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I found this pretty entertaining, and thought if you hadn't already seen this posted on one of the nearly 400,000 sites already covering it then maybe you might catch it on the 400,001th one. 

Long story short this bum ditch found a cell phone in a cab, and when the person who lost it contacted her to get it back, she refused and tried to play the tough guy role.  Long story short she was arrested, after the phones owner posted pictures and AOL logon info that the culprit entered into the phone (which in turn was uploaded to the T-Mobile account associated with the phone) to their web site.  What followed was a swath of random people on-line searching for information.  Soon several myspace.com profiles were discovered, and then the culprit's contacted the owner.  Hilarity ensued…

Check it out here: How NOT to steal a SideKick II

Well it has become easier to deal with the fact that I'm not a smoker anymore.  The physical addiction for cigarettes are mostly gone, or at least it is so easy to deal with it might as well be gone.  One thing that has been getting harder though, is the habit side of things.  Getting into the car, walking out of the store, drinking at a bar, playing poker.  The urge to smoke at those trigger point has been more difficult to deal with lately.  On top of that I've been having bizarre dreams of "quit" failure.

In one dream I was with friends, and I had a cigarette.  It didn't feel weird or anything.  I was smoker and having a cigarette was just a natural part of what I did on a regular basis.  I'm not sure if we were talking or what, I just remember standing in a circle with some friends and I suppose talking or something.  Then I lifted the cigarette to my mouth and took a drag, and as the smoke went down it simply felt wonderful.  For a few seconds I was in heaven.  (BTW, I don't remember smoking being that great…just good…maybe)  Then it suddenly stuck me that I had quit, and this immense sense of failure and disappointment washed over me.  Mentally I was beating myself up because I failed and then it was over.

There were several dreams similar to that one.  The scene around them always vague, with the failure to quit being the central point.

Then two nights ago I had a much more distinct dream.  I was standing there and this time I was not smoking, and was aware that I was a quitter.  I was again with friends similar to the previous dreams.  Where I was and who was there was sort of foggy.  There was a new "not a cigarette" cigarette.  I saw a diagram like cross section of it and it showed how the first two thirds of the cigarette like cylinder was non-tobacco, and the remaining one third was something else, and then of course the filter.  It was suppose to allow you to smoke with out the dangers of regular cigarettes.  There was some rationalizing with myself as to why this was so great.  Then suddenly there I was smoking, inhaling and then exhaling big clouds of smoke, and again it simply felt great to be a smoker again.  Not really because of the smoke going in and out of my lungs, simply because of the act of smoking itself.  I didn't feel guilty about smoking, and was enjoying myself, and then suddenly I realized that I wasn't smoking one of these new "safe" cigarettes, but was in fact smoking normal run of the mill cigarette.  Again the disappointment washed over, and failure reigned.

You would think that this feeling of failure would go away once I woke up, but it didn't.  It was just as crushing of a defeat as if I had really smoked.  Maybe because I know deep down inside I'm still a slave to cigarettes even after I have stopped smoking.  During the first week I had this big head about how I was stronger than cigarettes and it felt great to be winning the battle with the addiction.  What I didn't realize was that it wasn't just the battle that I needed to win, there was a whole war that I had failed to see because I was so so focused on the battle with nicotine.

(Oh yea, its been two week, and two days!!!) 

Well it's been a while since I have bought an album of any kind.  But "Crazy", by Gnarls Barkley, has me hooked like a fiend, so I downloaded the album to preview it.  I've now listened to or at least sampled all of the tracks and have to say that I’m impressed.  The entire album is every bit as good as the "Crazy" single.  One song of particular note, if you like "Crazy", is "Just A Thought".  I won't go into the details, but lyrically it struck me in the same way that "Crazy" did.  There seems to be a lot of hype surrounding "Smiley Faces", but in my humble opinion "Just A Thought" has much more potential to reach "Crazy" high on the charts.

