Eternal Question: The Pyramid Scheme

I am introducing a new series of blog postings where I will look into a sample "eternal question" and offer my insights as to what the solution should be. For blogs that people actually read, there might be some commenting on further thoughts on the question. No one reads this blog, so I doubt many people will be offering comment.  Most questions will be stupid anyway, so that would also be a bar to further discussion.

Today's question is the Eternal Pyramid Scheme Question: What is the proper etiquette when you overhear someone being taken in by a pyramid scheme? Do you stop them, thus thwarting the schemer's plan? Or do you let them be taken in?

The answer may depend on your relationship to the person being taken in. Obviously, you prevent a friend or close relative from being taken in. If you seek revenge on a person though, allowing them to be taken in could be a good way to get revenge. I wouldn't wish involvement in a pyramid scheme on anyone though.

I've determined that in most cases, it is not proper to break up a pyramid scheme conversation. I base this on the rationale that you cannot prevent the inevitable. If a person is going to fall for one pyramid scheme, they will get taken in by others in the future. You cannot prevent it forever.  This is comparable to Charlie's death in my favorite tv show LOST.  Desmond says to Charlie, in one of my favorite moments from the series, "The universe has a way of course-correcting, and I can't stop it forever.  I'm sorry.  I'm sorry because no matter what I try to do, you're gonna die, Charlie."  

That is all.  Feel free to share stories relating to personal experiences with pyramid schemes or further insight on the matter. 

RELAUNCHED.

After a long hiatus, I have decided to break out the blog, once again. If only I got paid for this. You may be curious as to why anyone would have a blog, then stop blogging for over a year, then resume blogging. As always, there is a method to my madness. Allow me to explain:

1) I just finished taking the bar exam. Do I know when I'm starting work? No. Do I know what product I'm selling? No. But I'm here, and I'm gonna give it my best shot. Let's just say I will have some free time on my hands for the next few months. (That being said, feel free to throw any cool volunteer opportunities/vacation ideas my way.)

2) I am living with my parents. I love my parents, but they do go into parenting mode as soon as I come home. When I arrived home this evening, I said to my Dad, "Pete invited me to the Sox game tomorrow." My Dad said, "You can go, that's fine." Glad I asked permission, apparently. That's okay though, I like having them around and it's nice to see how excited they are to have me around. But, they are sure to provide excellent blogging material.

3) People used to actually enjoy my blog. I was never sure why. A former blog-reader, who also enjoys eating Chili's bottomless chips and salsa, advocated my resumption of the blog. Now I don't know about you, but I love Chili's, and the bottomless chips and salsa are one of the primary reasons. I am a frequenter of chain restaurants, and while Olive Garden's breadsticks are solid, Chili's stands at the top of the ladder in the realm of "American food" chains. Comparing an Applebees or Ruby Tuesday to a Chilis is like comparing Peter Pan peanut butter, circa the 2007 salmonella callback, to Jif. There's no comparison. I want to see Chili's stay in business, and so if there is even the remotest possibility that my blog might contribute to a person's happiness and desire to consume Chili's, I am not willing to risk leaving my blog idle.

4) It's Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. Nothing inspires me quite like viewing overly dramatized reenactments of people getting their legs bitten by sharks. Great White Appetite is proving to be quite intense within the first five minutes already--we are going to determine "what drives the Great White's appetite for destruction."

There you have it. I have quite a bit of time to catch up on, and I also have quite a bit of time to kill, so look forward to frequent blog entries.

Vote For My Friends!

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/madeofhonor/contest/finalist_1.php

A plea from my friend-- vote for them to win their wedding package!

Ok, really random (but so typical of us...haha) Jerry and I entered another contest...this time for a wedding (and other great prizes!). We just found out that we are finalists...we had to write an essay about the moment we knew we were in love. Then we were selected as semi-finalists (among 17 other couples)..once semi-finalists, we had to make a video (1 min.) telling the same story...we just found out that we are 1 of 4 finalists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are o-so-poor and would obviously love to win our wedding...the winners, however, will be selected by the public (voting on the website)...so we need your support!!!

The REAL Holiday.

Valentines Day?  I think not.  Today marks the first day of spring training.  

