It’s becoming increasingly clear that this family punk’d the world. In fact, it looks as if the man who scripted the whole incident, less the involvement of the child, sold his story to Gawker.

What isn’t clear is why they tried to play it this way. OK, so you pulled a fast one with the world’s media? Awesome! Why not use the spotlight to look into the camera and say to Wolf Blitzer, “You just got punked!”

Sure, he’d be opening himself up to a big bill from the agencies who wasted taxpayer money playing pawn-like roles in his publicity stunt. But, if he got the last laugh on CNN and then told Wolf that he had a place where people could chip-in to cover his impending legal problems– all of this would have been funny, he would have collected a million dollars, and the Heene family would have pulled something off which would have made Ashton Kutcher blush.

In that moment Richard Heene’s held choice in his hands which would change his family forever. Would he tell the truth and become a legendary prankster? Or would he lie and become a legendary mook?

Richard Heene chose to try to keep the hoax a secret. Even after 6 year old Falcon Heene spilled the beans on live TV. And now the family looks horrible. And now the parents may get arrested. And now the fame they so eagerly wanted will be replaced by visits by the Child Protective Services.

The hoax had the potential to live out an example of Seth Godin’s blog post from the same day. Instead, we’re stuck with this sad story of 3 little kids who may now see their family encounter hard times.

I just wish Richard Heene had chosen the other option. Now that would have been captivating television. “Wolf, the truth is that you… and the whole world… just got punked!“

I don’t know what the rest of you did with your economic stimulus plan checks, but Kristen and I spent it. We were irresponsible, reckless, and unspiritual about it. We just flat out blew it on stuff we wanted. Easy come, easy go baby!

Let me also say, I don’t know about you haters, but any president who sends me cash is my best friend. Bill Clinton never dropped $1200 from the sky on you, did he? Haters. Shoot, I’d vote for him again. 

So what did we get? We blew our money on electronic toys, of course. And we bought over the internet, of course.

Kristen broke our last two Sony cameras. I don’t know what happened but both cameras started showing us a crazy error message and stopped taking pictures. She got a Nikon D60 (The Ashton Kucther camera) For those looking to buy a sweet Digital SLR, this is it. And please don’t stimulate the economy of Ritz Camera or Best Buy. If you are looking for a sweet deal on your camera I have two words for you: Ebay.

I got a GPS. I have a unique ability to get lost. And with all of my recent travel I decided it was time that I advanced technologically. So I went to Amazon.com and bought the Tom Tom One. Kristen and I tested it out last night and it works great. If you’ve not used a GPS lately, they’ve come a long way. This one talks to you in. (You can even buy Mr. T’s voice for $12! “I pity the fool who don’t turn right.”) It’s loaded with features too. With our upcoming move to San Diego, a place I’m always turned around, I felt like this was a smart buy. And it was really cheap! And to complete my geek fest, Tom Tom has an online community that I joined last night. Love it.

For those who have received their “check that dropped from the heavens” what did you do with yours?