Here a couple photos fro Christmas. Yes, my father loves Michigan football. The other picture is of the cousins. Starting from the back, it's me, then Amber, Jeannette, Julia and Jenna (from left to right).
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Monday, December 25, 2006
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
More is More until It's Too Much
Recently, I mentioned that I would examine that many people, particularly those in the US, Europe, Australia, and areas of Asia have too much. The notion of more is better. I actually prefer the term "moreness", meaning pushing it to the next degree of whatever it is - the fastest, smallest, in terms of beauty, wealth, and anything else you can think of.
Right now I'm going Save as Draftto rant about something that is related to this topic. The diamond. Yes, the illustrious, glorious, perfect, forever, immaculate diamond. The more I read about diamonds the more I'm convinced that diamonds are a hoax, fraud, and illusion. Well, the actual diamond is real, but the preciousness of this mineral has been cleverly created by the diamond cartel De Beers. Here's a nice article written in 1982 about the diamond scheme.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond
Some background info about this company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers
I'm still pondering this one thought. Wouldn't it be better to spend all the money you would on a diamond and put it towards a house, retirement, children's education or something that gives you a true return on your investment. People have enough other costs to deal with than paying some outrageous price on a mineral (salt is a mineral too). The other part that irks me about diamond is the composition of diamonds. They're made out of carbon and the last time I checked there was plenty of that stuff laying around (it's the 4th most abundant element in the Universe). That means you could burn that ugly couch you have from the 1960's or beautiful tree in the backyard and you'll end up with some carbon. Now remember from elementary school, "A diamond is formed by heat, pressure and time." And voila, you could end up with some type of diamond orr you could end up with something that has a similar lattice structure as a diamond- graphite. Oh, yes, graphite the ugly cousin of the precious diamond. Now why isn't graphite worth lots of money?
Where am I going with all this?
If you're a dude and you're planning on buying an engagement ring I think it's perfectly fine to discuss diamond alternatives such as synthetic diamonds with your significant other. I know what you're thinking, "Oh, my gosh, the diamonds are synthetic. They can't be any good." The problem is that these "fake" diamonds are usually a more perfect diamond than a the "natural" one. I won't tell you how much the man-made diamonds are, so you'll have to search for that yourself. I suggest that you put on a pair of Depends because you just might poop your pants. You've been forewarned. If you want to spend some extra cash then purchase a nice platinum setting for the engagement ring and wedding bands. Platinum is a element and no one so far has learned alchemy or learned to control nuclear forces on a whim.
One more thing, Superman created a diamond out of a piece of coal for Lois Lane. Oh, wait, that wasn't real, but the diamond myth is.
Recently, I mentioned that I would examine that many people, particularly those in the US, Europe, Australia, and areas of Asia have too much. The notion of more is better. I actually prefer the term "moreness", meaning pushing it to the next degree of whatever it is - the fastest, smallest, in terms of beauty, wealth, and anything else you can think of.
Right now I'm going Save as Draftto rant about something that is related to this topic. The diamond. Yes, the illustrious, glorious, perfect, forever, immaculate diamond. The more I read about diamonds the more I'm convinced that diamonds are a hoax, fraud, and illusion. Well, the actual diamond is real, but the preciousness of this mineral has been cleverly created by the diamond cartel De Beers. Here's a nice article written in 1982 about the diamond scheme.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond
Some background info about this company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers
I'm still pondering this one thought. Wouldn't it be better to spend all the money you would on a diamond and put it towards a house, retirement, children's education or something that gives you a true return on your investment. People have enough other costs to deal with than paying some outrageous price on a mineral (salt is a mineral too). The other part that irks me about diamond is the composition of diamonds. They're made out of carbon and the last time I checked there was plenty of that stuff laying around (it's the 4th most abundant element in the Universe). That means you could burn that ugly couch you have from the 1960's or beautiful tree in the backyard and you'll end up with some carbon. Now remember from elementary school, "A diamond is formed by heat, pressure and time." And voila, you could end up with some type of diamond orr you could end up with something that has a similar lattice structure as a diamond- graphite. Oh, yes, graphite the ugly cousin of the precious diamond. Now why isn't graphite worth lots of money?
Where am I going with all this?
