you are what you do with time on your hands

my grandfather once asked me for advice on how to set up diversions for teenage boys in town who were otherwise inclined to smoke cigarettes and hang out in front of convenience stores all day. not being a smoker, nor a hanger-outer, i wasn't quite sure i was qualified to offer suggestions, but i did my best. the bottom line is, smoking hanging out is as smoking hanging out does, and unless and until you change a person's ambitions, it's hard to change their behavior.

so it is that i'm contemplating mittbucks dot com this morning. see, not all teenagers prefer to smoke and hang out. i'm learning a great little song by jonathan coulton called "code monkey" that somewhat perfectly describes the evolution of a different kind of teenage problem child, and i'm abso-loooooooot-ly sure someone on that branch of the species family tree is behind the genius. time on your hands and access to a computer? why, mittbucks.com of course! (a site so nice he linked it twice!)

i know there's a third race of the species (likely more than three, but we'll start here) who prefers to dabble around the internet rather than buckle down and crank out that powerpoint he's been procrastinating, and he (or she!) is powerless not to enjoy playing around with the mittbuck calculator.

try it! it's fun.

(and, no, no political editorial polemicism to be inferred--the kennedy's were rich, as were a lot of our presidents both good and bad, and money is hardly an indicator for much of anything beyond the quality of ones haircut, but lets all agree that the truly rich are not like you or me).