I have been wanting to stop using the plastic grocery bags that are given free at Randall's, Kroger, and just about every other grocery store in the country. I found a woven company bag hanging on one of my kitchen chairs and decided that would be suitable to carry groceries in! I carried the bag into the store, and as i checked out, i simply placed the items into the bag and was able to fit everything except a 6 pack of beer which i carried in my other free hand. As i was walking through the parking lot, it was so refreshing and made me feel good about myself as i saw everyone using the normal grocery bags. I felt as if i am helping to reduce carbon emissions by an amount that i can control! If everyone would do simple things such as this, we could reduce the amounts of garbage tremendously that is housed in landfills.
So today was an early start to be on the bus so we could leave for Baker Hughes facility on Rankin Road. I got a quick doze in on the bus. All in all, the facility was cool, but so much of it is stuff that was a bit monotonous. definitely cool to see some of the labs they have though! After lunch we resumed training at the conference center, talking about Resistivity. the whole thing about me is... if i don't have a ton of coffee or activities or work to do, i will fall asleep quite easily. So i pretty much struggled all during the afternoon lectures to stay awake, but managed to do so, surprisingly. Finally we got a few problems on a worksheet to complete, and although i worked through them easily, it was good enough to thoroughly wake me up! not only was i one of the first couple people finished, all my answers were right (oh ya!) and i didn't even use my TI-89! On the bright side, the calculator i had to buy specifically to take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam is finally getting put to more use than just the exam!
Now i am watching national geographic channel and its talking about oil in alaska. it just talked about the exxon valdez spill, but they mention it wasn't even in the top 30 oil spills in history. It makes me sad. they showed a video of a bird in spain that was soaked in oil and struggling to move, it was soo sad.
I think i might have some type of a sleep disorder because i can literally sleep all the time. If i'm not doing anything, i can just close my eyes and go to sleep for hours. Last night i came home and ate dinner, then layed on the couch and slept from 7-10:30, then woke up, had some coke to drink before bed, then brushed my teeth and took out my contacts, crawled in bed and slept from 11:15 until 5:45. Then i slept on the bus this morning, and on the bus all the way back. craziness!
Why do people make the decisions they make? Why is it that their brain interprets something as a 'good decision' by some applied logic, and yet to an outsider, its blatantly obvious the decision is a bad one and the logic is flawed. Is it only that others past experiences have led them to certain truths that are held self evident, but not generally known to others? How is it that someone can spend years dating someone while everyone else, and possibly even they, know it has been doomed to failure for some time, or even from the beginning in some cases?
Perhaps there is some tie that each of us has to everyone else. It could be envy, or concern or some other emotion, or even something else that hasn't been defined. We somehow feel it is necessary to champion our own beliefs or promote ourselves or our own ideas over the person's at hand. What makes me more knowledgeable about something than someone else? who defines the most amount of knowledge? Einstein asserted that imagination is more important than knowledge.
So let's make a simple hypothetical case, and relate it to relationships. Lets assume I have a female friend who is dating some bloke. Obviously, I am going to *know* that i am better than he is. i know two things for a fact; I am not perfect, and I would be a better boyfriend than he is. So what is it that convinces the female otherwise? Perhaps she is going off attraction or something else? But maybe not even that, maybe some other reason. How does anyone expect the female to compare the intangibles of two guys? How would she know that i am better for her than the other guy? she has never given me a chance; she has only given him a chance to prove himself. where is the fairness in this? of course life isn't fair, but i am only making an observation in a hypothetical scenario. I believe it is the inability of a person (the girl here) to quantify or properly identify the intangibles of their current boyfriend/girlfriend in comparison to others that may be available and interested (aka me), possibly even more than the other person's (the girl in my story) boyfriend is actually interested in her.
How would anyone ever know?! Someone could easily get trapped in a relationship thinking its all that is out there, and not wanting to move on for fear there is no life beyond their current boyfriend. i don't know the answer to this, but i see it all the time.
Let's now disassociate the story from being hypothetical, and claim it to be a true story that I am seeing right now.
I challenge you, where could you be if you were with me?
