This morning I am sitting inside of a coffee shop in St. Louis Park, awaiting the arrival of one Mr. Al Franken, candidate for U.S. Senate. Outside there are throngs of people awaiting a stump speech that, I am sure, will make them applaud and cheer and have just a great time.
When I got here there were several people in Franken T-shirts and holding Franken signs. Now the patio of the coffee shop is filled with Franken supporters.
While I am a supporter of Franken, in that I am likely to vote for him and read his books, I am feeling like the whole rally is full of the converted just wanting to touch the candidate. Or they are people that want to touch fame.
My aunt may or may not have coined the phrase "sheeple." It is what she calls people who blindly follow who will ever show them the way. If you are able to force sway on these folks, you could get a lot done.
I am a follower in so far that I want things done on my behalf but things that benefit society as a whole, not just a select few. If a politician can get things done for all then I am in full support. This is the ideal of the Democratic Party that I want. The Republicans, well, it's all for one and none for you, unless you have deep pockets.
Most of the people who are here right now look to be those that just want to be next to famous people. Sure it will also bring in their votes, if they do bother to vote, but it will also give them that sense of importance that they seem so desperate to have in their lives.
This election season I am not putting on bumper stickers or yard signs or really do anything other than talk about the issues as I know them. That's what a voter should be doing, not blindly waving their banners. Just watch the Daily Show and see a media member rip them apart. Those that blindly follow go over the cliff. I, for one, don't want to be with them.
So, as the rally goes on and we hear the rhetoric, that which we force our candidates to spout in the information age, it is to do our own homework, learn about what is important to us, and forget about rallies. They only preach to the choir of sheeple.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
The biker wants more
After a rather strenuous ride this past week, I am now debating whether to spend more money on my bike. I have bought most of the accessories a rider could use, one who goes for exercise runs, and I am finding that I would like better stuff for the bike, not necessarily a better bike.
I love my bike. It isn't necessarily the best bike on the road and the Le Tour de France riders would more than likely laugh at me if we lined up at the starting line together but I like it. It is comfortable for distance riding (I average 20 miles a ride) and it still looks cool.
But there is always that itch in me that I want more. So now it may be time to open the wallet and just give in. I was told, today, that I could reduce the weight overall and I could upgrade the wheels to give it an even better speed feeling but do I want to spend a bunch of money on this bike or save it toward another bike? After all, bikes cost what they do and the components just get better on every model.
Now, don't think that I am going to move to a $5,000 all carbon fiber Cervelo when I don't have that kind of change lying around. I would just like to be able to kick more ass.
Maybe I just need to sell some of my other crap and then buy a couple new things. I'll let you know.
Peace.
I love my bike. It isn't necessarily the best bike on the road and the Le Tour de France riders would more than likely laugh at me if we lined up at the starting line together but I like it. It is comfortable for distance riding (I average 20 miles a ride) and it still looks cool.
But there is always that itch in me that I want more. So now it may be time to open the wallet and just give in. I was told, today, that I could reduce the weight overall and I could upgrade the wheels to give it an even better speed feeling but do I want to spend a bunch of money on this bike or save it toward another bike? After all, bikes cost what they do and the components just get better on every model.
Now, don't think that I am going to move to a $5,000 all carbon fiber Cervelo when I don't have that kind of change lying around. I would just like to be able to kick more ass.
Maybe I just need to sell some of my other crap and then buy a couple new things. I'll let you know.
Peace.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
300 miles and loving it
Yesterday I reached a milestone in my young cycling career: 300 miles so far this summer. I put an odometer on my bicycle at around the 30 mile mark and have gone on several bike trips around the twin cities, farther than I ever thought I would go, and it is awesome.
While it is a very solitary experience, especially since no one I know goes biking for fun, I have learned to relax a bit. Riding, to me, is stretching your comfort zone to new lengths. Where once I would not dare to ride 20 miles even in a car, I do that regularly without a parachute. No tire pump, no patch kit, one water bottle. I carry a $10 bill in case I need anything but I just lock in and ride until I have gone as far as I want to go.
Yesterday was pretty warm, not too windy but hot. I rode out from my place to Hwy, 169 all the way to 394 and then back to almost downtown Minneapolis before I headed to the lakes. Someday I plan to ride a long distance, not just yet, but I am working toward it.
The first 300 miles is over and I feel awesome. Sore, but awesome. I just can't believe I did it.
Peace.
While it is a very solitary experience, especially since no one I know goes biking for fun, I have learned to relax a bit. Riding, to me, is stretching your comfort zone to new lengths. Where once I would not dare to ride 20 miles even in a car, I do that regularly without a parachute. No tire pump, no patch kit, one water bottle. I carry a $10 bill in case I need anything but I just lock in and ride until I have gone as far as I want to go.
