My Hero Dream

I woke up today after having a long dream which was an heroic adventure.



It was my first hero dream (as far as I remember).



I was on a commercial flight. Then some fighter planes (or smaller planes) started chasing us aiming to bring us down. Somehow the pilot/s were out and I had to take over the plane and try and bring us to safety.



I did some evasive manuvering (as much as possible considering it was a big airliner), and then spotted two smaller civilian passanger planes. I knew that the fighters in pursuit will go after them as well, so I went under one of them and let it piggyride on my plane, and then went under the second one and piggyrided it above the first one.



With two airplanes stacked on top of my airplane, I was heavy and had to land somewhere.



I went slowly circling above a big city, and started going on smaller and smaller circles, till I saw a big street which even though it didnt have a long road that could be considered as a makeshift runway, seemed suitable for me to touch ground.



so I circled smaller and smaller, and then stalled the plane as I was about to touch ground. I hit the ground, but not too hard, and the two stacked planes kind of fell off and skidded in two directions. one of them ended at the end of the street, the other went into a building.



Some people were injured, and from the one that went into a building I seen a girl walk out, and a guy was lying in a puddle with some blood. As it seemed, a piece of his head was sliced off, exposing his skull and brain. but he was getting up and even talking and concious.



Weird.

Bloody Rage

Today started nicely. It rained, and I love the rain.

Then I arrived at work, and it all spiraled downhill from there.

The feeling inside me is like a breathlessness and anxiousness and impatience and simple rage all at the same time.

It makes it that much harder to handle calls, or people in the course of the workday.

I need to hold myself so as not to yell at them and/or storm out and just get away.

Taking deep breaths helps for a short while, but if I keep taking deep breaths all I'll get is hyperventilation and dizzyness as a result of too much exygen in my blood.

GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

Making a buck (online)

Even with my recent pay raise, I'm on the quest for more money. That includes taking private jobs, and also looking online for things I can do from home or work.

As I cannot spend too much time on it, and I want the flexibility of choosing when to work, I started looking at PTR (Pay-to-read), PTC (Pay-to-click), and survey sites.

All those give you small amounts of cash per email read, links clicked on, and surveys filled.

Also, I found a product testing site, that lets you test products (daah..) and get paid for it, as well as (optionally) keep the product (not every time).

It's small things, but now at least I started. Moved from research to actual work.

Wish me luck!

Prague

Nature Films

Nature movies are the thing of now. Since I got me a media streamer and a (somewhat) HD television set, the prettiest thing to watch on tv is nature films.

My mom said it best: it looks like the picture pops out at you. Animal chases, vast areas, natural disasters and events - all look so much better.

For me its also a bit of a substitute to travel. If I cannot afford the time or money to go to all those wonderful places, at least I can watch them from the comfort of my home. A poor (somewhat) man's solution.

Rain comes only at night

Rain comes only at night lately. At best it comes in early morning.

It pisses me off. I want rain for hours. to clean the streets, clear the mind, drench and wash away so many things. The dust, the dirt, the hot-headedness all to be washed away. far far away.

I think this country would be a lot better with much more water in it. It would create a shift in the mind of people. Sun turns you hot and hasty, Rain turns you colder and thoughtful.

There was a news piece about the threat of Tsunami that may hit Israel. As imminent as a big earthquake as the two seem to be linked together, and an earthquake is due in this decade.

I remember back in highschool how I ran in the rain. I had a free period, and I just went out to the court and started running around in the pouring rain. It made me smile then, as it makes me smile now as I remember it.

Rain is not all good. and it can get old really fast. But for now, what I want is lots of rain.

Air Lines

I love traveling. When I used to travel in the past, the airline I chose was of no real consequence to me. As long as I got there in one piece, I was happy.

It's either my age that made me more picky or it might be that the quality of airline service that decreased with time. Either way, even big airlines have dissapointed me in my last flights. No matter if it was far off destinations, or shorter 2-5 hours flights.

Thing is, my choice of airline is limited more by the price than by anything else. I choose the cheaper ones, and I get lemons.

I hope that in my next flight I'll be able to use some frequent flyer miles to upgrade and have a more enjoyable experience.

Lacking Money sucks.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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. ;)

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.

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.

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..

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.

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.

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

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.