Valentines Day is a made up holiday where men are forced to buy women flowers and any other object they demand.  This is not even an actual holiday.  Sure, it's better than the one in October - "Sweetest Day" - that we all know and love.  True story - back in 8th grade in a volleyball tournament, one team forfeit the tournament because it fell on Sweetest Day and the girls wanted to chill with their boyfriends.  Valentines Day is slightly more legitimate.  Apparently it is named after a Christian martyr named "Valentine" of course from way back in AD 269.  It did not become associated with this so-called "love" until the 1300s when Chaucer wrote some poem.  Alright, enough with the history lesson, because who cares?  For our purposes, it is good enough to know that this is a lame, lame holiday where couples place "hanging out" or "eating dinner together" or exchanging other tokens of love - roses, hearts, pretty much anything red... - the couples place these things over more important things.  More important things include intramural basketball games and watching Lost.

Anyhow, perhaps I'm just bitter because I'm not spending this Valentine's Day with Grady Sizemore - a completely legitimate reason to be bitter, I think.  More importantly than Valentine's Day, today marks the beginning of a beautiful thing: spring training.  Pitchers and Catchers have indeed reported.  The Grapefruit League and the Cactus League are poised to begin in like... 12 days!  Or something like that!  So pretty much - I am spending Valentine's Day with Grady.  Or I'm watching Lost, but then - Lost trumps all.  If Grady were to knock on my door, I would not answer until it was a commercial, and then we would watch Lost.  This would be true if I did not have DVR.

Anyhow, as if this is not already completely random and scatterbrained - the better part of spring training is that it means March is upon us.  I mean, here it is, February and I'm getting that Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue delivered to my door, which only makes me anticipate spring break.  For the record, I'm now a subscriber to SI and I read it religiously - except the swimsuit issue.  But March is my favorite month of the year, because of two reasons: (1) March Madness and (2) Spring Break.  March Madness means college basketball all the time, and Spring Break means I go on a booze cruise with my family and my skin goes back to its natural black tone.  What could be better?  Not even hanging out with Grady on Valentine's Day!  Mmmm... that's debatable.   LOST time!

And fyi - I am currently 3 for 4 on my Lent.  I've caved on one.  But only one!

You Know You're Going to Win When...

The law school has picked up a new intramural league: basketball.  Now, not only can I channel my extra energy towards beating up on teams at softball, I can channel energy towards beating up on teams at basketball.  This is actually better, because I am comparatively better at b-ball than I am at softball.  And being a girl who is relatively in shape, and has touched a basketball before in life, makes me a somewhat sought-out recruit as the league requires one female on the court for the games.

Last night my team won.  The final score was 97-27.  It was no contest.  I of course, have some gripes though.  

The first thing I forgot is that when playing against girls who do not normally play basketball, they have a tendency to apologize.  I can't remember the last time I've apologized for anything when playing ball.  Last night, a girl would merely tap my arm, and she'd start apologizing.  I think there was one time she bumped me a bit while playing "defense."  She apologized.  I hope she doesn't get upset when I am playing eight times as physically as she is the entire game, probably throwing elbows all over the place, and perhaps knocking the wind out of her when I box her out, and I do not opt to apologize.  At least I didn't start posting up on her, or that would have been a whole nother story.

My next gripe is pants.  Why do some people come to play a game of basketball wearing pants?  I will never understand this.  Girls, I can kind of understand it, but not really.  Guys, I cannot remotely understand this.  The conclusion I reached last night was this: "You know you are going to win when... half of the players on the other team step onto the court to play wearing pants."  You just know.  This is really quite unacceptable, and no one should feel that it is remotely okay to wear pants to play a game of basketball.  Shorts.  Not pants.

Anyhow, when I blog about basketball, I will likely be more cocky than any other form of blogging.  I have two fortes in life.  One is knowledge of MTV reality shows like The Hills, Newport Harbor, and Laguna Beach.  The other is trash-talking and being cocky about my intramural basketball team, whether or not it is warranted.  We did outscore the team last night by nearly four times, and I wasn't remotely winded by the end of the game, but when we start playing some more talented games, I may have to quiet down.  But I still won't understand the pants.

Deceptive Weather.

Looking out my window right now, the sky is perfectly blue and it looks like it could be a gorgeous day.  Sure, the grass is a little brown, but it almost reminds me of summer.  Yesterday was deceptively warm.  I put on my bathing suit and walked to the pool to lay out and go for a swim, but then I was shocked to find that it was closed, although there were some frozen spots on the cement floor.  Lame.  Anyway, it's one of those days that makes me anticipate spring break.  Don't know if I can wait.  

