How I Will Spend My Powerball Winnings

When you see tomorrow that I won the Powerball don't be jealous. I promise I'll share. In fact, when I win the Powerball I promise to give money to every single person who shares this blog link on their Facebook page. In addition to that I have a few other goals for the money I'll be winning tonight.

1. Once I am worth over 500 million dollars I will immediately relax, which I haven't done in years. I will quite possibly relax to the point that someone will call a medical examiner. The best part of that is that it's free and after I'm done relaxing I'll still have 2 billion dollars, which will make me feel very happy.

2. Daylight savings time. It's stupid, outdated, inconvenient and it's time for it to end. With 500 million dollars I'm pretty sure there's a way I could "persuade" enough legislators to take care of this. 

4. Automated asteroid destroying lasers on the moon. Need I say more? 

5. Thanksgiving. We've all been doing it wrong for centuries now. Do you think that the pilgrims wanted to eat the dead carcass of the largest, ugliest bird in North America? Of course they didn't. Remember when telephones were attached to the wall and we could only go as far as the cord allowed? Well once we found a way around that we moved on to cell phones. Guess what? We now have better food than dead turkeys so it's time to move on. When I have 2 billion dollars we will start eating pizza on Thanksgiving. Now that's a food worthy of a national holiday. 

6.  A seat on the Supreme Court. Did you know that technically there's nothing that says you have to be a lawyer or judge to be on the Supreme Court? Powdered wigs and black robes? Seriously how swag would that be? Yeah, I know the modern day judges don't wear the powdered wigs, but I would. 

7. Avoid the Fiscal Cliff: Hey President Obama, here's an idea for you: Start a Federal lottery. Federal government keeps half, half to the winner. The ultimate 50/50 drawing. If the government did this on a monthly basis they'd make a fortune. See? Not enough of you wrote me in for President this year. This is just the kind of visionary I am.

How about in the comments section here everyone write one crazy thing they would do in the unlikely event that someone other than me wins the Powerball tonight? Then after you do that, click on the Facebook share button and we'll get a good long discussion link by shared link amongst all our friends on what we'll do with our winnings. Also, if I win I'll buy you each a copy of my book White Picket Prisons, which you can take a look at by clicking the little banner link at the top of this page. 

 

 

Unusual Things I'm Thankful For

In the United States it's traditional to get together with family on Thanksgiving and share the important things you're thankful for before gorging yourself on a meal centered on the large, dead carcass of the ugliest bird in North America. Every year everyone shares the usual platitudes about being thankful for family, friends and good heath. Duh! Who can't come up with that? When I decided to write this I set out to write a positive, uplifting post so that my loyal readers don't think that my every thought and written or spoken word are tinged with biting sarcasm. So without further adieu, here are some of the everyday things I am thankful for:

1. Youtube. Never in human history has anything allowed anyone to share in graphic, vivid, visual detail virtually anything you want. If you're feeling down there's sleepy kitten videos. If you need a laugh look up the Cinnamon Challenge or Gangnam Style. And if you've just inadvertently recorded video of an impossibly awkward groin injury to a friend what else are you going to do with it? Yes, I know it's not new, but I've grown to appreciate it more lately. Do you think I should expand my internet Phil empire to include video blogging?

2. Girl Scout Cookies: Holy crap! Paradise in cookie form! Thin Mints, Do-Si-Dos, Tagalongs, Samoas, Dulce de Leche and many more. Most of the names are completely meaningless in relation to what the actual cookie is, but who the hell cares? I think the mysteriously weird names add to our desire for them. Great cookies, but the Girl Scouts organization is one of the dumbest businesses in existence. They have a product that is universally loved and they only sell it one month a year? Morons! All of them. Their stupid little badges certainly aren't in business administration. If they sold those cookies year round they'd be a multi-billion dollar operation listed on the New York Stock Exchange. If they sold those cookies year round they could put crack cocaine out of business. 

3. The Keurig Coffee Maker: I don't give a rat's ass if they price those stupid little "pods" at $5.00 each, it will be well worth it if I can keep getting my morning cup of joe in 30 seconds. My time is valuable and Keurig gave me back about 5 minutes of every morning where I don't have to stand there staring a a gurgling coffee maker.

