How much $$$ do you spend on gasoline in a month? by Wishimay

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.

I put less miles on my vehicle than most people. Mainly it's just to and from work (about 10 miles one way), to and from the grocery store (about a mile away), visits to my Mother's a couple of times a week at least (5 miles), a few other miscellaneous short trips here and there. I rarely travel, at most it is to Austin or Dallas (both 100 miles away). On average I fill up the tank twice, at most three times a month. So at current prices, that would range between $100-150 per month.

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Friday, February 10, 2012 5:41 PM

I feel like I'm getting ripped a new one, then I think of the people I know who fill up both cars EVERY... DAY. People with several kids with lots of activities and jobs in the next town... I bet they spend at least $2000 or more a month...

I gotta get new tires this weekend too

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Monday, February 13, 2012 8:13 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Briefly, a few months ago, gas dropped below the 3.00 per gallon mark, to 2.99. I was glad.

Now ? It's 3.51+ per gallon.

A full year ago, gas jumped over the 3.00 per gallon mark.

I prob spend about 250.00 in gas per month. Ball park figure.

" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

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Monday, February 13, 2012 8:59 AM

Beir bua agus beannacht

I can't figure out why Wish has to spend so much more than everyone else. Is gas just over expensive in Indiana?

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Monday, February 13, 2012 9:03 AM

I was working at a gas station in late 1999 and I personally lowered the price to 88 cents a gallon, as we were in a gas war with the stations in Kentucky.

What the frell happened to us??
We know from the gulf oil spill they got a lot more than they're lettin on, that's for damn sure...

There is NO reason for it to be $3 a gallon.

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Monday, February 13, 2012 9:10 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by RionaEire:
I can't figure out why Wish has to spend so much more than everyone else. Is gas just over expensive in Indiana?

No, it's that hubby and I live 30 minutes from where he works, 10 miles from the nearest ANYTHING, half hour to get anywhere that has a diversion, we have two vehicles, and one is a gas guzzler from the late 80's( it costs $100 to fill up!!!). Oh and relatives that need occaisional looking after... We could've moved closer to his work, but then I would just completely loose it. And there is no major towns for about an hour on the other side of his work, so this place was the most logical choice for us to locate...

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Monday, February 13, 2012 1:52 PM

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.

I over estimated my average gas usage. If I had to completely fill up my tank at current prices it would be about $50, but I rarely let it get so low. I nearly always use my debit card for gas, so I went back through my check register for the past nine months, added all the gas charges to get an average. It worked out to once every other week, give or take a day, plus it is possible I used my credit card once or twice during that time, or paid cash for a quick few gallons. So I added a couple of extra times into the total to take those into consideration, and I still come up with a monthly average of just over $70.

Again, I have to repeat that I live close to work, close to my mother and other family and friends, close to stores. I live in a small city/large town, depending on how you look at it (about 125,000), but it is no more than 20 miles from one side of town to the other, including the adjacent suburbs.

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Monday, February 13, 2012 2:41 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
I was working at a gas station in late 1999 and I personally lowered the price to 88 cents a gallon, as we were in a gas war with the stations in Kentucky.

What the frell happened to us??
We know from the gulf oil spill they got a lot more than they're lettin on, that's for damn sure...

There is NO reason for it to be $3 a gallon.

Especially since it's our number one export product now.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/story/2011-12-31/unite
d-states-export/52298812/1

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Monday, February 13, 2012 3:25 PM

Beir bua agus beannacht

I think EC and Quicko live near each other!

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Monday, February 13, 2012 3:34 PM

KWICKO

Quote:
Originally posted by RionaEire:
I think EC and Quicko live near each other!

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

Sounds like EC lives roughly in the Waco/Belton area - not too far away.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Monday, February 13, 2012 4:27 PM

Get ready for them to ream us again...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/in-demand.html

We're runnin' out of everything folks...'Course if you hand over your wheelbarrows of cash you can get a loaf of bread while our old ovens are still runnin... Whoops! Pay no attention to that man on the tractor in that field fulla wheat... That doesn't mean what you think it means...Hocus pocus, do not focus...That's for starving people that we exploit in other countries, not for you moderately overfed people that we exploit in this country...

Don't they do this about every decade or so?? Say we're running out of something, or everything?

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Monday, February 13, 2012 5:02 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by RionaEire:
I can't figure out why Wish has to spend so much more than everyone else. Is gas just over expensive in Indiana?

