Caraccioli

I was driving home and I saw one of those electronic road signs that can change messages which said "EXPECT POSSIBLE DELAYS." I kept trying to figure out why that didn't make sense. How can you expect something that's possible? Doesn't that make it likely? I mean, if it said, "EXPECT DELAYS," well, then, I'd know what I was in for. If it said "POSSIBLE DELAYS," it wouldn't be a proper sentence, but I'd get that point and I could at least hope for the best. And if it, by chance, said "EXPECT POSSIBLE," that would have launched me into a whole different train of thought and I'd have had to drive on autopilot while I contemplated the expectation of the possible. Maybe it should have said, "EXPECT PROBABLE DELAYS." Nah, it's still seems funny. Perhaps "EXPECT INEVITABLE DELAYS." No ambiguity there. Maybe they should only give the road commish signs with two lines on them. How about "EXPECT UNAMBIGUOUS DELAYS?"

So they're forcing you to buy gasoline and there are no other possible options?

One more time...don't buy it - no one forces you. (See previous points - it just seems to irritate you guys when I repeat them.) I have a friend who walks to work every day. I have another who uses a bicycle many days. (And I live in Michigan, not CA.) If you really don't want to pay so much, you have to figure out how to buy less of it. If enough people do that, the price will come down. (Anyone who thinks regulation is the answer basically wants to put more power into the hands of the government. That's far more frightening than paying $3 a gallon to me. - That's what I call realism.) As near as I can figure, we've been living on borrowed time anyhow. I can remember when gas was $1.50 here and something like $4 in Canada (just across the border). Is it our right as Americans to pay 1/3 of what they were paying? Even if prices hadn't changed in the last YEAR, we'd still be near the bottom third of gas pricing with the prices we're paying for gasoline today (and I doubt these prices have remained steady for over a year): Global Gas Prices - March 2005

Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak (built a company from their garage), Cindy Klassen (set world records in speed skating despite losing use of her right hand - although she gained much of it back eventually), Katherine Graham (took over the Washington Post after the suicide of her husband and brought it back to profitability), Julio Palmaz (invented the stent despite 10 years of rejection from the medical community), Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King, Tony Hawk (created a sport and an industry from a hobby that was not considered a sport at all when he began), Frederick Smith (created FedEx from a paper that received a C minus in school). And Nido Qubein came here in the 60s. Those are just some I've read about recently - there's tons of examples. Most successful people start from or face bad situations and just choose not to focus on that. Sure, people can do things to sabatoge you in the short run, but no one keeps you down in the long run other than yourself. Besides, the times have nothing to do with succeeding. Many of the principles of success were written down by Aristotle, Demosthenes and Marcus Aurelius. The ideas haven't changed, only our perception has. (I'd say our excuses have changed, but even that isn't really true.) "For myself I am an optimist- it does not seem to be much use being anything else." - Sir Winston Churchill

[Editor's Note: This was split out of the Gas Prices Thread. I read a lot about successful people and I thought it might be an interesting thing to discuss on its own merits.] There was a study, and I forget who did it, but the results showed vast majority of the very successful people throughout US history came from the most desperate circumstances - deaths in the family at a young age, every malady you can think of, desperately poor beginnings - you name it. Yet they rose above their situations to succeed. If you want proof that you can succeed despite whatever you're facing, take your problems and find someone who had the same problems that you're complaining about and succeeded in spite of them. Read the life story of Helen Keller. Read Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Read the life history of Napoleon Hill. Read how Andrew Carnegie went from being a nearly penniless immigrant to one of the richest men in the world. Read about the life of Nido Qubein who went from having no money and the inability to speak English to being a well paid speaker on the topic of speaking. If other people can succeed despite the odds being stacked so mightily against them, so can you. Believing otherwise is defeating yourself before you even start. And that is a choice.

Carrot juice.

Boy, I just heard a news report that should really get you all excited. They said something like, "If you're upset about gas prices, look on the bright side: next month prices will be worse so you may as well enjoy it now." So there's something to look forward to. (Brought to you by the local news radio station, whose motto is, "If you weren't depressed when you started listening, just keep listening.")

