I just read GETSOMEYEAH’s blog about going out and drinking. I have to say I agree but in a different way. I don’t drink but I do go out a lot more than I did in high school. An early night for me is about midnight and I have an 8 am on MWF and that’s a good night. I am currently trying to cut down to just going on Friday and Saturday nights, so we will see where that goes.
My dad currently is a vice-president for an oil company and I have been nicked named an “Oil Brat” just because people think that when gas prices go up that means my dad gets a bonus or a raise. Just to let those people know, he doesn’t. Sometimes, he even gets a deduction because the company wants to keep the price of gas down. We also have to pay the same price everyone else does to fill up our cars; we don’t get our gas for free.
The reason that the gas prices are going is because of the sellers raising the prices, and hurricane Ike. My dad’s company buys from Saudi Arabia like most companies. The oil business’s currency is American dollars, so when our exchange rate with the Euro and other currencies gets worse for us, these buyers want to keep selling the same amount they did before the dollar depreciated, so they charge us more to keep making a profit. Then there is hurricane Ike; while in Houston, he knocked out 14 out of 17 refineries, the place where they make the gas. They are currently working to keep up capacity. So next time when you think that mean oil companies are jacking up the price because they want more money, just remember they are paying the same as you! So stop complaining.
We’ve all seen them, the awkward people sitting in the empty movie theater next to us. You really can’t tell what they are doing but you are aggravated because their cell phone light is bothering the heck out of you. Did you ever think about the fact that these people maybe not just texting their friends but maybe actually recording the movie? I have never really been in the whole crusade of working against illegal distribution of movies, music and books until one of my favorite author decided to cancel her final installment of a series because some leaked a copy. Click here for the article. As you can tell, this really upset me, so I decided to do a little research.
I now know that the US has lost 1.3 billion dollars in profits from movie pirating and the whole movie black market coming to a whopping 1.8 billion dollars in losses. Each day 400,000 to 600,00 movies are illegally downloaded and that this number is going to get worse. According to US Justice Department, 23% of people have downloaded a movie online and 69% plan to do it in the next year. Then in a study conducted in the UK found that out of 1,158 18-24 year olds, 95% of them have pirated music. And we all remember when right before the 7th Harry Potter parts of it leaked out onto the Internet. What I want to know is why people do this? Why they like to take money away from not only our favorite artists, actors and authors, but also all the people that helped in producing our entertainment?
