Michael Crichton...

"The greatest challenge facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda."

This post is inspired by Al Gore's presence at the Oscar's.

For interesting thoughts on enviromentalism, climate change and global warming check out www.michaelchrichton.com and click on speeches.

Crichton is speaking at the Asia Room in NYC next month. It is sold out and I am unable to get a ticket. If anyone out there has connections and can hook me up let me know!

Married to a cover girl...

She's the one on the right.

"I love it when a plan comes together"

Balance...

Balance - our goal for 2007...

Laura and I just moved from Holbrook, NY to Long Beach, NY fulfilling one of our life goals of living at the beach. In a perfect world that beach would have been in a warmer climate - but we are making the best of it!

This move has cut my commute to work from 4 hours total, door to door, morning and night to a little over 2 hours total. So I have about 2 hours of my life back. I get to walk to the train station- partially fulfilling another goal of being able to walk to work- so I get a little exercise thus adding to the "balance".

I am trying to work an 8 hour day. It is almost impossible, but if I keep it at the front of my mind the more I achieve it. Can you be successful only working 40 hours a week? I guess it's all how you define success.

Keeping in touch with people has been very difficult and I do not help matters. We have been so blessed with great friends in each of the places we have lived. And it seems like no matter how much time pasts between the time we talk or see each other, it is never hard to pick right up where we left off. Hopefully I will be more balanced in this area.

I haven't been a regular blogger but I want to be.

Here's to being balanced

Our Lady of Vilnius

Everywhere I turned there were eyes watching me: Jesus, Saint Paul, Mary and many other figures of church history. It was was eerie. I did not like it.

The engineering company I work for was retained to perform a structural review of Our Lady of Vilnius Church in Manhattan. So I spent four hours avoiding contact with statues and stained glass as I did my job.

The church is in danger of being sold if it is beyond repair. The people associated with the church very much want us to be able to fix it. Joy, the care-taker, asked that I would put her request that the church be repaired into my report.

The very place that I could not wait to get out of was of immense importance people. I viewed all the eyes in the room as looking at me. Others must see the faces as watching over them.

Commercials stress me out...

and insult my intelligence.

TCOB...

I wouldn't say it was a goal of mine but I did attempt something in early spring and just finished this past weekend. I read an entire book in the bathroom. Not one of those bathroom readers or chicken soup for the soul ones but an actual book - a non-fiction book on a current political figure. Come to think of it, the bathroom was a pretty good place to read this one. I may have finished sooner if Laura didn't hide the book everytime guests came over. She would put my book under the sink and I'd forget about it. I have to figure out a way to test my reading comprehension to see if it was worth it. I don't have any plans to start a new one. I'll keep everyone posted.

Blogger...

Due to limited computer time my posts are few are far between to say the least. I just started a new job in NYC. I have about a 2 hour door to door commute in both the morning and evening. I take the train so I get to do a lot of reading and that has actually been refreshing. One of my subtle joys is watching people run for the train at the different stops. And at the end of the day you should see people "book it" through Penn Station. My first day on the train a guy talked my ear off the whole way. Now I know why people don't make eye contact with you.

Solis Foundation...

The Solis Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on ending poverty and creating economic sustainability in developing communities in foreign countries and the US. I am excited about what they are doing and am glad to make donations toward their efforts.

Please check out their website when you have a chance.

Good Quote...

Most of Kid Rock's music is too crude for me but some of his songs are awesome. He has a great voice and his sound is memorable. A couple of his songs require a shower after listening to them but I just delete them.

On the inside of one of his albums he makes this quote:

"If it looks good, you'll see it; if it sounds good, you'll hear it, if it is marketed right, you'll buy it; but...if it's real, you'll feel it."

Okay, enough Kid.

World Premiere...

Laura and I saw Superman last night. We had free tickets so what the heck right? Well if you are teetering on the fence to see it or not I suggest you save your 10 bucks. Some of the special effects were cool and I enjoyed watching Kevin Spacey play Lex Luther. Other than that I'd say its a snoozer.

Hollywood wasted my time - a whole 2.5 hours on this one. Good-bye Lois.

Searching for my lost shaker of salt...

Thank God I didn't discover margaritas until after college.

The wisdom of Jimmy Buffet

ipod nation...

I treated myself to an ipod for my birthday. It is awesome. The design is so cool, especially the wheel.

Right now I have 574 songs on my ipod or two days worth of music. I also can watch videos and I love the podcasts.

June 30th is my last day of work at my current job. I resigned for "personal" reasons. On the 5th I start a new job in NYC. I have an hour train ride from our apartment. The ipod is going to be crucial.

Let me know if you have any book suggestions. I just finished The Da Vinci Code, in time to see the movie, thus completing one of my life goals of reading a book before watching the movie. And like everyone always said, the book is better...much better.

Life's Too Short to...

Be miserable

Drink bad coffee

Drink bad beer

Drink bad wine

Irrelevant

Etc.

Rock on...

