Watch this video and tell me what you think.

And HERE if the link above doesn't work.

If you're not familiar with the work of Derren Brown, he's a mind master when it comes to suggesting, influencing, planting and hypnotizing. You should check out his other mental feats on You Tube. But here he gets into the head of a couple of ad guys, literally. Now, despite the clear awesomeness of this stunt, and before you say you're too creative to have ever fallen into this trap, keep in mind these guys only had 30 minutes. They were scrambling to come up with something and naturally these are some of the images and thoughts that first came to mind. But Derren does teach us something about the way our minds ideate. Our brains are pulling directly from everyday experiences that we aren't even remembering. Our bus ride to work, the lunch line, etc. So, pay a bit more attention to that boring stuff around you. Because you never know when you might be passing a Gold Lion idea.

Original Link found on advertising for peanuts.

I just arrived at work from my class (1 more day!) to find this email from our receptionist in my inbox:

I saw him on my way in. He's a pretty cute little guy - but I didn't want to take a picture for fear of disturbing him. This is not unlike the moth that Laura and Becky stumbled upon in Dallas -- though they were not so kind as to leave well enough alone...

Side note: The situation at the Sonic in Johnson has escalated to my not even needing to order. I drive up to the speaker - the voice comes on to say "Welcome to Sonic, may I take your order?" but instead, the voice now says "Route 44 Diet Coke?". I drive around and there's my drink. I love it!

God help the poor drivers on the road between my house and work this morning. They probably couldn't actually hear the things I was yelling at them as they were going too slow, too fast, not merging correctly, or just there -- but I admit that it wasn't very nice and might apologize to them if I had the chance.

So Saturday afternoon, we ventured out for lunch. We decided on an old faithful - Chick-fil-A. I've posted about Chick-fil-A before -- the drive-thru line at lunchtime, the creepy Sunshine Cleaners-esque workers, even way back to my battles on-campus with the waffle fries -- but it's my favorite fast food place and sounded perfect on  Saturday. To sweeten things, I had a coupon for a free sandwich with purchase of a medium drink and fries -- I got it on Tax Day when I went there for lunch. The coupon was cute -- the cow was wearing a board reading "Beef Tax 100%, Chikin Tax 0%". So we order a #1 ($4something) and a #4 ($6something) -- plus my coupon for a free sandwich -- and our total was $13something. Ummm. I hate to argue about a couple dollars of fast food - especially if I have a coupon.... but that's some funky math  So I ask for the receipt and see that they've "discounted" my sandwich by adding it and then immediately subtracting it -- the cashier keeps pointing at where she's subtracted it while I point out "yeah, but you added it first - that's just zero". This frustrates her so she goes to get a manager, who explains to me in her most politely patronizing voice that the $2.50 for the sandwich has indeed been subtracted. Ok. I ask "just out of curiosity, what would the total have been without the coupon?" She huffily rings it all up again -- "$16". Ha! That's some tax rate they've got on fast food these days. By this time, I'm drawing a crowd and Jeff has bailed the situation to go get napkins and straws. I painfully pay for our food -- which I can't for the life of me recall EVER being so expensive. I'm standing there as a tray of food comes up which I can only assume is for someone else -- it has three sandwiches on it. Jeff and I both start laughing as we realize the geniuses at Chick-fil-A have outsmarted us. So now we have our "free" sandwich at home in the refrigerator -- where it will NEVER taste as good warmed up as it would have tasted fresh out of the fryer at the restaurant... but I have a free sandwich - dammit.

Friday night we celebrated Jennifer's birthday --

And Sunday - Jeff and I ventured East into the Boston Mountains to find Kings River Falls.

There were a couple guys camping there and they were up doing backflips into the water -- I couldn't seem to get a picture of it. We plan to go back when it gets a little warmer - the water was a little chilly for swimming.

(More Pics in Album.)

Quote of the Day:

"I'm sticking up for the little guy who's afraid of the big guy who in turn is afraid that the little guys are going to stand on each other's shoulders and put on a long coat to look like an even bigger guy."

