Every week I teach the cello in the suburbs to a multitude of students. And every morning from the burbs I take the Metra, a commuter train into the City of Chicago. As I stroll inside the train car, usually humming to myself 98.7 classical radio, I take a seat in a very nice comfortable spot that has a nice clear view of the outside. My friend Bob usually joins me if he is in town as well. From time to time we see some sorry bloke or group of chatty ladies giving both of us glares. These glares are more than just your normal morning PMS, they are territorial sneers. We have taken their spot on the train! Heavens sake, oh my god, what have we done! People get all hung up in their daily routine, that even the slightest change gives them total and utter despair, grief, and anger.
I myself am accustomed to this type of crazy thinking too. Because I live in the city, MY routine is to get onto the blue line into the city every morning, stand in the crevasse right at the door opening for only two stops, Western (where I get on) and only the Damen stop. After those two stops, I am clear of any new traffic coming onto the train, and I can enjoy the company of my roommate - talk workouts, sports, politics, what will happen in the market etc...
This morning! Oh this morning, I stood in my spot, and here came the Damen stop, where I was silly enough not to walk outside and let the poor soles walking into the train first so I could easily take my spot again, but this time I just let them in! Without thinking! Bob, my roommate saw my face, and just started laughing at how disgusted I was and angered I was with these two ladies that took MY SPOT. As I put it this morning, "they took any or of little control I have with my life away from me at 7:15 a.m." Bob then replied, "you should blog about this, it's been a long time."
And so here I am, they took MY SPOT DAMN IT!
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Consuming AMT
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Should-U-S-Adopt-Alternative-dg-1944589798.html;_ylt=An8f4CzWl0zZ5X5Gc3nuuSW7YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTFmYnRmcTZwBHBvcwMzBHNlYwNleHBlcnRPcGluaW9uRHluYW1pYwRzbGsDc2hvdWxkdGhldXNh?x=0
I read a comment on this article that really irked me..."Why do companies even pay tax? The workers pay tax. The investors pay tax. The people who buy the products pay tax. The vendors and subcontractors pay tax. We are taxed more than enough." This must be the most stupid person in the world or the biggest teabagger i.e. Sarah Palin. Everybody must pay their part for what they utilize as the public good. Corporations use by far the most public goods out of them all, from rail to highways, public education keeping their employees bright, sharp, and competitive, defense and environmental restrictions for keeping their ASSETS safe and their workers lives healthy. I own a building in Chicago, I pay taxes for owning property, as I utilize trains and buses, educational outlets for advancement, police to keep me safe from crazy people and parks for me to play catch with my friends in or take a date on a walk along the Lake Michigan shore line. The real debate about taxes should be who profits the most out of specific public goods and how should these utilization be taxed (income, net worth, etc). I am more in favor of a single consumption tax where everything has a price. We can be inventive in America even in our government. If we have a parks and recreation department, it should act as the sole manager of how much money they need, and the amount people are willing to pay for the park-market driving; Police, Fire, and Emergency Services would be priced by the highest areas of risk through insurance and actuarial science; and maybe we could make education payed by everybody at a low rate, if you have kids, you need to pay, and if you used the education system in any way, you have a 1 percent increase in your taxes to give back to the community that educated you. This is a different type of AMT tax, its an AMT tax on consumption. That is how we should structure our system. The only part of debate that needs to be figured out is the base at which people, corporations, home owners, and students pay.
I read a comment on this article that really irked me..."Why do companies even pay tax? The workers pay tax. The investors pay tax. The people who buy the products pay tax. The vendors and subcontractors pay tax. We are taxed more than enough." This must be the most stupid person in the world or the biggest teabagger i.e. Sarah Palin. Everybody must pay their part for what they utilize as the public good. Corporations use by far the most public goods out of them all, from rail to highways, public education keeping their employees bright, sharp, and competitive, defense and environmental restrictions for keeping their ASSETS safe and their workers lives healthy. I own a building in Chicago, I pay taxes for owning property, as I utilize trains and buses, educational outlets for advancement, police to keep me safe from crazy people and parks for me to play catch with my friends in or take a date on a walk along the Lake Michigan shore line. The real debate about taxes should be who profits the most out of specific public goods and how should these utilization be taxed (income, net worth, etc). I am more in favor of a single consumption tax where everything has a price. We can be inventive in America even in our government. If we have a parks and recreation department, it should act as the sole manager of how much money they need, and the amount people are willing to pay for the park-market driving; Police, Fire, and Emergency Services would be priced by the highest areas of risk through insurance and actuarial science; and maybe we could make education payed by everybody at a low rate, if you have kids, you need to pay, and if you used the education system in any way, you have a 1 percent increase in your taxes to give back to the community that educated you. This is a different type of AMT tax, its an AMT tax on consumption. That is how we should structure our system. The only part of debate that needs to be figured out is the base at which people, corporations, home owners, and students pay.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Confidence in our Imaginations
I think human kind has a confidence issue right now. We hide behind our screens at work and our passions behind the desks that we are employed at. We have become too isolated in our own little worlds. No one knows where the world is headed, everybody has little confidence for bright futures. People are grim. I tell people of my joy on what has happened in the Middle East and they shoot me down with that it is all going to go to hell.
