Bits And Pieces from the Second Quarter
I am finishing up my first two days off from work in over a year!! Said like that, it sounds pretty impressive. Well, there hasn’t been a “from work” to be off from in over a year, so it’s just a little word trick.
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We’re going to start off with a little retail riddle.
A guy walks into Lowe’s, finds Joko working there and asks him to direct him to a product. He asks: “Well, how much is one?”
“58 cents”, replies Joko.
“Okay, how much is twelve?” the guy asks again.
“Twelve would be $1.16” Joko responds.
“All right then. How much is one hundred and twenty-three?”
Joko thinks for a moment and answers, “One dollar seventy-four cents.”
All these number are accurate. Nothing is on sale nor are there any volume discounts.
What is the customer looking to purchase?
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These last three months have been remarkable in the amount of video I have recorded that I have not shared with the internet. Maybe I’m getting more picky with what I share; I don’t know. In any case, this period is therefore ripe for one of my compilation outtakes videos that I make every three months or so. Here are scenes that you have not seen even if you have happened to catch everything I make. Outtakes and unused footage, set to The Gorillaz.
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I’ve expressed this before, but will do so again. I am so happy to be working again, even if retail isn’t the most prestigious, highest paying job in the world. I love helping people, and I get to do so constantly in my new job. I tend to learn through osmosis, and so working at a home improvement super center that sells 20,000+ items, right now, I may not know where everything is, I can see myself, over the years, becoming one of those amazing dudes you occasionally run into at these store who can help you with every aspect of whatever project you’re working on. I’d love to be one of those dudes.
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Not to take anything away from my assumed role as a FriendBurst champion (I’d hate if Kevin thought I was cheating on him!), but I’ve had an interesting last week in Facebook land. 
En ex-girlfriend from the 90’s, a woman I loved and the first woman I ever cohabitated with got back in touch with me after 15 years. Then, a former best friend, a drinking and drugging buddy, again from the 90’s sent me a friend request. Through his friendslist, I found a couple other old friends I haven’t interacted with in over a decade.
I imagine that someday, I’ll get back in touch with my friends from my middle school years. That’s the nature of Facebook.
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Another unique thing that has been happening to me in these last few weeks are my dreams. Unlike any other time I can remember, when I go to bed at night, I am almost assured of having so many intense, vivid dreams that they affect my whole day. I have dreamed of owning multiple cars, being in love, living overseas and have actually dreamt of waking up from dreams and being told by scientists in white lab coats that I have been given dream-inducing drugs as part of an experiment and now would I please answer some questions about the dreams I was having.
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Like I said, I had a lot of outtakes and unpublished video these last three months. Here is a different compilation of the same video I posted above featuring an indie band from California from about ten years ago, SUMDAY.
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I went and played basketball today for only the second time this year, after spending most of my adult life playing twice a week. It was great being out on the court again, and I had a decent shooting day. Like I said, I’ve been playing the game a lot for a long time, and I can shoot. I also know where to go and what to do, even if I can’t do it as fast or as energetically as I once could.
In basketball, you know you’re getting old and slow when you play defense. As long as I was guarding other old, fat white guys, I did fine today. In the 4th of my 6 games this afternoon (of which my team won 5 of 6, so it was a successful day), I had to guard a guy who was 10 years my junior, 3 inches taller than me, really fit and of an ethnicity who is known for being really good at basketball. He made some moves that I have seen hundreds of times before… but unlike in the past where I could react and counter those moves to some extent (I could at least get to where I could foul the guy), I was simply physically unable to match his offense.
This is life. This is getting older. I will never be the athlete in my 40’s that I was in my 20’s, even if I can lose the extra 50 pounds I’ve hung on my belly since those days.
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On politics: Bill Clinton said today that if he were faced with the kind of crisis that Obama was facing in regards to the debt ceiling, he would go ahead an just use his 14th Amendment powers of the presidency to unilaterally increase the debt limit and let the courts try and stop him.
Well. Bill. If you really believe that, do you have to go and undermine Obama by saying that and making our president look wimpy? Couldn’t you just call? I’m sure you have Barack’s phone number. Ask your wife.
Who knows what is going to happen in the next two weeks. Obama may have to invoke the powers Bill Clinton said he’d have no qualms about using. Maybe by Bill saying this now, if that happens, Obama will be insulated a bit in that our most respected living former president said he’d do the same thing. If it doesn’t come to that, which I don’t think it will, then this will look like what it is now: undermining a member of your own party through “armchair presidency”.
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And here is Part Three of the same footage. Not hip hop music. Not pop music. A little Liszt!
Rubber bands. Yes, I think that is right. The guy is pricing rubbers. I’ll have to come back for the rest of the blog.
lmao It took me a few minutes and I haven’t read the rest of the blog or watched the video’s yet, BUT!!!!!! I know the answer!!!! The answer is numbers. 1 for one=.58, 2 for 12=$1.16, 3 for 123=$1.74
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of your outtake video’s before. I really enjoyed all three. I don’t dream often but when I do they are doozies. I often find myself groping my own breasts too, just think of the fascination you might have had if those were really real 😉
But Obama makes himself look wimpy, either that or he is a closet Republican.
How about the Democrats offering their own Cost cutting bills? Let’s cut all those expensive Bush Programs, I could get behind that…. but no, the Democrats wring their hands and say, “we have to Freeze Federal workers pay and cut Medicare, It would be worse if the Republicans were in power”
A bigger bunch of wimps I have never seen in my life. I could kick the ass of Every Democrat in Washington DC at the same damn time.
I don’t do math…. 😉
Joko, the videos are a delight. . amazing difference with the music . . I by the way see our dreams as the universe instilling its grandest visions and dreams to inspire us to live the grandest versions there of.
That’s exactly why I DON’T do Facebook. I don’t want anyone from high school “getting in touch”; just to tell me how great life is for them (while pretending to care about my life). There’s a reason we lose contact, with certain people… Cos they’re boring and/or irritating. 🙂
Joe.