5.28.2009

the gps.

behold: the gps...




you may have one -- and i don't judge you per se. but i'm going to rant a bit.

i understand the allure of electronics -- they do cool stuff, make your life a bit easier. it is a need of mine to always have a stereo with bass that makes you feel like you're having a heart attack. even with the gps -- what a great invention -- an on-the-go road atlas. esPECially for when traffic or construction strikes - you can navigate around. BUT. everyday i commute just under an hour, utilizing two major highways, leaving my house around 6:15am. and during my drive, i estimate that about 40% of the drivers i pass have a gps affixed to their dashboard, turned on, presumably directing them to their place of work. what's up with that? i feel like this should be a post on "stuff white people like". is it just the excitement of having a number of space satellites reminding you of your current position -- a position you have been driving EVERY DAY OF YOUR LIFE?

i do not share this as a judgment -- i would actually like to have one at some point for the previously mentioned reasons of negotiating traffic and construction. but i guess i share this as a reminder of our seemingly instinctual desire for accumulation of more and better 'stuff' -- and in this case, 'stuff' that can offer a sense of false security, as well as a reliance on a piece of equipment rather than our natural problem-solving abilities and sense of direction. that and a $5 map.

below is an illustration of the consequences -- yes, it is from The Office. but there are many cases of it happening IN REAL LIFE.


michael drives into a lake. from peter allen on Vimeo.


[my favorite line: "the machine knows!" ]

wise words.


Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

Dwight D. Eisenhower.


________________
But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. But as for you, child of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.

1 Timothy 6:9-11.

5.07.2009

fav.

this is one of my new favorite blogs that i check regularly. it's a good dose of humor, and it reminds me that there are bigger idiots than me out there...

FAILBLOG.

great.

for some reason this scene popped into my head on the way to work today. so i found it, watched it, smiled, and thought that i should share. so - here's the best scene in Good Will Hunting. i'm pretty sure i'd rather be a cynical-thinker, than a naive-optimist anyday.




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