Is this an accomplishment or a failure?

[AlphaKilo470]

Just the other day, I was cooking a bowl of ramen noodles for a late night snack and somehow, I managed to burn them. I'm now wondering if this is a failure or an accomplishment.

[pphilipko]

This is a truly random post..

Failure. Do you know how many children in Africa who would give anything to have those ramen noodles (before they were burned)?

[AlphaKilo470]

Well, if those kids in Africa are of such concern to you, you can always come over here, dig the burnt noodles out of my garbage disposal and ship them to the kids yourself. As for the attitude, you seem to be assuming I meant to burn those noodles. Personally, I was rather disapointed to see them burnt when I returned to my kitchen as I was rather hungry at the time.

[leoblob]

This is a truly random post..

Failure. Do you know how many children in Africa who would give anything to have those ramen noodles (before they were burned)?

What a pointless, cheap shot! Totally undeserved, and totally out of context!

If you are so concerned about starving kids, you seem to be in a position to do something constructive yourself:

My parents are offering to buy a car for me ~50,000 - 85,000 range as a graduation gift. However, they're offering the cash if I don't want to get a car. What do you guys think?

[daeojkim]

Some people prefer the ramen slightly burnt.

So in your case, as long as it was not totally burnt then it could be a success. However, since your intention was not to burn the noodle and has been thrown away, it is a failure.

[BillMorrow]

This is a truly random post..

Failure. Do you know how many children in Africa who would give anything to have those ramen noodles (before they were burned)?

What a pointless, cheap shot! Totally undeserved, and totally out of context!

If you are so concerned about starving kids, you seem to be in a position to do something constructive yourself:

My parents are offering to buy a car for me ~50,000 - 85,000 range as a graduation gift. However, they're offering the cash if I don't want to get a car. What do you guys think?

sadly, there seem to be more than a few reasons for starving children in africa (and elsewhere)..
drought induced crop failure,
ethenic cleansing,
poor farm planning,
overpopulation,

as you can see from these few guesses, most reasons are more or less self induced..

all that said, i doubt that it would be cost effective to ship a pot of ramen noodles to africa.. burned or not..

postage would be high..

the local militias would confiscate the pot of ramen noodles (burned or not) and either sell them or eat them..

the riot that would result from a pot of free ramen noodles might result in several deaths and numerous injuries..

or several other possible sceanarios..

so, lets leave starving children out of the discussion..

for my opinion, FWIW, the burned noodles are a result of being distracted thus neither a failure OR a success..
just the "[censored]" part of "[censored] happens"..

as for the car or cash, the obvious answer there, given the preceeding discourse, is to give it to those starving children in the form of grain or, well, even ramen noodles..

but that is not the answer, it only would lead to more starving children and the like..

problems like that are solved from the top down..
fix the system, control the birthrate, restore a decent government, educate the population and so forth..

not contribute to the problem..
(i know that that might sound cold and heartless but reality (like [censored] happens) is harsh)..

car or cash?, i would take the cash, buy a decent car in the $15k range (maybe a used mercedes or toyota prius or cadillac) and invest the balance in a good stock fund and leave it until you retire..

and hope that by the time you retire society will not have spiraled down into some terrible orwellian or brazilian [the movie] (or the like) future..

[Kyocera]

This is relative, it seems that it would be very difficult to burn ramen so therefore I would view this as an accomplishment. Now then, if you did not cook another bag this could possibly be viewed as a failure for ignoring the “try, try again” rule. If you said screw it and had a bowl of ice cream that would be neither accomplishment or failure but “good judgment.”

pphilipko wrote:
My parents are offering to buy a car for me ~50,000 - 85,000 range as a graduation gift. However, they're offering the cash if I don't want to get a car. What do you guys think?

I would take the money and move out.

[AndyL]

Do you know how many children in Africa who would give anything to have those ramen noodles

Reminds me of a T-shirt that a friend of mine has, that always amuses me... it has the slogan:
"Finish your beer! There's sober people in Africa!"

[BillMorrow]

aww, crap..!
and i had hoped to raise a ruckus..

and all i get is "there are sober people in africa"..!!

well, maybe someone will take the bait..

[pphilipko]

This is a truly random post..

Failure. Do you know how many children in Africa who would give anything to have those ramen noodles (before they were burned)?

What a pointless, cheap shot! Totally undeserved, and totally out of context!

If you are so concerned about starving kids, you seem to be in a position to do something constructive yourself:

My parents are offering to buy a car for me ~50,000 - 85,000 range as a graduation gift. However, they're offering the cash if I don't want to get a car. What do you guys think?

I intended it to be funny. Apparently, I have a VERY warped sense of humor.

*sigh*

Btw, I've already made the decision for the 'cash' a long while ago...

[dsvochak]

On the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S., the beginning of the Christmas shopping season (which for reasons unknown to me is now being called "Black Friday") with nothing much else to do, I read this:

aww, crap..!
and i had hoped to raise a ruckus..

and all i get is "there are sober people in africa"..!!

well, maybe someone will take the bait..

Okay, I'll take the bait.

The final verse of "Black Diamond Bay" by Bob Dylan & Jacques Levy, (1975):

"I was sittin' home alone one night
in L.A., Watchin' old Cronkite
on the seven o'clock news.
It seems there was an earthquake that
Left nothin' but a Panama hat
And a pair of old Greek shoes.
Didn't seem like much was happenin',
So I turned it off and went to grab another beer.
Seems like every time you turn around
There's another hard-luck story that you're gonna hear
And there's really nothin' anyone can say
And I never did plan to go anyway
To Black Diamond Bay."

Tsunami's, earthquakes, hurricanes, drought, war, fear, famine and floods. It does seem like every time you turn around there's another hard luck story you're gonna hear. And what really can anyone say? Or do? Not a whole lot when you get right down to it.

One of the few growth industries left in the US is disaster relief. With Delphi in bankruptcy offering a plan to cut wages from $22/hr to about $9/hr, GM teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, and perhaps the US treasury inching toward it, it doesn't appear that there will be a slow down in disaster relief anytime soon.

There's the other thread here about the $100 MIT laptops. If that idea became reality, what would those starving kids in Africa have to say about this thread? Or would we stop getting e-mails from Nigerian bankers and start getting e-mails from starving children?

[Kyocera]

dsvochak wrote:

Tsunami's, earthquakes, hurricanes, drought, war, fear, famine and floods. It does seem like every time you turn around there's another hard luck story you're gonna hear. And what really can anyone say? Or do? Not a whole lot when you get right down to it.

I think this is part of the reason the internet is a popular place, a plastic screened videolike world where you have some control over the content.

Log in, look up, drop out....... Peace