Greatest Steakhouse Ever

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Beverly Hills is hands-down the greatest steakhouse I have ever been to (and for those who don't know me, I'm a BIG steak fan). The ribeye is incredible! It is so damn juicy and so well-seasoned that it just melts in your mouth. Be careful of the plates though, they are 500 degrees when they come out. I can't wait to go back. YUM. Well, that's all the time I have for an entry today.

By the way, I want to change the name of my blog. "The Fallen Seraph" no longer cuts it. Any suggestions?

Happy Belated Valentine's Day

It has been one very busy week. First, happy valentine's day to all of you. How was mine you ask? Heavenly. Wonderful. Lovely. Anyways, I hope everyone had a wonderful day. All the singles out there: you will hopefully find the person who is worth the wait. I did.

New comment system: it shows in a popup and you can type your name in. Give it a shot, leave me a comment.

That's it for now, more to come. COME ON GUEST BLOGGERS!!!!

Banana Republic

The United States: Always True to Our Word

From North Korea Says It Has Nuclear Weapons, the Associated Press, Feb 10, 2005:

"The North Koreans have been told by the president of the United States that the United States has no intention of attacking or invading North Korea," Rice told a news conference in Luxembourg.

From The President's State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002:

North Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens.

[...]

States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.

[...]

And all nations should know: America will do what is necessary to ensure our nation's security.

A Smart Mexican???

An old mexican man lived alone in East Los Angeles. He wanted to spade his garden, but it was very hard work. His only son, Jose, who used to help him,was in prison.

The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.

Dear Jose:
I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my garden this year. I'm just too old to be digging up a garden. If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the garden for me.
Tu Padre

A few days later, he received a letter from his son:

Dear Papa
Por Dios, Papa, don't dig up the garden. That's where I buried all my drugs and money.
Tu hijo,
Jose

At 6.00 a.m. the next morning, the L.A. Sheriffs showed up and dug up the entire area without finding any drugs or money. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day, the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Papa:
Go ahead and plant your garden now, Papa. It's the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love,
Jose

Getting Things Done

There are countless articles on how to get things done. It all comes down to two things:

1. Willpower
2. Knowing what you actually need to do

Without the second, the first one diminishes. When we don't really know exactly what we need to do, we become lazy, tired, and burned out. We have vague goals to meet, such as "get good grades" or "get the job done." That's going to take you nowhere.

So here are Arthur's tips on how to get things done:

1. Every morning, make a list of specific things that you would like to do that day. This list includes everything from the most urgent to things like "spend an hour with my kids." You can keep adding to this list throughout the day as you remember things or as things come up.
2. Categorize your list into
   
• Must Do - Urgent
• Must Do - Not Urgent
• Would Like to Do
3. Start off my doing the most urgent tasks. As each one is completed, cross it off your list. Even though I'm a computer guy, I still prefer to write my list on paper so that I can get that satisfaction of crossing it off my list. I mean REALLY cross it off, feel good about it!
4. When all the urgent tasks are done, move on to the "Not Urgent" list. These lists are flexible and dynamic, so add and remove as the day passes.
5. At the end of the day, make a list of what you have accomplished and save it. It gives you a lot of satisfaction and perspective when you see what you have done that day.
6. Rinse and repeat every day.

Another important thing: On your desk, have a sentence or two written on a card stating your ultimate goal that will inspire you to keep working and to keep you on track.

Give it a shot for a week, but follow it religiously. It will really help.

PS: When doing homework or at the job, sign off of AIM and any other messaging service. Even an away message isn't enough because you will be constantly checking it.

"Kids" These Days...

Just in case you weren't feeling too old today, this will certainly change things. The people who are starting college this fall across the nation were born in 1986.

They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up

Their lifetime has always included AIDS

Bottle caps have always been screw off and plastic.

The CD was introduced the year they were born.

They have always had an answering machine.

They have always had cable.

They cannot fathom not having a remote control.

Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight
Show.

Popcorn has always been cooked in the
microwave.

They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.

They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.

They don't know who Mork was or where he was from.

They never heard: "Where's the Beef?", "I'd ! walk a mile for a Camel", or "de plane, Boss, de plane".

