Yep, it sure is! Today was “Let’s-be-crazy-gambling-fools-day day” for my family. And what a day it was! But I suppose I should start from the beginning, no?

LBCGFD day all started many years ago, when, after my father would return home from a long and boring airplane flight (for work) bearing gifts of scratch-off cards.

Although I was much younger then, when my ability to distinguish awesome things from non-awesome things was still being developed, I still knew that these lotto cards were, in fact, awesome. And they are. Still.
Anyway, it ended up that what ever money we won (or didn’t win) went into a special fund, our “scratch-card” fund. Ever since, we’ve bought scratch cards on and off, eventually winning back the $15 we put into the scratch card fund to start off.

But, because all things like that end terribly wrong, we lost those $15 and all the other winnings (a grand total of maybe $20. maybe).

Today, however, we broke our 6 month scratch card hiatus at The Taste Of Chicago, (which was, by the way, delicious. can you say “I can has turkey leg?”? OM NOM NOM!) due to the very attractive booth at where, if you purchased $35 of lotto tickets, you could spin a wheel with prizes to win.
So, $35, a t-shirt (our wheel winnings), and a belly full of food later, we arrived home, ready to scratch off our cards.

We won $4 and a free $1 scratch card. Whoopie.

But, I suppose it could be worth it. We’ll see when the cards are cashed in for new cards. Who knows? We could be the next mega-millionares!

**update**

Steve McNair just died. I beleive he was shot? RIP.

Ah the bird…
Glorious.
Magnificent.
Beautiful.
Insightful.
Spamming.
Other Things.

Of course, we all think of different things when we hear those magnificent words, some think of something like a falcon or sparrow. Others think of the awesome flipping bird. (click here for a very funny {but explicit} video about the bird, and how to flip it {again, it’s explicit})
Still others think of the chirp, or more specifically, the TWEET of a bird (I’m referring to twitter). It happens to be that these people know of a great evil, a looming presence of doom, of technology, of constantly blocked up servers, of strange spammers that follow you, of @squarespace.
Yes it’s true. There is a great evil lurking in the depths of the clogged twitter servers. @jluebbert said that “it’s amazing how everyone who usually hates spam completely sells out just for an iphone” but then procedes to sell his soul for the promised iPhone soon there after.

For those of you who are too lame to have a twitter, actually have a twitter but don’t use it, are anti-twitter, or just have no idea what I could possibly be talking about, let’s start from the very begining….

It was on some day this past month that the large webhost Squarespace.com decided to give out 30 iphones in 30 days to 30 people over twitter. The catch? You must include #squarespace in a tweet to be entered.

So I did. I tweeted (tweeted? or twote?). 14 tweets and 3 days later, no iPhone. Thanks for nothing, squarespace. I send in such creative 140 character tweets playing off of the Oscar Meyer b-o-l-o-g-n-a song, pleading them, even trying to bargin with them. But no. Instead some guy who enters once with a crappy entry wins. yeah. I know. All my hard work for nothing.

But the thing is, I have spent too much time on it. I’m pretty sure it’s a marketing ploy by twitter to try and over crowd their servers. Because honestly, who actually uses twitter for anything other than news, some random 140 letter comedy spurts, and, of course, contests.
It also could be total bull. I mean seriously, how do they choose the winner? There are way to many people to choose from! I’m now starting to think that these “winners” have already won… hmmm… Perhaps there is no hope for me after all? or maybe there is… yeah I’ll put my money on the fact that it is.

It could, nay, will, happen.

Today’s post is about new and old techy toys that will get you beat up. In fact, some of these are so lame, they should be banished from the world. So, without further ado, the list:
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Chicago is home to some awesome places including China town, The Sears Tower, and Michigan Avenue. Not only that, but Chi-town has the awesome McCormick Place- home to many conventions, the most well known being the auto show. The auto show is cool, you know, see some sweet cars, get in a bunch of cars, pretend like your driving 120 mph, go on the Jeep exhibit and get driven around a sweet course, eat some crappy food, etc. But the auto show is no way as cool as some of the trade shows there (or anywhere else, for that matter).

So why are trade shows so sweet? Well, ominous voice that was typed without my consent, trade shows are awesome because you get a ton of free stuff. A TON. While going to the International Housewares show, my family and I scored 20 free seasoned skewers, 4 cedar wraps (the good kind, not likethese,trust me), a ton of free food (I was full and we ended up not going to lunch), 4 giant pixie sticks, 4 nerds ropes, 4 recycled water bottles, a microfiber cloth, a recycled bag, and 2 free Berghoff root beers (if you don’t know what they are, go buy some. now.).
So check around your area, find some trade shows open to the public (the International Housewares show ISN’T OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, I just know people), and go get free junk!!! woo hoo!!!!

For those who haven’t noticed, I just recently put a new sidebar “ad” that supports a charity, kiva.
Kiva is one cool charity, and it is even more awesome, because you lend money instead of donating it (although you can donate to help expand their site).
All you need is $25, and you choose who you want to lend to, a farmer in Azerbaijan, a food salesman in Cambodia, or a textile person in Peru.
Check it out here, and don’t forget to join the itsalloso lending team!