So, not counting the travel I have on other airlines, I've amassed 23,476 miles on Continental Airlines alone this year. I've been trying for the last two hours, unsuccessfully, to find a way to boost that to 25,000 miles so I can get Silver Elite status for at least a year. It appears that the only way to do this is to actually fly before the end of the year. Grr. So close. All of this for something that will make me feel important. Silly, I know, but I doubt I'll ever be this close to Elite status again. Sigh. Forever destined to sweat with the masses.

Lemmings

WARNING: RANT COMING. In a soon to be post-Bush world, if we are to get back on our feet in the US, to truly begin a recovery economically, it seems to me that spending spending spending isn't the way! The rest of the world must think we are nuts. They have managed to survive (and often thrive) without the need to purchase a 54" flat screen HDTV with a complete X-Box gaming system, or the latest phone that can call your kitchen and make a pot of coffee, or a behemoth SUV that can run over a fire truck without the driver even noticing. It's time for a wake up call. We're beginning to see that with the Big Three auto makers, who, just maybe, are beginning to see where their arrogance and misunderstanding of what people want has gotten them. They make crappy gas guzzling cars, and - surprise! - nobody wants them.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's awful what's about to happen to the US auto industry. I just hope that we're all ready for some serious reflecting on what it is we really, truly, need here. What about health care? What about education? What about not bailing out the banks, and instead financially helping the people the banks and Wall Street have screwed? What about educating people about money? We've not done a good job with that in the last 20 years or so. There's a whole generation raised on the idea that buying things with money you may never earn isn't really a good idea. Teach them that it's not a reflection on who you are as a person if you don't have the latest shiny "IT" item in your possession.

Teach them about self-respect, and philanthropy, and awareness of the situations of others. Show them what they have, here and now. Show them what it means to live in the greatest country on earth - show them how those of us in the US can be a great example to others by living out what it really means to live in a democracy (not this post-9/11 anti-terrorist Bush world we've been in for 8 years). Let's get our heads out of the shopping carts they've been in, and reconnect with the rest of reality, and then, just maybe, we'll all begin to move toward a brighter future. Amen.

This is too easy.

Sarah Palin is a nitwit. And so are the people who think she deserves to be anywhere NEAR the White House. John McCain is a nasty old man who has left his dignity and honor by the roadside.

Here we go again....

I am writing (or trying to , at least) a sermon for tomorrow, on the 10 Commandments. What this process is revealing to me is that I must soon address my serious lack of interest in all things theological and church-y. I. Am. Fried.

It Is Finished.

I'm done! The end! No more school! HALLELUJAH!

Starbucks Whore

Is it wrong to go to Starbucks 3 times in one day?

Ow.....

Slogging away, writing papers, reading stuff I don't care about anymore, counting down the days 'til graduation (89!), hating the fact the I have a 6-day week,etc......