Spurred by a piece of conversation from my favorite TV show the other night, I've come to a conclusion. It's not like "half the people are against the environment" as a character suggested, rather, it's that roughly half the people chose money OVER the environment. If economies could grow without having environmental constraints and if individuals could prosper and save time by being more envirnmentally friendly, EVERYONE would be FOR the environment.
Unfortunately, those situations seem mutually exclusive for the time being. I'm thinking that most people, when given the choice (or, probably more accurately, when subconciously making decisions without any recognition of the fact that they are, in fact, making a choice between financial gain and environmental responsibility), are FOR money and AGAINST the environment.
It's not that people are really AGAINST the environment. It's just that they are AGAINST the environment costing money (be it in expenses, time or opportunity costs).
Look out, Microsoft has finally started implementing the we-can-charge-more-by-making-licensing-more-confusing pricing model to xBox Live. Over the years, Microsoft has applied this confusion-by-obfuscation strategy to pretty much every other product it shipped so this shouldn't be a surprise. There are now multiple levels of xBox Live membership. Read more.
These people do some pretty cool stuff ... check'em out.
I've tried to keep sports out of my blog but I'm making an exception for some sad news. It appears that Leo Mazzone will not be returning to the Atlanta Braves but will be joining one of his best friends, Perlozzo, on the Baltimore Orioles coaching staff.
Everyone that knows me just a little bit knows that I am, and have been since I was in middle school, a big Atlanta Braves fan. One of the biggest reasons why is that I was a fan of pitching (not just throwing). Growing up with Glavine, Smoltz, Avery and then Maddux a bit later was amazing and very influential.
When I was on the mound playing baseball as a kid, I never tried throw like any of those guys, persay, because I knew that it was ridiculously futile. I was never going to pitch in the pros. However, I did try to think and pitch like them. Even later as a softball coach, most of the coaching I did for pitchers was centered around the things that I had picked up as a kid watching the Braves or from Leo Mazzone's books (Tales from the Braves Mound and Pitch Like a Pro).
SO, Leo, it was great having you in Atlanta and I truly wish you the best. Thanks for all the great pitching you helped develop and redevelop over the years in Atlanta and I'd say "hope we don't see you in October" but I'm afraid that if we don't meet in October that it's because Atlanta's steak of division titles might be in serioous jeopardy with you gone.
Ya know, I've been playing with a post idea for a couple weeks now and I just haven't taken the time to finalize my thoughts on it. I've given up hope on getting something formal completed any time soon so here's the basic idea.
I've really started to recognize my inconsistent desires concerning the passing of time. While this dichotomy is frustrating, I'm assuming that I'm not alone in this and that everyone recognizes it in some capacity.
On one hand, I look forward all week to payday and a free weekend (mostly so I can watch college football on Saturdays). I also look ahead to things like Thanksgiving, Christmas and other major or minor events that break up the tedium of daily life. (This includes looking ahead to purchases as well.)
On the other hand, I feel like I'm aging far faster than my accomplishments are accumulating and I wish time would slow down and let me get something done in my life.
I can't believe that it's been two weeks since I posted that last poll. My apologies to those of you that check this blog regularly. I'm gonna move on to another poll because, well, I've got little else at this point.
This poll is related to a couple poll requests I've gotten lately. I've attempted to throw them all together and make one, slightly more generic poll.
What do you covet most right now?
Okay, allow me to place some constraints on this poll before things get graphic. Let's make it something that is at least borderline attainable. Let's also make it concern material objects only. We all want world peace and to end world hunger but that's not what this poll is all about. It's also not about wanting a person or people (although that sounds like a winner of a poll and I'll have to do that one soon :-) This is just about material possessions.
What don't you have that you really want?