-Stephen Colbert

Thanks for the responses to the Singles chart -- it makes my head hurt to think about it. That and my friend Angela is reading a book called The Omnivore's Dilemma and she's been making me think too hard about the over-population of the Earth... and the food chain... and whether humans as a species are too smart for our own good... -- I've gotta read it.

I find myself liking the new Brad Paisley song "Ticks" more and more all the time. If you haven't heard it -- you're missing out.

My last Jazzercise Personal Touch class was last night -- it lasted for 7 weeks. I haven't lost any significant weight, or inches -- according to the lady measuring me -- but I did 15 real push-ups and 7 weeks ago I could barely squeeze out 5 girl push-ups!

There should be an election channel. Election Network. or The Election Channel. There's a Weather Channel, a Food Network, a SciFi Channel... If the election is going to start earlier and earlier every time -- we might as well prepare for the days (coming sooner than I realize, I'm sure) of solid elections -- one election season will just run right into the next one, there will be constant political ads on TV, constant trash-talking by otherwise civilized people -- and this will warrant The Election Channel. I wonder how many people will opt for this in their cable package. They'll probably make it one of those "bonus" channels you get automatically.

In other news - I recently came across this chart and thought it was fascinating. I hope you can read it here -- if not it's HERE. The blue color indicates places in the country where there are more single men than single women. Red indicates more single women than single men. So the bigger the dot -- the bigger the discrepancy between the number of single men and single women. Get it?

Dad, I thought of you and your people-watching when I saw this. Check out the difference in the eastern and western halves of the country. I think most of the blue dots can be explained by military installations or immigrants to areas of applicable industry or employment -- but I can't think of why there'd be more women in some places than others -- thoughts?

A few fun ads for you. These are for Playland -- an amusement park in NY.

 And a thought-provoker from ballsy Nike --

This morning I am reflecting on the Johnson Sonic and attempting to identify the turning point in our relationship. The owner/manager/ringleader of this particular location and I did not get off on the right foot and continued to have issues for the first few months. But we have come a long way since those days -- the morning "hello"s have turned into "good morning"s have turned into "see you tomorrow"s have turned into........... TODAY - I was not the only car in the drive-thru line so instead of making me wait my turn - Mr. Sonic Manager came outside to deliver my Route 44 Diet Coke and get my card. He came back out with a receipt and gave me a "how was your weekend?"!!  I think we're going to make it afterall.

Pics from the weekend ---

Friday night (4/20) we went to hear Logan's band Truefolk at George's.

Then Saturday - we met up with Saatchi folk for a going-away party at Brewski's.

(More Pics in Friends Album)

Ahh! Work is busy -- I have not had time to blog and I miss it! For those few loyal readers who still check this everyday hoping for a nugget of randomness... I'm sorry I've been disappointing you. Perhaps things will be better.

So. I'm a little behind, but I have photos from my weekend at home! They are all in the Family album under the photo tab above and several gems can be found at both Laura's and Becky's blogs.

The day that the girls had school - Tom, Erika, Jeff and I climbed a mountain -- that's right -- a mountain. These are pretty much the only pictures you can't already get on either Laura or Becky's site. 

Mom and Dad took this picture so they'd have something to put on the news when we got lost up on the mountain.

It was slightly windy on top of Enchanted Rock...

Tom and Erika.

Tom had us on a wild goose chase for a "cave" he claims to have been to before -- we staged this shot so he could tell everyone he found the cave...

Jeff and Sarah.

Another staged authentic photo of Tom's mountain climbing and survival skills. Actually, his skills got us down the backside of the mountain... trails are for sissies!

Jeff, Sarah, Erika, Tom.

I already know how proud of me you are for climbing a mountain on vacation (or at all, for that matter). No need to go on and on about it...

We had bumper cars and birthday parties, Fiesta Texas and Fredericksburg. The weekend was fabulous and it was great to see everyone.

BTW: We didn't make a conscious effort to all wear sweats and jammies in this our last family photo for the next 2 years... it was an unexpected bonus.

I'm sure you've noticed that there's been a serious lack of GK on the blog lately -- so I decided to treat everyone with a photo.

I am committed to blogging more often and posting more photos -- that's everyone's favorite part anyway!