If you're a dude and you're planning on buying an engagement ring I think it's perfectly fine to discuss diamond alternatives such as synthetic diamonds with your significant other. I know what you're thinking, "Oh, my gosh, the diamonds are synthetic. They can't be any good." The problem is that these "fake" diamonds are usually a more perfect diamond than a the "natural" one. I won't tell you how much the man-made diamonds are, so you'll have to search for that yourself. I suggest that you put on a pair of Depends because you just might poop your pants. You've been forewarned. If you want to spend some extra cash then purchase a nice platinum setting for the engagement ring and wedding bands. Platinum is a element and no one so far has learned alchemy or learned to control nuclear forces on a whim.
One more thing, Superman created a diamond out of a piece of coal for Lois Lane. Oh, wait, that wasn't real, but the diamond myth is.
Monday, December 11, 2006
3 Hours
So what would you do in three hours? This past weekend I did two activities that took about 3 hours to complete. The first one was wash and wax the car. RainX the windows and clean the interior glass. As well as vacuum the carpets and condition the leather seats. Yeah, this took me three hours. The car looked immaculate. I had a hard time going back inside. I'm sure I would have stared at it longer if the sun wasn't going down. Okay, I had better things to do. My next three hour project was writing out Christmas cards. Yeah, it took me that long. Well, I wrote some of them while I was hanging out at Panera Bread. These two nice old ladies started chatting me up. I was like, hey, what's up ladies. You like party? Get ready to ride the Oriental Express. Okay, I didn't say that, but they were very nice. We talked about the Holiday season; buying gifts, writing letters and seeing family.
Oh, I still haven't watched tv since last week. I'm too lazy to buy antenna for my television. Actually, I don't need one until my two shows return in January. I'm excited for the new season of 24 and the continuation of Heroes.
So what would you do in three hours? This past weekend I did two activities that took about 3 hours to complete. The first one was wash and wax the car. RainX the windows and clean the interior glass. As well as vacuum the carpets and condition the leather seats. Yeah, this took me three hours. The car looked immaculate. I had a hard time going back inside. I'm sure I would have stared at it longer if the sun wasn't going down. Okay, I had better things to do. My next three hour project was writing out Christmas cards. Yeah, it took me that long. Well, I wrote some of them while I was hanging out at Panera Bread. These two nice old ladies started chatting me up. I was like, hey, what's up ladies. You like party? Get ready to ride the Oriental Express. Okay, I didn't say that, but they were very nice. We talked about the Holiday season; buying gifts, writing letters and seeing family.
Oh, I still haven't watched tv since last week. I'm too lazy to buy antenna for my television. Actually, I don't need one until my two shows return in January. I'm excited for the new season of 24 and the continuation of Heroes.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Good Riddance
Today, I did something that I thought I would never do. I called SuddenLink and told them to cancel my subscription to cable. All those glorious channels are now history. When I was in Germany I vacillated if I wanted to make the leap to a cable free life. I had solid examples that people can continue living without cable. My friend, Pat in Washington DC seems to be living a perfectly normal life and Isabel in Texas seems to happy without cable (but she can't get enough of Korean dramas), so why couldn't I? I have plenty of other hobbies to entertain me like the six behemoth classic books sitting on my shelf - 6 books for $2 - I can't pass that up. Plus, I have the vast internet at my disposal. It's truly a more gratifying experience than tv. This leads me to another topic for tomorrow. Our lives are bombarded with too much of everything. More the merrier, right? Oh, hell no. More just means more time I have to take to decipher the crap from the all the other crap. Leaving me less of the thing I want the most - time.
Today, I did something that I thought I would never do. I called SuddenLink and told them to cancel my subscription to cable. All those glorious channels are now history. When I was in Germany I vacillated if I wanted to make the leap to a cable free life. I had solid examples that people can continue living without cable. My friend, Pat in Washington DC seems to be living a perfectly normal life and Isabel in Texas seems to happy without cable (but she can't get enough of Korean dramas), so why couldn't I? I have plenty of other hobbies to entertain me like the six behemoth classic books sitting on my shelf - 6 books for $2 - I can't pass that up. Plus, I have the vast internet at my disposal. It's truly a more gratifying experience than tv. This leads me to another topic for tomorrow. Our lives are bombarded with too much of everything. More the merrier, right? Oh, hell no. More just means more time I have to take to decipher the crap from the all the other crap. Leaving me less of the thing I want the most - time.
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