They do not care who shot J. R. and have no idea who J. R. even is.

McDonald's never came in Styrofoam containers.


They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter.

Do you feel old yet?

Sushi Pillows

How could I resist reporting on this one? Simple: I couldn't. Link

Sometimes, You Just Have To Say It!

Chris Wand's eleven acceptable times in history to use the “F” word:

11. “What the @#$% do you mean, we are sinking?” – Capt. E.J. Smith of RMS Titanic, 1912

10. “What the @#$% was that?” – Mayor of Hiroshima, 1945

9. “Where did all those @#$%ing Indians come from?” – Custer, 1877

8. “Any @#$%ing idoit could understand that.” – Einstein, 1938

7. “It does so @#$%ing look like her!” – Picasso, 1926

6. “How the @#$% did you work that out?” – Pythagoras, 126 BC

5. “You want WHAT on the @#$%in ceiling?” – Michelangelo, 1566

4. “Where the @#$% are we?” – Amelia Earhart, 1937

3. “Scattered @#$% showers, my ass!” – Noah, 4314 BC

2. “Aw c’mon. Who the @#$% is going to find out?” – Bill Clinton, 1998

1. “Geez, I didn’t think they’d get this @#$%^ing mad.” – Saddam Hussein, 2003


And there you have it, the whole @#$%ing list.

More Lawyer Quotes

Q: And where was the location of the accident?
A: Approximately milepost 199.
Q: And where is milepost 199?
A: Probably between milepost 198 and 200.

Q: Sir, what is your IQ?
A: Well, I can see pretty well, I think.

Q: Did you blow your horn or anything?
A: After the accident?
Q: Before the accident.
A: Sure, I played for ten years. I even went to school for it.

Q: Trooper, when you stopped the defendant, were your red and blue lights flashing?
A: Yes.
Q: Did the defendant say anything when she got out of her car?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: What did she say?
A: What disco am I at?

Q: Was it you or your younger brother who was killed in the war?

Q: Did he kill you?

Q: How far apart were the vehicles at the time of the collision?

Q: You were there until the time you left, is that true?

Q: How many times have you committed suicide?

Q: You say the stairs went down to the basement?
A: Yes.
Q: And these stairs, did they go up also?

Q: Mr. Slatery, you went on a rather elaborate honeymoon, didn't you?
A: I went to Europe, Sir.
Q: And you took your new wife?

Q. When he went, had you gone and had she, if she wanted to and were able, for the time being excluding all the restraints on her not to go, gone also, would he have brought you, meaning you and she, with him to the station?
MR. BROOKS: Objection. That question should be taken out and shot.

Judge: "Well, Sir, I have reviewed this case and I've decided to give
your wife $775 a week."
Husband: "That's fair, your honor. I'll try to send her a few bucks
myself."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following are actual statements found on insurance forms where car drivers attempted to summarize the details of an accident in the fewest words:

Coming home I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don't have.

The other car collided with mine without giving warning of its intentions.

A truck backed through my windshield into my wife's face.

The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.

In my attempt to kill a fly, I drove into a telephone pole.

As I approached the intersection, a sign suddenly appeared in a place where no stop sign had ever appeared before. I was unable to stop in time to avoid the accident.

To avoid hitting the bumper of the car in front, I struck the pedestrian.

My car was legally parked as it backed into the other vehicle.

An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my car and vanished.

I told the police that I was not injured but on removing my hat, I found that I had a fractured skull.

I was sure the old fellow would never make it to the other side of the road when I struck him.

The pedestrian had no idea which direction to run so I ran over him.

I saw a slow moving, sad faced old gentlemen as he bounced off the hood of my car.

I was thrown from my car as it left the road. I was later found in a ditch by some stray cows.

The telephone pole was approaching. I was attempting to swerve out of its way when it struck my front end.

Why Competition Really Is Good For The Consumer

Recently, there has been a lot going on in the Internet sector, and I wanted to comment on the patterns and underlying causes. The big news is that the new MSN is out, with new features such as Desktop Search, Encarta search, etc etc. In other words, they copied Google. This is great! Without Google, Microsoft would have had no incentive to fix their bloated MSN Search. That's one example.

