George Carlin: Message I read at Quiet Symphony

A Quiet Symphony posted this message from George Carlin, one of my favorite comedians of all:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but
shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but
have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller
families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense,
more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more
medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more
computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we
communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever. Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe,
because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side. Remember, to
give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you
can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent. Remember, to say, "I love
you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an
embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you. Remember to hold
hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there
again. Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious
thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

George Carlin

Career Path: Live Career.Com Assessment of Me

I've done these types of tests before, to gauge where I should go in my life, as far as a career.

According to Live Career my best options:

Your highest score was on Writing, which means that you
enjoy creative or technical writing. You are also likely to be interested in a
broad range subjects, so finding occupations that allow you to exercise these
interests would lead to higher work satisfaction for you. You also scored highly on Teaching / Social Service, indicating that you
enjoy instructing people in learning new things, helping people solve problems,
and assisting others. Your high score on the Persuasive
scale means that you enjoy work which involves influencing, advising,
counseling, guiding, motivating or directing the activities of others.

On the downside:

Your lowest interest score was on Clerical. You’re not
likely to be fulfilled doing routine office work that involves filing,
record-keeping, word processing, operating office machines, attending to
details, and other repetitive office tasks. You also showed low interest on Systematic, so you dislike routine assignments in which
order and persistent, steady effort are required. Job security is
not so important to you. Plus, you can tolerate frequent schedule
changes and situations in which you must make quick decisions. Finally, your low
score on Industrial Art means that you wouldn’t enjoy making or
repairing things using machinery, or by hand.

Next they defined my approach to work. That ought to be fun to look at!!!

My high scores:

Investigative types enjoy the challenge of problem solving in mathematics, technology, and sciences, and the abstract and practical ideas related to these areas. Applied science, such as engineering, technology or computer science may also be of interest to them. They can be technically creative.

Artistic types are often thought of as original and creative by others. Such people enjoy expressing themselves in artistic ways such as acting, dancing, creating music or visual art, or by expressing their ideas either through discussion or debate.

Social types are interested in helping to keep others emotionally or physically healthy, or in teaching others. They enjoy giving advice and working directly with people, either in groups or individually.

Med Scores:

Enterprising types are people-oriented. They like to talk to, influence and persuade others. They are confident, adventurous, assertive and show leadership.

Attentive types enjoy helping others, serving others' personal needs and looking after the comfort and well-being of others. They are happy in jobs requiring sociability, politeness, patience and a happy disposition.

Low Scores:

Conventional types enjoy supervising others in jobs where rules and tasks are well defined. They show careful attention to detail, are organized, follow instructions well and prefer jobs where their daily duties are regular and fixed.

Realistic types like physical activity, working with their hands, and are mechanically-inclined. They enjoy working outdoors and do not mind physical risks on the job.

After that, disappointingly, they skip to what they are really after - money.

They do try to guise this process as a way to get to a career. However, like MAPP (another assessment test they are tied to), they are really only interested in getting you to pay them $30, $50 or $100 or more for the analysis of what you need to be doing.

It is a fairly accurate portrait of me.

Later!!

Oldies but Goodies: A few songs, a joke and a smile

Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street doing Superstition. Love the horn section!!!



The Rokes -Let's Live for Today. Grass Roots did the song too - more popularly.



Grass Roots doing it, introduced by Jimmy Durante (Ah cha cha cha!!)



And The Bee Gees live in 1997 doing 1970's classic Tragedy. Even a high voice doesn't mean they couldn't be cool!!!!




The Joke (on the cusp of another Middle East peace conference in Annapolis):



A older Jewish man was walking through the Golan Heights, in usual thought about what the world was, is and what it should be. By happenstance, he stumbled upon a partially cover lamp, with ancient decor and an odd shape. He picked it up and rubbed off the sparkling sand.



With a jolt, an eruption of gas from the lamp appeared. The Jewish man nearly stumbled and fell, but managed to keep his balance as he gripped the bottle. The gas took form; a genie of purple persuasion with bells and silken pajamas finally came into clear form.



"I am the genie of the lamp! I will grant you one wish of anything you desire - but only one! Choose wisely." The genie thundered.


"I wish for peace in the Middle Eastern countries, specifically Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey," The Jewish man retorted.

The genie, paused, taken aback, and unfortunately proclaimed: "I am sorry dear friend. I can not grant you that wish. The complexities, ramifications and brutal history of this region is beyond my powers. I will grant you anything...anything at all, but alas, not that."

The man stood perplexed, then an idea: "Well, can I obtain a blowjob from my wife?"

"So......when you're saying peace, exactly what do you mean?"

(The joke was read in a GQ magazine some years ago.)

;)

Cost of War: How (not) to spend a trillion (or more) dollars?

Source: U.S. Commerce Department. Historical Statistics of The United States.

In the run up to the Iraqi and Afghanistan war (with a March 2003 invasion of Iraq), the Bush administration estimated the Iraq war would cost no more than $50 billion.

Ha! Ha! Fooled Ya!

Instead, depending on your accounting skills, interest payments, which United States dollars (2002 or 2007) you will use, or what counts as a military expenditure, the cost projections run from just over $1 Trillion to over $2.6 Trillion U.S. Dollars. Which it turns out will put it in the WWII ballpark (see above graphic of U.S. War Costs) of what it costs to wage war. Yikes!

