However, what did surprise me was how CNN (yeah, you know that worldwide news channel) blasted the Zune. Seriously. The video is just painful. I love how they keep asking if it does this and that, only to be told “no.”

Personally I have a few problems with the player. Mainly that it 1) does not work on Macintosh machines and 2) uses some crazy point system to purchase songs.

Anyway, check out the video. It is definitely entertaining.

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So one of my friends (I will refrain from naming her for the sake of protecting the innocent) decided that she wanted to go out to dinner. I agreed and we ventured to this small restaurant in downtown Bellingham called Cherubins. The atmosphere is decent and the food was of definite quality. The service however, is what tipped the scale and had me walking out without paying. I’ll skip the narrative and dive straight into the timeline.

7:15 – We arrive at the restaurant.
7:25 – Order taken: two burgers, fries and waters.
7:40 – Burgers arrive. We request our waters and some barbeque sauce.
7:41 – Barbeque sauce and water arrives.
7:55 – Waitress picks up one plate. I request refills of water.
8:15 – I repeat my request for more water.
8:25 – I ask for my check.
8:35 – My unnamed assailant requests the check. I attempt to give the waitress my credit card. She says she’ll be right back.
8:42 – I decide that I am leaving in 3 minutes. My company attempts to flag down the waitress.
8:45 – I stand up and slowly walk out of the restaurant.

Now, I walked out slowly because I wanted the lady to see me leave. However, in the back of my mind, I was truly hoping that she would just let me go. I was hoping that she would realize that I have been trying to pay for my meal for the past 20 minutes, and trying to get some water for almost an hour, and simply let it go. Unfortunately though, she chose not too.

As I got roughly one and a half steps out of the restaurant, she quickly came running informing me that I needed to pay, and asked me if I wanted my check.

My response: a simple “no.”

She looked puzzled, and began to inquire why, at which point I simply (ok, maybe not so simply. I was a bit angry…) gave her a rundown of the above timeline and how I found it simply absurd that within the last hour I had asked for water three times, tried to pay twice, and been completely ignored every time. I explained that I had tried to pay, tried to be patient, tried to sit there and wait, but that I was through being patient, through waiting, and was simply not paying for the meal.

Her response: “Sorry. I will pay for your meal.”

With not much left to be said, I gave her a roundabout apology (I really do feel bad), turned, and walked away. In part, I feel bad for her because the blame is more on management for understaffing their restaurant, but at the same time, it is a glass of water and a bill. Neither of which is a time consuming activity, and neither of which is an activity that she could have requested the bar tender, cook, manager, etc. to handle.

So in closing, I ask you, my readers, did I overreact? What would you have done in that situation? Stay, or walk away?

So I went to make a final payment on one of my closed accounts. There is this pretty lady (we’ll call her #1) that works there that, unfortunately, I have never had the opportunity to talk too. The other day, when I went to make my final payment, she ended up standing directly next to the lady helping me (we’ll call her #2). As an added bonus, she wasn’t busy helping another customer. So I decided to capitalize on the opportunity and strike up a quick conversation.

Me: You changed your hair … nice.
#1: Finally! Someone noticed. I figured my regular customers would have noticed and said something, but nobody did.
Me: Well I like it. It…
#2: Well sir I cannot accept payment on this account. You have to call customer care.
Me: Thank you. You ladies have a nice day.

Pathetic, huh? I think so. Anyway, I walk out the store, hop into my car, and almost smack myself as I think of what I should (or could) have said. If I was thinking, and on top of my game at the moment, the conversation would have went something like this.

Me: You changed your hair … nice.
#1: Finally! Someone noticed. I figured my regular customers would have noticed and said something, but nobody did.
Me: Well I like it. It…
#2: Well sir I cannot accept payment on this account. You have to call customer care.
Me (to #2): Thank you for you help.
Me (to #1): That is a big change. So did you get a new man, or are you leaving an old one?

Now personally I think that last line is a definite winner. And so far, it has received a 50% approval rating. One friend of mine (female) agreed that it is a great line and would definitely work. Another friend (also female) did not believe that it would work and would lead to me getting rejected. So, what do you think? Would that line lead to success or rejection?

In addition, what are some of the best, or worst, pick-up lines you have heard or used?

Oh, and I my personal favorite would be this one. Which one is yours?

And in related news, why is watching “you that baby’s daddy” television shows so entertaining???

“We continued to fork over money because we were promised, ‘You’ll get several hundreds of millions of yen in three days,’ or ‘You’ll get that amount in a week,’”

Now I am unsure of exactly how that old-age ‘you fool me once, shame on you…’ saying goes, but I think it definitely applies given that these people “continued” to pay out funds. I am not doing the fully story justice, so you will have to read it for yourself to see just how ridiculous the facts really are. Enjoy and Adios (I haven’t used that ending phrase in some time … odd).

Oh, and does anyone else feel like smacking Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy, or whatever he is being called this week, for being in that god-awful “Brown and Bubbly” commercial?

I do have a question though. Does the fact that this guy does this on purpose make it more or less embarrasing? You decide.