Another example that will play out within a few months is that of the browser. Back when Netscape was around, there were a lot of releases from Microsoft showing new features and functionality in IE that Netscape didn't have. Netscape, in return, build new features that IE didn't have and also included the new features of IE. It went back and forth until Microsoft gave IE away for free, thereby killing off Netscape. Since then, Internet Explorer hasn't done much exploring.

Until now. Netscape is back in open-source format under the Firefox name and it is making huge gains on IE. I, for one, switched to Firefox and never looked back. Now that Microsoft is feeling the pressure, they have announced a "major" upgrade to IE. Hmm... we haven't had any real changes (except patches every Tuesday) for 5 years. If it wasn't for Firefox, Microsoft wouldn't have done anything with IE.

In summary, competition breeds innovation. When you have no money and have a family to support, you improvise. The smarter, more cunning amongst us think of new ideas and build beautiful companies out of sheer necessity. That is exactly why no monopoly will exist for long. Once they become lazy, a surprise new competitor will come out and rock their world.

Hail to the phenomena of economics!

Job At IKEA

The Things Lawyers Say These Days!

These are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters who had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place:

Q: Are you sexually active?
A: No, I just lie there.

Q: What is your date of birth?
A: July 15
Q: What year?
A: Every year.

Q: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
A: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.

Q: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
A: Yes.
Q: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
A: I forget.
Q: You forget? Can you give us an example of something that you have forgotten?

Q: How old is your son, the one living with you?
A: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which.
Q: How long has he lived with you?
A: Forty-five years.

Q: What was the first thing your husband said to you when he woke that morning?
A: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"
Q: And why did that upset you?
A: My name is Susan.

Q: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo or the occult?
A: We both do.
Q: Voodoo?
A: We do.
Q: You do?
A: Yes, voodoo.

Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep,he doesnt know about it until the next morning?
A: Did you actually pass the bar exam?

Q: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?

Q: Were you present when your picture was taken?

Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8?
A: Yes.
Q: And what were you doing at that time?

Q: She had three children, right?
A: Yes.
Q: How many were boys?
A: None
Q: Were there any girls?

Q: How was your first marriage terminated?
A: By death.
Q: And by whose death was it terminated?

Q: Can you describe the individual?
A: He was about medium height and had a beard.
Q: Was this a male, or a female?

Q: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
A: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.

Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.

Q: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
A: Oral.

Q: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
A: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
Q: And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time?
A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy.

Q: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?

Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for blood pressure?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for breathing?
A: No.
Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Q: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.


Thank you Fred for sending me these!

Only in America by the Lost One...

"Boy, I sure feel safer now that she's behind bars! O. J. & Kobe are walking around, free as birds, Osama Bin Laden too. But they take the one woman in America willing to cook, clean and work in the yard, and haul her ass off to jail."

-> Martha Stewart

from strawberry PJ

Today in my blog i talked about abortion, so in ur blog i shall talk about cheating whores.
Cheating whores are worthless human beings who should be shot in the head. If i was the ruler of the world, i would get rid of a lot of ppl cuz they're so f*****g(it's Arthur's blog i must be good) worthless and rather than helping humanity, they spread STDs, kill other innocent people for money in the form of oil, force their idiotic religion on others, and piss me off. The most annoying ones are the ones who claim they're conservatives and wanan help others, then they make fun of the people they're supposedly helping and act like skanky little sluts.

Arthur is too nice sometimes...Araks is my sexy big sis whom i want to devour :-D

Where's Waldo?

To be honest, I haven't a clue. He's probably hiding behind a huge orgy or something. But this one I can answer: Where's Arthur? I haven't had a chance to post in a long while. These few days have been quite wonderful, filled with 15 hour work days. I have left my post (not to be confused with Post-It Notes) at Trans-Gas Propane and have ventured into the real estate industry with a great partner. Vigen Onany. In between work, I visit my wonderful Araks, so my life is fairly complete as of now. Hopefully, I will soon (a month or 2 from now?) have more time to spend with my family, my nieces, and my Araks.

I have been lacking my signature "picture-with-a-post" so I shall do my very best to revive that ritual: