Sunday, September 13, 2009

New Rain


Rain came back today. it was about 2 or 3 AM that a shower of rain washed over the city and cleaned it. Well, not completely, but its a start.

There's this smell of after the rain. I know it's dust being lifted from the ground by the force of the falling rain. I also know the smell of after-rain that you get after a few days of showers. That really clean air. Still waiting for that one.

Dust is darn abundant here. It's one of the things that makes me dislike if not hate the city I live in. Israel as a whole is dusty, but there are cleaner places then this city.

Plus people don't really seem to care. They don't care that their environment is getting more difficult to breathe in, that pulmonary diseases become more common by the day, that even coughing is more and more common.

Everyone loves complaining, while sitting on their comfy chairs and doing nothing but blowing air out and sucking air in. I'm not exempt from that.

We kill ourselves. Little by little every single day. We delude ourselves like nothing will happen to us. Things like that happen to other people. Not to us.

Only we're all together on the same globe. Butterfly effect and all that jazz.

What we think happens only to other people, those other people think only happens to us. And both us and those other people are right.

I think it's why I love rain. It gives us some reprieve. Maybe the illusion, that things are still okay. That earth mends itself, and that we didnt manage to completely crap it all up as yet.

And then I have this cough that doesnt go away.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Direction


How do you find a direction in life? how do you make decisions? and most importantly, how do you know you made the right decisions?
Someone once told me there are no wrong decisions. Any decision, eventually leads to something, and so you keep moving in your dynamic life (unless of course that decision leads to death).
Do any of you talk to god? I don't talk to him, but I try and find some higher guidance. From within my head. If god is energy, and matter is also made of energy, then god is in everything. Myself included.
So far, no answers. Still waiting. Searching, asking, moving slowly through life.
The same person told me, that no decisions leads to something as well. And in a hand writing test I took some years ago, I was told that decision making is a big issue with me. Duh.
Is it the fear of resolve? Is it just my somewhat transient character? Always had a difficult time telling.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Cough Cough


I've been coughing over the last two weeks or so. it bloody sucks!
Not that I have anything against lung-based coughs. what's a better way to clear your system?
Plus there's that charming effect of timber in the chest.
Why don't I go see a doctor? I've lost my faith in them. I'm a doctor's veteran. I've been to so many tests that there should be a test named after me!
And yet, they cannot seem to find what's wrong. Other than hinting that it must be psychological rather than physical - other wise, they would have found it already.. or would they?
Basically, they're all quacks. At least all the ones I tried. I must admit, I can be a difficult patient. Medical Diets for instance - a big NO for me. I'm already practicing one from infanthood, and it's plenty for me. Any more, regardless of whether it's supposedly good for me, will bring my spirits down, and that by itself will make the whole thing redundant.
I guess I'm looking for the miracle drug that will solve all my woes. got any?

Monday, August 17, 2009

Too much food


I went to a farewell shindig (always wanted to use this word) at work, and made the mistake out of lack of choice to go before having lunch.
And so, I munched there, and then I munched my own lunch, and now I feel like humpty-dumpty. Or budha.. only I dont want my stomach rubbed.
I always know what will happen, and I always fail to stop myself in time, and over-do it. My stomach is much smaller than my apetite, and I pay for it with this uncomfortable feeling of bloatedness.
It is basically "with the food comes the apetite". I start eating, and it fuels my apetite to the point where I only stops when I feel full. And naturally, that's way too late in the game.
My theory is that my stomach expanded over time. Back when it was smaller, I used to get filled up pretty fast, and stop. and now It doesn't gage how much food it needs correctly any more.
Bummer.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Solar Energy