4. Screw cap wine bottles: How does it make the wine better if you have to use a separate device that looks like it was designed for medieval torture to open it? And how often have you had the cork break and you have to use all sorts of improvised techniques to get it out and then the wine still has a bunch cork pieces in it that you fish out with your fingers? My wine sources tell me the screw cap is coming back. Simpler is better. Leave the corks for the French snobs to wrestle with. When I'm elected President, or Sexiest Man Alive, whichever comes first, all wine bottles will have screw caps. 

5. Thruway E-Z Pass: Since I got a thruway E-Z pass about 4 years ago I think I've saved so much time not stopping at toll booths or waiting in toll lines that I've probably gotten back an entire extra day worth of time each year. I'm sure that some day they'll discover that the little invisible beams that read my E-Z pass cause cancer, but because I've accumulated so much extra time from not stopping it will all even out as far as my life expectancy goes. 

Lastly but most importantly I'm thankful for all my wonderful, loyal friends who keep reading my blog and clicking the Facebook Like button. I'm not writing for you, I'm writing for me, but having someone laughing with me makes it so much better. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you and your families are well this holiday season.

As always, if you want to join the fun you can add comments below and click the Facebook like and Share buttons to let your friends in on the joke. You can find me on Twitter @ThePhilFactor and my humorous, murder mystery novel White Picket Prisons is available for Kindle, Nook, and iPad. 

Channing Tatum: Sexiest Man Alive? Hardly.

People Magazine recently named their Sexiest Man Alive, and again, it wasn't me. Yeah, I know, shocker. Channing Tatum?!!? Puh- leeze! I scrape stuff off my shoe that's sexier than Channing Tatum. Have you noticed they always choose actors? Not once have they considered a blogger. First of all, I wasn't even interviewed. How fair is that?

Go on, compare his picture, which you have to Google to even find, while I put mine right here for all to see, with mine in the top left of the page. His picture, my picture. His picture, my picture. His picture, my picture. I've been doing that all night and I still don't see it. Sexier than me? Who is doing the rating? Ray Charles? Stevie Wonder? (Why aren't there famous blind women?) I'm mean, c'mon, as far as I know he is completely "between jobs" right now. Meanwhile I have a full time job with health insurance and everything!

And his abs in Magic Mike? Completely airbrushed. My abs? Never been airbrushed. Not once. They are au naturel my friends. Both of them. And those dance moves. Yeah, Channing, we saw Napoleon Dynamite too. Way to go. Pedro for President.

And how about Facebook, the social convention by which all human value is measured. Does Channing let you be his Facebook friend? No, of course not. He is snooty. Snooty? Snotty! I of course will quote Ferris Bueller and let you be my Facebook friend. Check. Scoreboard, Phil again. And talk about snotty! He goes by his full name, Channing. He's too good for Chan isn't he? Do see me going by Philip? Of course not. The Philip Factor would sound stupid and snotty. 

Raise your hand if you've read Chan Tatums's blog? Of course you haven't! He doesn't have a blog. I do. I have a blog, a full-time job, and health insurance. Chan? No, no, and no. Ask yourself this, who have you spent more time reading about this year, him or me? We all know the answer to that. You've been to my blog at least once a week. How many times a week do you go out of your way to read what Chan thinks? Oh wait, that's right, we're not even sure Chan has thoughts. Also, you see my picture everytime you visit this blog. Because of that you've definitely looked at my picture more than you've looked at Chan Tatum's this year too. Do you know why? That's right, because I'm sexier. Case closed. In fact my argument here is so watertight that I doubt Channing (read with sarcastic tone) will even attempt to refute it. In fact Chan, if you disagree, feel free to post a comment here stating your case.

If you enjoy my nonsense and want to support my bid for Sexiest Blogger Alive you can subscribe to The Phil Factor on your Amazon Kindle, follow me on Twitter @ThePhilFactor and my humorous, murder mystery novel White Picket Prisons is available for the Kindle, Nook, and iPad. If you liked what you read today feel free to leave a comment below and hit the Facebook "Share" button when you go back to your page. Also, if you're not my Facebook friend yet, feel free to friend me. I doubt that's an offer you'll get from Chan.

 

The Pop Culture Moratorium List

When I'm elected President, or Sexiest Man Alive, whichever comes first, I will pass a law that will allow me to place a media moratorium on 5 topics for as long as I deem appropriate. If I had that power today, this would be my list:

1. Lindsay Lohan: No offense Lindsay, but I shouldn't be able to write your Wikipedia page with just the information I've absorbed passively over the last ten years. When you accomplish something positive or constructive I will take you off this list.

