Holiday Vacation

My friend Dave and I headed up to his mother's place in Clear Lake on Tuesday and come back on Wednesday. His mom is a great cook who loves to make sure guests are well fed. :) On the 3 hour drive up, we bullshitted about politics. On the 3 hour drive back, we bullshitted about time travel. A future blog entry will expound our insights in this area, so watch out. Hehe

My g/f and I meet up early on Thursday and headed down for a little vacation in Monterey. We had a great time down there. On Thursday, we did a little shopping and then had an early dinner at this one restaurant with a nice atmosphere. We ended up at Bluefin to play pool for a while. We then headed back to the hotel to rested up for the long day to follow (New Years Eve).
We got up a little too late on Friday to go for breakfast, so we headed down to Cannery Row for a great lunch at Fishhopper. The weather on Friday was supposed to be cloudy and rainy. It was actually only partly cloudy during the day, and rainy in the early morning and night. The drive along 17 Mile Drive turned out to be nearly perfect. It was sunny, cool and beautiful. At this one beach, we came across this small group of squirrels that walk right up to you, stand on their hind legs and politely wait for food. At Cypress Point, we saw a beach full of harbor seals. At the Lone Cypress, we watched sea otters and migrating gray whales, along with a gorgeous backdrop. It was a very relaxing day. Friday evening, we meet up with Dave and his girlfriend for dinner. We all had a plan to head down to downtown Monterey for this thang called First Night (a New Years Eve celebration), but instead we ended back at the Bluefin for drinks, more pool and other games. They had the MTV New Years count down on the TVs to bring in the New Year. We all had a good time that wasn't crazy or wild. (darn! ;) )
On Saturday, we all headed down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's changed a lot since I've last been there. If you haven't been there in 5 years or so, I'd actually recommend checking it out again. After that, we had another delicious lunch at the Fishhopper. We all headed back home around 3:30 or so. That evening, my g/f and I had dinner with her family.
I spent Sunday lounging around my place watching movies. For dinner, my g/f brought over a bake-it-yourself pizza which I duly cooked incorrectly. LOL I'm not as hopeless in the kitchen as that statement makes me sound.

Xmas was good to me

I spent Xmas with my g/f’s family. We had a leisurely day, dining in at a couple of fine Chinese rest’rants in San Francisco for lunch and dinner. I got some good gifts too! In fact, some of them (from various family and friends) were so good, I’m going to hafta compensate for upcoming birthdays and anniversaries. Oops. lol

New Year's Trip to Monterey

December 31, 2004 to January 1, 2005

With Alice Leung, Miriam Erlichman and David Erlichman, visited Monterey, CA and Cannery Row.  Original link/backup link.

Every Thought Counts

Every Thought Counts
She's got a lovely holiday poo-poo purse story that will warm your heart and remind you the joy of Xmas. ;)

Flat Earth Fun

Believe it or not, there are still people on this planet that believe the world is flat, or at least not a sphere. It isn’t just the individuals in the Flat Earth Society (founded in 1993). There are fundamentalists in various religions teaching this myth as fact as well. One religion teaches the world is on the back of a turtle. Under that turtle is another turtle. Under that turtle is another turtle, etc forever. 

There are modern people that choose to interpret those statements in their ancient texts as literal fact. They turn off their critical sense and refuse to understand that the ancient texts simply provide metaphors for unknowable facts in ancient times. In effect, it’s easier for these modern people to believe in infinitely huge turtles walking on each other’s backs, rather than believe the world is a sphere in space. 

 Western Culture has understood that the Earth is a sphere for a very long time. The idea that people in Columbus’ time, during the Renaissance, believed in a flat Earth is actually a modern myth perpetuated by American ignorance of other cultures (i.e., our arrogance). I’ll call this the Columbus Myth. Ancient Greeks knew the world was a sphere by the Fourth Century B.C.E (over three hundred years before Christ was born). In that time, Aristotle reasoned that the world must be a sphere because the Earth’s shadow on the Moon during lunar eclipses was always round. 

By the time that Columbus set sail on his first voyage to the Americas, Westerners already had known, for about 2000 years, that the Earth was a sphere. Unfortunately, The Columbus Myth spawned the recent rebirth of the belief that the Earth is flat. The some Columbus Myth believers reasoned that if ancient people knew the world was flat as recent as 1500’s, then it must be so. They then further reasoned that modern observations of a spherical Earth are skewed by some global conspiracy to hide the fact that the Earth is flat. Of course, this is all just myth compounded upon myth. 

 Links of note: 

Flat Earth Society - They have a Great Springfield theory (from watching too many episodes of the Simpsons, I think). 

Another Flat Earth Society - I love their complete ignorance of how a little thing called gravity works in their "Why a Flat Earth" section. These guys take the Columbus Myth to heart! 

Flat Earth Bible - Here the author shows various statements in the Bible that show the flat-earth mentality of it's many writers. The Qu'ron makes similar statements as well.

Social Security bullony

There are people in this country that are convinced that the Stock Markets are invincible. So, the grand plan is to have everyone invest in them as if Social Security is a gigantic IRA. So what if you have a freedom to choose which stocks you want? You still are stuck investing in the Stock Markets. Investing in the Stock Markets is not diversification of your finances. It's extremely homogeneous. There's an old rule, whenever everyone is doing the same thang, no one can get a head. It's worse with the Stock Markets. The assumption here is that not only anyone can make money in the Stock Markets, but everyone can! Well in the real world, most people lose in the Stock Markets, pros and amateurs alike. This is where we want to push future retirees to throw their money?
Additionally, with the ever increasing numbers of Babyboomers retiring, more money is going to be pulled out of the Stock Markets than put in. It's the same problem that faces Social Security right now, just in a different venue. The only way to support the retirement system is if the contributions grew exponentially. In other words, putting everyone on a retirement program based on the Stock Markets is a bit like a huge Pyramid Scheme. It is unsustainable after are very short time. It's almost like there's a bunch of people running around the country right now trying to sell America on their Pyramid Scheme so they can make their money and get out, leaving everyone else to hold the bag.
I can't offer an alternative right now, other than to say, less risk is better. The current system is unsustainable too, but its demise will impact the economy much less than the decline of the Stock Markets.
Check out this article for better information on the problem.
I do have some ideas that might help individuals. Diversify! There are other forms of invents besides the Stock Markets.