Escape from Reality

It’s important to step back every now and then to take a break from life. With so many pressures and responsibilities facing us, it’s always nice to escape into another world: a book, a movie, a video game. These are normal and healthy activities in a balanced life. For a small moment you get lost in the adventures and struggles of another world, helping you to relax from yours. The first mentioned, literature, not only allows you to escape but also imbues with knowledge. Watching a movie isn’t quite as edifying as reading, but it still lets you take a break from that never ending to do list and helps you realize your issues ain’t got nothin’ on Jason Bourne’s. The last one, playing a video game, can be fun and can also challenge your brain and reflexes. Again, these activities can be beneficial to a persons stress level, as long as they’re used along with other balanced activities. The problem occurs when the video game is played not as a relaxing recreational activity, but as an alternate reality. When responsibility and family is neglected for a false reality in a false world this “escape from reality” makes actuality suckyality.

Here’s an interesting article I found on the subject:

The Dinner Table

Remember the good old days when families had dinner together, with the TV turned off, and discussion time was a group effort from every member. With the inventions of the modern world we as humans have lost something that is very dear to our nature; we have lost human connection. When your dinner conversation is replaced by an internet game itinerary, and factious names that a face cannot be placed with, do you start to question your quality of life? Who are their real friends, what do they have in common besides a computer and a made up world? Maybe they find that working in 40hr work week with a hour commute home is to much of the real world, so they have to escape. They escape away from it all, away from the office, the home, and the people of today’s world. But are they also are escaping from their families, their kids whom go to school for 8 hours and want just a small amount of activity with their parents. Even if they give attention to the children before their bedtime, what about the spouse? Where is that human connection, the discussions of the day, how they are feeling, and what are their plans for tomorrow. “We can talk about it later………I have to logon now.”

-From wivesagainstwarcraft.blogspot.com

“Smart” car?

You know granola chrunchers are just victim to a smart marketing tool: “Save the environment” “Go Green”. For instance, the food industry makes a much larger return on their produce if they sell it as “organic”. You know how expensive organic food is? It’s ridiculous.

DaimlerChrysler built the Smart car to help save mother earth, right? No, it’s been produced to increase DaimlerChrysler’s revenue. They appeal to a new group: the tree huggers. Pretty smart if you ask me. Here’s my view: Johnny can buy a new Dodge Neon for $13,800 or an electric Smart car for $27,250. The Neon gets 30 miles per gallon, the Smart car doesn’t use gas at all (it operates on electric power, which is not free by the way). Let’s do a little math. I have a Neon, and my work is about seven miles away from home. In other words, I could get away with having an electric Smart car, which only goes 40MPH, because I don’t have to use freeways to get to work. Living so close to work, I only use a tank of gas a month (ten gallon gas tank). At four dollars a gallon for gas right now, I spend $40 a month. Now the difference between the price of the electric Smart car vs. the Neon is $13,450. How far would that money go towards gas at $4/gallon * 10gallons/month? It would go 28 years ($480 a year in gas). You’d have to drive that two passenger POS around for 28 years (at only 40MPH) for it to be worth the savings in gas money. No thanks, not for me. But, gas prices might continue to rise. Let’s say they’re going to double, to $8/gallon. And, let’s say I double the amount of monthly driving I do to 20 gallons/month. At those rates, you’d have to drive the electric Smart car for seven years before buying a new car to avoid losing money ($1,920 a year in gas). Is it worth it? Not for me. I’ll keep my 5 passenger seating, ability to go more than 100 miles in a trip and speeds over 40MPH. And as for Johnny, well, he took one in the pocket book because he’s swung at DaimlerChrysler’s sales pitch to the environmentalists. Is he really going to be able to go seven years without buying a bigger, faster car? Props to him if he can.

I just think it’s interesting how environmentalists get screwed by the high prices of the products their lifestyle requires them. Maybe it’s a testament to their faith to actually pay that much to live their beliefs, albeit their beliefs are incongruent to mine.

What do you think?