Since this thread has discussed various vehicles, I thought it'd be fun to throw this one in- www.tuninglinx.com/html/top-gear-videos-01.html

Proper English gents flogging ridiculously expensive cars- Top Gear is a hoot!

My personal picks:
Bugatti Veyron top speed run, page 1
Koenigsegg CCX, page 2

And Sunshine, you might like the one where they pit a Range Rover against a tank, page 10

I'm pretty sure enjoying these vids won't make anyone a pod. 

  J

maybe he was reading me and he knew i was worried about what to pay him.  i was.  nobody wants to be gouged yet ppl do like to "get over on ya" when they can.  while here he brought a helper who broke a ceramic fountain we'd had for yrs.  one mess after another.  and since i only work per diem for one particular place, it just so happened they had called out of the blue after he left and asked me to work.  i went, altho i didnt want to.  its way hard work and ur spinning all day.  seeing way way too many ppl, very hard work.  but i did it, to pay for the stupid mistakes DECISIONS!!! i keep making.  its punishment to do that $and im well aware. (exploitation, every time).  i went and did it tho.  and was exhausted afterwards.  and drove home on a leaking flat tire with wide low rims.  noticed it was flat in the parking lot, in a dangerous city late at nite.  i have no cell phone (i hate 'em and avoid all that) so instead of panicking, i lit up a smoke, drove to gas station on the rim, filled it up without blowing it up, and prayed it would make it all the way home, about 25 some miles.  took the street.  in case i had to pull over.  it was more like WILLING it to not go flat.  prob a slow leak, i was HOPING.  just wanted to make it home after a day of "punishment."  seeing over 50 ppl in less than 8 hrs of patient flow is way bad.  but thats the game.  ur either gonna play it or ur not.  and "what if" i kept saying?  what if u have to get a new tire now, in the middle of the nite?  its GONNA COST YA.  cuz once again, ur in need, in a bad sitch and ur gonna get gouged.  see what i mean?  its the way things work.  even putting on the spare wouldve been a production in the middle of the night.  on top of it, i forgot i left my trunk open putting in my work gear, and had changed my mind in the hurry to get to an open gas station, and kept hearing weird noises all the way home, realized that and drove anyway without stopping to shut it.  in the hurry to get to safety.  what an ass.  but i was laughing.  hoping a cop wouldnt stop me and accuse me of something for not shutting the trunk.  and ur maybe sitting there with a slow leak while he runs ur stuff. one never knows and u have to be ready for anything.  its anxiety provoking--all of it.  when i got home i celebrated making it with a drink and a cig.  that's humor there and TRUE.  its all true and crazy on my part because im cracko on money.  i go round and round with it.  its about the only fear i have.  worry about money when its not necessary.  but i like a flow of it coming in and another CUSH job i have my be out the window soon.  thats what starts it.  so the choice of the work to do for the trickle i need coming in, just to sustain, boggles the mind.  it means do the very very hard work and be around hordes of OP's, or live off savings.  what to do what to do.  see that?  =======  CONFLICT.  and there it is.  and thats my karma, and dogma.  ive been working on that for years and years.  which is why i dont buy $200 shirts.   when it runs out, then one has to scramble and be exploited to get more.  and i hate that.  i lived off $400 bucks once for 3 yrs in school, living in a dorm in the 70's.  had worked for 2.50 an hr then.   didnt worry at all.  and went on partying the whole way.  its when u realize u have stuff to lose MORE as u get older that crap occurs.  and what didnt bother u then, does NOW.  and funny, vice versa.  being more aware now has tuned in all feelers and woken one up.  now the next step is to let that worry go.  it seems it always works out but when ur in the "start" of it, seeing LACK heading ur way, fear does rise.   its a vicious cycle i try to avoid at all costs.  i keep thinking it all stems from frugality on principle and whats happened in the past.  i couldnt live off 400 now for a month, but i still try to, in my mind, remembering those starving student days.  its ingrained in.  if i derailed the thread i didnt mean to.

This is probably not directly linked to the OP but i have awlays bought the best of things i can afford.

There's nothing wrong with that, imo.  There's a difference between being a greedy consumer pod who buys too much of what they don't need, and has to wear expensive name brand labels just for status, versus only buying what you need, and buying high quality when you do so, so it'll last longer and wear better.   

