Sholtzy

Well, I'm a smoker and have been for 11 years, all I have to say is: If smoking causes global warming, then sorry guys, it's time to roast.

I say, yes; for medical purposes ONLY. The talk about making it legal recreationally is ludicrous. That stuff messes you up bad, and people who smoke it recreationally are really gambling with not only their lives but also the lives of everyone around them. I have a roommate, who 5 years ago spent all the money she had set aside for her sons Christmas, on a boob job, and 2 #’s of pot. Another year, she actually retuned gifts to the store with only a couple days to until Christmas, for the money. An old friend of mine smoked pot until he started having seizures when he smoked it; it took him a large amount of times of that even happening for him to put the pipe down. An old best friend of mine, used to “wake-and-bake,” every morning before work. Now, no one in town will hire him except the place he works now…washing dishes, part-time. Not a good thing when you have a wife and 2 kids. I’ve seen tons of people cough blood, get in car accidents, fight, have seizures (2 different people), loose jobs, forget things that shouldn’t be. I’ve seen people start to scrounge for money to get more, in the mean time throwing people around them to the curb. That isn’t a good thing, when the family barely makes enough money to stay alive the way it is. I see some people saying, alcohol or tobacco is worse for you, so why no make it legal. That’s just dumb reasoning, that’s like that joke that goes around, when someone’s leg hurts because they tripped and fell or something, and you offer to help them by breaking a finger, that way they’re not feeling their leg. When your car needs a new fuel filter, and you run into a light pole at 35 mph, on the way to the mechanic, you don’t get out and say, “Oh, well, the 15 dollar fuel filter needed changed anyway.” So we flip that around and make drinking and smoking illegal. I remember learning of a time when the “big bad government,” did make drinking illegal. We wouldn’t have that though, we fought for that right to be given back. That’s the only way it’ll ever happen in this day and age. Only problem is, people who smoke the ganja, will never do that, because they’re to concerned with themselves and getting their next hit, to worry about the politics of making what they are doing legal. My opinion is on of experience. I smoke ganja for 4 years. A couple of buddies and I even sold huge amounts of the stuff for almost two years, before I got out of it. Completely. I’m not saying there aren’t responsible people out there. I’m just saying it does NOT matter that there are responsible people out there, when I’ve seen that the MAJORITY of people are trash. If they aren’t now, they will be if they aren’t careful. Saying we should make it legal for strict home use won’t do any good. Those people at the beginning of all this, that I gave specific examples of, are all people that are closet smokers, a lot of their own friends don’t know they “can’t put the pipe down.” Will, they guy with the crap job and 2 kids, his own wife has no clue he smokes it up…every morning. These people smoked strictly in their own homes, and it’s ruined – or IS ruining - their lives, and the lives of those around them. Like I said I used to smoke it and for quite some time, and I was responsible about it, but I know what kind of people the majority are like, or will be like with time. Alcohol and tobacco? If I could vote on it, I’d vote to make those illegal, as well. I go to the bar and kick back a few every couple of months, and I’m a smoker, a pack and a half a day for almost 10 years now. These things make (or made with the MJ) life better in certain ways, but it’s fatally dangerous to, to many people. I won’t stop partaking in my cigarettes and alcohol until the DO make it illegal, but should the chance come up to do so, I’m there. Call me a hypocrite if you like. I don’t quite practice what I preach; I see that. I just choose not to fight myself; in other words, it will be a lot easier to quit smoking when I don’t have a choice in the matter.

I don't quite understand. What would be wrong with calling it a planet? That's a problem because kids in school will have to remember another name? So what. I had to memorize tons, and tons...and tons of information that I have never used after doing so. If the kid doesn't remember the name of that planet 20 years later, so what, obviously he hasn't chosen a field where that would be important. If the kid does go into the field, planet names are hardly even the beginning of what he will have to memorize. I say, call it a planet, and be done with it.

Einstein2, here's a thought. Let's say your idea works. Based on what you said let's say we travel faster than light long enough so that what you are seeing of earth is 1 hour in the past. From that point you want time travel? What good is it to "time travel" back an hour. On what you said, accelerating back to earth will only cause things to speed up, there by erasing what you were trying to accomplish. If the trip overall were 4 hours, because of things speeding up, when you got back it would be 4 hours later. Not time travel in my book. I don't believe that speed is the answer to time travel.

