Quote of the Day: Monday, September 12, 2005

"Writing has always - and always will, I'm sure - scared the hell out of me. I'll do just about anything to get out of it, and have been known to spend whole afternoons circling my desk like a dog, wary, unwilling to commit to writing a single word. What is so frightening about it? I still don't know. Perhaps it's the horrible knowledge that no matter how well you write, the resultant product will never correlate exactly to the truth, will never arrive with quite the melodious voice you hear in the acoustic cavity of your mind." - Brenda Miller, from her Essay, "A Braided Heart: Shaping the Lyric Essay"

Quote of the Week: Monday, September 5, 2005

"In writing the poem I make the connection, find the neural pathways to a deeply felt memory-generated emotion. That is how I know it is the Truth (not to be mistaken by the Fact). Once I have located the Truth, I have the Subject. Not the triggering subject, but the Thing that I must use as the basis of my essay or story. It is not that the poem and the prose are the same Thing, only that they come from the same source. I use this technique in order to answer the all-important question I must ask before I commit my time, my energies, and my heart to a writing project: Is it worth part of my life? Who cares if I make this poem or story? If I am passionate enough about something to write a poem, then it is worth my time and no one else needs to care about it. It is necessary to me." - Judith Ortiz Cofer, from her essay "But Tell It Slant: From Poetry to Prose and Back Again"

gas prices

I received an interesting e-mail today and did some research into the e-mail, to find out who started it - It seems to be making the rounds on the net and I did pass it on as the idea is interesting. As some people have said online already, it probably won't work if the only round it is making is online but at least it makes people think?

It sounded like an adbusters thing but it's not. I did I find it posted in a lot of forums and in different languages calling for people to do this on September 1st and there were some who were calling for it to happen on September 3rd. I also found an older post about people trying to do this back on May 19th. Something like this though may have more legs if it were organized by someone like adbusters, greenpeace or some other large, internationally renowned and recognized environmental group.

This page looked interesting - break the chain, mainly the last paragraph is the most fitting:

"While popular, boycott campaigns that rely only on e-mail chain letters for publicity have been historically unsuccessful. Efforts to "fight" rising fuel prices by changing who we buy from or when date back as far as 1998. However, all of them miss the most effective way to lower the cost of gasoline is to reduce demand for it across the board. This would require changing our driving habits and adopting conservation tactics. It's real easy to forward a chain letter, and even go an extra block to gas up, but much harder to take public transportation, ride share, walk more and trade in that gas-guzzling SUV on a more efficient model. Break This chain."

Good luck everyone... I'd be interested to know what others think,

- Steve

FWD:FWD: Gas Prices

IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES.

AT THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OF OVER 4.6 BILLION DOLLARS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES.

THEREFORE SEPTEMBER 1st HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT UP THEIR BEHIND " DAY AND THE PEOPLE OF THESE TWO NATIONS SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF GASOLINE THAT DAY.

THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD OUT.

WAITING ON THE GOVERNMENT TO STEP IN AND CONTROL THE PRICES IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REDUCTION AND CONTROL IN PRICES THAT THE OIL NATIONS PROMISED TWO WEEKS AGO?

REMEMBER ONE THING, NOT ONLY IS THE PRICE OF GASOLINE GOING UP BUT AT THE SAME TIME AIRLINES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES, TRUCKING COMPANIES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES WHICH EFFECTS PRICES ON EVERYTHING THAT IS SHIPPED. THINGS LIKE FOOD, CLOTHING, BUILDING MATERIALS, MEDICAL SUPPLIES ETC. WHO PAYS IN THE END? WE DO!

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IF THEY DON'T GET THE MESSAGE AFTER ONE DAY, WE WILL DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN.

SO DO YOUR PART AND SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND MAKE SEPTEMBER 1ST A DAY THAT THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA SAY "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"