I'm at a point where I make enough money now to provide all of my needs in a way that was not possible for much of the time between ages 19-27, where say if I need new clothes now I could technically buy whatever I wanted and not even worry that it's going to cut into my rent and bills and food money or something.  But I'm still conservative.    Years of not being able to afford nice stuff means that even though I now technically can afford a pair of $80+ pants at Express without it affecting me money-wise, or a $40 shirt at New York & Company, or a $120 skirt at Cache, I refuse to spend that kind of full price money on clothes.  I'll only shop at the high end stores when they have sales.  ;D  I don't know, I just can't do it.  The principle of it all.  In the back of my mind I know they're ripping off people so I can't  give them the full price money.  Or like the nice new GT bike I bought last year.  It was on sale, $100 off.   Which is another thing - I have a lot of luck where I just so happen to decide that I'm going to buy something right when it's on sale.  I don't ever pay attention to circulars or fliers either, so I'm not consciously "looking" for sales or thinking in that way.  In fact, I hate to think about money at all.  Whereas other people actively clip coupons and are constantly scouring for sales, I don't even give it a passing thought.  I just happen to show up at a store looking for something, and boom, wouldn't you know it......it's 50% off.  Or buy one get one free.  So I've gotten a lot of nice stuff, clothes, a bike, and other random things over the years, from lucky timing.  I think we can intend for that to happen, that you'll be guided to be in the right place at the right time to get your nice stuff...but when it's on sale or something.

Anyway, not sure if that even remotely ties into pod people, but it's just my two cents.  haha

i can hang with ape.  im practical,and cheap too.  loved what he said.  and all was fun to read up there.  trading intelligence for more dough in this incarnation --thats a good one.  i can dig it.  that shoe might just fit.

Alas I jest.

I agree with that somewhat, the thing is, most pods don't seem to recognize the higher echelon control, (blind consumerists, not esoteric researchers) so they are in effect trying to be upper echelon. I think what you said does indeed play in.

Doc, I dont think you have any reason to worry. Appreciation of the finer things does not IMO immediately relegate one to OP, or pod status. I drive a shit-kicker Taurus. Really not in bad shape, considering it's a '93.
But my choice in vehicles reflects my abilities, also. Even if the engine craps out, I'll have a replacement in about two days, and I'll swap it myself. I could literally drive the same car until the end of time. And I flat out refuse to throw my money at payments.
I get remarks from time to time about my seeming total lack of vehicular vanity.

"You're a good looking guy, why don't you drive something that reflects your personality?"

Hehe... I do. I'm practical, utilitarian, and cheap

I think it's all about stretching and maximizing, that's my philosophy on the matter.... but each to their own.

  J

I agree with you Barefoot Doc.

I feel if one skimps through fear of lack that is what you attract.  I always seem to have enough money for these things as we are not  materialistic in other ways  cant remeber the last time i bought new clothes, or material gadget type things, we have an old TV and DVD player and only use the mobile phone about twice a year.
Our neighbours who are on twice the income we are are in debt to the the roof on the other hand.
So we dont buy a lot but what we do buy is the best we can afford.

I appreciate quaility engineering  so i would buy  say a Lexus SUV if i could afford one, not to show of or because of my ego but because they are big enough for my family, safe and very reliable, i drive round in a Toyota  because thats the best engineered car i could buy for the money at the time and its big enough for the family.

Conspicuous Consumption.

Unneccessary items acquired only to impress one's peers, and to give momentary satisfaction regarding whatever the original purpose of the "product" was.

You've also heard "money is the root of all evil".

No.
Money is a tool.

"The LOVE of money is the root of all evil"
is how that was originally supposed to be construed, I think.

So yes, conspicuous consumption, and LOVE of money are two giant OP markers.

These SUV imbeciles will stab the
brakes for a pebble in the road. And they're the first ones in the ditch when a blizzard hits. Infuriating, and downright hilarious, respectively....

   J

one of the problems i encountered when i tried to do the buddhism thing was the anti-material possession stance. 

i now understand that it's not having things that is bad, that its the level of importance that you place on the the material things that is harmful.  let's face it; you need to have some things to get by in the world, and i don't see anything wrong with having say,  a computer or a digital camera or a car that you want or whatever.
it's when that car (or whatever) becomes more than a thing; its when it becomes a statement of who you (think you) are and a status symbol that the trouble starts. 
pretty soon it's not just the car that defines you, it's the way you dress. 
or, how someone that owns a car like that "should" dress. 
and how a person that drives that car and dresses that way "should" act. 

what could a machine or device have to do with your character and your behavior?
who cares what sort of clothes you wear?

