It is long past time to throw in the towel on this blog.

I mean, I thrown in the towel on this blog many times before. Then, on various inspired whims, unthrown it for a spell. But it’s time to officially invoke the mercy rule.

For the time being, I will leave in search of free food online for posterity. Eventually, I intend to archive this site into a non-Wordpress form, and I will allow the domain to lapse. Enjoy what you can, while you can.

I am planning a more official and adult (non-blog) web presence. Expect it to launch soon at leetucker.net.

Thanks for the good times kiddies!

Posted on January 10th, 2010 by Lee
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How do I convince Barack Obama to send out this text message thing while I’m in public?

One thing about living in DC is that you know that there are politically plugged-in people all over the place.  Almost everyone follows politics in this town, even if they’re not directly involved in politics.  The city trends heavily Democratic, and anyone who has spent time downtown knows that the city is totally run by young people—the kind that love to use text messaging.

In other words, I’m expecting an awful lot of text message recipients in this town when Obama announces his VP pick.

I fully expect entire rooms full of people to stop, stare at their cell phones for a second, and then break into some sort of furious uproar.  This is a sociological experiment I don’t want to miss.  I will continue to jump into action every time my phone vibrates today and tomorrow.

So Barack: on my lunch break, perhaps?

Posted on August 22nd, 2008 by Lee
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Current Quick Vote results on CNN.com

On the one hand, this is more than a little disconcerting. More than anything, it shows the extent to which the politicization of energy politics in this country makes it impossible for any politician to give real answers. It’s so bad that even a celebrity who’s famous only for being famous can give better suggestions!

On the other hand, I think this proves once and for all that Paris Hilton is much more a brilliant self-marketer than a clueless socialite.

Posted on August 6th, 2008 by Lee
Tagged: Politics, Society | No Comments »

To my neighbors who were barbecuing in my parking spot,

Sorry if I was a little terse yesterday when I pulled into the alley.  I didn’t mean to interrupt your barbecue session, I was just a little surprised to find my spot blocked by a charcoal grill and a group of people.

Generally speaking, I want to reward the consumption of grilled meats.  Please do not see my actions as contrary to that noble cause.  Also, please know that I only turned down the burger you offered to throw on the grill because I knew that my girlfriend was already cooking dinner.  I hope you continued to grill behind and/or next to my car, and that the perfect browning of your food was not in any way adversely impacted by the fact that you had to move your entire apparatus unexpectedly.

Although I did not realize it at the time I asked you to move, I now realize that you actually live in the house in front of my parking spot.  You do not, as I erroneously believed, live on the other side of the alley, and you’re not the group of people I saw playing beer pong outside last week in the early afternoon.  In light of this revelation, please disregard the snide nature of my request that you move.  In no way can I place you in the same league as the other obstructions I’ve faced, such as churchgoers’ cars, construction trucks, a randomly placed construction barrel, or a passed-out drunk.  Although I have technically paid for the use of this spot, I want you to know that I welcome any use of my spot that improves alley-sharing solidarity.

Next time you want to grill in my parking spot, give me a heads up and I’ll be happy to move my car.  And I hope I can still take a rain check on that burger.

Posted on August 4th, 2008 by Lee
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One week from today, I will tackle that leviathan of standardized, computer-adaptive, I-am-completely-unprepared-for-this-and-I-haven’t-done-long-division-by-hand-since-middle-school tests, the GRE.  Thanks to my extreme procrastinatory superpowers, I have held off on doing any significant preparation for the test until two weeks before the fact.  Is this a surprising turn of events?  In an obscure word that lends itself to esoteric analogies, no.

When applying for graduate school in Economics, one’s math score is far and away more important than one’s verbal or writing scores.  Accordingly, my early concerns and efforts focused primarily on remembering the quadratic formula and other such mathematical novelties.  Yet in spite of the (actually true) fact that I had to practice basic long division because I hadn’t tried it in over a decade, I’m starting to feel like I have a pretty solid handle on the quantitative portion of the GRE.  That means that it’s time to start working through those vocab lists.

The problem with most GRE vocab lists is that they are either incredibly massive and include words that any self-respecting person should remember (one website devoted specifically to GRE vocab actually gave me the word “screw” as a flashcard), or they are far too limited to cover the zillions of words that I last used in an essay on The Catcher in the Rye and have since pushed to the same dark recesses of my brain as my once-impressive knowledge of Step By Step episodes.

The obvious answer to studying vocab for a computer-adaptive standardized test… is a computer-adaptive vocab list.  That’s where FreeRice comes in.  No doubt some of you have engaged in this slightly-more-than-mindless pursuit while slacking off at the office.  In stark contrast, I hope to use its silly games for good.  While I’m still doing practice questions and looking up words left and right, I’ve yet to find a better practice method.  Hopefully, within a week, I can shake some of the rust off of my rather, um, pendulous definition of pendulous.  Oh, yeah, and I guess if some folks get some rice out of the deal that’s pretty good too.

Now, once I’ve used the website to become a poor graduate student, how do I go about getting some of that free rice?

Posted on July 25th, 2008 by Lee
Tagged: College, Procrastination | No Comments »