But, it appears, not everyone loves their PC in the same way.

[Thanks to Chris Machian for sending this my way.]

If you are tired of getting unwanted credit card applications in the mail, you can now stop the junk mail.

New Federal Trade Commission laws require banks that send out pre-screened credit card applications to tell you how to be removed from their mailing lists.

That law took effect August 1st.

There’s a Web site and phone number where you can sign up to stop getting those credit card offers.

Try this: http://www.optoutprescreen.com

I filled up my car this morning, paying $2.56 a gallon.

Yikes.

Yikes!

For $19.09, I purchased 7.4 gallons of gas.

My Hyundai gets about 26 miles per gallon. That’s not bad. My dad, who drives a huge-ass Suburban, said he paid around 80 bucks earlier this week to fill his gas tank.

Ouch.

For those of you who work for a firm that charges clients by the hour, you’ll enjoy this:

Matthew and I embarked on a two-day adventure in Kansas City. We saw Rufus Wainwright and Ben Folds play The City Market last Saturday. On Sunday, we watched the Kansas City Royals get slaughtered by the Detroit Tigers at Kauffman Stadium. Although, we did see four home runs in the game — three of which cracked from the bats of Detroit players.

Here are other photos from last weekend.

Matthew and Mr. Benjamin Franklin at the plaza.

The two of us outside Kauffman Stadium. (Thanks to the couple who took our photo!)

Me near my car before used-book shopping Sunday morning.

The view from inside my car, as we waited for a two-hour downpour to subside. Streets were flooded through much of Kansas City.

Reading at Prospero’s Bookstore Sunday morning.

More reading at Prospero’s Bookstore.

I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.

You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.

I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from holiday on 4 April. Please be patient and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.

Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5.99 for the first ten words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message.

The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending again. (The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see all the in-duh-viduals who did this.)

Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.

I’ve run away to join a different circus.

I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as ‘ Steve ‘ instead of ‘Linda’

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – A 28-year-old South Korean man died of exhaustion in an Internet cafe after playing computer games non-stop for 49 hours, South Korean police said Wednesday.

Lee, a resident in the southern city of Taegu who was identified only by his last name, collapsed Friday after having eaten minimally and not sleeping, refusing to leave his keyboard while he played the battle simulation game Starcraft.

Lee was quickly moved to a hospital but died after a few hours, due to what doctors are presuming was a heart attack, police said. Lee had been fired from his job last month because he kept missing work to play computer games, police said.

Computer games are enormously popular in South Korea, home to professional gamers who earn big money through sponsorships and television stations devoted to broadcasting matches.

So I recently sold my Nokia cell phone on eBay not because it’s broken, but because I now carry a U.S. Cellular cell phone, as they’re one of our clients.

No problem there, right?

Not quite.

I received the cell phone today, via UPS, packaged with a nastygram from the buyer. The small piece of plastic at the end of the retractable antenna is no longer there. It broke off months ago.

However, the cell phone works fine and the antenna still retracts.

The buyer, who I will add only had one piece of feedback before mine, wrote:

The phone you sold us has a broken antenna and is of no use to us. My wife has been greatly inconvenienced by this transaction. We were not told that the phone was broken and would not of purchase it had we of known.

(For starters, the buyer can’t write worth a shit.)

The letter continues:

We will report our dissatisfaction to eBay and other authorities if we do not receive the check in 14 days of this letter. At that time, we will pursue all recourse available to us to recoup or money.

Isn’t he blowing this a bit out of proportion? I think so. But if he wants his money back, fine.

Yet another item for my Lust List: Here it comes to save the day.

I am in dire need of a haircut. It has been just over four weeks since my last appointment, and I get the feeling I’m wearing a wig. My hair is so long! Thankfully, a much-needed trim is scheduled for Friday afternoon. For whatever reason, my hair grows much more quickly in the summer months than it does during fall and winter.

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I’m toying with the idea of writing a book. The topic? A few are floating through my brain, but nothing has latched on long enough for me to fully develop a character or two.

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I am loving my new iPod. With 60GB of space, I’ll never be without music. That’s for sure.

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Unfortunately, I am slowly losing motivation for “The Dark Tower” series simply because the second book, “The Drawing of the Three,” is lagging a bit. I’m told by the middle of book three, I will be blown away and hungry for books four through seven. I hope so.

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I’m in the mood for some new music. Any suggestions?

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Matthew has pulled at least 50 red, ripe and juicy tomatoes from his garden in the back yard. And, there’s more to come. Ah, summer!