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

It's usually anywhere cheaper in IN, just over the border, by at least 20 cents up to about 45 cents cheaper than where my family lives 20 or so miles from me in IL. One day I was shocked to see that it was 8 cents more expensive here in IN than back home..... I've never seen that before or again.

I probably spend about 35 bucks a month on gas on average, but I don't go anywhere except to the hardware stores, grocery stores, tobacco stores and liquor stores, and I always make sure to hit everything in one go when I have to go out.

I probably make it back to IL 2 or 3 times a month at least, but most of that is expressway driving. My '96 Camry handles that like a champ!

I definitely have to figure a huge increase in gas spending when looking for a job. And tolls too.... dammit. The toll to get back to family used to be 30 cents with the IPASS (60 cents without). On Jan 1st, they upped the non-ipass to a whopping $1.50/per, so the IPASS is now 75 cents. It doesn't sound like much, but regardless of gas prices now, it costs me an additional $1.15 round trip everytime I visit friends or family, or every time they visit me.

F'ing Illinois, and their corruption.

Don't look at me... I'm not the one who voted an Illinois politician into the presidency.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Monday, February 13, 2012 7:03 PM

Beir bua agus beannacht

Oh yes, toll roads. When we went to Chicago when I was 17 we went through WS to Iowa to put our feet in the Mississippi, its really warm! I was really surprised at all the toll roads because I only know of one place that happens here in the Northwest. All of our roads are free, the only time you have to pay is to cross the bridge of the gods, which goes over the Columbia about 45 minutes east of me. Its a cool bridge so its fun to cross. Plus its at the location where Native legend says there was a stone arch over the river, hence the name.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012 1:42 PM

Did you all just catch the news, they said they expect gas to hit $5 at the pumps in Cali by June! And over $4 for the rest of us...

Anybody up for a little "Occupy" the gas stations??

This is soooo full of crap.

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012 2:55 PM

PIZMOBEACH

... fully loaded, safety off...

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
I know I live in po-dunk and we took a little day trip that cost $100, but I just added up our gas usage for the month and it is $622.46!!!... Wondered if you all know how much you spend? And no, we can't walk anywhere, really...

Is driving an electric car really any more economical? Since they cost much more than other cars, and I hear the replacement batteries are rediculously expensive...

You appear to be driving nearly 3-4000 miles a month depending on your mpgs - if that's close then I wouldn't consider an electric because of their somewhat limited range and charging station availability, and the time it takes to charge those puppies.

I'd look into a Honda Civic Hybrid - maybe one around 2008 - they go for around $15,000 at CarMax, get 50 mpg average city/hwy. It could save you around $4000 a year.

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.com

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012 3:21 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by RionaEire:
Oh yes, toll roads. When we went to Chicago when I was 17 we went through WS to Iowa to put our feet in the Mississippi, its really warm! I was really surprised at all the toll roads because I only know of one place that happens here in the Northwest. All of our roads are free, the only time you have to pay is to cross the bridge of the gods, which goes over the Columbia about 45 minutes east of me. Its a cool bridge so its fun to cross. Plus its at the location where Native legend says there was a stone arch over the river, hence the name.

Yeah.... it's rediculous. The really funny thing is that when they were first proposed when the highways were being built, the politicians at the time swore that it was only a temporary measure to pay for the creation of the roads.

Silly voters.... taxes almost never get rescinded. Especially in a state that gives the FED gumment a run for its when it comes to writing checks it can't cash.

Hell, at the very least they could use that tax money to actually fix the roads and bridges here, rather than do whatever the hell else with it they do. My step-dad was driving home from work about 4 months ago and saw a several car pile up behind him. Seems he lucked out. He passed the overhead bridge just a few seconds before a large chunk of it came falling down on the poor guy behind him.

Bridge of the Gods, huh? Cool name. Hope they maintain it better where you're at than they do in IL.

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
Did you all just catch the news, they said they expect gas to hit $5 at the pumps in Cali by June! And over $4 for the rest of us...

Anybody up for a little "Occupy" the gas stations??

This is soooo full of crap.

I don't watch the news because it's always bad news.....

I was paying $4.70 a gallon towards the beginning of last year in IL, so this doesn't surprise me.

What does surprise me is how many damn cars I still see on the road at these prices. At least in IN, traffic always seems to be decent. Where I grew up in IL though, there's way too many cars for the width of the roads. Even at $4.70 a gallon it took forever to get from A-to-B.

