Responsible

So where along our lives do we become adults? Is it when we are 18? We finish high school or college? We get our first full-time job? We get married?
I was justing thinking lately about how I spend my time. I am becoming very responsible with everything I do. I feel like I am becoming an adult. I don't feel right about spending the whole day wasting time on one thing or another. If I become idle for too long I long for something else to work on. This is great for work, but horrible for relaxing.
I love the good ol days of spending a whole weekend not caring about what I did at all. Now it seems that everything is work-work-work. Work to make money to have a car and house so you can go to work. I feel I am becoming a work-a-holic. Working 6 days a week, and coming home and doing work for my internship 4 nights a week.
So who wants to go out and have a picnic? Go fishing? Play paintball? Walk around, just sit outside for awhile and relax. This is my dream. And it looks like my temp assignment is tapering towards an end so I may have some time for these activities soon before I am re-assigned.

NEW CAR!!

Ok, so after much looking, calling and many disappointments I finally decided on the type of car I wanted. All that was left was finding a good deal. That deal ended up being in Augusta GA. Not too far away, but still a good drive. So all of Monday was devoted to this car effort. This included getting ready to go, driving 3 hours their, test driving for about 45 min, haggling for 1.5 hours, paperwork for another 1.5 hours, and looking for fitting floormats for 30 min.

I was just happy to be done with that process and ready to drive home. (http://kepler.covenant.edu/~beerman/Pictures/Summer05/slides/IMGP0652.JPG http://kepler.covenant.edu/~beerman/Pictures/Summer05/slides/IMGP0651.JPG)

So, after another 3 hours of driving home, and another 2 hours of talking about cars, me and my Dad (who severly aided me during this whole process) finally went to bed exhausted. Today, I was dragging my feet around work just waiting for lunch to roll around so I could take another drive around.

So now I am the proud owner of an '02 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. This is a four door sedan with a serious taste for sports, and a moderate taste for luxery. With it's 5-8 lb supercharger it zooms in and out of traffic with 240 horses and over 280 ft-lbs of torque. Leather interior, CD, sunroof, top gun style HUD (yes, heads up display, like on video games; projects MPH and stereo settings on to windshield)... it has it all. Well, HID's would be nice but not available in any GM product.

Car Shopping

Ok, so my car has been in the shop for over a year now getting the transmission fixed. This is absolutely horrible. For the longest time I thought it could be fixed, but now I have pretty much given up hope and I am very upset at the shop that is doing the work on it.
Anyways, this means that I need a new car. I have been looking at almost every car out there. I was first interested in the Camero, then the Impala, then the Grand Prix, then the accord and again the Grand Prix. Anyways, almost every car has its issues (kind of like most people). But, it was fun to get to drive all these cars. I got to drive a Z28 Camero with about 320 HP. But that was a very heavy car compared to the Grand Prix. It is a lot light but only has 200 HP. It revs higher but is quite peppy.
I have decided that cars salesmen can be just as bad as their stereotype. I went to Honda Carland in Roswell and the salesman would not leave me alone. He kept on telling me how much he was not trying to pressure me into anything but then he tried to make me promise to come back the next day to look at another car that wasn't anything like what I wanted. He also made fun of me for like the expensive car but not wanting to pay the outrageous price they had on it. Dealer prices always start out super high and this one was no exception. But, we did meet one awsome salesperson who actually sold himself before the car. He just showed us the cars, got the keys, and opened the doors. He didn't try to talk us into something but he actually listened to what I was saying about the car and let us try out cars that met that description. I also spent a lot of time talking about all the neat toys that come packed into seperate cars and how they could easily be modded for a cooler, customized look. He was from the Chevy dealer. I expected a lot more from the Honda dealer and a lot less from the Chevy dealer. It is because the Honda dealer doesn't need you to really be pleased because there is such a demand for that car that they will sell the cars anyways. It is horrible for businesses to not have competition that forces them to contour their practices to what the consumers need. You see it with Honda, Microsoft, Oil producers and many other monopolies...
Well, no decision yet on what car I am going to get but the Grand Prix is a fun, easy to drive and sporty car that may or may not have major drive-train (transmission) problems early in its life. Meditate on this further I will.

Guys and Girls

So recently I have been reading Orson Scott Card's Children of the Mind. This is the last installment in the Ender Wiggins series originating from Ender's Game. Within this book there are many examples of interactions between guys and girls including when girls like guys more than the guys like them, when girls like guys but the guy doesn't like them and vice-versa. And, in all these situations you get to hear what they are thinking. Although Card's insight is a stretch in many of these situations it makes you think.
So girls are romantic in thinking. Based on emotion and then logic. Guys, are the opposite. This is not a problem when emotion and logic are in sync, but in many situations this causes many problems. This is further exasterbated when guys only focus on the logical aspects of life and give up their romantic selves. This happens often when guys become self absorbed and only participate in activities that directly and promptly reward them in one fashion or another.
The solution? Be content with what God has given you. Focus not on what will give you the largest return but on what is right to do. Reach out more and let your feelings guide you. But, like most dicotomies, too much of either side can be just as disasterous. Let your feelings be checked by their logical counterparts to ensure that you don't let your emotions carry you away. But, too much logic turns us into robots. Instinct, feelings, emotions must be considered. Is it easy to balance these? Impossible, by yourself. Reaching out to touch others is essential to maintain your balance. That is again why it is very important to spend time with both sexes. If you terry too long without this balance, it will be very difficult for you to be able to relate to the other sex at all since you are speaking different languages.
I may be off on some of these ideas as they are not fully formed, but just what I was considering today.