Jeremy Herndon

Well my friends and I have agreed to get together and see the Dark Knight movie today. We’re going to get together to eat lunch at Wendy’s first and then go see the movie. We had discussed going to eat at the Golden Corral because it is an all you can eat buffet, but we all wanted to leave room for movie theater popcorn! Both of those restaurants are in the same shopping center as the movie theater, which is why we narrowed our choices down to those two restaurants. We all like both of those restaurants, the deciding factor was the popcorn. I’m sure we will all enjoy ourselves tremendously; we always have a good time when we get together!

This past weekend I had to travel from DC to Philadelphia. I didn’t want to drive, so I decided to take Amtrak. I have to say that the trip was a lot more pleasant than I expected. I bought the ticket in advance on line and printed out the receipt and took it with me in case I needed it. I took the Metro to Union Station. The Metro stop put me right inside Union Station, which was cool. Once inside I found a self-serve kiosk that I could use to print out my own ticket. From there I found a television screen that told me what gate my train was departing from, so I went to that gate.

There was no long waiting at a security screening section; I simply went to the gate. When they opened the doors to board the train, no one stopped me to security check me or look at my ID or ticket, all that was done AFTER I got on the train. The seats were comparable to airplane seats as far as comfort goes. I did not have to stay in my seat; I could walk around and go to the snack car or the restroom if I needed to. The train left on time, and the ride was comfortable and fast. Since travelling by air is becoming more of a hassle, and more expensive, I’ll be looking into taking the train more often in the future!

I was really pushing my luck today.  I just got a Texaco gas credit card that gives me a 25 cent discount for every gallon of Texaco gas that I buy for the first three months that I have the card.  Some of the Texaco gas stations are higher than the rest of the pack; some are running at a dead heat.  Today I had to run some errands and I knew that I was going to need to buy gas.  I also knew that I’d be driving past a Texaco but not sure what their price was going to be like, compared to the rest.  On my way into town I saw their price was pretty good, so I decided that I’d fill up on the way home unless I drove past a station with a better price.  Well, there WERE some that were 4 cents cheaper, but I wouldn’t get that discount from the Texaco gas card.  So I just drove right past them.  Well, let me tell you that by the time I reached that Texaco on the return trip I only had one gallon of gas left in the tank!  Now THAT is cutting it close!

I was watching the news and they were talking about how the cost of gasoline is going to keep going up, and how the price of corn is going to go up (because of the floods) and how the price of milk is going to go up (and the stores are going to be switching to funny shaped milk jugs to save money) and it just makes me shake my head and wonder how we are going to survive!  Our economy is in serious trouble, and I don’t know very many people who say that they are NOT having trouble making ends meet!  I’m hearing stories about people who are renting their homes are moving closer to their jobs, taking smaller apartments simply because they can’t afford the gasoline to drive to work.  I’m hearing about people who are trying to take public transportation but can’t get on the train or the bus because it’s already full.  I’m hearing about people driving to the commuter lots and not finding places to park.

We need some serious re-vamping of the public transportation system, and we need to find alternate sources of fuel, to get away from fossil fuel dependency!  If we don’t act fast, we are going to be in deep trouble!

I think that the exploration of Mars is so cool, it would really be something if the scientists discovered that there is/was/could be life on Mars. I love science fiction books/movies/television shows, and anything that has to do with exploring other planets, looking for signs of some kind of life really excite me! I heard that the space explorer Phoenix has landed on ice; the scientists concluded that photos taken of the “white stuff” show that the “white stuff” is shrinking, which means that it is ice. That is supporting evidence that there really COULD be some kind of “life on Mars.” Very cool!