I tried to access my blog at work the other day and I was blocked by our "Surf Control".

They have tightened things up so I can't really view anything not related to work. Even some work related sites get blocked. I think someone downloaded a virus.

I think that since we are in the year 2006, internet access at work should be one of the perks. If someone cannot "police" themselves from wasting time or doing inappropriate things than police them. Not me.

I pay bills online, communicate with family and simply enjoy a five minutue break from work via the internet. I am not outraged over this but I am disappointed.

Gouged...

By the gov't.

"The media sounded the alarm last year when the largest U.S. oil company, ExxonMobil Corp, announced profits of $36 billion. But according to the Tax Foundation, the biggest price gouging profiteer was the U.S. government, cashing in to the tune of $54 billion in oil and gas taxes. The think tank, the Tax Foundation, said, 'Tax collections on the production and the import of gasoline by state and federal governments are already near historic highs.' In fact, in recent decades governments have collected far more revenue from gasoline taxes than the largest US oil companies have collectively earned in domestic profits."

New York State of Mind...

New York taxes are out of control. The sales tax is 8.625%

And look at the taxes on my cell phone bill. It is 17% of the bill. We need to revolt. Vote all incumbents out this election cycle.

New York State of Mind....

Walter E. Williams says this,

The founders of our nation would be horrified by today's level of American servitude to their government. From 1787 to the Roaring '20s, federal government spending, as a percentage of GDP, never exceeded 4 percent, except in wartime, compared to today's 20 percent.

The average taxpayer, depending on the state in which he lives, works from Jan. 1 to May 3 to pay federal, state and local taxes. That means someone else decides how four months' worth of the fruits of the average taxpayer's labor will be spent. The taxpayer is forcibly used to serve the purposes of others -- whether it's farm or business handouts, food stamps or other government programs where the earnings of one American are taken and given to another.

This situation differs only in degree, but not in kind, from slavery. After all, a working description of slavery is the process where one person is forcibly used to serve the purposes of another. The difference is a slave has no rights to what he produces each year, instead of just four months.

Is Quality Going Down?

Recently I've experienced poor customer service and incompetence from my bank, cell phone provider, my credit card company and computer company.

Are you experiencing it too?

I blogged about my computer hard drive burning up. It just quit one night when I was working on it. It is a Dell and less than a year old. Dell sent me a new hard drive but it was refurbished. Shouldn't I get a new one if it is under warranty. I would complain but I'd have to spend half my day on the phone like Laura did trying to install the hard drive and the lost programs. It is ridiculous.

Dell was a really good company but I think they got too big too fast. I wouldn't recommend buying a computer from them. I can't say anything about their other products.

My next beef is with my cell phone company Sprint. I have been trying to cancel my automatic payment from my checking account for a year. Every time I call they say they cancel it but I keep getting the bill deducted from my account. The worst part is I don't use that checking account anymore so I do not deposit into it as of a month ago. I don't recommend Sprint either.

Onto my bank. When Laura and I set up the account here in New York I wasn't able to be on it because I didn't have any paperwork with my name and address on it. So we just put it in Laura's name. We had a wonderful experience with the staff member who helped us. Last month we went back to get my name on the account. Again the woman was excellent. I asked if I could sign the checks even if my name wasn't on the check itself. She said now that my name was on the account it didn't matter. Well I had to call Citibank the other day to ask a question and I couldn't because my name isn't on the account. Incompetence.

Now here's the deal with my credit card. It kept getting declined. So I called them. The bill was returned to them when they tried to mail it. I just moved. I changed my address with company before that. It must not have happened. You would think they would call me if my bill was sent back?

I called up the company to change my address again. The woman I spoke with didn't know how to do that. As she fumbled around, I was disconnected. I couldn't call back because I was on my lunch break and didn't have time to call back and wait on hold. I am cancelling the card.

These aren't complaints, just realities. Realities that waste time. We all shell out a lot of money for these services (which we really don't need). We should call out companies that have poor quality and service and patron those that excel in it.

One company that went above and beyond for us is DHL, a shipping company. So there's a shout for DHL.

Is health care a right?

I recently signed up for my company's healthcare plan. It basically costs me 100 bucks for medical and dental care. Within that coverage I have a copay and certain procedures are split 80/20.

The 100 bucks a month ($1200 a year) seems fairly reasonable with the high costs of medical care in the event that I may need it. In reality I believe it is costing me more because my employer is paying whatever else it costs to insure me as a perk for working there.

I'm not someone who requires a lot of medical care at this point in my life. In fact I do not remember the last time I went to a doctor. So that money I pay each month is "just in case" something happens which I am sure I will be greatful to have in case something happens.

I look at all the money that is spent on me "just in case" and I cringe. There's gotta be a better way to do it. fI looked into a health savings account but unless my employer pays me the money that they are spending on my health care it wouldn't be worth it.

Massachusetts recently passed a bill that will insure nearly all of its citizens. Very interesting.

http://www.hcfama.org/

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/05/us/05mass.html

I want to see how this plays out.