2. The Duggars: Being tragically bad at birth control is not reason enough for fame. The fact that I have billions of brain cells and one of them is filled with the word "Duggar" for all of eternity infuriates me to no end. 

3. Kardashians: All of them. Yes, their last name is fun to say, but can anyone name anything they've contributed to the betterment of the planet and human race? I would find a deserted island with no contact with the rest of humanity and put all the Kardashians on it until they figure out how to use their "fame" for the good of others. 

4. The Fiscal Cliff: Holy crap! For a phrase that didn't exist a year ago we all know it now don't we? Guess what everyone? The country is 16 trillion in debt and if we don't start paying that back sometime...ummm...aaah...ummm...what happens? We don't know, but we're all vaguely anxious because the phrase "fiscal cliff" sounds scary and the media keeps saying it. Maybe if we think of it as a frugal guy named Clifford it won't be as scary, as in "That Fiscal Cliff is a cheapskate, but he managed to put away enough in his 401k that he can retire at 55." 

5. Twitter: Apparently nothing can exist or be considered significant unless it's on Twitter, where if it can't be said in 140 characters then it doesn't need to be said. Twitter is the intellectual equivalent of eating one jelly bean after another instead of having a full meal. 

Other topics on the verge of making this list: Obamacare, Gangam Style, Ben Bernanke, and Rob/Kristen/Twilight.

If you enjoy my nonsense and have no desire for a Phil moratorium you can subscribe to The Phil Factor on your Amazon Kindle, follow me on Twitter @ThePhilFactor, and you can buy my humorous, murder mystery  novel White Picket Prisons available for the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and in the iTunes bookstore. 

Daylight Stupid Time

When I'm elected President, or Sexiest Man Alive, whichever comes first, I'm going to pass a law getting rid of Daylight Savings Time. Not all of the other countries do this, and not all of the states in the U.S. abide by it either. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Daylight Savings Time is when we move our clocks forward an hour in the spring and move them back an hour in the fall. I think it was created about 100 years ago to give farmers more daylight in which to do their work in the fields. Call me crazy, but why the hell didn't someone just suggest that the lazy ass farmers drag themselves out of a bed a little earlier each day? Because those cud chewing, overall wearing, udder jerking lay abouts can't be bothered to set their alarm clocks we are all stuck changing time.

I don't know if anyone else noticed, but about 6 or 7 years ago the U.S. Congress, in another colossal waste of their time and our tax dollars, extended Daylight Savings Time by a few weeks on either end. First off, why isn't it called Daylight Spending Time since we are using more daylight in the summer months? Secondly, at this point the farmers, except the creepy Amish ones, (I can say that because they're not reading my blog) all have electricity and alarm clocks, which may not have been the case 100 years ago. Reportedly the reason Congress did this is to save energy. How will changing our clocks twice a year save energy? Don't we set our thermostats and use heat based on the outdoor temperature, not how light out it is? I'd like to save the energy I expend changing my damn clocks! I'd like Congress to tell me when I get that back. Congress is again proving to be the biggest collection of morons outside of...well...I guess I can't think of a bigger collection. Why doesn't Congress set their alarm clocks an hour earlier so they can get up early and get more of this important work done?

In the spring Yahoo posted an article titled "Daylight Savings Time Health Risks" http://shine.yahoo.com/getup/daylight-saving-time-health-risks-231500229.html If you need this information you're an idiot. If you choose to read this article please refer to the last sentence before this one. Apparently the day after we change our clocks there are more workplace injuries, car accidents, and for the day, a 10% rise in heart attacks. Yeah, so where's the problem? That sounds like natural selection at work!

I for one am not going to go for this stupid daylight savings time thing anymore. I don't work at a farm or for Congress, so I told my boss that for 6 months I'll be to work an hour early or late, however it works out. When I'm elected President, or Sexiest Man Alive, whichever comes first, this is going to change.

If you'd like to support my bid for President, or Sexiest Man Alive you can subscribe to The Phil Factor on your Amazon Kindle, follow me on Twitter @ThePhilFactor and purchase my full length novel White Picket Prisons which is available in the Amazon Kindle store and the iTunes bookstore for only $3.99. And if you need an extra hour in which to read it, this is your weekend!