:: Pedantic Platitudes ::

:: Saturday, August 14, 2004 ::

Today, I had lunch with a great friend, and we then went to the Science Center and worked on his super-secret, soon-to-be-released project that will revolutionize the world. Or at least the internet.

I then joined a couple of my friends, and we set up a table on a busy, touristy sidewalk with a sign that says "Advice, 25 cents - It's a bargain, yo." My friend came up with this really hilarious concept, and we were just doing it for fun, not doing it to actually make any money. Before we were able to give any advice for 25 cents, the street permits lady came around and told us that we really weren't supposed to charge for things on the city streets, but we were allowed to ask for donations, so we changed the sign to say, "Free advice!" Well, after some time, the business started rolling in. We had people coming up to ask random advice, from career advice to relationship advice. One lady came up with her significant other, pointed to him, and asked, "Should I sleep with this guy?" Even though we were giving free advice, people still gave us tips, so we ended up making quite a bit of money

One interesting thing that happened was I was talking to an advice-seeking person, and he asked me where I was from. I told him about my hometown, and he actually knew where it was, because he works for a communications agency, and there is a long underwater fiber optic cable that comes ashore at my hometown. So that was really exciting to be able to talk to someone in this part of the country who knows the small town I'm from.

The kicker is that while he was talking about my hometown, a lady who was passing by happened to hear the name of the town, and she stopped. I had wondered why she would stop to listen to a random man on the street speak Mandarin Chinese, but she explained that she lives in a city fifteen minutes from my hometown! She was visiting with her family, and was surprised to hear someone mention the town. It was really exciting to be hanging out with a couple of people who were familiar with my hometown, thousands of miles away from where I am now, where nobody has ever heard of the small city and where I usually have to explain, "It's a small town exactly between..." blah blah blah. Indeed, as the dear Sherman brothers noted in their classic Disney theme park song, "It's a small world, after all."

So we ended up buying ice cream from Toscanini's, a fancy ice cream and coffee place that supposedly has "the best ice cream in the world." I wasn't sure what all the hype was about... to me, ice cream is ice cream (unless it's the cheap kind at supermarkets that come in the huge plastic tubs). The ice cream certainly wasn't bad (I had the cake batter flavor, and that was yummy), but I'm just not too keen on what all the excitement is about this ice cream place. So I enjoyed my ice cream (one scoop in a sugar cone).

Later in the evening, two wonderful friends of mine went to a nice Japanese restaurant nearby. I love Japanese food, and it was really exciting to have it again. I had a teriyaki chicken combo, which also included miso soup, dumplings, a "sau mai," salad, vegetables, and white rice. I really enjoyed the meal. I then headed back to my friends' apartment, and I had some wonderful ice cream and green tea (yum!) while having lively discussions about albinos and Hello Kitty vibrators (disturbing, I know).

I currently have the song "Hands" by Jewel stuck in my head. Anyone else remember this song from the late 90s? "My hands are small, I know, but they're not yours, they are my own, but they're not yours, they are my own, and I am never broken."

Quote of the Day: "I just cut my nose while licking this envelope." "Oh, I hate it when that happens! Actually, I don't think that's ever happened to me."

:: SL 8:53 PM [+] ::
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