Well tonight has been quite an extravaganza... I decided that i should update the blog software i am using, and upon completion, i wanted to post some words on here. I logged in and attempted to access the post page and quickly discovered it wouldn't let me access it due to some error nonsense it was telling me. So figuring it was probably due to the recent updates, i referred to the info on how to revert to previous version. long story short, it involves completely the entire website, and its MySQL database, and then uploading the ones that were backed up today. unfortunately, the SQL file was enormous and bogged me down for quite a while, but i eventually chugged through it. i once again went to make a post, only to find the same error, which wasn't here a few days ago... so something is fishy here. So i go back to the installation files remembering something about permissions that are required on certain files. I then realized that my FTP software is being a little bitch and not letting me change the permissions like i thought it was. so i went into the cpanel and manually changed the chmod permissions to 444 as requested instead of 644. After doing this, no more error. So long story short, i could have avoided that whole mess if i had realized early on that my ftp software wasnt actually changing the chmod permissions. UGH!
In other news, i added a few blog links on the right panel.
Have you ever wanted to say something to someone, but weren't sure about how to do it? Life is full of ideas, beliefs, thoughts, words, that are never given the chance to be said. We somehow believe that stating it anywhere outside our minds would possibly make things worse, or could ruin things in a circumstance, or relations with a person, or something else. But let me pose this to you, What if you ask it and it makes things better? How do you decide which thoughts are worth voicing and which ones must be confined to the prison that is your mind.
There are so many things I have wanted to say, and want to say currently, to specific people. Things that I think would be good. But what if the other person didn't want to hear it or feel the same way? Did i just ruin everything? But on the flip side, what if she left and I never had the opportunity to say it? Life is so precious. I didn't realize this until I was at the museum looking at the 'Body Worlds' exhibit, where people have been plastinated and put up on display. Its only when i saw this that i realized how truly special, and fragile we are.
I mean, one day I could wake up and she might be gone. I would truly regret the things I never said because, in the end, it wouldn't have really mattered whether she agreed or disagreed, or felt the same way or the opposite way. What if for, even for only one minute, she knew exactly the truth, and there was no closed curtains; the figurative stage open for her own interpretation. She might even think it beautiful; she could find it weird. But no matter, because at least i would be able to know for sure that what could have been is what should have or should not have been. Or even worse, what if didn't wake up that day. I would have died with the last thoughts being of the things that i should have said that had the potential to make me the happiest! That would truly be dreadful.
There is so much to say. Where does one even begin? Maybe when I am around her, I get so excited to just be around her that i forget every care in the world, and lose my train of thought. I would probably look very awkward, or at least holding a conversation would seem quite awkward. I mean what kind of conversation is it when one person can't think of anything to say because he has so much to say?! That would truly be an irony of life.
Even though I haven't yet found the courage to speak my mind, I will continue doing everything i can to show what my heart wants to scream!!! Maybe the simplest moment together is all I am destined in this lifetime. But when she looks up at me with those beautiful eyes and the wonderful smile, I just know, everything is going to be alright. So for now, though she may be making other plans, and I may have no plans, i'll just continue living life and enjoying the briefest moments as we share them.
After all, I believe it was best said:
"Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans"
-- John Lennon, (Beautiful Boy)
And on the off chance that she actually reads this, just watch this video and smile to yourself! :) You are beautiful, right now and always. I like your shoes!
I once heard that if you spend 3 hours per day, every day, for 1 year on any subject, that by the end of that year, you will technically be an expert on it. And if you think about it, its true. The great soccer players of the world all walk around with a football at their feet. they spend most of their waking moments thinking about how they can develop into a better player. They are slowly building up 15 minutes here, an hour there, a 4 hour practice, a 20 minute backyard scrimmage with friends. Every single bit of time continues to add up and at some point, they become the expert, able to do things that normal people cannot do. Nobody is perfect, we all know that, but the saying might should going something like, 'practice will make you a heck of a lot better than everyone else.'
For this reason, and others, i want to continue my learning and studies of foreign language. since i started off with spanish, i will continue that language for now. By the time i die, i would like to be fluent in 5 languages, able to travel to a vast majority of countries and get by with my working knowledge of language. I can only imagine at this point that those languages would end up being: English, spanish, portuguese, italian, and maybe german.