Solar and other renewable energy sources are the future of the human race.
That is not just me, that is the opinion of a lot of smarter people than I.
Without a shift in thinking that should have started some years ago, the oil will run out, and the human race will be left with no available energy.
That energy is needed not just to power the ipods, and make televisions work.. it's essential to run hospitals, run cars, and keep our society stable and in order.
With the oil all depleted, and with a population surpassing 10 billion people, riots will start, famine will follow and wars. Natural selection and the demise of the economy will plunge humans into self destruction to bring the population down. Can you imagine only 1-2 percent of the population remaining?
We're just about at what is called "The oil peak". It means that the oil wells reached the peak of their capabilities. And from here, the direction is down. When oil reserves end, our society will change completely.
Unless of course, the people in power take their heads out of the sand and start implementing emergency means to pre-empt. Such as reduction in energy consumption by law, and funneling many more funds into renewable energy research and development.
The photo at the beginning shows an option. This company produces a new breed of solar energy. Instead of using massive plates of photo-voltaic cells, that produce 10-15 % solar energy, they use mirror dishes that concentrate the sun rays into a focal center with only a few high grade cells. this allows for about 75 % efficiency. about 21 % electricity, and the rest is in thermal energy form - that is available to heat water for instance.
It takes much less space, most of its parts (about 95 percent) are recyclable, and its possible to ugrade its parts which makes its life very long.
Imagine, every house or building having one or two of these. It's enough to supply most of the energy requirements, and even sell back to the electric company. Plus, society stays alive.
Until the next crysis anyways.

Monday, August 03, 2009

Voltures


The voltures are looking at me, probing me with their eyes from above. It looks like they're smiling or sniggering.
They feel superior in their elevated spot and my poor carcass looks ready for them to pick apart, whether if alive or dead.
I flinch under their gaze. My spine shudders. What makes them think they're superior to me?? We're all creatures under the same sun. But they feel like they can pick at my flesh, eat me alive and never hold back. It's like I owe them.
This is how a support person feels like every day of the work week. ;)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

A break from Money Making


All that researching and posting and whatnot makes me tired.
So, I decided on a post about my favourite subject: Vacation.
I've been daydreaming about vacationing. Going somewhere nice and having a good rest for the body and soul.
I don't care too much for the beach (I like the sea, but being in the sun for too long is bad for the complexion and my head), but I like good/great hotels and good locations.
And I crave a colder weather. We're having a merciless summer here and my guess this winter won't carry much rain.
Maybe that's why I like Switzerland. Even in the height of summer, their temperatures don't come close to the Israeli summer. And there's always a snow peaked mountain not too far off sight.
It's not just the weather. I like the green shades of the lush scenery and the bounty of water. those of course can be found in many other places in europe as well as other locations.
I miss waterfalls that have plenty of water, I miss having a weather that carries no dust, only clean and fresh air. I miss having peace of mind and no pressures of work and worries of day-to-day life.
And I am taking steps to make that kind of life a reality.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Make Money (FAST) Schemes/Plans - Part II



Basically, most of the money on the world wide web flows through ads. Selling stuff over the internet. Whether it's loans, houses, cars, or a pen - they all need to advertise in order to get customers to come in and maybe buy some of their merchandise.

So, they put their ads wherever they can. All those pop-ups everywhere, and especially on high-traffic web sites such as news websites, search engines, and popular blogs are their to catch the eye of the right customers.

Google perfected this system with its Ad-sense system. They use text only ads that are not intrusive, and are not of the pop-up kinds. They also specialize according to the context of the text in said page. If a post or a search is about cars for instance, you'll see only ads that are related to cars, such as cars sales, car loans, and so on.

So, in order to make money online, you have to connect to the advertising business somehow. whether it's to promote your business or product, or someone else's. Either way, you'll need to get the word out there and do it in a broad and yet precise way.

You want your message to reach the people who will want to buy your product. That's why context ads are so good for business. Sure, you can bombard a massive mailing list with your ads, but even if that provides you some business (a small percentage would like your product or service) you will get so much more people who'll simply hate you for spamming them with ads for stuff they neither need nor want.

The whole advertising business is going towards that direction. They can see where the wind is blowing even if spam kings refuse to. Also, it's cheaper in a way. You don't need to show your ad to everyone all of the time, but just to some of the people, some of the time.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Make Money (FAST) Schemes/Plans - Part I


Money!

