duh-nuh-nuh -- nuh-nuh-nuh -- nuh-nuh -- nuh-nuh -- duh-nuh-nuh -- nuh-nuh-nuh -- my panera!

we went to panera tonight because we like to eat there and i was all "i have a my-panera card and i think it has a birthday gift on it" and the cashier guy looked it up and sure enough, i had a free dinner and two free pastries. go my-panera! you should get you a my-panera card and also i suggest registering your starbux card. starbux gives you a free drink for your birthday, and i don't mean a free 'drink', i mean a FREE DRINK!! i got a venti skinny cimmanon dolchay lattay with like a half dozen shots in it, which is a $8+ drink. free! FREE. fah-reee-hee. you tell them no more information than is available in a phone book, and they track how often you come in, and give you free stuff.

it's like your old fashion general store where the proprietor knows you and gives you a couple pieces free candy for the kiddos or whatever, only now it's someone in an office somewhere compiling your data with a bunch of other data to analyze trends. there are folks who are concerned about giving away their personal information in exchange for free stuff, but it's not like that someone in that somewhere office is looking at YOU. don't flatter yourself. you are just a needle in their haystack. they don't care about YOU, they care about the the you-ness of you, the ur-you. it's less personal than the general store proprietor, and a helluva lot more lucrative.