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think an "occupy" thing is necessary here, or that it would mean jack shit to the suppliers as long as 300 Million Americans continue to drive around in gas-guzzlers and put on 3,000k needless miles every year.

I'm sure the laws of Supply and Demand on gasoline are completely rigged, but given that gasoline is basically the country's life-blood, these A-holes will charge whatever they can get away with.

If everybody actually planned their routes and minimized purchases by hitting up 4 or 5 things they need to hit in one route, rather than making 4 or 5 separate trips; if people ditched the gas wasters and drove Camry's or better (mine was 14 years old and only cost 2k, so price isn't an excuse since it has at least another 100k miles before it dies).....

But no... WE don't do that. At least enough of us to matter don't do that.

Supply and Demand is a really F-d up thing when it comes to "essentials", especially after everybody merged and there are only a few suppliers that seem to have mutual agreements. We don't pay more for gas today because it's scarse, or because of these terrorists bombing this pipeline or because they're trying to ween us off this addiction.

No....

We simply pay more for gas because after years of pushing the envelope and jacking up rates while giving BS excuses, they see that the worst we can do is bitch and moan while we still go and buy more.

Trust me on this. I'm a smoker, and a rather heavy one at that. Smoking was a much easier target though, since lung cancer is the only cancer that nobody feels sorry for, so smokes went up before gas. They've raised taxes on smokes so heavily some places (Chicago, New York City) that I could buy a Playstation 3 for the price of 30 packs of cigarettes.

But we keep buying them.....

The only solace is that every demographic area must have finally found the "sweet-spot" to get the most money out of smokers now, and prices shouldn't go up much more than inflation. They don't actually want people to quit for health reasons, they just want to make the most possible tax reveneues as possible, and the less people smoking as a result is just a side effect they can take credit for.

Unfortunately, unless you're Amish in America, you need a car for basic sustinance. As long as the collective people are willing to put in enough miles and keep driving around gas guzzlers, any protest efforts aren't going to do a thing.

Sure, they'll be happy to watch you parade around with signs and it might even make the news for a week or two until Charlie Sheen actually makes good on his promise and sends his wife's head to her mother in the mail.

At the end of the day, the only way the People can have any effect on gas prices is to buy as little of it as possible, even when it's as "cheap" as 3 bucks a gallon. Who knows... if this happened, and continued to happen afterward, we might actually start riding a downward slope in gas prices.

And if that were to happen, hell, we probably wouldn't be outside of our right to start demanding that food prices go down next because transportation of the food to the stores was starting to cost what it did back in 2000.

Hell... in my mind, there is probably only one actual multi-national company that controls all of the oil in the world now. The only reason we have BP and Speedway and Mobil at slightly different prices is for our "benefit". It gives us the illusion that there is anyone left to fight each other over the prices we pay at the pump.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012 4:25 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
If everybody actually planned their routes and minimized purchases by hitting up 4 or 5 things they need to hit in one route, rather than making 4 or 5 separate trips; if people ditched the gas wasters and drove Camry's or better (mine was 14 years old and only cost 2k, so price isn't an excuse since it has at least another 100k miles before it dies).....

You are gonna be in for a rude awakening one of these days when you have kids, the idea of planning ahead is a joke...

Also, I wouldn't recommend shopping for a car anytime in the future, we just did that, extensively, and the cost of a used car has tripled in the last five years... You used to be able to find something that could still run six months from now for a couple thou...Even the shit at auctions is going for well above what it used to... Sooner or later, and again-if you have kids- you have to break down and get something reliable...We had to drive all the way to Ohio to get anything reliable at a decent price... And we had to keep the gas-guzzler, it hauls trash and rock, something the car can't do...

It's not easy out there, for anybody, these days.

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012 4:52 PM

I wasn't calling you out Wish... Even with your expenditures, I know you must have a reason just by our conversations.

My 2k camry was actually my late Uncle's. He had a bad last few years before the cancer took him. He was going through bankruptcy and even though book value was 4,500, i managed to get Carmax to gladly had over the title for only 2k.

As heartless as that may sound, I'm not a statue. I have framed pictures of both him and my other uncle who I loved as a brother holding me when I was a baby in my Chicago Bears outfit.

