I had this idea sometime shortly after the attacks on the world trade towers on 9/11/01.  There were all these people stuck on floors so high up, and their only way out were the windows.  So many people just jumped to their death.  The only other method of getting out of the building was the stairwells, which were full of smoke or missing completely.

I was reminded again of this idea when I watched the movie, Towering Inferno.  Probably one of the gnarliest movies I’ve ever watched.

Anyway, I remembered when I was a kid we had one of these portable chain ladders.  You just threw it out the window, hooked it to the bottom of the window, and climbed down.

So why can’t we have a bunch of these all around buildings?  Have these chain ladders built into the sides of the buildings, all folded up, and when someone hits the emergency button, they all just fall down.  I can’t imagine it would be very expensive.  You don’t have to encase the building in chain ladders either.  Maybe every other floor have a set of 4 ladders around it, and have the ladders span down 3 floors, so if a floor is inaccessible, like a plane flies into it, you can still get to the next floors from the other set of ladders.

Even having something to grab onto would help people get down to a safer height, or if they fall off, they could grab onto.  Graphic, I know, but it just seems so simple and cheap that I’m surprised it’s not implemented.

Talking with Chris Olivieri one day, we got into how cursive is useless and shouldn’t be taught any more.  If we wanted to teach children how to write differently, teach them a different language.  To take that a step further, you could teach everyone in the world the same extra language.  That might draw us all a little closer to a global communication standard.  Even if it’s a language like Latin, that so many other languages are based on, it will help people identify root words and origins to be more adept linguists.

Have you ever looked at states with straight border lines and wondered why they were straight and how true those straight lines were?  I have.  I want to play with those straight lines.

I want to buy property right on the line in one state, then buy the adjoining property in the other state and try to find a loop hole to join them together as part of 1 state.

If you get really creative, you can start to form letters out of the new properties, enough to spell something fun.  Eventually, they’d have to draw up a new map and include your “revisions” to state lines.  WIN.

oh, and have I ever told you about my idea to run a marathon through 4 states near the mason dixon line?  That’d be awesome.

How much surface area would it take to create the tallest mountain manually?  I think this would be a good task for some place in Colorado, since they’re already so elevated.  You could build this mountain and design it to have a wide road that wraps around it, and depending how long it turns out to be, you could have marathons, sky gliding, street luge competitions, or even some crazy sort of triathalon where you run to it, bike up it, and repel down it.  You could create tourist pull overs and places to eat and check out the view.  We’re totally covering some dangerous ground close to the Tower of Babel, but we’ve go the technology and big trucks these days!  We could have it done in a matter of weeks!  Heck, while we’re at it, we might even end up creating the deepest hole just by digging out the dirt needed!  BONUS!

I wonder what the corporate smoking policy is at cigarette manufacturers.  Do they have no breaks because people can smoke as much as they want to anywhere in the office?  Does everyone get free cigarettes?  There’s got to be a hard balance from encouraging loyalty to your product to also maintaining productivity to investing in the health of your employees as well.

It’s not like you can counter-act smoke inhilation like you can with exercise and fat.  It’s black or white, on or off.  Smoking in moderation is never a recommendation.

I’m going to try to avoid offending anyone here.  Know that I’m expressing my thoughts, not my rules.  This is an idea that I’ve always struggled with, not something that I’m upset with others for doing.

I don’t really value food.  I define food as the most basic substance that we require to survive.  That’s all I am able to see it as, a maintenance requirement for our bodies.  I do see food as an industry, man-made, sensationalized, and hierarchical.  That scares me, and it always has.

I’m not talking about the content of documentaries like Food, inc or Super-size me.  I’m on a much more basic level.  The NEED for food.  Why do we NEED to enjoy food?  Should we really value taste?  If we could get the same nutritional value of a salad in a pill form, shouldn’t we do that instead?  From a time spent perspective?  From a consuming natural resources perspective?

I look to The Bible for answers, partly because that’s where the struggle was born.  I see where meat is sacrificed.  I see where feasts are held on significant days and times.  I see so many metaphors using food to express how important something is.  I see a lot of bread, wine, water, milk, honey, grains and cheese.  These are all basic foods.  Specifically in the book of Job, he makes the reference to not wanting to eat unsalted food.  He is tormented with life’s unending slavery.  I can only hope that I do not meet the same fate as Job for my questions here…

The point I keep coming back to though is that food is temporary.  There are numerous metaphors to stay away from temporary things.  We should build our homes on permanent ground, we should focus on the things unseen and everlasting, not tangible and mortal.  Are we investing large percentages of our days to temporary and earthly things?  We spend so much time preparing something that we’re just going to destroy right away.

This can be applied to a lot of things besides cooking.  Clothing is temporary and earthly, but we put such emphasis on putting on our Sunday best for church.  Movies are entertaining and can be the launching pad for fellowship, but I can’t think of any other activity where we do nothing for 90 minutes.  Discussing politics will just go on and on and on, and it won’t even change a thing.  Is this what we’re called to do with our time?