I've been rummaging through my e-books, net articles, and google to find money making schemes or plans that actually work. I didn't come out empty handed, but It's obvious that finding stuff that actually work, or at least sounds like it actually work is no simple task.

The amount of information and words about the subject is staggering. Google "money" for instance, and you get 98,400,000 results. Google "make money", and you get a whopping 203,000,000 results!

It's an ongoing quest, and I'm going to post about it in parts.

As these posts will become a part of this massively gigantic interest of people, I naturally hope more traffic will be generated here and more guests will come to read and respond.

I started with audio books. Reason being that it's more convenient for me to absorb on my way to and from home in my car. I listen and take pointers from those lessons. For me, its much easier than reading the stuff, especially as my attention span is pretty short. Being in the car makes me partly a captive audience, and it's comfortable too.

The first thing I noted to myself was this: If all these people who make the audiobooks/cassetes/ebooks really know how to become mega-rich or millionaires, why do they bother with writing or recording this material? As they're already millionaires, unless their philantropist side is over-developed, they should be jetting around the world, or relaxing in their vacation home of choice. No?

I accept that there are people that do want to give back to their fellow men (and women) and share their insights, and in general do good. But they are not too many.

So, why do they need to sell their ebook, or course package with 3 free gifts for 79.99 dollars?

Did you get to this line okay? :) good!

Naturally, they're not millionaires, or maybe they are, but are always hungry for more. I know that human greed is a very powerful and ever-hungry incentive.

Do they know the secret to becoming a millionaire? possible. If enough people believe them, they'll buy their merchandise, and someone will become rich. (although it might just be the seller)

A week or so ago, a friend of mine had her email account hijacked and mail forwarded to her address book contacts telling them all that she's stranded without a air ticket, passport, or cash, and would they please send her 2500 dollars to this and this address (in Nigeria by the way) so she can come back home..

That's one way of making money. Very dishonest and ugly, but possibly effective. Out of, say a hundred contacts, there's a chance that at least one or two would send some money to help a friend or a relative in a bind.

It's all really a numbers game. When you try to sell anything from a book to a broken toy, you try to throw your net as wide as possible. The bigger the net, the more chances someone will get caught in it. And when the numbers are really big, you don't need a terribly big percentage of "biters" caught.

The internet is the classic example. It's the first time in history that a single individual has been able to reach millions of people, and not only that, but it's cheap, or at times even free of charge (other than internet connection charges)!

The first example of way of thinking that I came by is "Multiple Streams Of Income". The idea being this: In this day and age, of financial instability and a world depending even more on a capitalistic way of living, relying on just one or two streams of income is not enough any more.

One needs more. more ways of making money, that will provide support in case the main streams are cut off. In other words: what happens if you got cut back, and cannot find a new job for over a year?

Nothing good I suspect. You may just find yourself out on the street once your savings are gone.

The idea is not to hold multiple jobs at the same time. that would rob you of sleep and defeat the purpose. What's the purpose? To be financially free and clear.

More to come..

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

What would you ask God for?


As the title suggests: what would you ask God for, if you had a chance to sit with him/her for a nice conversation?
Many philosophical thoughts arise from this question, as well as from the situation itself.
I'm trying to find some smart answers to this question as I'm in the process of writing a book, where God is one of the main characters.

Googling the question brought me the expected smart-assy answers such as: "Explain your own existence", "I'd ask what God thinks of that song by Joan Osbourne", "I believe that there is no god, so I have no question to ask"

By the way, for people who don't believe in god, this is simply a question to ask someone very wise, very experienced, that has such vast amounts of knowledge and good sense which any answer from him would prove quite valuable.

This question also proves to be most popular. One website for answers shows a total of 857 answers suggested for this single question. Many answers are funny, some sound desperate, a lot are trying to be smart, and quite a few are predictable (like "Why all the pain and suffering?")