I also know about it not being easy. I'm not here because of a trust fund. I saved for 5 years and sacrificed my social life to get where I am now. After 6 months of almost constant rehab, I need to really find a job. Though costs have slowed down, I spent nearly half of my retirement money on taxes and home improvement expenditures. I can't even think about rehabbing the basement without spending another 3k on a natural gas backup and a battery backed sump pump for another 500 bucks.

Yeah.... real life is about to kick in for me.

I'm not looking forward to it.

All I was saying is that most people would rather put their vices on credit and worry about it another day. Even married people who are doing it for the kids.

I can only hope that laws still hold that I'm not responsible for my own parent's debts when they die when that time comes.

I can tell you right now, that if that happened, even in my situation, I wouldn't be able to afford repaying their debt to society.

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012 6:22 PM

I didn't mean to pass on angst. I am just soo sick of the way things are, not just with me and the cabin fever I always run in to in early spring (I'm the type who finds clothing constrictive, and six months of layers puts me over the edge) but... everything.... The economy has been crap ever since I graduated High School, and even though we're doing ok, it just makes me angry to live in this time, with the constant worry-even if you don't see the news- you still can't deny the incredibly rapid price increases, and it seems like life in general has this coat of crud on it... all tarnished and warped. I can see why Mal's character would be soo good at war after being on a Ranch in the middle of nowhere as a kid, I wanna start one out here in the middle of nowhere- and I'm still not entirely sure why...

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012 4:01 AM

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.

Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
Quote:
Originally posted by RionaEire:
I think EC and Quicko live near each other!

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

Sounds like EC lives roughly in the Waco/Belton area - not too far away.

Yeah, I'm in Waco. Dreary town, but expenses are low.

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
Did you all just catch the news, they said they expect gas to hit $5 at the pumps in Cali by June! And over $4 for the rest of us...

Anybody up for a little "Occupy" the gas stations??

This is soooo full of crap.

Central Texas probably has as low a price as anywhere these days, maybe Houston area is lower due to them being so close to a lot of the refineries. When I filled up Sunday when I got back from Dallas it was $3.359, although there are stations as high as $3.499 around here too.

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012 6:41 AM

NEEDY

The road to Hel is paved with good intentions

Just be glad you're not in the UK.
Petrol prices round here are about £1.35 a litre. Not sure about conversion but that's gotta be at least double the cost of the states. It's unbelievable, I dont want to think about how much money I spend on petrol

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012 8:19 AM

Do you drive a lot? One of the Canadian Browncoats recently figured the conversion out and said you are at about $6 a gallon...which wouldn't be so bad- if you were just driving a moped around

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012 9:04 AM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!

Say THANK YOU to the jew banksters on Wally Street who set the price of oil worldwide with rampant speculation with derivatives.

USA's official #1 export is OIL, to Commie China, Japan and Mexico, with most of the Alaskan oil exported, capped or pumped back into the ground.

Iraqi oil is given to Israel who sells it to Commie China. Gas was 5-cents a gallon in Iraq before the 20-year war by USA.

It only costs 5-cents to produce a gallon of gasoline in USA.

Amerikan Goyim are such suckers!

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012 9:24 AM

PIZMOBEACH

... fully loaded, safety off...

Quote:
Originally posted by piratenews:
Say THANK YOU to the jew banksters on Wally Street who set the price of oil worldwide with rampant speculation with derivatives.

USA's official #1 export is OIL, to Commie China, Japan and Mexico, with most of the Alaskan oil exported, capped or pumped back into the ground.

Iraqi oil is given to Israel who sells it to Commie China. Gas was 5-cents a gallon in Iraq before the 20-year war by USA.

It only costs 5-cents to produce a gallon of gasoline in USA.

Amerikan Goyim are such suckers!

So where do you get your gas?

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.com

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012 9:36 AM

BYTEMITE

Zero dollars.

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012 9:44 AM

PIZMOBEACH

... fully loaded, safety off...

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
Zero dollars.

See WishIMay, easy!

Even wiki can't help me, they say, rather amusingly: "The page "Zero dollars" does not exist."

?

ETA: should have known...

like to know what station takes these.

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.com

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012 9:46 AM

STORYMARK

Quote:
Originally posted by NEEDY:
Just be glad you're not in the UK.
Petrol prices round here are about £1.35 a litre. Not sure about conversion but that's gotta be at least double the cost of the states. It's unbelievable, I dont want to think about how much money I spend on petrol

Yeah, but your whole county can fit inside most of our states. Not saying that as an insult - just pointing out that we're a lot more spread out, which leads to more fuel usage.