It basically comes down to where is the line between actively doing God’s work and resting?  Where is the line between investing time versus return?  Where is the line between rendering unto Caesar and following our calling?

Even if cooking long and intricate meals is the best thing we can do in our lives, isn’t there then something righteous about denying ourselves that pleasure?

Again,  these are my own thoughts and struggles.  If you enjoy cooking, do it!  Family dinner time, the gift of hospitality, and inviting others to break bread with you are some of the most tremendous things to do in our life!  I just know that I’m not going to be able to do those things every day and every meal, especially if I’m to value other areas of my life.  Enter struggle.

Here’s another video game idea that actually came to me as a result of a dream.  In the dream, I’m in a big city landscape, being chased down by military and such.  I end up stealing a Gatling gun and taking a bunch of them out at a time and then running away on roof tops and such.

So here’s the game idea.  Think Grand Theft Auto meets Streets of Rage 2.  It’s just a game of survival set in a city with lots of cars, fire escapes, roof tops, lamp posts, etc.  You start off walking down the street, either looking for fights, or fights are looking for you.  Like, you walk by a guy, you can get the party started right there and punch him in the face.  Or even some guy comes and mugs you.  Someone joins in to help him.  Someone else calls 911.  The cops come, they call for swat.  swat comes and they call in the national guard.  helicopters come in.  more and more men.  barricades are set up.

You have your choice of a few characters, each with their own specialties:

• Athletic karate chick – Quick, agile.  She can’t take a lot of damage.  I’m thinking there’s a UI (user interface) for points where she can grab on to.  Like a little “shiny spot that glimmers” on a lamp post or ladder.  You’d have her run at it and jump, she could grab on there and either climb to higher spots easily, or catapult herself at enemies.
• Big strong dude – He can take a lot of damage, but he’s slow.  He can’t fit in cars to drive them around, but he can pick them up and throw them.  He can break off lamp posts and swing them around.
• Weapons expert/PC Hacker – Probably comes equipped with tons of guns and bombs and such, but he/she can also use all the guns of the military and fly their helicopters.  Maybe something like being able to hear where the military is forming and planning next.  Maybe something like being able to shut down the powergrid and fighting in the dark with night vision goggles.
• Rich dude with political/social connections – Whatever you want, it’s at your finger tips.  You can make a call and have the military called off, you can call for someone to pick you up in a helicopter and take you away, you have your own body guard(s) that fight people off.

It’d be an arcade type of scoring, the point is just to get the biggest score/stay alive the longest/kill the most enemies.  The unique things to the game would be the “cooperation” moves when playing with multiple players.  the rich dude can order some awesome weapons that only the weapons expert can use.  the strong dude can throw the weapons dude at a helicopter for him to take it over.  The hacker can broadcast a message for the rich dude to the media to get news copters and reporters on the scene  (that would increase points multiplier as well as change difficulty).

Unique game play additions would be with media coverage.  If you’re on the news, people will come out and fight with you maybe.  You’re also less likely to die in front of a news camera.

Maybe the game takes a little bit of a riot/revolution plot.  Each character has a back story with why they need to fight against the government.  You start riots in cities across the country/globe, unlocking more and more cities until you get to the capital.  Maybe once you get the riots started in the city, you have to sneak away someone to the next city to get it started.

I’d play it.  Sounds like the multi-player would be where all the fun is.

I’ve heard about the airlines that charge you for 2 seats if your body “prevents the use of safety belts or arm rests” or whatever, even famous director Kevin Smith was forced to pay the fees on one airline.

What I’m thinking is that airlines start charging based on BMI, or some other type of health standard.  This could be extremely effective in our nation’s healthy and it’s completely based in sound logic.  The heavier you are, the more fuel they have to burn to move you.

Maybe even throw luggage into the mix.  Charge everything by the pound.  If you and your luggage weigh 300 pounds, it will cost you $300 for every 300 miles you go or something like that.  Even if the ratio is majorly slanted for profit of the airlines, it will be simpler for everyone, get rid of the unfairness of little people paying more and huge people inconveniencing anyone else.

Related:  http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/10/14/tall.fliers.rant/index.html?hpt=C2

When you’re in an airplane, especially when you’re using the tray table in front of you as a head rest, there really should be some common etiquette in place for when and how the person in front of you reclines.

Since I have long legs, I’ve had people recline with a lot of power right into my legs.  ARG.  I have to sacrifice my comfort for their comfort…I don’t like that.  If we talked about it before hand, even if they told me they were coming back, it would have been much easier to take.

Maybe there should be some sort of acceptance before you recline.  like a light goes on and you have 5 seconds to push it before they can recline.  Even if we started asking people behind us if it is alright to recline, that would be great.

Do binoculars let people with great vision see further than people with poor vision?  I guess it’s more a question of how they work.  When you adjust them, are you sacrificing distance for quality?  Do our eyes focus on the image way off in the distance, or an image that is contained within the binoculars?