Now, around Halloween I posted a nice little video clip showing people getting scared and such. Well, today I have something similiar. I will not give too much info about it, as I feel it is funnier if it is a suprise. So, without further ado, onto the show:

The part I do not understand, is at the end, they say she only got charged with driving while intoxicated and avoiding arrest? What? I have seen j-walkers get heavier charges than that. I must admit though, I am pretty impressed. Can you imagine how much fun it would be to drive a cop car down the highway lights blaring? I could and would loev to do it. Oh well, that is all for today. Adios and enjoy.

So my brother, lady-friend, her sister, and I walk into Denny’s after our not-so-earth shattering club experience at the Down Under at about 3am. The place it packed (I think it was prom weekend at most High Schools), but we still manage to get our seats rather quickly. Our comes over, says her typical introductory stuff (what do you want to drink? Are you ready to order now, or do you need more time? Etc. etc.) and heads off to the kitchen to get our three waters and lonely orange juice. She comes back, waters and orange juice in-hand in a few minutes to take our orders. I get the usual (I think it’s called a Lumber Jack), the lady-friend gets a sandwich with a salad, her sister gets some ice cream thing, and my brother gets something (forget what it is). The waitress once again heads off to the kitchen to place our orders.

About 10 minutes later the waitress comes up with the ice cream dish thing in hand. Naturally I am thinking “are food is here already, that was fast!” Wrong. Wrong! Our food was not here, my lady-friends sister’s food was here. Now my opinion on this is two fold. The first, I can understand why they brought her food, as ice cream melts, so as soon as it’s made, it ‘needs’ to be brought out. However, if the rest of our food was not ready, why did they not just wait and make the ice cream dish once the rest of the food was finished? Oh well, it is not that big of a deal. It is only ice cream.

Well about 15 minutes later, the waitress comes up to the table with my lady-friends sandwich. Again, I am thinking that our food has arrived, and again, I am wrong. Wrong! The food for my brother and me was still nowhere to be seen. And on top of that, my lady-friends salad still had not shown up. I mean seriously, who brings out the sandwich before the salad? I thought it was common knowledge to always bring out the salad first. Again, oh well.

So about 5 (maybe 10) minutes later, the salad arrives at the table. By this time the sandwich is about ¼ finished (yea, she eats slow), and my attitude has gone from good to bad. It has already been over 30 minutes, and still no sign of my food anywhere. Add to that the fact that we keep getting food piece-by-piece, and I am quickly turning into one angry black man. I tell my lady-friend that if she finishes another quarter of the sandwich before I get my food, we are leaving.

Another 10min goes by, and sure enough, the lady-friend finishes another quarter of her sandwich. Her sister’s ice cream (the portion that she did not eat) is completely melted and now looks more like a milk-shake gone bad than a desert. I tell everyone that we are leaving, and that I will pay for the sandwich (and salad which nobody ate because it was ridiculously bitter) and the ice cream thingamajig. Like magic, the waitress walks over, apologizes for the extra long wait, blaming it on the fact that the cooks do not like her very much and yada yada yada. Now, first of all, you are never supposed to tell the customers that the cooks (especially the cooks) do not like you. I mean, am I seriously supposed to be comfortable eating the food made by a person who has a harsh dislike for the person serving it to me? I think not. So with that uncomfortable thought in my mind, along with the fact that I am just angry, I tell the waitress to just bring me the check for the few items on the table. She says OK, and heads to the register.

About this time, the rest of the table is like “are you seriously going to pay for this?” or “I would not pay, the service was horrible.” However, the service for the ice cream thingamajig and the orange juice was not bad, and my lady-friend did heat half of her sandwich (typical of her), so paying for that portion is not a problem for me. Now I know the only tip she would have received would have been something to the extent of “be nice to the cooks”, but the food we had I have no problem paying for.

Well another 5 or so minutes rolls on by before waitress brings me my check. She just sort of hands it to me while in motion to another table, mumbling something on the way. I look at the check, which had a balance of about $30, and just told everyone “OK, lets go.” One of them (I forget who) asks me how much it is, and I simply reply to something of the affect of “I do not know, this is not my check,” which it was not. I know for a fact that a sandwich, some ice cream, and a glass of orange juice do not cost $30. The receipt I had in hand was for someone else’s meal, and to me, that was the last-straw (or draw, not sure what word is supposed to go there). We get up from the table, I simply state “if they cannot bring me my check, then they obviously do not want me to pay.” I laid the receipt on the table face-up, so the waitress could see her error, and we simply walked-out.

Now under most circumstances I refuse to dine-and-dash, as I am a firm believer in the principal that people should be compensated for their work/effort. However, in this case, the service (work) as a whole was lackluster, and the fact that the waitress could not bring me the correct receipt showed that there was absolutely no effort. And since there was not work/effort, there was no compensation. So there you have it, my first dine-and-dash. Well, I guess you could almost say it was not a dine-and-dash, as my brother and I did not even get to dine, we only dashed. Oh well, maybe next time.

In the end, the worst part of that entire experience was the fact that after I left Denny’s I had to go to Jack N’ The Box to get some food. So I basically wasted an hour of my life, for nothing. Well I guess I should not say it was for nothing, as it did give me something to write about so I can entertain you folks, which, we all know is what I love to do. Anyway, that is my weekend’s lost-episode. Hope you enjoyed it. Adios.

So what is it you ask? It is that girls are evil. Yes, according to this little picture there is now mathematical proof that girls are indeed evil. And now, the picture…