New (easier) alphabet

After much though about the current alphabet last week (work was keeping me bored out of my mind and so I needed a distraction) I decided that we've got some extra letters in the current alphabet. Here's my list of necessary letters:

A B D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Z (along with an extra 'ch')

This removes 5 characters (C, Q, W, X, Y) allowing the 'ch' extra character to still remain below the current number of 26 characters. In addition to removing the letters I came up with a new way of writing these characters. Also I took some inspiration from Japanese and created "radical" versions of the 5 vowels (A, E, I, O, U) that allow them to be combined with the consonants thereby shortcutting the process of writing consonant-vowel combinations. Another inspiration from Japanese came by combining characters with similar sounds (B-P, D-T, F-H, G-K, U-V) and differentiating between the two pronounciations by using an apostrophe. This further reduced the number of characters needed to only 17 (a savings of 9 characters over the traditional alphabet). Because the new alphabet doesn't have the letter 'W' I now use 'UE' for cases where 'WHE' would be found, 'UA' in place of 'WHA', 'UO' in place of 'WO', etc. Without the letter 'Q' I now must use 'K' and I've replaced occurrences of 'Y' with 'I'. I'm finding that writing using my new alphabet is quite fast (especially because of the consonant-vowel combinations). I think it's time for a change...

Crazy Dream of falling Machinery

So I'm going to write about a crazy dream I had last night because I figure dreams fit perfectly into the whole theme of this blog as they are nothing more than Random Thoughs.

The dream started out with my family and I going out for the day to some office-type building. It seemed we had some friends there and we were all initially standing around talking on a balcony of some sort. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something falling from the sky and when I looked up I could see it was a large Excavator falling very fast towards us. I yelled out to everyone and luckily the Excavator wasn't on a path directly at us so it landed out of sight nearby (though I didn't hear or feel the impact). Before I could react I noticed something else falling from the sky... It was more construction machinery! There were tractors and backhoes and excavators falling from two major locations (one in front and one to my left) with both landing in my general vacinity. None of us could believe what was happening as you don't ever expect something like that to happen when suddenly the sky darkened and as I looked up I saw an entire forest of trees falling from the sky. I grabbed hold of my 2 year old's hand and started running for cover (somehow we were now out in the middle of an exposed parking lot). I saw my wife up running up ahead as the GIANT trees began smashing into the ground, crushing people and cars. There were people everywhere running for cover but I knew that I had to find something close by because there was no way we could make it across the entire parking lot to find safety. I found a cargo-container (the kind that Ships haul across the ocean an load up on Semi-trucks) and called to my wife to hide inside. There were other people already inside and shards from the trees as well as glass and other shrapnel were piercing through the shell of the cargo container. I witnessed several people (including children) being speared by shards of hot, liquid glass (which I suspected was created when some of the falling materials passed through the atmosphere and heated up). Suddenly the maelstrom ended and we stepped back out into the parking lot (which was now a dirt covered field). There were glass shells of people who were killed by molten glass that had apparently hit them, cooled to the shape of their body, but also caused the person underneath to be burned to dust. It was a really creepy scene much like the bodies found in Pompei but made of clear glass. As my son followed me out of the container I thought he had been injured because he was limping and holding his hand in a strange fashion, but upon closer inspection his shoe (galoshes) was turned weird causing the limp and his hand simply hurt from me pulling him along. And that's where the dream ended.

Having kids is the best thing

So it seems like the more kids I have (currently 2 with another on the way), the more times I smile throughout the day. I have a 1 hour commute each way to work and during that time many random thoughts pass through my head but any time I think about my kids I smile and laugh out loud. I really need a job where I can spend more time at home...

Internal Sustainability (biodome lifestyle)

So I think that in order for a country to maintain the status of "country" they should have to prove internal sustainability. This would mean that the country could support all of it's occupants without any help/supplies/good/services/etc. from any other entity outside of the country. I wonder how many countries wouldn't be able to do this... I say give every country 20 years to make this change and if they can't, they lose their status as a country. A good approach would seem to be allocating food, power, fuel usage, etc. and halting all immigration. It might also be wise to set up an area within the country (maybe 15%) that is to be considered non-country area. Those people who do not wish to live within the restraints of the new country organization can move to the "non-country" area and attempt to lead a new Lawless, helpless lifestyle. If after the 20 year limit has passed and the country cannot become self sustaining then other countries would have the option of bidding for land to claim for their own country. They would then get 5 years to prove they can self-sustain with the new addition of land to their country. Also after the 20 years has passed and a country proves it can self-sustain, any delegated "non-country" area can be reclaimed assuming the "non-country" area has not acheived self sustainability in which case it would be declared a new country. This new country would then have the option of rejoining it's former country or maintaining separatism. I think it could work... maybe...

