Energy Crisis
04.25.08 (7:53 pm) [edit]When I filled up my little car this week it cost me over $40.
I long for the days that it took $10-15 to fill me up.
I also heard this week that in the next five years the price of gas may double.
What will become of we in the U.S. as the price steadily increases? Will we continue to cringe and pretend it's going to be ok? I don't know about you, but my purse can't afford to keep smiling much longer. I already walk or ride my bike most of the week. Mostly I use my car for transport across town or to the grocery store. Myself and a few friends take turns driving the carpool here and there to social activities. I probably fill up twice a month. Gas was one of the main reasons I decided to move from home to my own place next to campus so I wouldn't have to fill up every week anymore. As anyone can see, I live a rather gas conservative lifestyle, or about as good as one gets in the U.S. So what are we to do?
Biofuel? Making gas from organic material like corn and soybeans? Is that the answer? I attended a seminar today on the very topic actually. The speaker said that he'd like to look into making biofuel from grass or some similar plant that is rather abundant. One thing is for sure-- we can't keep using possible food sources as fuels for our cars due to the world shortage on food that is also driving up food prices the world over.
So what other options do have in this energy crisis? Some other sort of fuel option besides the biofuel? Solar maybe? I don't know. Have any ideas?
The only other option I see is a huge overhaul of American culture. Getting one person to embrace the possibility that the culture they were brought up in might be hazardous to the world is next to impossible, but a whole society and the culture that proliferated from it across the globe? HAHAHAHAHA. Let me know how that goes. Look around your neighborhood and I'd be willing to guess there are streets, driveways, parking lots and garages, gas stations, mechanics, drive thru restaurants and maybe even a drive in movie theater. America is built around the automobile. The only sidewalks in my town are around the college campuses and down town. Riding a bike on a major road here is basically asking to be ran over. And this town isn't even that big!! I know it's not so much like that in the northern big cities, but riding a bike around Dallas or Atlanta, I'm sure I'd be ran over just for the sport of it. Americans are the most the most mobile population in the world too and I'll admit I'm probably one of the most mobile Americans out there. I love to travel so much that if I stay in the same place for longer than a month straight without going somewhere, I start to go a little crazy.
So, America, what are we going to do? I think I'll just sit here and blog about global problems from my cushy chair. Wait for the answer to magically appear. Sound good to you?
Meaningful Music
04.05.08 (12:15 am) [edit]I generally keep this page as family friendly as possible; however, I have just added some music to my play list that I would not want any young ears of mine to hear.
Let me explain the play list first. Perhaps you've never heard it from this page. That would probably be because you're using Internet Explorer as your browser. For some reason, Explorer and Mozilla (which I use) don't register the side bar in the same place; the side bar gets tacked onto the end of the writing on Explorer and I haven't figured out how to fix that. I keep the play list mostly for my own benefit. It is a compilation of my musical history; most every song on the list has a special memory attached to it for me. Prior to today, I have kept the songs that are a little on the risque side off the list, but today I added them because they are as much a part of me as the others, unfortunately in some cases. Never the less, the list is there and you're welcome to it. And if it pops up and you don't want to hear it, just click the pause button on the player and that will be the end of it.
I think I will explain the why behind my play list choices. The first 15 or 20 through Oh! Gravity by Switchfoot are songs that I've more recently enjoyed. The next one, Too Much Fun, was my favorite song when I was about 8 or 9 and I played the cassette so much that it broke. The next two, I'm Not Who I Was and Lovely Traces are for Kenny. Bring 'Em Out by Hawk Nelson is just a fun song and was on an NFL commercial last fall. Bet you never would have guessed they were a Christian band. The macarena. It brings to memory my learning the dance moves for that song at a birthday party when I was about 10. Mambo #5 was my warm up song for tennis for years. East to West by Casting Crowns touched me the first time I heard it and so it got put on there. En el Muelle de San Blas. I was introduced to that song in Spain. It's about a lady that sits waiting on a dock for her whole life. Just waiting for her long lost love to return. Really sad, but good. The next two and Runaway Train I just like them, and that's it. Greg likes it when I sing Bubbly, so I put that on there to practice. :-) Love Addict by Family Force 5 is a fun song and if it's long enough I'd like to surprise my wedding guests and have that as my recessional. *giggles* Creed's Higher is the first Christian rock song I heard and I fell in love with the song, Creed and Christian music at that point. The next few are all Disney songs and what American child didn't grow up singing along with Disney? Kiss Me and Not Afraid I just like the sound of them. Bring Me to Life recalls to mind my first trip to NYC where I saw that music video. Then Irene makes me think of one of my best friends in high school because she really liked that song. The next 8 or 10 are all country songs; I grew up on country music. Except Respect doesn't fit; I was looking for the version my Reba but got the original instead. Reba was a main stay in my house. Oh and I karaoked She's in Love with the Boy once and didn't get boo'ed off the stage! Every Time We Touch is a couple on the tennis team's song and they have choreography to it; it's hilarious and so the song makes me laugh. Supersonic I picked up from my coach. I can vividly remember one of my friends in middle school dancing to the Thong Song in the band hall. The first year I played tennis at my university, my doubles partner's favorite song was My Humps and so she sang that song everyday while we warmed up. Glamorous reminds me of a few people I know currently. Truly Madly Deeply reminds me out a few friends that I sang that song over and over again with while we jumped on a trampoline in one's backyard. Butterfly, I made up a dance to that song when I was about 14. And last but not last, Follow Me; that was me and my dad's song; don't ask why because I don't know.
That was really long and you probably don't care, but I had fun visiting some good memories. Do you have a song or two or 50ish in my case that are meaningful to you?
