The article
Can America Keep Up? in US News & World Report was illuminating. The best quotes on America's industrial drive happen at the beginning of the article:
"Every one of the early warning signals is trending downward. We're all fat, dumb, and happy, which is one reason why this is so insidious."
"We had more sports-exercise majors graduate than electrical-engineering grads last year. If you want to be the massage capital of the world, you're well on your way."
The article has a gloomy disposition, and it mainly has to do with the information industry in which the US does lag behind some countries, but it does get good points across.
Americans are passively engaged a good portion of the time. Instead of seeking truths and opportunities, we become dormant recepticles intellectually and industriously, expecting everything which is good and right to just occur.
And we are secure. Our police/justice system is fair in general. Everyone is respectful of each other's rights and liberties in general. We don't fear death, we wait for it.
Maybe that's what drives me more now than ever, since I've seen how life can be without security. I've been a half-second from death. I've been in a command-structured society.
The article is right when it talks about how our lifestyle was built from the past, and now we are enjoying the benefits. And our comfortable state could vaporize. And such a change will creep up on us instead of happening instantaneously.
So go read that non-fiction novel. Go develop that skill. Skip that vacation. Use that money to learn something useful, to contribute to something outstanding. And always motivate those close to you.
I've been wasting some serious time playing
Counterstrike: Source. Counter-strike, since it's inception, has been the heroin of the video game world to my brain. The funny thing is, I'm not even that good. But what's cooler, especially considering the world today, than CTs fighting Ts? And what cinches the whole deal is the pure multiplayer aspect to the game. It was only until well after the game was developed that computer AI players started showing up. Yeah, fun, but like many other fun things, it's pretty much the biggest waste of time ever.
I'm guessing that video games have gotten to the point where they're putting a drag on the economy. Instead of working, people are sitting at their computers on gaming marathons. I would be neglectful if I didn't include online texas hold-em in the category too.
Games have been around forever though. Good or bad, video games are a much more refined drug than games of yore.
I don't remember my dreams very often, but many of the ones I do remember have an over-the-top cinematic feel to them.
The one I just had put me at about ten years old. I was at a boarding school of sorts and didn't seem to know how I had gotten there. It was between classes or something, and I ended up checking out an area of the school with a buddy I had never been to before. I ended up outside on the top of the structure of this boarding school. I had been having weird headaches at this school, and I then knew why, since the school was built way high up in the air. There was a chain-link fence running around the platform, and there was nothing but clouds and sky on the other side. It was hard to breath it was so high up. Then, having another class soon, my friend left. We were caught while we came back inside and scolded for being outside. I noticed in my next class that my fingers were a bit frostbitten from the chill of being outside so high. Anyway, the whole point of the school seemed to be to acclimate everybody for a long period of time to be able to withstand a low air density environment for whatever reason.
I had a different dream about six months ago which was just as detailed and vivid where I was an infantryman fighting middle-eastern terrorists in Europe.
It can certainly be fun inside my head.
Relief!
Spring Break is here, and I think this is the first year I have been in dire need of it. It going to be great just catching up with my schoolwork. And then later this week I'll plan my test crushing strategy for the post-break week.
If the chance ever comes around to get into the suites at the
Xcel Energy Center, take it. My family was invited to the
Wells Fargo suite for a Wild game, and it was a blast. Great catering, great view, superb in just about every way.