I think that being able to ask god questions answers a few of those already. It proves he/she exists and that would give me peace for one. Knowing that there is a higher being that sees us and touches our lives (for good or for worse) is comforting in some strange way.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Help Self


I collect Self-Help books. For me it's like going to a mental gym.

Having those books gives me a feeling of doing something good for myself, but also doesnt require me to actually read them.

But I do read them sometimes. And with my limited attention span, try to stick to the text as long as I can. There is a common thread to some, but not all. Think positive, enjoy what you do, keep a relaxed soul and a healthy body.

It's like getting budhistic life lessons repeatedly. I don't mind, but you get the idea pretty fast.

And then there are those who don't stick to the formula, that are actually practical guides to whatever they claim to do. I can't tell that they work - yet to finish any single one of them.

Self-help connects to most people with new-age, hence hippy culture, fairies, rainbows and lots of love and peace.

For one thing, there's nothing wrong with some more peace and love in the world. God himself knows the world could use more of those. For another, there are actually people making a living out of these books. Sometimes a lot of money. Like Robin Sharma.

For another, It's always easier to mock than to understand. I don't always subscribe to the non-mocking crowd, I admit. But I find that the older I get, the more chances I'm willing to give to things I wouldn't even consider in the past.

The self-help industry is a multi-million (if not billion) one. And as it is so very much prolific, it's difficult to find the gems in the gigantic bale of hay. I normally go by titles, but titles are meant to catch your eye and grab your attention. That means I have to read at least a few pages over the book's jacket in order to see the direction a book is taking.

So, I try and focus more. To do that, I look for specific things. Like certain skills I covet rather than general promises of fame and fortune.

I'll let you know what I find.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Tired, Sleepy, Exhausted


I've been feeling all of that lately, and so I went and took some tests (blood as well as others).
Turns out, my immune system is not having a good time at all, and my white blood cell count is lower than grass. (the short kind, like at golf courses)
Going to follow up on it of course, but for now my alertness levels are in the shit house, and I got no idea how to boost them up. Taking vitamines might help, but so far there's no idea what's causing this and how it will get better.
It feels like I'm going to drop down and fall asleep, only when I get home and fall into bed, I cant really sleep. I just feel exhausted, not sleepy.
There's one upside that started today or maybe yesterday - my mood is better. I think it's an expression of the fatigue - but I'm enjoying it none the less :D

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Doors


Our renovation has basically ended, but the doors are still not properly set.

So now we’re on the hunt for two nice doors that will fit the grandeur of our renewed bathroom and lavatory.

Of course, money is an issue, but we do not neglect the aesthetics. It has to look good and feel right.

And then of course there’s the light.. It’s never-ending. Never knew being a homeowner (or flat owner) will be so tiresome at times – till I ended up being one.

It’s all for a good cause though. Making our lives more comfortable.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Cockroaches

We had a cockroach incident last night. G found a cockroach staring her in the face and instantly called me to the rescue.

I chased it around the kitchen and sprayed half a canister of insecticide on the poor flying bastard.

Finally he made his haven the back of the fridge. I left him there and closed the kitchen door.

The instant response to those critters is disgust and fear. The disgust part is understandable. The fear however is irrational (not that I don’t have some fear of them myself). They’re small, vulnerable, and pretty much fear us humans. They only come into our houses for 2 reasons: Food, and Warmth.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel much sorrow for them. They’re insects and insects belong in nature. My house is not that place. When us humans go extinct, they’re welcome to my former house in their hordes – but not while I’m living there!

Mostly for them, the issue is PR. If they had a better image in the public eye, like say, the pandas – they’d have a much better life. And probably longer too.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Energy. Drinks?

I was going to do a post about how energy drinks affect you - what you gain, what you lose.



Now it seems stupid to me. My energy levels are low. Lower than they've been in a long time. Might be the work, might be the dark cloud hanging inside my head. Something must be done and it must be done soon, 'cause I'm on the verge of a breakdown. I already took a day off from work, because I felt I couldnt stay there anymore.



It affects my mood. That's a given. Or maybe my mood affects it. I'm in a really deep depression. Feels like being in a deep slippery hole that you can't climb out of.