On another note, i have been working really long hours at work in attempt to prove that i am a worthy member of the team. i have been given some additional responsibilities, which i take as a compliment, and hope to continue my learning in different areas. On a slightly sadder note though, there is really nothing other than my fish that i have to go home to. I can take care of my fish in my off time, so thats not even really an issue. It basically boils down to the fact that i have nothing else better to do than to kick it during late hours at work.
Well, its about that time. It's time to get rid of the old. I will be deleting 'friends' from facebook that i never talk to. I guess that only makes sense though. I've had enough of this 'facebook' friend crap. Either you are my friend or you are not. Have i mentioned how much i hate Ygnition internet service? I mean its absolutely terrible. Even worse than Suddenlink (motto: Suddenly, disconnected). The problem is that, when i lived near Denver, i used Comcast and got used to perfection. Now that i have anything less i am disappointed. But the thing that disappoints me even more than being only slightly less than perfect, would be perfection -- Perfectly shitty that is. Ygnition is a complete waste of money, and [lucky?] for me, my apartment forces me to use a turd to connect to the internet. Ygnition network is part of TVMAX, and, the way i see it, its a complete waste of money. It disconnects all the time, doesn't like when i download things, etc. Its completely unreliable, and all the tech support does is blame it on my router. There is only one thing i have to say to them: BULLSHIT. I am calling your bluff, in fact, you can't bluff crap - because even if you tell me with a straight face, it still smells like crap.
I dream of the day when i can go back to using Comcast for internet and tv. Comcast has the best download speeds, and a good channel lineup. They also don't force you to sacrifice either your first born child or a lamb as a down payment. To put it into an analogy: Comcast is to the internet, as China is to pollution -- That is, they are far ahead of anyone else.
On another note, if i delete you as a friend and you still think you are my friend, then get off your ass and message me.
Well, let me tell you about the last... oh lets call it 8 days. I randomly heard about a website that allows you to search through a vast array of internet sites that have been highly rated. It allows you to select topics you are interested in and then click the button to seek out a new site. Its called StumbleUpon. I highly recommend it if you are serious about wasting time. I have wasted no less than 2 hours every day since i added this plugin to my firefox browser.
I wanted to share some of the things i found cool. I don't know if you will like them or not, but they certainly convinced me to bookmark their site. The links are safe (when i posted them) but click at your own risk. Also, i won't post anything thats not suitable for work.
An extensive set of tools and libraries for java programming at: http://jscience.org/
Having a hard time deciding why linux is better than windows, or perhaps you have just never taken the time to investigate it. Well keep the option alive, or at least expand your working knowledge database by reading up on linux at: http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/
If you don't want to spend hundreds on MIcrosoft Office, i would recommend you use OpenOffice which is completely free of charge and provides the same tools. http://www.openoffice.org/product/
Who is that girl i keep thinking about? I know, but you don't, and i can't tell you. Ahh unfortunately i have no idea about girls... they confuse the heck out of me. But still... it goes unsaid, but now said, that i cannot get her off my mind! On another note, a friend at work today was surprised to hear that i have never been to a strip club in my almost 23 years of existence. But as it was said, "great it is to dream the dream as you stand in youth by the starry stream, but an even greater thing is to fight life through and say at the end 'the dream is true.'"
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in Front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, He picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar And proceeded to fill it with golf balls.
He then asked the students if the jar was full.
They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the Jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open Areas between the golf balls.
He then asked the students again if the jar was full..
They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."
The professor then produced two cups of coffee
From under the table And poured the entire contents
Into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided,
"I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things - God, family, children, health, Friends, and Favorite passions -- things that if everything else was Lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, house, and Car.
The sand is everything else --the small stuff.
"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued,
"there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
The same goes for life.
If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff,
You will never have room for the things that are
Important to you.
So...
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play With your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18.
There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.
"Take care of the golf balls first --the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."
One of the students raised her hand and inquired
What the coffee represented.
The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked".
It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."
Read my commentary at the bottom half of page; Original article on facebook is as posted: This was sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his
engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. If you are tired of the
gas prices going up AND they will continue to rise this summer, take time
to
read this please.
Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea. This makes MUCH MORE SENSE
than
the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around
last
April or May! It's worth your consideration. Join the resistance!!!!
I hear we are going to hit close to $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer and
it
might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down?
We need to take some intelligent, united action. The oil companies just
laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt"
ourselves
by refusing to buy gas.
It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.
BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can
really
work. Please read on and join with us!
By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $2.00 is super
cheap. Me too! It is currently $3.05 for regular unleaded in my town.
Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to
think
that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to
take
aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the
marketplace..not
sellers.
With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to
take
action.
The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we
hit
someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do
that
WITHOUT hurting ourselves.
How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas.
But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force
a
price war.
Here's the idea:
For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline
from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL.
Try to buy from like Kangaroo, BP, Phillip's 66, or Q-Gas.
If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their
prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to
follow
suit.
But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and
Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out on me
at
this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach
millions of people!!
I am sending this note to 400+ people. If each of us send it to at least ten more (400 x 10 = 4,000) ... and those 4,000 send it to at least ten more
(4,000 x
10 = 40,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth
group of
people, we will have reached over FOUR MILLION consumers.
If those four million get excited and pass this on to ten friends
each,
then 40 million people will have been contacted!
If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... FOUR HUNDRED MILLION
PEOPLE!!!
Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all!
If you don't understand how we can reach 400 million and all you have
to do
is send this to 10 people....
How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to
ten
more people within one day of receipt, all 400 MILLION people could
conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!
I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you!
Acting together we can make a difference.
If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that
we
not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $2.00
RANGE
AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.
First of all, the executive of coca cola didn't come up with this idea. it was probably another 12th grader in high school that just finished their macro and micro economics courses and believes they can actually make a difference.
Sad to say, they could not be more wrong. Although the idea works in a true by definition economic oligarchy, in shear numbers and plausible effects, this idea has, as some might refer to it, 'a snowballs chance in hell' of succeeding.
To correct the moron that wrote this, Exxon and Mobile merged on November 30, 1999, so obviously this plan is already outdated. Although in parts of the country, you may see Exxon or Mobile gas stations, it is all franchised by the same company, 'Exxon-Mobil.' Second of all, according to the DOE, gas prices in 1999 for premium grade gas were no more than $1.50, but more specifically, on November 29, 1999, gas prices for premium were $1.445 per gallon.
The next fatal flaw in the plan comes in the numbers. Although i am not going to work the math to verify that the originator of the plan calculated it correctly, i will work on the assumption that it is correct, even though it is truly not. The proof lies in the fact that, if the originator contacts 400 friends, who all contact a number of friends, how many friends will be mutual friends that get contacted by at least 2 people. In fact, i would venture so far as to say, of the initial 400 invitees, at least 8 of the 10 people that they send invites to will have received at least 2 invites already. Plus, the other working assumption in the originators plan is that all people who receive invitations will accept and forward; realistically, probably less than half will even care enough to read the article.
So the originator claims that 40 million people can be contacted about this, however, Tech Crunch claims that in the top 31 countries, there are only 42,966,780 members total. In the United States specifically, that number is a dwindled 18 million. So since we are only trying to affect US gas prices, allow me to pose a question: How exactly can we reach 40 million users who want to make a difference, when there are only 18 million total from the USA? The originator then claims that even 400 million people can be contacted about this!!! How is this going to work when the last census rates the USA population somewhere close to a TOTAL of 300 million. That includes babies, children, young adults, adults, middle aged, old aged, and dying citizens. A significant number of these people don't even drive! Now riddle me this: how are you going to stop ExxonMobil, the 14th largest oil and gas company IN THE WORLD, and THE LARGEST oil and gas company in the United States from turning a profit, when only a minority of people who just so happened to see this article on facebook are even willing to omit buying gas from a certain brand like ExxonMobil?
Solution: BIG OIL CAN'T BE STOPPED. You may think you can make a difference, but like hippies who think their peace rallies matter, you have been lead astray; come to terms with reality now and save yourself the embarrassment of having to explain to your kids in 15 years why you thought you knew all the answers but really knew nothing. You will accomplish nothing by withholding from buying gas from a particular company. In fact, would you have even bought from that company had you not decided to omit them?