I seem to think in a way that hasn't been expressed here. The best I can describe is that I think in structures or processes. I am a perfectionist, and seeing this thread makes me wonder, if maybe the way I think has something to do with that. I do have what I would consider a powerful imagination, however to outwardly express it in a way that shows an imagination seems next to impossible. It always comes out very structured and complex. My math skills are really good, or at least the potential of having really good math skills. As a freshman in high school I took geometry, I did and still do love math, but peer pressure kept me from continuing beyond. Visualization of shapes though, is difficult. I can visualize 2D objects and hold them without a problem, anything more than that can't be held. I can try to think about a cube, for example, however, it's only a flash of a cube in my mind, and before I could even speak out loud that I was visualizing a cube, my brain has already allowed it to decompose. Even to try to draw a shape is very difficult for me, if I don't have tools even for something simple like a square or triangle, it's simply not going to happen. I seriously failed middle school art because of my artistic skills. Probably the only person in the history of my school who honestly tried to at least pass and still failed in art. I learned some years later though, that he failed me because of one particular drawing I made with stick people, when I had to describe to him what I had drawn. He thought I was fooling around, and thought I only drew that bad because I was in some way making fun of him or his class. Anyway though, I just don't visualize things, nor do I seem able to learn though visualizing. Give me a lecture over a field trip or hands on work any day. "Get in the car." I don't see the car, nor do I see myself getting into the car. If I were to be sitting at home on my computer and I had to "Get in the car,” this is what goes through my mind: 1) Click all programs/files on taskbar from left to right. 2) Close all programs/files on taskbar from right to left. 3) Slide chair back. 4) Stand. 5) 6 steps to position behind chair. 6) Push chair in with left hand. 7) 18 steps to bedroom door. 8) Open door. 9) 4 steps to dresser. 10) Wallet to back left pocket, crease on wallet facing out. 11) Pick-up and count cigarettes in pack to determine if a new pack will be needed before I approximate time I would return. 12) Pack to front right pocket front of box facing out. 13) Lighter to little lighter pocket above front right pocket. 14) Keys hooked on first belt loop to the left of zipper, and put into pocket. 15) 7 steps to turn around walk to door and close. 16) 6 steps to front door. 17) 45-49 steps to car door. Believe it or not this is the abbreviated version of what really goes on. Each line of this list has a list of it's own. There are no visualizations that go through my mind with something like that. I don't handle sporadic events very well, and they make me very nervous. If I am in the middle of a process when something comes up, I tend to have a short temper. I am a dream customer for any fast food worker though, once I've decided what I like at a particular place I always get the same meal, so there's no staring at a menu that's never changed in the 20 years it's been there. I also, knowing how much my meal will be, have my money waiting for them to take, even before they're ready to take it. I'm not obsessive in my behavior, I don't HAVE to do things a certain way, I do sporadic things at times. However, I do prefer regularity. Lunches are always the same, I go to George's (a pizzeria), and get a personal pan, beef pizza with extra cheese and light sauce, iced tea to drink. I smoke 2 cigarettes before my meal comes to me, and 2 after I'm done. Suppers though, are more random, but if I go somewhere I always get the same thing. If I eat at home, I already have a list of meals I can make based on what I have in the kitchen, so I can choose from that. From what I have observed in other people though, I don't seem to be delayed in any of the things I do, and usually I'm faster, more efficient, and forget fewer things along the way. There are a few things that seem to take longer or are harder for me to do. While I soak any and all information given me better than a sponge, I can't grasp names. With my best friend of a year, it took me almost 6 months to be able to remember her daughter's name on command. I can remember best friends I had 4 and 5 years ago, but only those two or three people, none of the other people I was just friends with at that time. If I go back longer than around 5 years, I remember nothing of people's names, but I can remember specifics over conversations we'd had. I can however, remember how many rotations of the pedals on my bikes from my house to every school I ever went to. I make friends really well, but I don't retain them very well. When we have a disagreement over the way something happened, I will bring up certain things someone said, then you hear that ever-popular "when? I never said that." But I can give them dates and I can give them the time they said it and be correct within only a couple of minutes, as well as EXACTLY what they said and how they said it. It turns out when you do things like that to often, people for the most part don't like it. Generally throughout the day, no images, such as shapes and colors, are going through my head, just processes. The only exceptions being 1) while I'm sleeping, and 2) when I am reading a book. Looking back on this, I'm beginning to think I'm crazy.