Feel like a shopping spree?

I was perusing another blog and came across a link to this site.

We've all heard the 3 trillion dollar figure...apparently that is how much money we have or will have spent on the Iraq war.

I don't want to get into my thoughts on the Iraq war as most of you know them already and I don't feel like getting myself angry tonight.

I do, however, want you to take a look at http://www.3trillion.org/. What a fascinating website.

We know 3 trillion dollars is a LOT of money...but I now you can find out just how much it really is. The website gives you a budget of 3 trillion dollars and then offers you everything you can think of...and guess what? It's hard to spend 3 trillion dollars.

I have spent almost 2.5 trillion and I am having a hard time spending the rest. Here's a sample of some of my "purchases:"


For the good of humanity:

End our dependence on foreign oil
A Raise for every teacher in the US
Converted completely to solar energy
Cured two deadly diseases
Universal literacy
End world hunger for one year
Assist Iraqi children displaced, mamed or orphaned by the war
Universal Health Care for every American
New clothing, school supplies and books for ten million children
Finish repairing the damage done by Hurrican Katrina
Plant one million trees
Educate the world on sustainable agricultural practices


And I would send every man, woman and child in the US on a three week foreign vacation. This is a critical one, I think. If we all were more educated about the rest of the world, perhaps we would be less inclined to support policies which destroy it.


For you, my friends and family:

A bought a private island in the caribbean so we can all vacation when we like
A house for all of my family and friends
A luxury yatch...again, you're welcome to borrow it!


And finally, for myself and Ahmad:

New shoes every week for life
A really nice digital camera
Two iPhones
The entire Ann Taylor clothing line
Our dream house
My own personal library
And a car for you, Ahmad...your Mercedes 600!


Finally, I paid for the salary of 8 new weapons inspectors...so perhaps we can avoid this entire disaster in the future...well, at least once Bush is out of the White House.


Enjoy!

My New Favorite Thing

Earlier this year, Stephanie and I discussed books we had read in 2007.

As always when I talk about books with anyone, I started to feel guilty that I hadn't kept up better with books I have read.

I always tell myself I should keep track of the books I read, along with when I read them and what I felt about them. I even have more than one empty journal taking up space in my cluttered office for doing just that. The key word there is empty. Despite my best intentions, I never write anything in those stupid journals.

This year, I started to keep an Excel spreadsheet with the books I read and I even blogged about it in my very first post on this blog....until I found this.

This is my new best friend. It's called librarything and it rocks my world.

Seriously, it is awesome. I have archived most of the books that are on my overflowing bookshelf (although I haven't tackled any of the ones in the boxes in my closet) and I have lists for each year.

You can apply tags to the books that you enter that help you keep track in various ways. For example, I have "Books I read in 2007" and "Books I read in 2008" and "Books read more than once" tags. I also have a "Favorite" tag.

The other really nice thing is that you can see how many people have the same books that you do and you can peruse other people's libraries.

In other words, I am in love with LIbrarything. Check it out. And you can find my lists with my username: acardin11.

Happy perusing.