Nah, I know a lot of good people who work in the government doing important things. Sure, there's corruption, but there's also good. Some stuff has to be done governmentally if it's going to be done at all. Although it was the reading the full account of what happened with the Challenger disaster that really opened my eyes to some of this. I used to think NASA was such a great organization, too. It's still there. We just need to follow it. Nobody's going to follow it if the people of this country don't demand it. In fact, it is the noisy minority who demand we don't follow it that are responsible for some of what's going on. That was a travesty. I'm amazed that people aren't more upset about it. The government can take your house to build strip malls...in the public interest, of course. That doesn't scare you folks? Talk about piracy...

I don't think it's intentional, I think that if things get worse for the working folks, it's a byproduct of actions taken with their own short-term desires in mind. I might have said "willful ignorance." In it's own feeble way, the government tries to teach us about themselves through civics classes that take place in the governmentally-sponsored eductational institution. The problem is not the organization as a whole, it's the fiefdoms within. Some of the government hierarchy create these little ingrown Byzantine organizations within the organizations whose two purposes are 1) to get more money for the sub-org and 2) to continue their existence, often after their function has been fulfilled. Removing or streamlining these and forcing them to tow the line would be a big step toward needed reform. Corporations cannot survive such behavior for very long because they are accountable - watch the thrashing of the US automakers as they deal with some of the inefficiency that was built into the organization. The government, however, is accountable to noone because of the apathy, willful ignorance and confusion engendered in the serpantine workings of the thing. Even better, let's follow the Constitution. An amazing document that is, despite the best hopes of certain factions, still relevant today.

If we're going for solidarity, I say the heck with the gas prices, let's go after the huge, money-sucking black hole that is the government. Until a large enough group stands up on its hind legs, forgoing the governmental favors that can be lavished upon it for not screwing up the process and demands that the waste be trimmed, the budget will continue to expand unhindered - apparently no matter who's in office. The government's taking far more out of your pocket than $3 a gallon gas ever will. You get piss-poor returns at best on your investment in that organization.

Say, blackjohn...would you be opposed to giving it to Dorian? He guessed one right a page or two ago and graciously offered the nod back to me after my quote was stomped on. He forwent his turn and all...

As said by Benny Hill?

The Duelists?

That's the one! A new Kurt Russel Disney movie.

Good lord! What would you do with a tanker full of crude? You'd better know a big black market with refining capabilities. "Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage would survive. The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice."

No and no. Christine is on the right track. Here's another hint: It's a Disney movie. (That'll either help you or throw you.)

Nope. It's very recent.

Mimi, Feel free to email me (so I have your address). I'll respond (so you have mine) and you can send me whatever you've got. I'll resize it for you, post it on my website and send you the links so you can post them yourself. I'll even create an avatar friendly one if you tell me which photo you want to use and how much of it you want seen. -Mission/Caraccioli

All right, enough's enough - it's from The Man With the Golden Gun. Here, try this one: "So my girlfriend became my archenemy, my archenemy became my best friend, and my best friend became my girlfriend."

Willow and Red-Jill's is from Mystery Men. (You guys totally stomped on Red-Jill's quote. Naughty naughty.) Here's the best bit from the worst movie in a series... "With the compliments..." "Phu-Yuck?" "'74, sir!" "I approve." "You do?"

They'll find a way to save bananas - where there's a market, there's a way.

Amy's Kitchen. There's just no easier way to eat. All the benefits of microwave and no dishes in one neatly boxed package.

Your dog is named Gir? After the robot? That's a cool name for a dog.

It's cool. The wagon is based on the old west style hearses. I used to have a model called the "Boot Hill Express" that looked like that. (It came with a cowboy-hatted skeleton.) I guess a lot of the Harley bikers share a gene with the now mythical cowboys. I wonder what they do with it outside of funerals?

I think you're missing out but avoiding films with the subtitles. I've noticed that after watching a subtitled film for a few minutes, I forget I'm even reading them. There are some really cool "rah rah" films (if I understand your term correctly) like Zatoichi and Kung Fu Hustle that are subtitled. And black and white films...wow. There's so many good ones. I haven't seen The Enemy Below, so I can't comment on it either. I do have the soundtrack for it, oddly enough.