People never know what's behind the curtain, they just see the show. The show they see is a crazy dictator killing his own people, not listening. People need to listen more, listen to music more, listen to each other's music more. Become confident in what music they listen too and speak up as to how they interpret it.
I teach the cello and my biggest issue with all of my students is that the do not use enough BOW! Essentially it is the equivalent to jumping into the pacific ocean without a life jacket for a 9 year old. But here is the thing, they know how to use the bow, they know how to express themselves, they just do not want to show this. They are afraid of what I might say, they are afraid of their voice - afraid to reach out to their inner child that run and plays on a swing-set. I fractured my left shoulder cause I was a careless 6 year old going down a slide. NO! I was not careless, I had imagination, and sometimes imagination - ideas all hurt at some point. Taking your inner confidence and moving into deep waters unknown is scary. There are a lot of bumps in the road.
To those who read my blog, which is not many right now at least, I implore you to keep imagination in your life. To jump into the unknown. Do not get bogged down by the daily routine. Keep faith that there is good out there, and to not be afraid of what is happening - the change. People are uprising - and fast...do not be afraid, DO NOT BE AFRAID.
In the end, with a little inspiration, with a little motivation, a spirit of "YES WE CAN", people react to that -we saw it with Obama (who unfortunately has lost his love of imagination, or someone took from him). What my student did tonight, when I told her to just RIPPPP!!!!! into her cello - I don't think I have heard such beauty out of a 1/2 size rental cello made my the arms of a robot in China.
We need to lift and help each other in this world. It is becoming small, and it is becoming small fast. These uprisings are showing that yes we do care, we do care for our neighbor and love each other. We just need to listen more and become more vocal.
Confidence.
People never know what's behind the curtain, they just see the show. The show they see is a crazy dictator killing his own people, not listening. People need to listen more, listen to music more, listen to each other's music more. Become confident in what music they listen too and speak up as to how they interpret it.
I teach the cello and my biggest issue with all of my students is that the do not use enough BOW! Essentially it is the equivalent to jumping into the pacific ocean without a life jacket for a 9 year old. But here is the thing, they know how to use the bow, they know how to express themselves, they just do not want to show this. They are afraid of what I might say, they are afraid of their voice - afraid to reach out to their inner child that run and plays on a swing-set. I fractured my left shoulder cause I was a careless 6 year old going down a slide. NO! I was not careless, I had imagination, and sometimes imagination - ideas all hurt at some point. Taking your inner confidence and moving into deep waters unknown is scary. There are a lot of bumps in the road.
To those who read my blog, which is not many right now at least, I implore you to keep imagination in your life. To jump into the unknown. Do not get bogged down by the daily routine. Keep faith that there is good out there, and to not be afraid of what is happening - the change. People are uprising - and fast...do not be afraid, DO NOT BE AFRAID.
In the end, with a little inspiration, with a little motivation, a spirit of "YES WE CAN", people react to that -we saw it with Obama (who unfortunately has lost his love of imagination, or someone took from him). What my student did tonight, when I told her to just RIPPPP!!!!! into her cello - I don't think I have heard such beauty out of a 1/2 size rental cello made my the arms of a robot in China.
We need to lift and help each other in this world. It is becoming small, and it is becoming small fast. These uprisings are showing that yes we do care, we do care for our neighbor and love each other. We just need to listen more and become more vocal.
Confidence.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Ozone
So there is a lot of gas in the air. That's what they say at least. It's bad for us because we create it. The little alarm clock that wakes you up to go to a job-via a "clean bus", automobile, or the L-Train ----it's all of that and more. Just watch Al Gores movie and the numbers are EXPONENTIAL. What does that mean exponential by they way? Is it just another way to show someone else getting screwed and someone else winning. This battle of numbers is on the side of nature. So let's build hybrid cars.... or wait is it hydrogen cars that have better gas mileage? How about solar plants or clean air coal power, both are equally viable candidates. There is about the same amount of coal in the Earth to last us the same amount of time the sun blows up - somewhere around 4.5 billion years from now - that's what I remember reading once.