"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012 12:00 PM

BYTEMITE

One British pound is generally worth two US dollars. So that price is actually really cheap.

I take mass transit, and I spring for the bargain annual pass. This year I paid 15 dollars. So, I guess not so much zero dollars a month on transit, but $1.25 per month.

Since I'm gloating about this, I invite you all to hate me.

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012 12:25 PM

RIVERTAM1

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayl!

We spend about $50-$100 a month on the X-trail, Dad can spend anything up to $1000 on his work truck, but its paid for by Telstra

The human body can be drained of blood in 8.6 seconds, given adequate vacuuming systems.

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012 12:27 PM

RIVERTAM1

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayl!

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
One British pound is generally worth two US dollars. So that price is actually really cheap.

I take mass transit, and I spring for the bargain annual pass. This year I paid 15 dollars. So, I guess not so much zero dollars a month on transit, but $1.25 per month.

Since I'm gloating about this, I invite you all to hate me.

What? Price per litre is more than that here! (NSW, Australia)
And thank you for the invite, muchly jealous.

The human body can be drained of blood in 8.6 seconds, given adequate vacuuming systems.

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012 3:25 PM

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
One British pound is generally worth two US dollars. So that price is actually really cheap.

But a litre is just a little bit more than a quart. There are 3.7854118 litres in a gallon. At current dollar to pound conversion rates that means Needy is paying over $8 a gallon. Hardly cheap.

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Thursday, February 16, 2012 5:18 AM

BYTEMITE

It's funny, I know she said litre, but I guess I'm so used to sale by the gallons that I missed that.

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Thursday, February 16, 2012 1:46 PM

You're a year younger than me Wish. The economy was pretty great for a few years after I graduated high school, but maybe it wasn't as good in S-IN as it was by Chicago in those days. It wasn't until the gas prices jumped to over 2 bucks a gallon in 2000/the dot.com bubble exploded that it started getting bad around me. I was laid off in mid-2001 and then after what happened in September it was pretty damn hard for a guy without a college degree to find anything worthwhile.... If my old man didn't get me a foot in the door at a large company in WI, and if I hadn't grown up enough (or become broke and desperate enough) to move that far away from my friends and all the parties, there is no way I'd be where I'm at today.

Anyways...

Keep your head up.

With all the doom and gloom that our spoiled generation is talking about all the time, and feeling justified in saying because of everything we hear all the time on the NEWS and pop culture in general, it's hard to forget that we still have it better than many generations before us have had. (strictly economically speaking)

What compounds these negative feelings for us, I think, is the constant emphasis on the famous today and the almost up-to-the-minute updates of their ridiculous lifestyles. Living vicariously through the life of the "haves" may have been nothing more than a slightly naughty indulgence in the 80's when it was watching an episode of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" or reading an article in People Magazine was all it entailed, but it's become a dangerously addictive mass-psychosis since the beginning of this century with the internet and YouTube.

Of course.... All of our lives are going to look like crap compared to their lives, especially when we need to start really budgeting our money because of external factors we have no influence on.

I've also fantasized about a war here to fix things myself quite often several years ago. I was also a much more paranoid person in my young-to-mid-twenties, and I wasn't at all happy. Even now, I'd like to think that I would fare well if that were to happen, but in reality, that's just the "spoiled me" talking. Nobody wins in war, especially any sort of Civil War. Sure, you and I may luck out and come out of it unscathed.... but at what price? How many people that we love would we have had to bury while it raged on?

You just have to push on and savor the good moments with your family and friends and believe that things can't keep trending downward forever. America is a "bi-polar" nation. The only reason we're riding this downward crest now is because we, as a country, mindlessly rode the last wave so high that the crest was devastating.

Maybe in the future we'll learn to temper the highs, so the lows don't seem to hurt so bad.

Jack Nicholson, as The Joker, in 1989's Batman said "This Town Needs an Enema".

Well....

This Country, Needs Lithium!

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Thursday, February 16, 2012 2:29 PM

Beir bua agus beannacht

It drives me to distraction the way everyone follows celebs on twitter etc. as though they know them personally, people talk about them as though they are friends because they read their twitter accounts. Its really silly. Honestly twitter itself is silly, why would I care what you had for lunch today, or that you're sitting on your patio in your underwear? I mean really.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Thursday, February 16, 2012 2:45 PM