Today is somewhat better. Still, it's something that gets more and more difficult to live with. Not just for me, but for my girlfriend too. Sorry G.



Its at the point of screaming. I think that the black mood that is kept at bay is responsible for the energy drop and the constant feeling of tiredness. However, I don't know how to solve it.



I did think of trying daily short meditation. I never been good at concentrating, but It seems like a good way to somehow relax my frayed nerves. I'll look it up.



Monday, May 18, 2009

Arrrrrgh!





As never-ending renovations are taking place in my apartment, I'm going away on vacation to the above location. Right. I wish!





Well, not really. I put this image as it automatically connects with a vacation. My idea of vacation is less UV, much more lush greenery. something more like this:




It's about scenery, water, green views, and clean air. A ruin or two wouldn't hurt either. Not that I mind the amenities of cities, but once in a while its just so good to get away from the pollution, noise, and mayhem. This all makes me miss airports, since airports for me are the real indicator of vacation. Once I'm at the airport, any airport - there's no turning back. I'm on my way!

Oh. I'm not. No money for that as yet, no vacation days.

At least I can dream and wonder.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Renovation!



We're undergoing construction in our apartment. It means we're not living in it for a while.

We (or more correctly, my girlfriend) covered most of the furnitures and doors with plastic covers so as to minimize the amount of dust and debris we'll have to clean later.

Even so, I'm pretty sure it's going to look like a bosnian bomb site after we come back.

But.. we'll have a beautiful renovated bathroom and toilet to cheer us up while cleaning and eating dust :D

On another note, today is holocaust remembrance day here in Israel, and soon Fallen Soldiers remembrance day and Independance day will all follow. I bow my head and think of all the dead that had fallen back then and since that made all independance days possible and all other days here in Israel as well.

Monday, April 06, 2009

Media Streamer / Earth Quakes






This is Digitech HDX-1000 Media Streamer. and I received it today!


It basically can play most media files (including High Definition movies) on your tv.


I had my eye on it for a long time, saved each month, and now I finally bought it!


This, along with a bigger TV will transform our living room into a home theatre that's only missing some cushy sofas.




and, on a different note


An earthquake striked Italy this morning. Claiming 50 lives so far, and leaving hundreds wounded and without shelter.

Is it just me, or does it seem as a continuation of a visible rise in the frequency of Seismic events around the world?

It happened in Indonesia, Italy (another, less powerful one struck 3 months ago) , California, Papua-Guinea, South of the Pacific Ocean, Costa Rica and Panama, Mexico, Guatamala and Melburn, Australia. and this is since the beginning of March!

Maybe it's God's wrath, and maybe it's a precursor for things to come, but this along with volcano eruptions, and the melt-crash of that gigantic iceberg makes one want to start re-watching all those disaster movies in hope of picking up some useful tips!

Living in israel and thinking about the bible makes me remember the story of the flood. God gave fair warning before the flood, and no one listened.

I sure hope that's not the case here.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Sugar




You don't really know how important it is in your life until you take it out of your menu.


It's a whole range of color that goes missing from your rainbow. It starts with the almost obvious coffee or regular tea in the morning, goes through cakes and cookies, and continues with jams, candies, and chocolate.


It's all unhealthy, bad for your body, and gives you short-term energy that I really miss very much!


But I shall prevail. At least until the ending of the month of this diet.


Such simple joys..

Monday, February 23, 2009

Ka-Boom!





That's how my head feels right now.. well, naturally I exaggerate.
Still, come end of the working day, I want to stick my head in a cold water bucket for a few minutes and than wipe it, and hopefully it'll be good as new.
It feels like my respiration slows down almost deliberately, my eyes go sleepy, and I feel the pressure building behind my forehead.
As if the day squeezed what was left of my life energy and left me with scraps that might sustain me until I get home, or might not.
Anywho, enough bitching. Weekend will come soon and with it a vacation with the family and the girlfriend at a spa resort! Excellent! :)