The Price of Gas

The price of gas is not paid in dollars. The price of gas is paid in tears. Tears for the earth as we poison her. Tears for her children as we kill them.

Another Sleepless Night

Last night Carly and I played water pong. We're super dorks, yes. Water pong, we decided, is beer pong, with water instead of beer. Anyways, I had to go pee four times last night, in the middle of the night, and once this morning. And no, I didn't drink any more water after playing water pong. We played two games, and I lost both, so I drank 24 or 25 cups of water with about 3.6 ounces of water each (the amount with beer would be 12 oz. * 3 beers / 10 cups), so about 90 ( 25*3.6=25*(4-.4)=100-10=90 ) ounzes of water. You wouldn't drink this much in beer pong. You have a partner, and when you loose, you and your partner cycle out.

Anyways, last night I journaled a bit (hardcopy journalling, not blogging) and the energy I had, perhaps from the water, reminded me of the first sleepless night when I created this blog. I actually slept quite well, and long, so it wasn't a sleepless night at all, but I thought it made a good title. Last time I looked at the clock it was about 1:30pm. That's enough sleep for me. Well, it's off to work now. Bye bye.

P.S. I plan to be updating links to include all my web pages I manage, and some other like Grandma's Attic's blog. Enjoy!

Religion is a Pyramid Scheme

I was considering that I dislike most religions in a similar way that I dislike large corparations. But they run a different kind of business. And I realized it. I worked for Vector Marketing one summer. I didn't like it. I didn't do well either. But I realized, we had "team meatings" once a week. That's exactly how I spent my childhood. Once a week, go to church, hear the sermon, get inspired, and jazzed, and ready to spread the Good Word. But for Vector, spreading the Good Word was telling everyone about Cutco, the kitchen cutlery we were selling. And we had to say "cutlery" not knives. People know what knives are, "cutlery" sounds exotic, like something only rich people have. They're expensive knives too.

Now, exactly how does this parallel religion? Well, in religion, you have to obey all the rules, and you have to feel all the guilt, and you have to say "I'm not worthy," and create some serious inferiority complexes, because God is way holy-er than you will ever be. That's the price you have to pay. And what's your reward? You don't get fine kitchen cutlery. At least not at first. You get tests. You have to resist temptation (you know, the fun stuff). Wait, no, this sounds like more of the price you have to pay. Oh yeah, your reward comes after you die, that's right. Heaven, that glorious castle in the sky. Or at least some kind of stadium where everyone gets a good view of that jelous God. (I call him jelous because he's always so worried that you'll cheat on him with another God.)

Other similarities were that we were supposed to get all dressed up whenever we went to team meetings, and our appointments too. Oh, wierd, it's almost like being a missionary. Every month or so too, we would take a trip and meet with all the other offices. In line with religion, these were like "conferences" for us Mormons, or kind of like a temple trip, because I'd have to travel to a big city. Once there the big dogs (those higher up the pyramid) would tell me all the cool new stuff about the products/religion you're selling.

Just thinking about it though, going to those meetings was just like going to church. You go and gather in one place, and listen to a few people preach. And the money moves up the pyramid the same way in both organizations. And the sales reps/missionaries have the same jobs, to sell their product/religion. And it is all about the number of sales/conversions in the end.

A new found respect for pirates

Today I was watching the travel channel and they were talking about gold. One topic was of the Inca civilization, their uses of gold, and the Spannish, and their theft of this gold. It made me sick to see the gold caked over the palace of King Phillip II depicting saints and christian scenes. But not all of the gold made it back to spain. Pirates intercepted many of those ships.

I applaud those pirates. They really stand for freedom. Isn't it interesting how the line between freedom and inprisonment is so fine? If you follow all of the laws, then you're a prisoner of the laws. If you live by your own laws alone, you could be taken prisoner by the authority in power. I believe this is a paradox. So, hurray for the pirates, who lived by their own laws, played by thier own rules, and gave the Spannish a little bit of their own medicine when they were taking so much from people who could hardly fight back.

Brave New World of Tesla Technology

I found an interesting article that seemed at first like a theoretical physics discussion. It became quickly apparent while reading it that the author asserts some staggering implications.
Brave New World of Tesla Technology: "As Americans, it is not politically correct to take seriously the evidence supporting weather manipulation, yet no amount of denial makes the reality any less true."

That really says it all, doesn't it? It's not politically correct to be rebellious either, but our nation was founded on rebellion.

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. "
-Thomas Jefferson

Semi-Annual Post

So, I stumbled across the email account my comments get posted to and thought I was being spammed or something. It was the 16 comments that have accumulated on my last post. Most of them seem to be advertising there own website or something, but it suprised me, as I was unaware of it as a method of advertising. They're nice though, people saying, "I like you blog" and stuff.

FRANCE TURNS WINE INTO FUEL? Yeah, read about it here:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/06/news/wine.php
Aparently some very fine wines are being turned into alcohol for fuel. This interests me mildly because I like wine and I'm taking a french class this term. I guess this is small news compared to the riots there (in france) that have been going on for eleven days now, though.

This is the first term I've been in college full time. I'm taking two math classes, french, and a design class. I met a fellow math major today (sophomore) and amusingly they were taking some of my favorite math classes that I have taken, multivariable calculus and linear algebra. I like them mostly because they deal with 3D concept images, which seem to have more substance for me. I have taken more math than most freshmen. This will actually be the fourth year for me here at Western Oregon University, I started while I was still in high school and this will be my first term going full time.

One more thing, here's a kitty for you.

On a Winning Streak

Last weekend, February 18^th through 20^th, Meli and I each won a family poker game, me at my sister Rebbi's house, and Meli at my house. That weekend between I won a seventy-two dollar first prize and Meli won a fourty-five dollar first prize for a combined cash total of one hundred and seventeen dollars. I was so excited, and last week I was going to post about that, but didn't finish writing and now I have more to say.

This Friday, February 25^th Rebbi and Brad, Rebbi's husband, had another poker night, with two games, one starting at 6:00 and one at 10:00, and I won the first game. By the time it was over, all but Niva, who came in second place, and I were playing in the second game. Niva and I were content to just watch this one. I won three dollars more that night than I won the week before. To celebrate I bought Melissa and myself breakfast at little breakfast diner Saturday, and later that night we sharred tea and espresso cake with a friend at our favorite cafe, the Dragonfly Coffee Company. It's funny, I say I do certain things with my winnings, like save it, or pay bills, but instead I end up spending my winnings celebrating that I won, and having a generally good time in the process, which is okay with me. I'll just keep my day job to pay bills and save up, for now. I feel proud of winning at Rebbi and Brad's House twice in a row, because to me it says that I have the skills to turn a little luck into a winning night.