one year later...

About a year ago on NPR i heard an interview with a guy that got rid of his car...an SUV and went car free. It has been in the back of my mind for a while now and just the other day I stumbled upon his book in the library called "how to live well without owning a car". It's a wonderful, positive book that reminds you of all the potential and interesting ways you can live you life by learning to ask why...

autobody swapping

I rarely watch a movie from beginning to end anymore. I ususally spread a movie out over several nights...kinds of nice to spread it out. Tonight we finished up wathing 'my left foot'. Great movie. Can't say enough about the DDL, Dan Day Lewis, and all of his movies..."last of the mohicans", may "be the best action film ever!". Anyway, we followed up 'my left food' with a bit of the movie 'cars'...talk about a leap in genre...

Cars is cute and kind of funny...bit a bit of the gag reflex kicks in while watching it (kind of when eating something too sweet and gooey)...we'll finish it up tomorrow and the next night maybe...but there's something definitely weird about watching computer animated cars act human-like...i don't know yet...are there any humans in the movie at all? Are the humans mindless machines without personality?

Remember the string of the 'body swap' movies in the eighties like 'Big' and 'visa versa'? why was that so big in the 80's?

Anyway, maybe that happened on earth...all the humans got swapped with their cars? would it be that far from reality? We really are our cars in american society....if so...who am i since I don't have a car?

he or she

Ever wonder who invented beer? A man or a woman?

Some things just seem so obvious....man and beer go together like pizza and...beer...but who knows...

did you know beer goes back to possibly the 7th millennium bc? not century...millennium...that's 7000 bc...it's possibly human's first beverage (after water i am sure)...

amazing...guess i don't have to worry about ever getting a DUI...so great...

car sickness

Wow...I feel great! I just sold my car for a lot less than I paid (teaches me) and I feel so light. I realized I've been suffering from car sickness for the past year...that feeling of weight and burden that results from car fees, registration fees, parking fees, fear of tickets, gas prices, oil changes...blah blah blah...sorry felt a little whoozie there...flash backs...

I have to pick up the check tomorrow and thought, "hey, what if these guys screw me and don't pay me...and they have my car!"

and i thought...

"They did me a favor, they they liberated me. That alone is worth it...and I can cancel my insurance policy...and that gnawing aching feeling to pay the registration...guess what...gone! so even if they screw me...they saved me..."

Funny thing is, what happens if there is a technological 'phase change' and a leap in electrical car technology (want to see the future...check out tesla!)? How will people be even able to sell gas cars? Personally (like a blog is anything else but my personal opinion...), I think electric and internal combustion will be competing technologies...kind of like 'flash memory' and hard drives...one cheap and dirty and the other elegant but expensive...

but with either technology, chances are i'd still suffer from car sickness...

we'll always have paris

I enjoy saving and making money more than I enjoy spending it...more or less. I do not enjoy spending money on large ticket items...i think most of my money goes out on food...eating out...it always has...ever since i first earned my first paycheck...ahhh, my first paycheck.

I have for the most part been independent from my parents for money. After turning 18 I have not received any hand outs from my folks, of which I am very proud. What I have saved, I have saved on my own. I have stayed with my folks, but I have never had them incur an expense on my part. I was never a liability. Always an asset I have tried to be whenever I stay with anybody...never a burden. I am not ruling out staying with my parents if i should fall on 'hard times', but i can never see ever having to ask them for dough. thank goodness I never will have too...on the contrary, i want to give to them...

I couldn't help thinking about this stuff when reading about paris hilton crying like a baby episodes when she had to serve her time. Granted I have not walked a mile in her manalo blahnik aligator boots I can say that I have lost respect for her acting the way she has...

simulated simulations

this is fascinating stuff...

here we go...

okay, here it is...'the nth life' lives...so interesting

coincidences

the matrix identified deja vu as carrying signifigance. what about coincidences?

what is a coincidence?

perhaps...a seemingly unlikely event that occurs nonetheless...but that's just a stab at a definition...

but what do coincidences mean in your life? if your life consisted of one coincidence after another versus a life that never had a coincidence...what would that mean?

I argue that coincidences mean you are on 'the correct path' in life. the more coincidences, the more you are 'in tune' with what your natural state in life is...

i have no logical arguement for this but i am working on it...

did you say "damn ears?"...

NO old man, I said "Panniers..."

I am shopping for bigger panniers or saddle bags for my new bike. We biked up to the grocery store yesterday to load up on supplies. biking to the grocery store was great! a total adventure and fun. The benefits were...it was fun (as stated), cheaper (no fuel used), no extra purchases (because of limited room), no bags needed (we used panniers and back packs), and it was easier (everything was already packed to go right into th kitchen).

That said, I have a new bike (still have to sell the honda civic) and I am getting ready to equip it with panniers. I found this site which is about building your own panniers. Don't know if i am there yet...maybe down the road...

soft and squishy

my avatar in this life is getting soft, mushy and gooshy...i am enjoying the food and drink too much...

so i am dusting off the 'toughness training for life' to get a little tuffer...will keep you posted...

but the party isn't over just yet...one more piece of chocolate...

the wonderful world of deep sleep

so i just got back for the grand canyon...and it was....well...grand...we drove a really long way in not too much time. It is a twelve hour drive one way and we did two, one day drives. We left Friday and got back today around 9 am, so we drove through the night. It was a trip that had some really 'trippy' parts to it since we did not get, as expected, much sleep last night. We stopped briefly in Las Vegas via the Hoover Damn, which made the trippy parts even more trippy...

which got me thinking about sleep...I think the longest record of somebody going without sleep is around 11 days. During that time, it becomes difficult to discern between dream and reality.

