hardly working

so i was having dinner at bill’s house with poc jintao the other day – my buddy ron sims couldn’t make it btw, something about it being ‘date night’ and his wife not being invited – and we had a cool conversation.

bill was like all, “dude, you gotta do something about all that software piracy.” and i’m like, “bro, have you not heard of price discrimination? without piracy you’re one dead sucka in china!” and my man jintao, you would not believe how much starbucks coffee that guy drinks! but anyway all he wanted to talk about was the $4 billion or whatever in boeing jets he’s buying. so i’m like, “hey bro, thanks for buying up our debt and sending the cash back to my state!”

and then i turn to bill g, and i go “dude, you think software piracy is the biggest problem they got in china?” and then i asked the poc when tf he’s going to let tibet free and stop torturing the falun gong. that’s when i had to leave.

Happy 0.5th birthday Niko!

Originally uploaded by smooth.

Chinese president Hu Jintao visits the US for the first time, ditching the Ideologue in Chief to have dinner with Bill Gates

Tthe approximately 100-person guest list is a who’s who of the U.S. Pacific Northwest power elite, including Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz and Washington state Gov. Christine Gregoire, said event organizers.

My invite must have been lost in the mail.

I want to invest in iRobot, I really do. I’d love to have a Scooba clean our floors for us, and you’ve gotta believe that long term they can drop the price on those suckers and put one in every middle class household in the country.

But their military robots are over half the business, and I just can’t bring myself to invest in and bet on war. So if you’re listening iRobot, split the company in two for the sake of your investors.

From NPR:

According to the “first tax return,” President Bush made $735,180 in gross income last year, including his salary of about $400,000 and other investment income. He and Mrs. Bush paid $187,768 in taxes.

Interesting. But get this: Vice President Cheney and his wife Lynne brought in a gross household income of $8,819,006. After they gave a lot — and I mean a lot — of that to charity, the family’s taxable income was $1,961,157. But because so much cash went through their accounts, the IRS withheld a whole lot more than the Cheneys owe — the result being, and I hope you’re sitting down here, a roughly $1.9 million tax refund.

Someone (usually that means Breean, but not this time) seems to be under the impression that the first REI store was built in Colorado. Dunno how that could be, when the company was founded in the Seattle area:

In 1938, mountain climbers Lloyd and Mary Anderson joined with 21 fellow Northwest climbers to found Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI).

Definitely need one of these:

From Salon.com books. a review of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” bu Michael Pollan. Follow that path of our food through four different food chains: a mickey d’s drive thru, “a Whole Foods dinner, a meal raised on a “beyond organic” pasture farm in Virginia, and what Pollan labels the “Perfect Meal,” one whose ingredients he hunts and forages for himself.” Thanks Breean!.

Veags baby

Originally uploaded by smooth.

You gotta like an airport with row after row of slot machines. Can I put money on UCLA/Florida for anyone?