Free food, music and democracy

Tonight from 7 to 10 pm on the Gregory Gym Plaza, there will be free food, live music and most importantly, voter registration, in a race before the deadline at midnight.

[One of Shepard Fairey's posters, you may have seen the Obama print around]

If you’re too good for free food and music, you can register at tables located across campus from 10 am to 4 pm. The tables will be hosted by different organizations, because Udems, College Republicans, The Daily Texan, Student Government and the Student Events Center are working together for the non-partisan event.

And again, if you’re registered in a different county and don’t want to visit home to vote, you can change your voter registration to Travis county with the same form as new registration.

Burnt Orange Report has made a handy dandy place of voter registration map for the many local businesses staying open late for the deadline.

If you haven’t already, please register to vote. Some people argue that there’s so much more you can do in the way of civil participation and they don’t bother with voting but it’s the easiest form of participation in our government, just like recycling is the easiest way to better the environment. Do it!

Free Jack in the Box Day!

Yes, that’s right kids. If you saw my “tweet” earlier, or have been to Jack in the Box, you know that today is free taco day at JITB….with a gas receipt. Crap. I don’t know about you but I haven’t gotten a receipt at the gas station since 1997. My mom let me draw on it in the backseat of our minivan.

[Waiting for my tacos]

But today, miraculously, because God wants me to have these tacos, my gas tank was on empty. So for most likely the first time ever, I pressed yes when the pump asked me for a receipt. And then I got in the long drive-thru line at JIB, wasting about 10 minutes worth of gas while I’m sure they were frantically making tacos non-stop inside. But it was worth it. Mmmhmm.

If you haven’t had these things, today is the perfect day to try. Because they look gross, they’re greasy, they have fake meat in them and like 3-day lettuce, but some how all of these nasty things combined make something magical. Don’t try to understand it, just go.

Also, since I’ve worked too much, slept too little I’m hopped up on Sudafed, and had a lot of time to think in the drive-thru line, let’s talk about JB’s design. Jack in the B-Fish? Jack in the B-Christ? Really? I can’t read that people. The red cube, good idea, but combining letters, not so much. Also, why have we come to accept a toy name as a place to eat? Weird. I can’t feel my lips.

[I didn't take this picture but it shows both nasty tacos and poor text choices]

Free breakfast product

Jamba Juice is about to launch what they affectionately call “breakfast products”, including juice, plural juices, chunky strawberry granola toppers and yogurt blends. They’ll be offering free “12 oz. breakfast products” tomorrow from 6 to 10 a.m. You savvy people probably already knew that through a Facebook Event or something. It is reasonable that people who know how to find this blog would also know how to use Facebook just to get free stuff. But just in case, I’ll be there and you should too.

Oh and remember the lesson we learned from Pita Pit–get there early!

This post is about politics and free lunches separately.

Today I stood in line to do some late early votin’. For some reason I believed there would be a magical form for me to fill out at the end of this long line that would let me, Tarrant County voter, mark the ballot in Travis County. So I read my book and stood in line until I was halfway to the polls. This is when a lady stood up and yelled, “Everyone is registered in Travis County right? TRAVIS COUNTY.”

Hmm…again was I stuck trying to avoid looking silly. I figured there was really no way to discretely step out of line at this point so I closed my book, stepped out and never looked back. Sigh.

But wait!! There are free pita combos at Pita Pit. This will fill the empty void in my stomach which democracy failed to satisfy.

That is when I happened upon this.

Everything is fine, everything is OK, don’t lose your cool.

WHAT THE F(*#$*#($*#???!??!?

I haad to take a picture of this sign and again to avoid looking both shady and silly at the same time (didn’t know that was possible) I went in to try something anyway. I’ve never been to this Pit of fine foodery so I decide to try a falafel. The pita combo just brings back sad memories. I swear to you the employee taking my order asked if I would like it grilled or microwaved. Yes I do believe I would like you to stick that 6 dollar falafel in the microwave. I will say that the falafel was huge and delicious so Pita Pit broke even, I guess. I asked microwave girl about these “circumstances” and she said the bank had met it’s quota….murmur murmur trail off.

What this means is that the owners of the chain rifrickingdiculously though that offering free $7 value combos for 8 hours over a period of 5 days wouldn’t bankrupt them into China. And after one day of probably millions of students and homeless taking free pitas, the pit gurus reconsidered.

That brings me to this unrelated photo.

I stepped outside to find this man holding a sign in support of Carlos Barrera. The interesting part was that I was immediately 99% sure this guy actually was Carlos Barrera holding his sign up on the drag. Alone. Sad. Upon further verification, I discovered my hypothesis to be true. Even sadder. Just vote for him guys, c’mon.

Tasty, tasty democracy

Democracy is free.

This year, I tried a crazy new thing called researching the candidates before voting. I hate to admit it, but I think at least in high school we’ve done it. A long list of random names and seats and places makes your eyes roll back and think of “creative” ways to choose. I always rationalize who I’m voting for.

He has a nice name or she’s at the bottom of the list and probably won’t get too many votes so I’ll give her one. This is bad. So I did the American thing this time and fulfilled my civic duties in five minutes. Now the rest of the year is for civic resting.

Also free are combos at Pita Pit until March 1. Supposedly, because some prankster could have put the sign up. That would be pretty hilarious. Follow up tomorrow.

From 12 pm to 8 pm with a student I.D., a pita, chips and a drink can be yours, no matter how much you hate the puke of alliteration restaurants that have spewed out on the drag. The place probably won’t be here in six months so you might as well take some free stuff while you can.