I've often thought sleep, seems logical, is the brains means of post-processing the days events...

A more fun and sci-fi story for sleep just hit me in a sleep deprived haze...and going with the 'it's a simulated life' concept...what if sleep is actually when our brains receive their 'processing' or programming for future thought and/or download data to a 'higher processing power'?

interesting spin on this world being a simulation....just a thought...or was this just 'scripted'...keeps you guessing...

vagablogging

this is a cool site about vagabonding.

current story is about a family going around the world...i was going to write about having kids and it putting you in the poor house and the 'bore' house as well...this story looks at it slightly differently....

pssst...hey mister...wanna buy a blog?

So I am in the process of selling my car. I love dealing with deal makers...and hagglers...I feel more comfortable with them because you know where you stand. It's funny...

I tried selling my car on craigslist, but dealing with individuals is annoying...people are too afraid to negotiate with.

Now dealing with a car dealership...that's more my speed!

Go figure...you would think dealing with private citizens, who are not used to haggling would be more stress free. Not so...give me the hard core hagglers...they don't take things personally...I like that...

They see it more as a game...and that's all it is...I am not a salesperson, but I think I might like to try my hand at it part time...

maybe down the road...

so there was a woman there buying a new accord...she started talking to me and tells me she's getting married and, as well as buying a car for herself, is buying a car for her husband as a wedding gift. This seemed excessive...she mentioned her husband was on paxil and, to be honest, she seemed a little 'out of sorts'. I couldn't help but thinking that she was getting into something a little over her head...

I was negotiating to get rid of a car and she was negotiating to buy two. I am much happier being on my side of the table...

much happier 'off loading'...i am concerned about her, however. I was thinking about how the salesman wouldn't care about her state of mind. They just want to make a sale.

I can't blame them...it's their job...

But, I couldn't also help but think she wasn't prepared for the fight. She wasn't in the right frame of mind to be spending that kind of money...

negotiating is fine when you are prepared for it...but I don't think she was...

The salesman have 'their game face on.' The normal consumer is a sitting duck...

I think a great non-profit service would be teaching consumer the 'art of the steal'. teach people how to negotiate...

level the playing field...

X=Y

I was just reading an article in Fortune Magazine (Yes...very system magazine, I know...) and there was an article about generation Y. Could generation be the next cause for change in our society? The article says, "They're ambition, they're demanding, and they question everything, so if there isn't a good reason for that long commute or late night, don't expect them to do it. When it comes to loyalty, the companies they work for are last on their list, behind their families, their friends, and their communities, and their co-workers, and of course, themselves."

There are a lot of them, so they can't be ignored. And if they don't like a job, they will just quit and move back home with their parents, because "...there is not stigma".

I love generation Y. I think I may be one of them.

I was thinking of that logic. What if your threw out all of conventional expectations and just didn't give a crap about what people thought about you. Life, in some respects, would have some great rewards!

"Mom....Dad...I'm HOME!"

I think of my parents place...an active adult community with pool, gym, library...I think I may be moving back...it's good to have a plan!

face it...your a sim

so we got a new roommate. great guy. a computer engineer. I floated the idea of 'an nth life'. he believed it was logical. that it was highly unlikely that we were the first society to create alternate worlds. that it makes sense that our world is just a simulation of another world. actually there are probably number simulations running with slight variations to address different questions about all the things we question...the meaning of it all, why do we exist, how did we come to be...

fun stuff!

Poor Inc.

Businessweek did a story on the working poor of america. These stories always interest me. While many people are interested in the well-to-dos. I'm interested in the "well, I do not..." The working poor...

Two individuals they focus on in the story are sisters. Their dad left them a house free and clear. He paid it off, the remaining $60k before he died. Within a few years the two sisters amassed 170k in debt and are thinking they may have to sell the house. They can't afford it. Both work jobs. These stories are so sad, but you have to wonder if these stories of financial calamities are preventable? What happened here? What unfolded? A series of bad choices? Bad luck? Both?

bizibee

no posting...i've been keeping really busy taking care of things...so little time to write.

dump the car and bike to work week next week, 17 may. SF bike coalition

everybody is cheap

i think all adults are cheap. event he beamer drivers out there are cheap. everybody wants a deal...

but what separates us as cheap adults are those that are willing to do without. those people that are willing to put in more work, get more out of an experience, but have a little more pain...that's the group that has it figured out...

dump the dollar

It's funny. Sometimes I speculate on things, thinking that they are out in left field...such as a dollar devaluation. I speculate, part because it makes sense on some level and part because it's fun to speculate.

And it's always interesting to then see an article such as this.

I think the days of a singe world reserve currency at coming to an end. Regional currencies will emerge to diversify away from dependency upon a single currency. What will this to do the dollar? Why wait to find out...

the guantanamo chronicles

just watched 'the road to guantanamo'. It was an okay film.

But the funny thing is...we created a terrorist training facility in Guantanamo bay. If the guy you have is not a terrorist, you are creating one or at least somebody that is not going to be friendly and compassionate with your situation. And if you do have a terrorist, then you are just reinforcing their beliefs to hate. I'm not saying that we should roll out the red carpet and party with suspected terrorists....but I am saying we should believe in compassion, humility and reason.

Peaceful resistance has been employed by Gandhi and Dr. King. When groups are oppressed. When people do not have power.

Have those tactics ever been employed by the group with power? When a ruling group (a group with power) feels threatened has that group ever used peaceful means of control and mediation? Would that mean giving up power and creating more of an equity which would lead to another group oppressing the oppressors? I suppose that is the fear....