The American Petroleum Institute Owes Me Money for Tylenol

My head hurts when it gets filled with too much bullshit. Lately its been hurting a lot more than usual. The debate about opening up new land to oil companies for drilling has sparked again. They saw an opening to use high gas prices to trick the people into supporting it. I was watching American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Red Cavaney on This Week today as he tried to explain why this was a good thing and why it was needed. He had to defend against the main arguments most people know about regarding opening up new land: they haven’t drilled in a huge amount of the land they already can drill on and it would generate little oil, meaning a small change in price in a decade or two.

Cavaney had a GREAT explanation for why they haven’t drilled in the land they currently have to drill in but are not, they don’t have the equipment! He says all their equipment is being used up for drilling already, so there is nothing they can do.

Thank you, Mr. Cavaney. Your logic is astounding. We need to open up ANWR for drilling becuase we don’t have the equipment to drill in it, or even the land we currently have open to drilling…

Does anyone else listen to these people?? How did Edward Markey, who was also on the show at the time, not stand up and shake him!? How can this not infuriate people?

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Biphasic Sleep Day 2

I’ve begun a biphasic sleep routine this week. After researching others who had done this I found you wanted to keep the sleep in multiples of 90 minutes. So for the past 5 nights I’ve slept 4.5 hours, except one night which was 6 hours. I only took my first nap (so technically the first day of biphasic sleep) yesterday, all other days I was too awake in the afternoon to fall asleep. The nap is 1.5 hours.

So far today was the hardest to get up from. I believe that was due to external forces (drinking and thinking) and not just the fact that I haven’t been sleeping. Other than that its been fairly easy, surprisingly. I haven’t even had to use an alarm clock… Which is shocking and a bit scary. I guess my internal alarm is better than I thought. I suppose I was awoken from my nap by an alarm, but technically it was a phone call.

Before when I would get up at 5am (with 7-8 hours of sleep) I would start working and by the afternoon I would be tired and not care to work anymore. Thus, hours would be lost until I was able to start being productive again. My hope is that not only will I gain 1-2 hours by only sleeping 6 hours a day, but also the time I am awake will be more productive.

Of course its not all about getting things done. Its interesting to see how the body reacts to changing the sleep schedule in such a way. Hopefully no problems arise.

In order to keep me focused on getting through the rough days and in case anyone else wants to give this a try, I’ll be posting periodically about how its going and how its making me feel.

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Spicy Black Bean Burgers

More recipes! This is probably my second favorite thing to make. Some of the ingredient measurements are given in ranges because I make this different every time depending on what I have in my fridge at the time. The onion and green pepper just need to be balanced so not too many are in the mix, and you can always leave one out.

Main Ingredients:

• 1/4-1/2 onion, diced
• 1/4-1/2 green pepper, diced
• 1-3 jalapeños, diced
• 1 can black beans
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 hamburger bun, crumbled

Spices:

• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp seasoned salt

Fry the onion, green peppers and jalapeños in oil till soft. Mash the black beans till smooth and mix with the rest of the ingredients. Add the flour slowly as you mix. Make into patties and fry in oil, adding salt and pepper or other spices. Top with whatever you like on burgers. BBQ sauce and ranch dressing go amazingly well on these, especially with lettuce, tomato and pickles.

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