Also, you will never get back the 47 seconds of your life that you spent reading this lame entry, and I apologize for that.

In Other News...

I have Law Review cite check in an hour and a half.  It's raining cats and dogs outside.  Do I see myself venturing outside, so I can drive to school, and do an activity that is debatably more boring than watching ice melt???  The answer to this is, I think, obvious.

Fat Tuesday.

The decisions are in.  I'm not talking about "Super Tuesday" either.  I don't even think I'm registered to vote anywhere.  More importantly, I am talking about what I'm giving up for lent.  And yes, I do actually think that what I personally give up for lent is more important than some 'primary' election.  So here's the verdict:

1) Chocolate.  I don't think I eat that much chocolate.  We'll see how hard this proves to be.

2) G-chat.  I don't actually talk on this ever.  But, once you see #3, you will understand that I am giving this up so that I do not replace one tempting, impersonal form of communication with another.

3) AIM.  That's right.  AIM is pretty lame anyway.  Not that into it.

4) Facebook.  This will be the ultimate challenge, once again.

I decided that three things that I could not possibly ever give up would be:

1) Text messaging.  Too crucial to life.

2) Use of the dishwasher.  Again, crucial to life.  Without this, I would have to get my hands dirty, and that just wouldn't fly.

3) DVR.  I actually know how to record using VHS tapes, but that does not mean I would ever consider - even for a moment - giving up use of the DVR box.

There you have it, folks.  I am indulging greatly on this day, but after this... you won't see me on facebook or AIM for awhile.  Or g-chat.  And I won't be eating chocolate, I guess.

Giving It Up.

Last year, I gave up the Facebook for Lent.  I don't see that happening this year, in part because I have plans to ask a guy out via Facebook, simply by asking him to be in a facebook relationship with me.  Hopefully these sly tactics work, but we shall see.  It might prove to have been a bad idea, but I'll never know if I don't try.

Anyhow, I need to find something to give up.  A friend and I were brainstorming, and came up with a few ideas, but none are sure fire:

1) Give up waiting in line at the law school cafe.  It always has ridiculously long lines.  I would not give up eating there, I'd just cut to the front of the line, and inform others that I'm sorry, but I gave up waiting in line for Lent.

2) Give up going out for dinner.  This would have many loopholes.  Picking up food is okay.  Going with friends and sitting there, and just ordering a drink is okay.  Eating at Derald's is okay.  You would get two "cheats" over the entire period, because sometimes it's rude to say no.  This seems pointless.

3) Give up text messaging.  I don't see how this would last more than 4 hours.

4) Give up watching TV in real time.  You'd have to watch everything from the DVR box.  Would make LOST-watching difficult.

5) Give up all forms of alcohol, except for Patron.  I'd be okay with this.

6) Give up buying drinks for myself.  This could lead to some good pick-up lines at bars.  "Excuse me, I gave up buying drinks for myself for lent.  Will you buy one for me?"  Unless you're ugly, you'd probably get lots of drinks bought for you.

7) Give up buying clothes.  Except I need a new swimsuit, so this isn't going to happen.

8) Give up talking to people I don't like.  If one of them approaches me, I just shake my head and walk away.  I pretty much do this anyway though.

Those are just a few ideas.  I am not really sure what to give up this year.  It needs to be something ground-breaking though.  Feel free to supply me with ideas.  And don't worry, I would never give up blogging.

Title Changed Due to Over-Googling.

Formerly were song lyrics to un-named artist.  The google searches were clogging this blog, drawing unwanted attention.  Thank you!

So I actually purchased a Miley Cyrus song from iTunes.  That's right - Hannah Montana.  Those are some lyrics above.  Sad, but true.  It's like that old Hanson song - MmmBop.  No one wanted to admit it because they looked like girls, but that was a catchy tune. But hey, I'll take these lyrics to something by Nickelback.  Consider these "rhyming" lines from the song Photograph:

This is where I grew up.

I think the present owner fixed it up.

I never knew we ever went without.

The second floor is hard for sneaking out.

You can't use the same words to rhyme with each other.  Miley Cyrus is way better: Felt like I couldn't breathe, you asked what's wrong with me.  My best friend Leslie said, "Oh, she's just bein' Miley."  Now, that's a rhyme.  

Normally, I would conclude this post by mocking myself and saying, "Next thing you know, I'll be buying High School Musical,"  but I've actually already bought one of those songs.  It's not bad.