Should I Learn How To Dig A Well?
It's REALLY hot here in The Valley with no central air(no laptop, so I'm in the hot room), so please bare with me.

Got home yesterday(really hot too)and whipped up a quick dinner so I wouldn't be trying to sleep on a full stomach, in a hot room, in 3 hours. I checked in with BBC World to get some real news, and the top story was the starving children(and adults, and livestock) of Niger. All I've heard about Niger in the mainstream U.S. media the past 6 days is Valerie Plame and the Yellow Cake(God, it sounds like the Grimm Bros. or Roald Dahl).

Anyway, I'm trying to eat my chicken & rice and watch the story-which runs for what seems like 10 minutes(out of a 25ish minute news program-wow), and the thought that's been rattling around in my head since last week really rings out. I've got to do something that matters. I've got to make a living, make a life that's fulfilling. I've had this inkling way back in my mind for... 25+ years now(8th grade?), but in college prep school, fulfillment wasn't a top priority, not at my school anyway.

For the last 18+/- months, I've been "assisting" someone with a lot of money. She's a good person, but I feel she & her friends haven't a clue what they could be doing with their wealth. I mean, how many pairs of high-end shoes & coordinating handbags does any one person really NEED? You've got to look good for work, I know. But at some point it becomes an obscene number of shoes.

The point is... I have become disgusted with any business(entertainment in my case)that often acts as if because there's a great deal of money involved, some are making the equivalent of Life or Death decisions. Employees are "on-call" 24/7. People are paid ridiculous amounts of money, some as a reward for giving up most of their private life. I guess I shouldn't fault them if they want to trade their lives for shoes & handbags & Lux cars & $1,000,000- 3 bedroom homes(that's the current market).

So, I'm looking for a "career" change(not like I really had a career before). I'm going to try to get a job in the industry('cause that's what I know now) & update my skills- then I'm OUT.

Also(and this is binding), if I win the Mega Millions tonight, after taxes & the split to MrMan(community property state), I'm gonna give a big chunk... let's say 10 million, split to organizations I've linked to at The Nut House. Maybe a annuity(principle stays intact- funded by interest/dividends-right?).

I'd better stop now, before the heat has me giving my car away.

Back to Niger's children, I couldn't find the story on BBC.com yesterday, I think I was on the site before the story was posted, so here it is tonight(linked through The One Campaign, 3rd post down on July 19, 2005). Direct link to BBC.com story if you're really ing a rush.

Chinquapin
(tonight's special... crystal clear, ice cold water)

P.S. Just so we're all clear, the above reads "...organizations I've linked to...", not fellow bloggers I've linked to(sorry guys).