Let us stop for a second to take a breathe.
I just read an article on climate change in the science section of the Economist - fourth week of February 2011. In it, we are pretty much screwed either way. The one thing as humans we have on our side is that we are very adaptable to change, it might take some time - the less and less as we evolve. I have to give this idea to my friend Steve who spoke to me today about the grievances of how well humans adapt to outside nature.
Nature, nurture? Who gives a rat's ass? What we need to do is start investing in technology for human kind to survive. We can adapt well, but one thing we cannot adapt against is our mortality. Mud slides, earthquakes, continental drift, floods, falling towers - sound familiar? These things are real, they happen everyday. We are just fortunate enough that we have a federal reserve to just keep pumping money out to SAVE us. I live in Chicago, the most boring place for any natural disaster minus your occasional tornado in Plainfield or floods from our moist and river filled land. Even Chicago has a fault line though...
As our world has become more global we need to start thinking outside of just our Ozone. We need to start thinking about how to better ourselves and increase the incentives for people to work together by listening to each other. We need to be prepared for much more than global warming and to start accepting these bad happenings. Jump start how we will evolve in nature! So Chris how? The idea.
Let us stop for a second to take a breathe.
I just read an article on climate change in the science section of the Economist - fourth week of February 2011. In it, we are pretty much screwed either way. The one thing as humans we have on our side is that we are very adaptable to change, it might take some time - the less and less as we evolve. I have to give this idea to my friend Steve who spoke to me today about the grievances of how well humans adapt to outside nature.
Nature, nurture? Who gives a rat's ass? What we need to do is start investing in technology for human kind to survive. We can adapt well, but one thing we cannot adapt against is our mortality. Mud slides, earthquakes, continental drift, floods, falling towers - sound familiar? These things are real, they happen everyday. We are just fortunate enough that we have a federal reserve to just keep pumping money out to SAVE us. I live in Chicago, the most boring place for any natural disaster minus your occasional tornado in Plainfield or floods from our moist and river filled land. Even Chicago has a fault line though...
As our world has become more global we need to start thinking outside of just our Ozone. We need to start thinking about how to better ourselves and increase the incentives for people to work together by listening to each other. We need to be prepared for much more than global warming and to start accepting these bad happenings. Jump start how we will evolve in nature! So Chris how? The idea.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
After;thought - - - - - - -
I have a lot to talk about in the world, the universe...why we are here, why we fight, where we need to go, how we get there...how does a social well being produce economics and politics...how do those forces shape us?
Expect a lot of random thoughts, ideas, questions, polls and love
Love about country, history, my love of life, my love of false and my love of truth...
GREEKS INVENTED THE BLOG
Expect a lot of random thoughts, ideas, questions, polls and love
Love about country, history, my love of life, my love of false and my love of truth...
GREEKS INVENTED THE BLOG
First Post - - - - - -
For some time I have not had interest in writing a blog. I really don't utilize facebook, myspace, etc...only logging on to see the daily "People" magazine about my friends....What inspired me to start writing is Egypt's overthrow of their government. The way they organized online and accomplished what they wanted in a world where all answers come from the governments and corporations. Egypt has been waffling about the past week or so since Mubarak has left. Articles have been popping up in some of the more respected journals: Economist, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times that Egypt's only two choices are the Muslim Brotherhood or some crazy dictator like figure again run by the military.
These paths are hardly what Egypt wants for their future. They peacefully removed their government and should peacefully move into a new established government by the people. What Egypt needs to do is utilize social media once more but on a grander scale to start building a new government from the ground up based on what the Egyptian people want - not the Muslim Brotherhood, ex-political factions, military, etc...
I have a plan, an idea that will revolutionize the way people will interact and create new governments...this blog will tell my story on how I will do this. Until my next post - good day.
These paths are hardly what Egypt wants for their future. They peacefully removed their government and should peacefully move into a new established government by the people. What Egypt needs to do is utilize social media once more but on a grander scale to start building a new government from the ground up based on what the Egyptian people want - not the Muslim Brotherhood, ex-political factions, military, etc...
I have a plan, an idea that will revolutionize the way people will interact and create new governments...this blog will tell my story on how I will do this. Until my next post - good day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)