Yesterday was pretty warm, not too windy but hot. I rode out from my place to Hwy, 169 all the way to 394 and then back to almost downtown Minneapolis before I headed to the lakes. Someday I plan to ride a long distance, not just yet, but I am working toward it.
The first 300 miles is over and I feel awesome. Sore, but awesome. I just can't believe I did it.
Peace.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Self-assessment and the family get together
This weekend my cousin Lauren got married. Good for her...
I am 34 years of age. I work at a job I don't really want, live in a place where I really don't love and date someone that I have either been dating too long or I am doing something wrong. And yet I am not doing too bad in life.
I have accomplished most of what I want out of life other than being noticed by pretty much everyone and having everyone love me unconditionally. Those are lofty goals, I realize, but there is something missing from my life and I am either too lazy to go and find it or I have been overlooking it all along.
This weekend held a mirror up to me as I realized that I spend a lot of time living vicariously through others. Whether it is work, play, love or the latest news on the net, I have been feeling as if I am doing something wrong. Most people find the satisfaction in their lives through work or their partner or their children. I spend time inside of my head always trying to figure myself out.
The other night I also happened to go to a movie premiere for one of my college classmates. We weren't the best of friends or anything and I kinda feel like I spent my college time annoying those I saw. Pretty great pre-reunion mindset, I know, and I was very self-conscious when I got there or when I talked to them. I regressed back to wanting them to take notice of me and I am more than likely the hardest person to miss in a crowd.
Then I have the wedding to deal with and I find myself hopping from person to person having shallow world-event conversations with people who just want to knock back a few cocktails to forget about their lives. Meanwhile what I really want to talk about is the things I spend half my time learning here and there.
But what is it all for? I have no clue. I am not myself at a lot of the places I go or doing the things I do. I relate on certain levels but I always feel like an outsider. Saturday was the gift opening and I had a better time, albeit this time I had my computer and my camera with and was able to kind of move in and out and just observe. I found out that not one person asked about what I do other than what I do for a job. People, I think, want to define you as what you do for a living. As someone who doesn't have a lot going on as far a s scaling Mount Everest or having kids, something one can see beyond the outside appearance.
Am I so self-conscious that I need to garner attention wherever I go? How would I handle it if I were to become famous?
I once thought that I was just happy being who I was but now I don't know. I do know that I don't want to wake up 10 years from now and be in the same situation. God, that would be depressing. Maybe I need to read more self-help books?
I am 34 years of age. I work at a job I don't really want, live in a place where I really don't love and date someone that I have either been dating too long or I am doing something wrong. And yet I am not doing too bad in life.
I have accomplished most of what I want out of life other than being noticed by pretty much everyone and having everyone love me unconditionally. Those are lofty goals, I realize, but there is something missing from my life and I am either too lazy to go and find it or I have been overlooking it all along.
This weekend held a mirror up to me as I realized that I spend a lot of time living vicariously through others. Whether it is work, play, love or the latest news on the net, I have been feeling as if I am doing something wrong. Most people find the satisfaction in their lives through work or their partner or their children. I spend time inside of my head always trying to figure myself out.
The other night I also happened to go to a movie premiere for one of my college classmates. We weren't the best of friends or anything and I kinda feel like I spent my college time annoying those I saw. Pretty great pre-reunion mindset, I know, and I was very self-conscious when I got there or when I talked to them. I regressed back to wanting them to take notice of me and I am more than likely the hardest person to miss in a crowd.
Then I have the wedding to deal with and I find myself hopping from person to person having shallow world-event conversations with people who just want to knock back a few cocktails to forget about their lives. Meanwhile what I really want to talk about is the things I spend half my time learning here and there.
But what is it all for? I have no clue. I am not myself at a lot of the places I go or doing the things I do. I relate on certain levels but I always feel like an outsider. Saturday was the gift opening and I had a better time, albeit this time I had my computer and my camera with and was able to kind of move in and out and just observe. I found out that not one person asked about what I do other than what I do for a job. People, I think, want to define you as what you do for a living. As someone who doesn't have a lot going on as far a s scaling Mount Everest or having kids, something one can see beyond the outside appearance.
Am I so self-conscious that I need to garner attention wherever I go? How would I handle it if I were to become famous?
I once thought that I was just happy being who I was but now I don't know. I do know that I don't want to wake up 10 years from now and be in the same situation. God, that would be depressing. Maybe I need to read more self-help books?
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Pissed off for no good reason
I am tired of my life. Day in and day out it is this lame cycle that goes the same. I do the same thing, go to the same places, with the same people, and work at the same job doing the same thing like a cookie cutter.
I look mostly the same and I still feed the same vices. I make no headway on anything and I don't get any real satisfaction from anything anymore.
What I could use is moving away and starting wholly over with my life. I could do it, I really could. I just need a backpack to carry my TV in...
