Umm... so it rained today, and my pant bottoms got soggy. I hate it when that happens!! Seriously, can't they just make pants that are not so long? Well, maybe I should just have longer legs. Or high heel shoes. That would probably help.
Why am I getting another job? This is ridiculous. I am going to be working from 8 am to 9 pm, pretty much every day. And then some more hours on weekends. Well okay, truth be told, I am actually trying to prep myself for the typical resident 80 hr + work week. But why? Masochistic tendencies? Perhaps.
We have internet, but I'm not going to let that stop me from getting outside yet tonight. After all, the new job hasn't started just yet... time to enjoy freedom while it lasts!!
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Mmmmm CAT!
You heard it here first! Or maybe second, or third. I don't really care. But it's true, I'm done with the MCAT (as long as it went okay and I don't have to retake it)! It's kind of strange not having anything to stress out over; just have to go in to Lowe's and interview for a job... take care of cells in Biochem... plant a garden... take care of the herbs.....
You know, the good stuff.
But the oregano didn't grow.
Time to spend some well-deserved days at home with family!!
Oh, and I should look for that missing checkbook, too.
You know, the good stuff.
But the oregano didn't grow.
Time to spend some well-deserved days at home with family!!
Oh, and I should look for that missing checkbook, too.
Monday, May 14, 2007
silly
Heartbreak. It's a silly word to someone who's never experienced it. Heartbreak makes you feel sick, physically sick, as if someone just punched you in the stomach and then took out your brain for good measure. I cannot concentrate... I really hope this MCAT goes well. My checkbook is missing; it's been missing for 4 days now. I still can't find anyone to rent out my old place. And I found out that someone who I thought I was over is still able to hurt me. And it hurts, a lot.
I can't decide whether I want to throw up or cry. My head hurts, and my chest is tight as if I have a vice clamp around it, squeezing my heart until it can't take it anymore. I'm shaking. Is it because I'm so angry, confused, disheartened? Maybe I'll throw up.
Excuse me.
I can't decide whether I want to throw up or cry. My head hurts, and my chest is tight as if I have a vice clamp around it, squeezing my heart until it can't take it anymore. I'm shaking. Is it because I'm so angry, confused, disheartened? Maybe I'll throw up.
Excuse me.
Friday, May 04, 2007
gas war
I got this email today from a couple of my relatives, and I was struck by how much I disagreed with the message. Usually these chain-mail-type messages have at least a couple things that I can side with, but not this one. In fact, I was a little disturbed by the underlying premise that it suggested. Anyways, read the email first... my comments follow.
-----------------the original message-------------------
TAKES A FEW MOMENTS AND IS REALLY WORTH A TRY.
GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. 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. 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! 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 $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $2.79 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. 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 at this point.... Keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people. I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us sends it to at least ten more (30 x 10 =3D 300) ... And those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =3D 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE 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 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people.... Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am, so trust me on this one.) 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 300 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 $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.
-----------------------------------------
Okay. So...
- Prices for gas in much of Europe are far higher than what we pay for gas in the US
- Keeping gas prices high is also one way of encouraging people to use public transportation or alternative transportation methods, although gas companies may still profit from this. Lower prices do have positive impacts on the tourism industry, but also usually correlate to a greater consumption.
- As we have seen the past couple of years, sales on large SUV-type vehicles such as Range Rovers and Hummers have plummeted in favor of more fuel-efficient models. People who desire to spend less on gas can therefore buy these models and drive the same distance, or opt to do long trips in these vehicles.
- What is the cause of rising gas prices? When we eventually run out of fossil fuels (which may not take that long according to current estimates), then won't prices rise again?
My conclusion is that a price war will not ultimately help us as a human race. Lowering prices for a commodity that helps pollute our environment (yes, I know that pollution comes from many different sources, not all of them power industry and motor vehicle-related) is perhaps not the best idea for us right now. However, it is a great idea to control the amount of profit that gas companies get out of this -- they should be held partly responsible for the pollution that does come as part of their industry, perhaps by way of pollution tax on profits or donating a portion of profit from gasoline sales to environmental efforts: developing new technology for fuel-efficient living, planting trees around and through metropolitan areas where space is available, cleaning up and bumping up efficiency by incorporating new technology into local power generating stations, and there's much more that I have not even thought of that could be done. If we don't do something soon about the way we are treating the environment, my kids and your grandchildren will see the results, and in many ways it is too late already -- extinction rates for wildlife species are considered so significant that they have called it the Sixth Extinction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction_event).
I'm not saying that I'm not guilty of driving my car when I could very well ride my bike to the store, and I don't want to come off as a conceited enviro-freak who looks down her nose at anyone who dares enjoy a wonderful afternoon out jetskiing on the lake. But seriously, we as a human society need to consider some lifestyle changes; living closer to where we work, spending a little more to get something that lasts as opposed to something that gets us by and that we can throw away later, using only as much resources as we really need... just little things can make a big difference if enough people are involved. I would rather see 3 million people decide to do rideshare in the morning, or donate their plastic bags to local grocery co-ops, or spend a little more for a fuel-efficient vehicle instead of that Escalade.
-----------------the original message-------------------
TAKES A FEW MOMENTS AND IS REALLY WORTH A TRY.
GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. 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. 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! 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 $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $2.79 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. 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 at this point.... Keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people. I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us sends it to at least ten more (30 x 10 =3D 300) ... And those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =3D 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE 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 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people.... Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am, so trust me on this one.) 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 300 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 $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.
-----------------------------------------
Okay. So...
- Prices for gas in much of Europe are far higher than what we pay for gas in the US
- Keeping gas prices high is also one way of encouraging people to use public transportation or alternative transportation methods, although gas companies may still profit from this. Lower prices do have positive impacts on the tourism industry, but also usually correlate to a greater consumption.
- As we have seen the past couple of years, sales on large SUV-type vehicles such as Range Rovers and Hummers have plummeted in favor of more fuel-efficient models. People who desire to spend less on gas can therefore buy these models and drive the same distance, or opt to do long trips in these vehicles.
- What is the cause of rising gas prices? When we eventually run out of fossil fuels (which may not take that long according to current estimates), then won't prices rise again?
My conclusion is that a price war will not ultimately help us as a human race. Lowering prices for a commodity that helps pollute our environment (yes, I know that pollution comes from many different sources, not all of them power industry and motor vehicle-related) is perhaps not the best idea for us right now. However, it is a great idea to control the amount of profit that gas companies get out of this -- they should be held partly responsible for the pollution that does come as part of their industry, perhaps by way of pollution tax on profits or donating a portion of profit from gasoline sales to environmental efforts: developing new technology for fuel-efficient living, planting trees around and through metropolitan areas where space is available, cleaning up and bumping up efficiency by incorporating new technology into local power generating stations, and there's much more that I have not even thought of that could be done. If we don't do something soon about the way we are treating the environment, my kids and your grandchildren will see the results, and in many ways it is too late already -- extinction rates for wildlife species are considered so significant that they have called it the Sixth Extinction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction_event).
I'm not saying that I'm not guilty of driving my car when I could very well ride my bike to the store, and I don't want to come off as a conceited enviro-freak who looks down her nose at anyone who dares enjoy a wonderful afternoon out jetskiing on the lake. But seriously, we as a human society need to consider some lifestyle changes; living closer to where we work, spending a little more to get something that lasts as opposed to something that gets us by and that we can throw away later, using only as much resources as we really need... just little things can make a big difference if enough people are involved. I would rather see 3 million people decide to do rideshare in the morning, or donate their plastic bags to local grocery co-ops, or spend a little more for a fuel-efficient vehicle instead of that Escalade.
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