Wow. I would have thought Google would have shut this down.
Seeing that they haven't, I feel an irresistible urge to pontificate. Or at least ramble on for a while.
I've recently been given to speculate on economic issues. You see, I got a job. Aside from that, in the course of my duties in this job, I assist people with placing orders over the phone for over-priced, unnecessary stuff.
My conclusions are as follows: one, there are too many people in the United States with too much money and not enough sense; two, I need a better job.
Take Brookstone, for example. In their Christmas catalogue, there was for sale - at around forty dollars - a lighted dog leash. That's right a lighted dog leash. It sold out.
Or take Wolferman's. They sell English muffins, crumpets, scones and sundry pastries. Over Christmas, it was not unusual for people to call in and order three hundred dollars worth of this stuff. That's three hundred dollars before shipping costs were added on. Even now I manage to take at least five or six hundred dollars worth of orders a day.
Or - my personal favorite - Dr. Creflo Dollar. Forty or fifty dollars for the week's messages on DVD. And people not only pay it, they're happy to pay it.
If just half of these people did without this pointless stuff...well, I'd be out of a job. But aside from that. If they donated that money instead to the secular charity of their choice, this country would be a lot better off.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Until Further Notice
Due to sucky circumstances beyond my control, this blog is closed until further notice. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Blog Action Day?
Yay environment....
Call me sociopathic, but I find it hard to care about the environment. At least, to the point of giving up the things I've become addicted to. My car, for instance. It's going on thirty years old if it hasn't passed it, it guzzles gas like there's no tomorrow and burning ethanol in it is guaranteed to fry its engine. And I can't replace it with something cleaner, since there is no money to do so. And the buses here are a joke - I'm not tying up two hours of my day in exchange for saving a little pollution. Especially not when the bus runs on diesel.
Car companies offering up hybrid engines, electric engines and ethanol friendly engines is all well and good, but poor bastards like me can't afford the prices. Oh well. There has to be some way of helping out our poor, ailing planet. Let's see, I could give up smoking...nah. I could recycle. Wait, I already do that. It's good to get a little cash back for those cans and bottles.
If I owned my home, I could insulate the hell out of it. Perhaps send off for some do-it-yourself solar panels. But I don't own my home. *Sigh*
I could write to my congressman and demand new and tougher laws on environmental issues. For what that would be worth.
But we should all do something and keep doing it. For the sake of the kids. I have to be honest: if I didn't have my son to worry about, I wouldn't care at all. But I do, so I do. And so should you.
Call me sociopathic, but I find it hard to care about the environment. At least, to the point of giving up the things I've become addicted to. My car, for instance. It's going on thirty years old if it hasn't passed it, it guzzles gas like there's no tomorrow and burning ethanol in it is guaranteed to fry its engine. And I can't replace it with something cleaner, since there is no money to do so. And the buses here are a joke - I'm not tying up two hours of my day in exchange for saving a little pollution. Especially not when the bus runs on diesel.
Car companies offering up hybrid engines, electric engines and ethanol friendly engines is all well and good, but poor bastards like me can't afford the prices. Oh well. There has to be some way of helping out our poor, ailing planet. Let's see, I could give up smoking...nah. I could recycle. Wait, I already do that. It's good to get a little cash back for those cans and bottles.
If I owned my home, I could insulate the hell out of it. Perhaps send off for some do-it-yourself solar panels. But I don't own my home. *Sigh*
I could write to my congressman and demand new and tougher laws on environmental issues. For what that would be worth.
But we should all do something and keep doing it. For the sake of the kids. I have to be honest: if I didn't have my son to worry about, I wouldn't care at all. But I do, so I do. And so should you.
Weird, I know, but...
If you haven't yet, you have to try this. It's that cool.
I don't know sometimes. I could be spending my time online doing research. Improving myself in some way. I could be writing or doing something else to earn some cash.
Instead, I find myself wasting time on things like the above. Ah well, seeing as how I don't have the real thing, that'll work. It's still amazingly therapeutic. Like playing Grand Theft Auto and going on a complete rampage.
It's my firm opinion that if we don't give in to these primitive urges (you know, sex, violence, politics...all that depraved stuff...) every so often, eventually we go berserk. The psyche can only take so much self-improvement, be it spiritual, academic, moral or whatever else before it rebels. This is true for my psyche, anyway. Maybe somewhere out there in Internet-land is some perfect person who can constantly improve themselves and never ever wastes a single moment...but I wouldn't bet money on it.