But seriously I have tried very little, honestly, to change my life. Maybe I am afraid of something or maybe I am just down in the dumps. Whatever it is it is making me lose my smile. I am happy in little spurts these days and can't shake the feeling that I have already achieved the best I will achieve.
I don't want to turn to drugs or alcohol and, if I told anyone other than a blog how I am feeling, I would be ridiculed. How fortunate that this blog is not read by anyone...
Tomorrow I will get up and go for a long bike ride. I may go longer than ever before because I am having problems shaking my insecurities and a good ride seems to make me feel better.
Peace.
I look mostly the same and I still feed the same vices. I make no headway on anything and I don't get any real satisfaction from anything anymore.
What I could use is moving away and starting wholly over with my life. I could do it, I really could. I just need a backpack to carry my TV in...
But seriously I have tried very little, honestly, to change my life. Maybe I am afraid of something or maybe I am just down in the dumps. Whatever it is it is making me lose my smile. I am happy in little spurts these days and can't shake the feeling that I have already achieved the best I will achieve.
I don't want to turn to drugs or alcohol and, if I told anyone other than a blog how I am feeling, I would be ridiculed. How fortunate that this blog is not read by anyone...
Tomorrow I will get up and go for a long bike ride. I may go longer than ever before because I am having problems shaking my insecurities and a good ride seems to make me feel better.
Peace.
Why you are paying more at the pump: My reasoning
Over $4 a gallon for regular unleaded gas. Pretty scaring, considering that, at $2, we freaked out. Now it is doubled in 5 years.
But there is something the media doesn't talk about and it makes me somewhat angry (I try not to get too irate or I get heartburn). It's the last Bush screwing.
I read the news every day. I see how much a barrel of oil costs, watch what we pay at the pump and how much gas we are consuming. The news states that we are driving less and consuming less and buying better fuel-mileage vehicles. Should be driving down prices, right?
The opposite happens and it drives us crazy because we want to be able to travel at ease, not be consumed by the cost of just getting away.
My theory is based on what I have learned and my logic and reason center. I think that we are getting screwed because of both the price of non-innovation that our car companies spent the last century doing. With the commercials selling us cars and trucks based on how many cups we can hold, where we can store things and how many DVD players we can have, they never talked about how much more efficient the engines were getting or even showing me the concept car with the newest engine that gets 100 miles to the gallon. Why? It can't be because we wouldn't eat them up like potato chips. It's because, like our society, everything is disposable and you and I would stop buying more if things lasted.
We are also being hoodwinked by, in our fear of paying too much for gas, the Bush administration wants to give his buddies in the oil industry carte blanche to go find more inventory at the expense of our environment and our pocketbooks.
Did you know that the oil in the Artic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWAR) would never be used in the U.S.? The oil would actually be sold to foreign entities because of the cost to ship it down to us. It would not help us directly.
The fact of the matter is that the holiday for oil companies is coming to an end. When the president leaves office, all of those favors will disappear. Hopefully we will all learn how to live with high gas prices but we will also be able to afford it once he's gone because, well, I feel a sea change coming. I think we will no longer live in the same constant state of fear.
That or I am moving to the moon.
But there is something the media doesn't talk about and it makes me somewhat angry (I try not to get too irate or I get heartburn). It's the last Bush screwing.
I read the news every day. I see how much a barrel of oil costs, watch what we pay at the pump and how much gas we are consuming. The news states that we are driving less and consuming less and buying better fuel-mileage vehicles. Should be driving down prices, right?
The opposite happens and it drives us crazy because we want to be able to travel at ease, not be consumed by the cost of just getting away.
My theory is based on what I have learned and my logic and reason center. I think that we are getting screwed because of both the price of non-innovation that our car companies spent the last century doing. With the commercials selling us cars and trucks based on how many cups we can hold, where we can store things and how many DVD players we can have, they never talked about how much more efficient the engines were getting or even showing me the concept car with the newest engine that gets 100 miles to the gallon. Why? It can't be because we wouldn't eat them up like potato chips. It's because, like our society, everything is disposable and you and I would stop buying more if things lasted.
We are also being hoodwinked by, in our fear of paying too much for gas, the Bush administration wants to give his buddies in the oil industry carte blanche to go find more inventory at the expense of our environment and our pocketbooks.
Did you know that the oil in the Artic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWAR) would never be used in the U.S.? The oil would actually be sold to foreign entities because of the cost to ship it down to us. It would not help us directly.
The fact of the matter is that the holiday for oil companies is coming to an end. When the president leaves office, all of those favors will disappear. Hopefully we will all learn how to live with high gas prices but we will also be able to afford it once he's gone because, well, I feel a sea change coming. I think we will no longer live in the same constant state of fear.
That or I am moving to the moon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
