I’ve often wondered how Del Taco survives when it’s vastly inferior to Taco Bell. I’ve had this disucssion with several different folks and I’ve recently realized why they survive. While Taco Bell is open late most of the time, Del Taco seems to locate themselves around locations where they are one of the few businesses open late so people have to eat there if they are hungry at night. At least that’s my super-unscientific deduction after pondering this one too many times (ok that makes it like pondering it five times I guess)…

So lately I’ve used Yelp to search for restaurant reviews here in San Francisco but have been using it more and more for various types of reviews. It’s pretty sweet so far and I’ve got some good recommendations off it. Check out our company’s listing too and definitely write us a positive comment if you like!

Finally a shot of me getting some Aquatic love on Halloween!

Well, I’ve been Landmarked and had my first day today and one of my assignments was to write a letter to someone with whom I’ve been inauthentic with. Well to kill several birds with one stone so to speak (write?!) I thought I’d blog it…

One area that seems to stand out right away is me not being intimate and how I have convinced myself that I am happier being single – I still am not resigned to saying that it’s definitely not true, but I am open to that possibility.

So in their parlance, “the possibility that I have invented for myself and my life is the possibility of being in love and in a committed relationship.” It’s hard for me not to say to myself that I don’t see it happening though, and I have to catch myself each time I do that (like right now!).

Anyhow, I gotta crash out here soon, but hey I did my assignment right?

Obviously this has been the big news and the most inspiring thing I’ve responded to is the depth of the human experience that it has brought out whether that is desperation, hope or any of the myriad of other emotions we all go through.

I found a nice article that encompasses a lot of those by Gene Wojciechowsk on ESPN.

I personally prefer this to the ‘bless you’ options since I’m not a religious person… Here’s the word of the day description I got today from M-W.

gesundheit guh-ZOONT-hyte interjection

: used to wish good health especially to one who has just sneezed

Example sentence:
“Gesundheit!” said the man on the bicycle as he passed a lady on the sidewalk who had sneezed.

Did you know?
When English speakers hear “achoo,” they usually respond with either “gesundheit” or “God bless you.” “Gesundheit” was borrowed from German, where it literally means “health”; it was formed by a combination of “gesund” (“healthy”) and “-heit” (“-hood”). Wishing a person good health when they sneezed was believed to forestall the illness that a sneeze often portends. “God bless you” had a similar purpose, albeit with more divine weight to the well-wishing. It was once believed the soul could exit the body during a sneeze, causing ill health, so folks said “God bless you” to ward off this danger. “Gesundheit,” at one time, also served as a toast when drinking (much like its English counterpart, “to your health”), but this usage is now mostly obsolete.

Damn censorship and freedom of expression is being pressured just b/c people don’t agree with the art.

I saw the trailer for Tony Takitani today and I really am amped to see a Murakami film translated into that medium!

Shit, I’ve caught myself name dropping lately – gotta stop – can’t become one of…. them

Not sure if this is a real commentary of Andy Rooney of 60 Minutes, but the ideas are great…

Andy Rooney’s Tips For Telemarketers: Three Little Words That Work

(1)The three little words are: “Hold on, Please…”

Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.

Then when you eventually hear the phone company’s “beep-beep-beep” tone, you know it’s time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task. These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.

(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?

This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a “real” sales person to call back and get someone at home.

What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Since doing this, my phone calls have decreased dramatically.

(3) Another Good Idea: When you get “ads” enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these “ads” with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.

When you get those “pre-approved” letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.

Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 37cents postage “IF” and when they receive them back.

It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before! the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes. One of Andy Rooney’s (60 minutes) ideas. Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn’t get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back!

If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn’t on anything you send them.

You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing!

Eventually, the banks and credit card companies will begin getting their own junk back in the mail.

Let’s let them know what it’s like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they’re paying for it…Twice!

Let’s help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that’s why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea !

If enough people follow these tips, it will work—- I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.