This is the one where you want to be a wizard.
Posted July 30th, 2010 by Mike LawsonI was trying to find this lifehacker article I read a few months ago, and I typed “so you want to be” in Google, and this is what I Google suggested:

I was trying to find this lifehacker article I read a few months ago, and I typed “so you want to be” in Google, and this is what I Google suggested:


I finished reading my 30th, 31st and 32nd book this year.
Number 30 was a piece of non-fiction (I know!) called Say Everything: How blogging began, what it’s becoming, and why it matters. Don’t waste your time on this book. It’s written by Scott Rosenberg (the same guy that wrote Dreaming in Code) and it’s incredibly bogged down with history and quotes. Total snoozefest.
The 31st book I read was The Model Millionaire a collection of short Oscar Wilde stories. Loved it.
And the 32nd book I read in 2010 was Mary Anne Saves The Day the fourth in the Babysitters Club series. Don’t judge me…but out of these three titles, I liked the Babysitters Club book the best. In this book, Mary Anne saves the day in a few ways: she repairs the friendship of the all the Club members after a big fight, she takes this little brat she’s sitting to the hospital because she had a fever of 104, and she sets her father up on a Parent-Trap-like date with Dawn’s mother. Drama! Loved it.
In other book news, I’ve talked to my friend Jennifer about setting up a book club here in the Phoenix area. Who’s in?
I just created a Facebook photo album called “Friends & Strangers” and here’s the idea: I’m going to start snapping photos of friends with strangers in the background and I’ll tag both the friend and the stranger. The album now has three photos:



If you haven’t already, add me as a friend on Facebook here. Let me know that you’re a blog reader in the friend request if I don’t know you in real life.
I just wanted to throw up a quick book post.
I finished The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson.
It’s the 29th book I’ve read this year. And I’ll just briefly say that I really disliked it. I think that Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas was such a significant piece of literature for me, that it kind of ruined anything else that I read by Thompson. “Can anything ever live up to Fear and Loathing?”
So 2010 is officially half over. Do you think I could get to 50 books before the end of the year?

On the 12th day of each month bloggers all over the world take 12 photos throughout the day and post them on their blogs. It’s Chad Darnell’s idea, and you can see his website and a list of links here.
To see my photos from past months, click here.
Here are my photos from July 12, 2010.

Our art instructor is out at the Club, and I “created” this art project for one of our junior staff to run with the children. This is just chalk and white paint.

I don’t have permission to post this kid’s picture. But her shirt was funny.

This is my announcement board for the summer. I’m really bad at making bulletin boards.

This is our junior staff teaching children how to do the art project I came up with.

I had to stay late because our teen director is in Europe for the month. Boo! So I kicked back at her desk and put my feet all over her crap.

So I was going to try to do an entire week of drinking nothing but water. Only a special few knew about the water-only week…and I’ve yet to tell them I’ve failed.

I <3 Arizona sky. This is an ugly picture of it…but I need to use it to make an even twelve.

When I got home I put on my nerd outfit.

Strips.

This pin is on my meter case.

Embarrassingly high.

I crawled into bed with Hunter S. Thompson’s Rum Diary.
I nerd out about website traffic stats from time-to-time, but I don’t obsess over how many of y’all are reading this silly site. I did notice a few trends I thought I’d point out though.
Firstly, there has been a spike in readers that access this site from a local university (which will be censored so your boss won’t Google that and fire every last one of you).
Here is what your clicks look like, un-named University employees:

I should also note that Google brings in the most searches for this site, by far. In a distant second is Yahoo. And third place goes to AOL. Fourth is Bing. I’m serious…more people are using AOL than Bing. Haha!
Here are a list of things that people have Googled to find this site. My favorites are in bold. The ones that creep me out are in red.
1. What Some Would Call Lies
2. Mike Lawson
3. Some Call it Lies
4. Carl Karcher net worth
5. Passive aggressive boyfriend
6. “Mike Lawson” horses
7. my paper to do list
8. aggressive boyfriend
9. ambiguous sign for sale
10. arizona photo enforcement
11. barista fetish
12. cool eye glasses ad
13. creative glasses ad
14. daniel karcher carl karcher
15. funny eye glasses ad
16. funny picture first day of summer
17. girl uses lighter to burn
18. glee is for drama fags
19. google reader vs
20. how to steal back mayorship
21. in what some call lies
22. internet witches
23. job, mom, call
24. many a true word oft spoke in jest
25. michael lawson in arizona
26. mike lawson blogger
27. mike lawson what some call lies
28. mike rowe
29. Mike Rowe pubic hair
30. my boss lies
31. nun figurines
32. passive aggressive wireless
33. scary internet stories for kids
34. syntactically ambiguous headlines
35. theater fag
36. witch kidnapping children
Don’t forget, kids. Everything you do on the net can be seen by someone somewhere.
I’ve read two books in the last few weeks.
The 27th book I read in 2010 was The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni. It was a decent read about two kids that needed one another so badly…so they started a punk band.
The 28th book that I read in 2010 was Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs. It’s a bunch of short (and true) stories from the crazy life of Burroughs that we first read about in Running With Scissors.

I want to make a podcast.
I listen to enough of them, and I think I may have what it takes to produce a weekly internet radio show. I’m totally serious about this.
In the past I did a fun diabetes-themed podcast called Sweet Talk with my friends Cherise, Jill and Landeligh. We all Skyped together and recorded the show, which worked well for a while. The technical difficulties were many, and the super-focused topic made it kind of a task to do each week.
What I’m looking for is this: a friend or stranger in the Phoenix area that could commit to getting together on a weekly basis to shoot the shit on tape. We would have to narrow the focus a bit…but I’m thinking all of that depends on exactly who wants to do this with me.
I have the technical wherewithal to put something pretty good together. I just want someone fun to do it with.
If you have an idea, hit me up (even if you don’t want to do it with me). Let the flood of responses begin [sarcasm].

I had this with my lunch.
Don’t get me wrong…I had a freaking wonderful weekend. But part of me is ready to get back to work.
Friday night I went out with Drew to Hula’s Modern Tiki…which their website describes as “Great modern island cuisine and tropical cocktails in a casual, hip environment.”
After that we did coffee next door at Lola’s Coffee Bar. Then met up with Catherine and Rueben for a gay drink at Switch.
And early on Saturday I went with my sister to California to drop off my nephew. He’ll be staying at his dad’s house for a few weeks. We ate at Omega Burger near the Orange Traffic Circle downtown (see photo).
When I drove in Saturday night, Drew was at a pool party and I met him there. After a few drinks and awkward situation with a guy in Burberry swim trunks that showed his erection, we ended up back at his place drinking margaritas and listening to my new favorite song on the Direct TV pop station.
Sunday morning I overslept, ate a crappy lunch/breakfast at Jack, and had a great afternoon hanging out with Drew’s huge family.
No fireworks.
And I learned how to play Egyptian War.
Monday I went to lunch with my dad and sister at a Diners Drive-Ins and Dives place called Chino Bandidos. They cook a Chinese/Mexican mix. I was skeptical, but loved it. Here’s my meal:

After the meal I went home and had a most relaxing evening doing close to nothing.
What did you end up doing?