Where I have freaky thoughts that I will no doubt disagree with later

America is poor.

Today I was sitting in AP Government with my blog partner and counterego, Brandon (mrhighwayisthinkingabouttheend.blogspot.com - enjoy that advertisement) as the teacher talked about current events. The subject of the national debt came up, where the class learned that America owes money to pretty much every single country that has invented currency. Then I came home and looked at a book that my parents got me on the national debt. Yes, my parents got me a book on a national debt. I am that kid. After reading the first five pages of the book, I learned that there is no way in the world that we can feasibly pay off the money that we owe to every country in the world.

This may not have been the happy tone you were searching for.

Oddly enough, I am really unworried about the fact that we're economically screwed. When you think about it, what is money? A dollar is a piece of cottony-papery-stuff with some ink on it in a special design. But thousands (I don't have the guts to say millions) have died in the pursuit of more. If you count those who have wasted their entire lives going after a bigger paycheck, the number rises to millions rather quickly. Instead of spending their lives on something fulfilling, they try to fill the void in their soul with money. Unfortunately, there is always somebody with more money than you. You never win. * Your life just flies by and ends.

Don't get me wrong. Money is important. It buys food. Food is important. But America has made the dollar bill into a symbol like the American flag or Jesus. Maybe it will be good for us when suddenly we can only afford one car each. Sometimes disasters are the only way to get people to focus on what really matters. This may be the disaster we need.

* = Yes, I accounted for the richest man in the world. Carlos Slim has an estimated worth of $53.2 billion, but he doesn't have as much money as Slovenia ($54.6 billion). They don't have as much money as Luxembourg ($55 billion). This works up the chain until America, which brings us back to the start of this post.

Stepping up my game.

Well, apparently since Thursday, blogs have become trendy. This has resulted in a lot more people making blogs. This has resulted in people making good blog posts that far outclass my stuff. I'm not going to let my blog be outclassed. I figure that the best way to do this is by talking about real things that happen in real life.

So let's do this.

Today, I was driving to Outback Steakhouse after church with my family. I just got my permit a little over two months ago. Obviously I'm not an expert driver, but I'm pretty good. I only make around two mistakes each trip, and compared to some people on the road, that could qualify me as pro.

When I leave church, I end up making a right turn onto a pretty busy 4 lane highway. I then have less than a quarter of a mile to get over all the way into a left hand turn lane. It's nerve-wracking (I don't know if that should be one word or not) as anything, and it requires a fair measure of luck. On this particular evening, I ended up slightly in front of somebody in the lane immediately to my left (draw a picture if this is confusing you). I put on my blinker, expecting him to slow down and let me through. But I guess I was expecting him to have human decency. He clearly didn't have any and sped up to go exactly parallel to me. This was annoying by itself, but it gets better. He then proceeds to roar ahead and cut in front of me (I was going 5 mph over the speed limit) and then go to the right two lanes. There were about 6 chances where we could have died in a collision and a fiery blaze of twisted metal. But he needed that extra two seconds he got from getting in front of me.

This was a bit of rambling and complaining. But the only reason I made a blog is so that I could ramble and complain. This should satisfy me for now.

Stay beautiful,

Ryan

The First Blog Post

Hello.

This is a blog post.

This is the first blog post.

This is the first official blog post by Ryan Deal.

I'm hoping that this blog will give you millions of inspirational thoughts every time that you even think about reading it. But the inspirational thoughts will come with time. This is what is called an organizational post. The main purpose is to introduce exactly what will happen during future posts of said blog.

But this is different, because I have no idea what exactly will happen during future posts of said blog. I'm basically winging it.

Anyways, I just had a bowl of honeycomb with fat free half & half on it. If that doesn't inspire you, nothing will.

Stay beautiful,

Ryan