Free time

How come I feel like the older I get, the less free time I have? I thought somewhere along the line technology was supposed to come in and help everyone get things done faster, but either it's not working or things are getting done too fast and then other things rush in to fill the void. Maybe I'm just getting lazy and so it feels like I have less time to do things because I'm only really doing stuff for less time in the day. It seems to me that clothing manufacturers should be able to make stink-free clothes that require no washing (or at least very little). I think this would free up some time... And what ever happened to businesses going paperless? Now instead of only getting paper receipts for things I also get email and online receipts that I have to keep track of. Maybe I just need to stop watching TV... then I might feel like I have more time... I don't know.

Electric-powered wheels

So I was thinking (again on the drive to work) that it would be nice to have a car who's wheels were powered by electric motors. Then these motors could still be powered by a standard gasoline engine, but you would have greater control over things such as traction and fuel economy. Say for instance you wanted to save gas on your drive; you simply switch off all but one wheel and that is used to move your car forward... if the road becomes slippery or icy you could "turn on" the other wheels to add traction while reducing fuel economy. Seems like a good idea to me, especially with gas prices as high as they are. It would be really usefull on my Wrangler; saving me lots of gas on the drive to work and back.

Being sick

I hate feeling sick. Especially when it's the kind of sick where you don't want to eat, it's hard to breath, and you have a killer headache... That's how I feel right now... Why did I even go to work today? Ugh... I was hoping the decongestant I took would clear up some of the problems by the time I made it to work, but it didn't even clear up the sinus congestion. I think I'm going home soon...

Airbags -> Radio Station Corporations

So originally I had planned to talk about an idea I had for external airbags on cars, planes, helecopters, etc., but this morning on NPR I heard some big-wig at Clear Channel Communication complaining about Pirate Radio Stations and it really pissed me off. This Clear Channel guy thinks that Pirate Stations are hurting people but the reasons he gave made no sense at all. I think he's just mad because the more Pirate Stations there are, the less he can control all the radio frequencies. Have you ever noticed how when one station has a set of commercials ALL the other stations have commercials at the same time? That's Clear Channel's fault. The only reason he doesn't like Pirate stations is because they don't make him money... One reason he made up to support his distaste for Pirate stations is they somehow negatively affect the distribution of Amber Alerts. My question is how is that possible? They don't overlap any current stations, they really are no different than someone listening to internet radio from a different country. So anyway, I say more power to those Pirate Stations! Maybe it'll help get rid of Clear Channel. I guess instead of talking about Airbags I ended up talking about a big Windbag... Clear Channel, I dislike you very much.

Holiday Gifts???

Ok, so I really don't understand why people are expected to give eachother presents on Christmas. Christmas is supposed to be in honor of the birth of Jesus (basically a birthday party). I think I would be pretty mad if people gave everyone else presents on my birthday and came up with some silly fat man to iconify instead of myself. It would be worse if I was someone important! Maybe we should rename Chrismas to something more fitting like Present Day. Then Jewish people could have Present Days instead of Hanukkah because in reality, who gives eachother presents to celebrate one days worth of oil burning for 8 days instead? It might make more sense if people gave eachother oil for 8 days during Hanukkah. So anyway, give someone gifts on their birthday, not for Christmas (unless you know of a way to give Jesus gifts). The important part of the holidays is the part where families and friends get together to enjoy being together, not to give gifts....

Crack-and-toss

So it seems like every time I talk to my dad he likes to brag about how his Crack-and-toss, er, Macintosh computer and OS is far superior to any Windows PC. Well, I think if Apple's OS was made to run on architectures other than their own they would have the exact same problems that plauge Windows. In fact, I had one of the few PowerPC's that Apple allowed to be released by other companies (on non standard hardware). It had lots of problems, but most of the ones that made me mad had to do with the (at-the-time) non-multitasking OS. Well, until Macintosh makes an OS that will run on any architecture I can't believe that they are superior to Windows in any way.

P.S. I hate both of those OS's... Linux is my friend.