I don't know sometimes. I could be spending my time online doing research. Improving myself in some way. I could be writing or doing something else to earn some cash.
Instead, I find myself wasting time on things like the above. Ah well, seeing as how I don't have the real thing, that'll work. It's still amazingly therapeutic. Like playing Grand Theft Auto and going on a complete rampage.
It's my firm opinion that if we don't give in to these primitive urges (you know, sex, violence, politics...all that depraved stuff...) every so often, eventually we go berserk. The psyche can only take so much self-improvement, be it spiritual, academic, moral or whatever else before it rebels. This is true for my psyche, anyway. Maybe somewhere out there in Internet-land is some perfect person who can constantly improve themselves and never ever wastes a single moment...but I wouldn't bet money on it.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
On Faith
Tonight I find myself contemplating the vagaries of human nature as evidenced by Pastafarianism. For those of you unfamiliar with this concept (and too lazy to click the link), this is the belief that the world was created by the Flying Spaghetti Monster. This was all started as a reaction to Creationism (or Intelligent Design, or whatever else you want to call it).
I found it quite amusing and quite an appropriate response. But then I thought further, which is usually my first mistake. And I realized that even a belief in evolutionary theory is still just a belief. We hide that by saying there is scientific evidence to back up the theory, but come on. How many of us have done all the necessary research to know how to work a carbon-dating machine? And of those few, how many have tested samples that can corroborate evolutionary theory?
It's still faith, it's just been switched from faith in the divine to faith in an institution.
And then I thought still further. I'm not bothered by taking things on faith - some things, to a certain extent. But from a cosmological point of view I feel more comfortable placing my faith in science than in God. Don't get me wrong, I'm as spiritual a person as the next guy and probably more so than most. It's just that science is a slow, plodding beast that is more inclined to skepticism than belief. Its (largely underfunded) ministers tend to be likewise slow and plodding, but inexorable. It is the job of science to answer questions and the questions engendered by those answers and so on ad infinitum. Which makes me a whole lot more comfortable than saying "God did it."
I found it quite amusing and quite an appropriate response. But then I thought further, which is usually my first mistake. And I realized that even a belief in evolutionary theory is still just a belief. We hide that by saying there is scientific evidence to back up the theory, but come on. How many of us have done all the necessary research to know how to work a carbon-dating machine? And of those few, how many have tested samples that can corroborate evolutionary theory?
It's still faith, it's just been switched from faith in the divine to faith in an institution.
And then I thought still further. I'm not bothered by taking things on faith - some things, to a certain extent. But from a cosmological point of view I feel more comfortable placing my faith in science than in God. Don't get me wrong, I'm as spiritual a person as the next guy and probably more so than most. It's just that science is a slow, plodding beast that is more inclined to skepticism than belief. Its (largely underfunded) ministers tend to be likewise slow and plodding, but inexorable. It is the job of science to answer questions and the questions engendered by those answers and so on ad infinitum. Which makes me a whole lot more comfortable than saying "God did it."
Saturday, October 13, 2007
What If...
From what I've read, life on Earth began when enough complex chemicals had enough energy pumped through them to start a self perpetuating chain reaction. Amino acids making proteins, which in turn made bacteria (something like that, anyway...) and so on.
I wonder how far away we are from the same thing happening on the Internet. You know, a power surge comes along, and all of a sudden your website is updating itself and complaining that you never spend any time with it because of your addiction to this so-called "real life."
Scary thing is, it's not all that far-fetched. All we are is a conglomeration of ever-simpler chemicals. Couldn't you get the same effect via a conglomeration of ever-simpler ideas? The odds against it happening by chance have to be as enormous as the odds of a chemical soup congealing into proteins, but couldn't it happen given enough interlinked information?
Kind of like the million monkeys hammering on typewriters and finally reproducing Shakespeare. I like it.
I wonder how far away we are from the same thing happening on the Internet. You know, a power surge comes along, and all of a sudden your website is updating itself and complaining that you never spend any time with it because of your addiction to this so-called "real life."
Scary thing is, it's not all that far-fetched. All we are is a conglomeration of ever-simpler chemicals. Couldn't you get the same effect via a conglomeration of ever-simpler ideas? The odds against it happening by chance have to be as enormous as the odds of a chemical soup congealing into proteins, but couldn't it happen given enough interlinked information?
Kind of like the million monkeys hammering on typewriters and finally reproducing Shakespeare. I like it.
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