Rene's gonna be SO mad...

Ryan sent this today. I can't believe Matt's looking for a SECOND Moon Queen...

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/ksc/395322346.html

William Hall

My friend Ben's dad, William Hall, is a well-known Texas artist. www.billhall.com is his website, showing a lot of his sports-related and commercial work. Ben sent this video today, featuring new stuff he's doing with construction materials. The new works are innovative and my favorites so far, I particularly like the pieces at 2:59 and :31 remaining (the countdown is in the corner).

-CP

One of my favorite mail-order stores

This is why I keep ordering from http://www.cdbaby.com/:

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Wednesday, August 29th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sigh...

--
Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby
the little store with the best new independent music
http://cdbaby.com cdbaby@cdbaby.com (503)595-3000

San Diego Photos

I never remember to get pics at the convention, or at least not many, but at least I took some at the zoo!

http://gallery.mac.com/genmgr#100010

-CP

Four Years

Brad Riek

Four years ago, my best friend Brad died after a long battle with melanoma. I learned a lot from his life, and even more from the way he carried himself through the long battle he fought. I've also realized lately how much I've learned since his death, and how grateful I am for it.

Four years ago, I felt like the whole world just stopped. Nothing felt good or right, and I didn't see any "brighter days" on the horizon. Fortunately, the intervening years have shown me that I was wrong. Let's think about all that has happened in the four years since we lost our best friend / brother / son / fiance...

• Matt and Rene are raising the beautiful little girl, Jordan, that Brad was so excited about. She delights us every day and they also now have a second daughter, Avery. I see so much of Brad in Matt that it's impossible to not then see it in both girls, too.
• Matt has opened his own law practice, and is going to be great there.
• Rene has been promoted at work, to a position where she will excel and affect the lives of thousands of children and their families.
• Erin has bought a new home and found someone who makes her happy. She's back at work, doing things that she enjoys.
• Lori has found her Skippy and adopted more dogs that she can love and provide for.
• Chris Blake has moved to California and worked on a TV show for a major network.
• Ryan bought a house, sold a house, got promoted, got married, and bought a new house. He and Michelle are settling into a great community where they'll be really happy.
• Edna continues to tutor, spoil her grandkids, take care of her mom, and works on her house.
• I bought a house, adopted 2 dogs to match my 2 cats, and am doing a lot of exciting things at work.
• Many more of our friends have moved, gotten married, are having kids, and much more.

So what all this has finally shown me, and I couldn't see it for SO long, is that LIFE GOES ON. We will never forget Brad and our other friends that go before us, because the memories of them just enhances everything that comes after. Many of these things wouldn't have happened if we hadn't had Brad in our lives, so for that we will always be grateful.

That's not to say that there aren't days where it's rough, or where you feel the pangs that remind you the person is gone. With the right mindset, though, those may be fewer and farther between. Instead of being sad that they're gone, we can try to be happy that we had them at all and that they enhanced our lives in so many ways.

Tonight, we will get together and remember Brad. We won't sit and mope, but instead will enjoy each other's company and know that it's exactly what he would have wanted us to do. Here's to you, Buddy, the best friend any of us could ever ask for. We'll always love you and miss you, but the strength of good friends and family will make every day better than the one before it.

-CP

I apologize in advance...

I can't imagine...

living in a world where this isn't legal. C'mon, she was throwing A FIT. We can't have that...

http://video.ap.org/v/default.aspx?g=7acf67b0-aa80-437c-b83f-6ad7018932c0&f=txfor&fg=email

Yeesh, this guy's a winner.

-CP

Fight Club RULES

Ryan hooked me up with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D5Gd2hTnSE (GRAPHIC)

"I felt like putting a bullet between the eyes of every panda that wouldn't screw to save its own species." Yeah, Ed Norton, you tell 'em!

-CP

One of My Favorites...

Creepy Kitty

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959718/

To Make Up for that Cheney Video...

THIS is what I'm talking about, people...

Just let the pandas go, already!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20296322/

If you can show him "panda porn" and he's still confused about how his business works, then it's time to just make some life-like stuffed pandas and let the poor things shuffle off this mortal coil...

-CP

I need to learn how to do this...

but I think I'd hurt myself...

http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dallasnews/hp/index.html?nvid=167057&shu=1

-CP

That's Our Cheney!

What Book Are YOU?

You're Invisible Man!

by Ralph Ellison

Most of your life, people have either ignored you or told you that you
were wrong. You've been duped, mistreated, misled, and neglected. Maybe it was because
of your race, or some other uniqueness that people were quick to condemn, but now you
just want to crawl into a hole and disappear. After all, nobody knows your name. But
you just might speak for everyone.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

CP Loves Stephen Lynch

http://www.youtube.com/user/sxymegger

Some videos here, NONE are work friendly.

-CP

More of those wacky inmates!

Drink, smoke, profit

You gotta love it: The Vice Fund.

This Dallas-based mutual fund makes no bones about its investment strategy, which could cause self-described socially responsible investors to toss their organic cookies.

Charles Norton, lead manager since 2005, is not overjoyed by his investment pool's evil-sounding moniker, but he's too busy investing in tobacco, gambling, alcohol and weapons companies to worry. (The fund must invest at least 80 percent in those sectors but has plowed 100 percent into them.)

"We're not making a social statement," said Norton, 33. "A great deal goes into research. How it makes you warm and fuzzy is not part of that research. We look at the fundamentals."

And it's worked so far.

With the Dow tumbling in recent weeks, the Vice people were touting its track record.

The no-load fund has consistently outpaced the S&P 500. And when the Dow Jones took a major fall, the Vice Fund dropped 4.2 percent while the S&P fell 6.3 percent from July 19 to 31. The Vice Fund is up about a point over the index for the past 12 months. Morningstar, which rates mutual funds, gives it a five-star score, its highest.

Norton says companies in Vice's portfolio are measurably resilient in a volatile market. "It's definitely a defensive allocation."

Holdings include Boeing; Altria, formerly Philip Morris, which owns a chunk of brewer SABMiller; MGM Mirage casinos; British American Tobacco; InBev, the world's biggest brewer; and Diageo Plc., which makes Johnny Walker Scotch and Guinness Stout.

And Vice has found a market. Investors have handed over more than $120 million, up from $45 million when Norton took over two years ago, he said.

In March, CNBC's madcap investment commentator Jim Cramer compared the Vice Fund and the Socially Responsible Stock Fund. He found that for the 12-month period ending then, the former was up 30 percent, and the latter had fallen 4 percent.

"Nice guys finish last," Cramer concluded. "You can take your stocks from evil companies and invest them in good causes, but you can't do anything with your nonprofits from companies with good-guy behavior."

Spider-Man is Groovy!

Finally Got This Converted...

Philipine Prisons are fun!

Stolen from Lori's blog. Love it!