OK, so I was driving back from an appointment on the other side of town and I was dog tired. I admit, my thinking was a bit slowed. So when some guy in front of me slammed on his breaks to pull over to take a phone call, I rear ended him.

So here are two points that need to be addressed: a) I was really tired and b) The guy slammed on his breaks.

But here is when it gets really interesting. I am standing there noticing that there was no damage to either car (past a bent front license plate holder) and then I notice: This dude doesn’t have a license plate on his car. So he is on his phone with a friend and says “yeah, I was on the phone with you when I got rear ended.” I call my mother and say “what should I do” and she was like “take down his license plate number.” Uhh… right…

So he comes over and wants my phone number, because he thinks his back may hurt and he may need to give me a call about it tomorrow. Interesting… I decide that if he really is injured he should probably tell the police this, so we could get it all handled. Of course, when I say this things get tense. I get on my phone and dial 911 (hey, I don’t have the police non-emergency number) and as he sees me on the phone he speeds off, waiving his hand as if it was no big deal.

So here is what I think happened: I hit some dude who was either in a stolen car or was wanting me to just give him some cash so that he doesn’t go to the insurance company.

Whatever, it was just weird enough to be worthy of putting on NickCatalano.com.

So I have been spending the entire week parking cars for this valet company at a steakhouse in the mall. It is mindless boring work and it doesn’t pay very well. It is basically a tips-based job and where I am stationed there aren’t enough cars to mean much in the way of tips.

I thought I was going to be working with a friend at it, but instead I found that he had gone on to another job and I would be working with some of the people who were already there.

I don’t know how people can like this place. The prices are outrageous (they charge for steak sauce for christ’s sake (see update below) and the local food reviewer gave the place 2 stars. From the article:

“Its few bright spots aside, I have to say that I’m not big on [local steakhouse in mall]. Go there and order a steak, a side dish, either an appetizer or a dessert and a glass of wine or a cocktail and your bill will be close to $75 by the time you’ve added tax and tip.

In a town like Milwaukee where dining opportunities abound, you can do much better than [restaurant name]’s for that kind of money.”

The people inside the store “don’t talk about” that review. Amusing enough, the first day I worked there a guy went by and yelled “[Restaurant name] 2 Stars Dennis Ghetto.” I had to explain to the people the review (in front of my boss) and they said that they enjoyed themselves.

The restaurant had an “open house” for some people to come in and hopefully tell other people about the place. They invited some of the big names in the company, and even the company that runs the mall from Ohio (where the steakhouse is based out of) had a few people come in. The general manager of the mall went by and I wanted to introduce myself and make a contact should I wish to do business with the mall in the future. But the opportunity did not present itself (and being seen as a valet would probably be a bit odd.)

I’ll have to go in there one of these nights and eat. I think I have a client that may be buying a hosting server from me soon so if they come in town I’ll have to check it out. I’m always looking for tax exemptions. First I’ll see if the manager will give me a discount. “You give me a big discount on eating in there, I’ll tell people outside what I thought of the food”

July 4 Update: They don’t charge for Steak Sauce. Still really freaking expensive. Bar is like a candy store though…

I woke up today with 100 “I’m out of the office” emails. Turns out, some spammer sent a bunch of messages with the “reply-to” being @nickcatalano.com ! AHH!

OK, so I caved in and got one of those Chase “Freedom” credit cards (Your “Free to do as you want”.) Not necessarily because I liked the ads (they were nice ads) but because I needed a credit card and I could link it up with my chase login for my checking and savings account online.

So they increased my credit line this month. I had been paying the full balance every month out of savings/checking. So I SHOULD have had another $263 for another Nintendo Wii (the 3rd one Wal-Mart had in stock) so I could toss that up on eBay too. But for some unknown reason when I tried to put a second one on it, it denied it.

Now Wal-mart is interesting. They print out a little slip and show it to you without telling you your card was declined. They just sorta nudge you to read it. Interesting.

I should have called up Chase and been like “What the fuck guys,” but I was happy I got at least one.

If I had to buy a standard PC tomorrow, I would most likely buy it from Dell.

Why? Because I think they are really coming around to being a company that is open to ideas and customer interaction.

Case in point: Dell’s Blog and Dell’s “Ideastorm”

It is because of these that they started offering Ubuntu linux-based systems.

Now I’m not the biggest Linux-for-personal-use fan. I think there are a lot of great things that can be done with Linux, but odds are I would just end up using the box as some sort of server for the rest of my Windows machines. But still, offering Linux as an option is a great way to open up the userbase towards Linux as a competitor to Microsoft. Who knows, maybe Microsoft will lower the price of Vista Home Premium (the lowest Vista you can get with Aero)

Oh well…

Of course, I wouldn’t buy just a standard PC for myself, but if a family member wanted to get a PC I would shoot them over to Dell.