it used to be that as a rebellious teenager, you dressed a certain way because you wanted to separate your self from "the herd"
and if you dressed like a punk or goth or whatever, there would be the jocks that would pick on you and beat you up because of your style, especially for having liberty spikes or dressing like a punk or because you skateboarded instead of playing sports. 
but now, the kids that have their mohawks and faux-hawks and dress like rock stars, they are the jocks, and the ones that aren't are dressing that way because they want to elicit the hostile response from the so-called "squares" and "norms" and from their parents....just so they can have an oppotunity to say, "i'm an individual with my own style and i don't care what you say!" 
the cause and the effect have become reversed.  i have a 18 year old niece who thinks that she is an individual because she dyes her hair all kinds of wacky colors and dresses a certain way.  but if we went to a mall, and i closed my eyes for a second, she would blend in with all the other individuals with black hair.
it's like satanists.  they belong to a group that shouts about how individuality is so much a part of their philosophy, and all the guys and girls dress in black and listen to the same music and watch old movies especially with the marx brothers and cream their black jeans over anything that says "devil" or "satan" or "hell", or laugh their asses off at anything that mocks xianity.   
they should just call themselves "anti-christians". 
sorry, i went off on a tangent.

"pod people" don't care about spirituality or helping others.  they don't care about making changes in their lives or the lives of others, they only care about what "the government" (surrogate parents) is doing to make things better..."the government" that they "elected". 
they cannot conceptualize a way of life where there isn't someone around to hold their hands and tell them what to do and how to do it (government, religion, police, media's talking heads).

of course, these are generalized statements.  i know some "pod people" that while they may not speak philosophically or ask big ?s, they are still decent people. 

and while i don't think it's right, i can understand that there are some people who may want to give their children and their wives/husbands/significant other's things, because maybe they didn't have any things when they were growing up.  and now that they have the money for it, they choose to spoil their family. 

personally, we didn't have a lot of money growing up, and i still am uncomfortable and unsure of what to do when i do have large sums of money (which isn't very often). 
maybe i have a fear of "success", but that's a topic for another time.

as for anyone buying a hummer or SUV...that is completely unnecessary, unless you live in a mountainous area and actually need to have 4WD vehicle.  but no one living in an urban or urbanized rural setting could possibly have any intelligent reason why they need a military-type vehicle that seats 17 people to go shopping or to drive the kids to soccer practice or to church.

my parents had a 4 door sedan and a compact car when we were little.  and that was enough for me and my brother and sister.  we also didn't wear seat belts, but that was the 70s/80s.
and we certainly didn't need dvd players in the car or portable dvd players or video games to keep us amused and distracted.  when we went on vaction, we looked out the window.  we read.  we talked to each other.  we played games.

After reading a post in the Pod People thread that seemed to suggest that owning a Hummer (or I suppose any high priced material item) meant being a Pod person, I am really curious to get some opinions from other posters regarding this.

Does earning a large income and purchasing items considered high value go hand in hand with being a Pod person or is it possible to do so and not be a Pod person?

We have new pods that moved into our neighborhood. They drive around in a white Hummer. When the "podcop" next door found out about it he was so impressed. He's like," man, he's in marketing, I should have done that. Look at all the stuff he has!" Than he goes on to say,"we have to live paycheck to paycheck". Geez, but they seem to be able to go on all these trips with their three kids, hire professional landscaper for their yard, have 2 cars,etc.,etc.  When my husband and I lived  paycheck to paycheck (sometimes we still do) we werent taking vacations and buying things, we were looking for ways to cut back so as to have enough to pay bills and feed ourselves. We still only have one car, and we manage fine.  So the "podcop" is sure to  make friends with the new pods because, ohmygod, they have a........HUMMER!

Actually, that was my quote.  I dont deem someone a "pod person" just because they own a Hummer, but think about it. ( Lately, Im trying not to label people at all. )  Im sure a lot of folks on the forum would agree with me here on how difficult it is living your life awake and aware, and having people around you that are completely clueless to what's really going on.  Let's face it, people buy things of that nature because it feeds the ego, its a status symbol. Its what we're "fed" to give the illusion of happiness and to be like everyone else.
I identified those neighbors as "pods" because they are all about how much material wealth they have. They have no genuine interest in even conversing with any of the neighbors because we are not of their status level. They care not of what their expensive consumption affects have on the environment (not only do they have a Hummer, but a HUGE pickup truck, 4 all terrain vehicles, motorcylcles, etc)
You can tell people like that dont think for themselves at all. They believe everything they hear and see on the TV, and then follow the herd.
I think Montalk said it all. People like that just fit into whatever mold is projected at them.
Oh by the way, the podcop next door isnt impressed with the Hummer people anymore. He figured them out pretty quick.