political parties assume Glaschiot's words back their opposing causes. Speaking of which, I am now a regular contributor to the wonderful site, humblelibertarian.com. Go check out my first two posts about Sarah Palin and Spock.

Kids don't need motivation to want pizza. It's a natural favorite straight from birth. But how do you differentiate yourself as a pizza place to children among your dozens of competitors? If you're not Chuck E. Cheese and don't have 100s of video games and ball pits at your disposal, what can you do to make kiddies want to come to you? Make your pizza blue. 10 cents in organic food coloring. Add it to the dough. Make the dough look like hot-blue play dough, but taste the exact same. Hot blue dough, white cheese, red pepperoni. Still color-coordinates. Still looks good. All things being equal, if you're a kid, wouldn't you want the blue pizza?