The NY Times put together a list of things that could be bought and so, I did too.

NY Times things to buy:

1. Universal Preschool ($35 Billion)


2. Treating Heart Disease and Diabetes ($50 Billion)
   

My things that the United States could have bought with the $1,000,000,000,000 spent in Iraq:

· 4,000,000 homes at a price of $250,000 per pad. In the Midwest, this could reasonably get you a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 2-car garage home. Given the current mortgage crisis, this would have been a pretty suite (get it, sweet) deal.

· Recently my local school district renovated the high school for $50,000,000. Figuring a 1,000-student facility, this purchase price could build 20,000 schools and educate 20,000,000 kids. More reasonably, I suspect 10,000 schools and 7.5-10 million kids.

· Create 1,000,000 millionaires. 1 in 300 existing Americans, could suddenly become wealthy enough to create businesses, go to school, purchase 1,000,000 cars, 1,000,000 homes and eat everyday without worry. The amount that would be put to use for entreprenuerial ventures would create plenty of wealth on the backside.

· A typical computer system (say a laptop) costs around $1,500 to $2,000 with added software packages, peripherals, security, etc. 500 systems for $1,000,000. One for every man, woman and child in America with $400,000,000,000 left over for high-end systems. Course it would be good for only 2-3 years. But then again, what good has this war been???

· Infrastructure in America is failing. Say a mile of pave road (4-lane with reasonable width) costs $2,000,000. 500,000 miles of road: Two hundred fifty - 2,000 miles in length Interstates. That's enough road to get to the moon and back comfortably.

· $500,000,000,000 payment on Federal Debt would strengthen the dollar a bit.

. $100 per barrel of oil. 10,000 barrels for $1,000,000. 10,000,000 barrels for 1 billion. This is only ½ days worth of usage…in America.

. Nuclear Power Plants are the most effecient of all electrical generators. The cost of a 1,000 MW plant is (estimated) at $5 Billion. Currently, 103 plants provide 20% of the nation's electrical energy. With the right spending we could up this to nearly 60% reliance on Nuclear Power - cost effectively. Too bad 3-Mile Island keeps on being brought up.

War spending is really never constructive at all.

Destruction is the goal. Though I realize we need to be secure, how about using some good old fashion diplomacy before going full tilt to war?

All Americans paid for this Bush-inspired Boondoggle.

Bonds Indictment: Unforgivable...that's what you are...???

In a not so sudden turn of events, Barry Bonds has been indicted on 4 counts of perjury and 1 count of obstruction of justice charges.

As The NY Times reports:

"The charges stem from his Dec. 4, 2003, testimony to a federal grand
jury. He denied knowingly taking steroids...The United States attorney’s office
for the Northern District of California has been investigating whether Mr. Bonds
perjured himself in December 2003 when he told a grand jury in San Francisco
that he did not knowingly use performance enhancing drugs, despite drastic
changes to his physique and documents with his name on them from 2001 to 2003 showing drug schedules."

After these 4 years, and likely a huge amount of money spent on gathering evidence, chasing down witnesses and holding grand jury proceedings twice, they finally "got" him.

It really didn't surprise me that they waited this long. It was in some regards a better way to destroy the man, after setting the record, than say, stopping him from it before hand. For those that may disagree, it would have been seen as an isolated one case, one instance, of wrongdoing because it so happen that Bonds was about to break baseball's most hallowed record. By allowing him to break it (and not besmirching baseball mid-season), the prosecution now can proceed forward vigorously knowing out of sight, out of mind. And more importantly, how people feel about Bonds - dislike is only one word to describe - and how he will not be a sympathetic defendant.

One thing is for certain, Bonds will be considered for the "unforgivable list" of athletes that in some way made a dark stain on their chosen sport.

For myself, and not being a rooter for the Giants or in anyway enamored with Bonds, I do feel some sympathy for him. I know this was a planned attack on his singular achievement. So much so, that even our current President decided to make a statement via a spokesman about this, just an hour after it was handed down:

"The president is very disappointed to hear this," Bush spokesman Tony
Fratto said. "As this case is now in the criminal justice system, we will
refrain from any further specific comments about it. But clearly this is a sad
day for baseball."

Funny, this is coming from the former managing partner of the Texas Rangers (Bush) that traded for patient zero, Jose Canseco, whose usage of Performance Enhancers has been well known since the late 1980's. And the General Manager of Jose's initial team (A's): Sandy Alderson, now works for Bud Selig, the commissioner of baseball. Plenty of connections - and plenty of high ranking men in baseball that buried their head in the sand for years. (To the increase of revenues in the baseball from $2 billion in 1995 to $6 Billion this past year.)

Bonds is a victim of his own greed and place in history. He felt his pay was tied to hitting dingers into McCovey Cove - and it was - and his legacy as a baseball player was tied to his putting up outlandish numbers - and it probably was.

Do I feel Steroids alone did this for him? No, not exactly in the way people perceive it to be. Maybe it is more due to recovery from aches and pains, not gaining untold (and unmeasured, I might add) strength to crush that "bee ball" out of the yard.

It is my contention that the baseball, itself, was doctored up by 1994 to produce the ERA of extra base hits (doubles specifically), not just the jacks that sail mightily over the fence into new and improved dining areas of these ballyards.

IF Bonds is unforgivable...
Then baseball is unforgivable..TOO.



Other stories: ESPN report