Another thing that I really found interesting was the cover of "Gone Daddy Gone" originally by Violent Femmes.  The song was changed very little aside from Cee-Lo singing the lyrics, and maybe a minor instrumental change.  All in all the album was great, but there are some oddities here and there.  Only 4 songs on the 14 track album break the 3 minute mark, and 2 of them don't even make the 2 minute mark, and I’m not talking about intro's or outro's.  Of course this doesn't make the songs bad, it only leaves you wanting more just a little sooner than expected.  Who would have ever expected a southern rapper and a dorky mashup DJ from New York to put together a soul album?  All I can say is get ready for a genre smashing experimental trip.

Since I already have the mp3s i'll probably never even bother to take the wrapper off of the cd that I've purchaced through amazon.com, but they deserve my money as they have created an amazing album…

For a better review check here, here, and here…

The Daily Show has been covering (or should I say uncovering) the Stem Cell debate.  I really love how The Daily Show can expose political shenanigans with such hilarity…

Part One: 

Part Two: 

The A/C was broken yesterday, and it was hot as all hell in the programmers office.  I decided to check the current temperature and just about fell out of my chair.  It was 102° and according to www.weather.com it felt like 110°.  Luckily the humidity was an unusually low 36% which made the heat bearable.

Have you ever seen those "Now" music compilation CDs?  Rossanna recently bought "Now 21".  I was actually surprised that I liked a good half to three quarters of the songs on the CD.  I especially liked "If Its Lovin’ That You Want" by Rihanna.  It a great song to appreciate that down ass girl in your life by.  One of the songs however just about made be get into a car accident.  I won't say anymore…listen, then reflect on life a little.

140 cigarettes not smoked, $26.88 saved.  Well it definitely much easier now than it was a few days ago.  I went to a party Saturday night, drank beer, and did some other things and manages to remain cigarette free.  I'm awfully proud of myself.  I was discussing the benefits of being smoke free with a couple of friends of mine who recently began putting serious effort into consuming a healthier diet.  Chris said he was thinking about quiting, I told him about my experience over the course of the week.  If they decide to quit I'll definitely put some effort into helping them.

I don't want to be that annoying anti-smoking crusader or anything, it just feels good to help.

Saturday night wasn't completely with out its craves.  Each time I caught a whiff of a cigarette being smoked I felt the urge to smoke momentarily.  It actually helped to see people smoking though.  When I see people smoking it reminds me of why I smoke.  Addiction.  Nothing more nothing less.  I think I will work on a simple survey that just ask one question: "Why do you smoke?" and include a few simple demographic pieces of info such as age, sex, salary range and so on…and begin collecting statistics.

Yea, umm….Charles Feelgood was dropping some hot tracks.  You can't really see anything in the picture but some random guy in front of me dancing in front of a light, but Feelgood tore it up!

<edit>I'm not sure if it was a new track or a live remix, but he was spinning this remix of "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley, and it had the whole place jumping!</edit>

Well here I am at the 96 hour mark.  I still have pretty strong urges to smoke, but the frequency has definately dropped.  I am actually having one now.  It's kind of difficult to discribe, but there is this longing or aching in my chest.  Not a painful feeling, but something more like that feeling you get when you've lost something you love.  I can't wait until I enter a phase where not smoking is more normal for my body.  Dealing with these withdrawals sucks.  I mean their not the worst thing in the world, but I would definately rather not have them then have them….

I'll keep this post short…i'm working at the moment…

Well here I am entering the 48th hour of this quiting thing.  It feels like it's been a week.  Maybe that's why you live longer when you quit smoking?  Because time actually passes slower!  I really wish I could find some comfort in something other than in cigarettes.  I guess that's why quiting is so hard though, because there simply isn't anything that can satisfy your bodies craving for nicotine, well, except nicotine itself.  You may be thinking "Hey, there are nicotine gums and patches!"  Yea, but they only delay the inevitable.  You will eventually have to deal with the nicotine withdrawals.  In a few days the craving will still be around but I'll have several days of experience dealing with them.  Then in a few more days the withdrawal symptoms will begin to go way and life with out cigarettes will become much easier.

Now that I'm dealing with this again, I can clearly remember going through this last time I tried quiting.  I remember thinking to myself that I was never wanted to do this again…and here I am now having to do it all over again.

Well it been over 48 hours now.  Some of the benifits i'll be seeing now are regrowth of nerve endings improving my sense of taste and smell.