Day 1129

I was hungry today, so I stopped by a nearby taco joint to get a taco. Four cops from the gang squad were sitting at the next table, watching ESPN sports on the big-screen TV behind me while they were drinking their coffee. All of them were laughing about Manti Te'o and his fictitious girlfriend. "How could that guy be so stupid," one of the cops said. I don't have the answer to that one, but I do think the whole fake girlfriend phenomenon is a lot more common than you might think.

I've known three people who were duped by fictitious girlfriends and I don't even know that many people. The first guy was a senior vice-president at an ad agency I worked at in Seattle. The Internet didn't even exist back then, so this guy was duped by plain old letters sent through the mail. He went on and on about this "perfect" girl he knew in Los Angeles. He had a picture of her on his desk and everything. After about six months, he finally flew down to Los Angeles to meet his perfect girlfriend and she stood him up. This rather obvious warning sign wasn't enough to dissuade the guy from his fantasy. He actually believed the lame excuse the people conning him made up and three months later, he flew to Los Angeles again. Only then did he finally admit the girl didn't exist. The poor guy took some time off from work for "personal reasons" and he never returned.

I needed to get some printer ink this afternoon and discovered that my favorite printer store had moved. Instead of a convenient 5 minute drive, the place was now over 25 minutes away via an inconveniently busy freeway. When I finally got there, my sales rep wanted to show me around. He was really proud of their new 40,000 square foot warehouse. I liked the little 11,000 square foot warehouse in my own neighborhood a lot better. The guy said that if I didn't like the drive, he could just FedEx my supplies to me. I guess that's what the world has come to: sending things all the way to Memphis on a plane so you can get them across town the next day.

I'm finally getting better about taking the trash out on Thursday evening. It took months to imprint this new habit on my brain, but I think I've got it down now. I haven't missed trash day for several months. Do you like the colorful electric sign I saw today? If I could find a smaller version, I'd put one in my office. It certainly seems to sum up the whole situation for me.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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