Monday, February 06, 2006
National Holiday
Today is the late President Ronald Reagan’s birthday, as I have encouragingly pointed out to my pending daughter.
I especially miss him at times of spot-changing good guys handed power by a pathetic lack of alternatives.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Mmmm… Grapenut Ice Cream
It’s February 3rd, the dead of winter. The local ice cream place can not only justify being open from 10:00 Am to 10:00 PM each day, but also does a steady business.
Yep. That’s New England.
Safer Than a Fully Red Shirt
Sunrise
Sunrise one recent morning from my office, the living room, and the bathroom. When I saw the red sky from the office I was inspired to try getting a picture, which worked great once I turned off the flash. When I was a kid I learned “red sky in the morning, sailors take warning; red sky at night, sailors delight.” Sure enough, it rained in the afternoon. Unfortunately the red isn’t as evident in the pictures as it was in person, especially initially and from the office, over the yellow building.
Sleeping Beauty
In her nest. The alligator was Sadie’s first (or second?) animal, bought at Target for $5 before she was born. Valerie’s version of that, from the same Target charity stuffed animals, is a Kangaroo. And where Sadie’s big thing has been Eeyore, notwithstanding the Pooh in her nest, Valerie already has a Tigger waiting for her. The bear hugging her leg, probably Sadie’s favorite bear, was from Sherri. The rose pink blanket has princesses and Sadie’s name on it, and was from her great grandmother. The small white and multicolored pastel blanket was a gift from WP Deb. Sadie is quite attached to it. She also has her big dollie and some of her books surrounding her, including her current favorite bedtime book, featuring butterflies, which she is partially on top of here. The exact makeup varies, and used to include books more than animals, but each night she makes a nest around herself.
The V Word*
Read the story of “Carl.” It’s entertaining in a sad yet comical way, full of cringeworthy pathos.
I have always dreaded the idea of a vasectomy for the oddest of reasons: a tendency to dwell on “end of civilization” scenarios in fascination, dismay, and what-if imaginings. So imagine the horror to me of a scenario in which the making of more people means humans continue to exist, and I, one of the stars of such a scenario, can play no role.
The ultimate horror story: A small band of men and women are all that remain, and they had been rendered artificially infertile. With a decades-long whimper, they are gone, we are no more.
Farfetched, I know, but it has always been haunting to me. I grew up at the height of the Cold War, doncha know, with a love of survival stories, vivid imagination, and view of civilization as a frail thing.
None of which will stop me when the time comes, after we have Katrina’s fifth baby, or whenever. Katrina being a nurse smitten with Sadie, who keeps telling us we make such good babies we should have as many as we want, or, most recently, five. Not that I would mind if money and age were no object, but yikes.
* No, not that one.
Friday, February 03, 2006
My Turn
I don’t always take, or at least post results, for the same quiz Deb takes and posts, but I thought this was interesting.
|
Your Five Factor Personality Profile |
 Extroversion: You have medium extroversion. You’re not the life of the party, but you do show up for the party. Sometimes you are full of energy and open to new social experiences. But you also need to hibernate and enjoy your “down time.” Conscientiousness: You have medium conscientiousness. You’re generally good at balancing work and play. When you need to buckle down, you can usually get tasks done. But you’ve been known to goof off when you know you can get away with it. Agreeableness: You have high agreeableness. You are easy to get along with, and you value harmony highly. Helpful and generous, you are willing to compromise with almost anyone. You give people the benefit of the doubt and don’t mind giving someone a second chance. Neuroticism: You have medium neuroticism. You’re generally cool and collected, but sometimes you do panic. Little worries or problems can consume you, draining your energy. Your life is pretty smooth, but there’s a few emotional bumps you’d like to get rid of. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is high. In life, you tend to be an early adopter of all new things and ideas. You’ll try almost anything interesting, and you’re constantly pushing your own limits. A great connoisseir of art and beauty, you can find the positive side of almost anything. |
37 Weeks
TGIF
|
Your Five Factor Personality Profile |
|
Extroversion: You have low extroversion. You are quiet and reserved in most social situations. A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you. You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people. Conscientiousness: You have medium conscientiousness. You’re generally good at balancing work and play. When you need to buckle down, you can usually get tasks done. But you’ve been known to goof off when you know you can get away with it. Agreeableness: You have low agreeableness. Your self interest comes first, and others come later, if at all. In general, you feel that people are not to be trusted. And you’re skeptical that anyone else really feels differently. Neuroticism: You have high neuroticism. It’s easy for you to feel shaken, worried, or depressed. You often worry, and your worries prevent you from living life fully. You tend to be emotionally reactive and moody. Your either flying very high or feeling very low. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is medium. You are generally broad minded when it come to new things. But if something crosses a moral line, there’s no way you’ll approve of it. You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue. |
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Firefly
Before jumping into any more seasons of Gilmore Girls, having completed the first two, we switched to Firefly.
First, it was utterly insane of Fox to have broadcast the movie length pilot episode last, as I seem to remember hearing that they did. That’s like saying “we’re going to start broadcasting this show from the second episode, without giving you the setup. Not only that, but we’re going to take something that is arguably tighter and better than the later Serenity movie and broadcast it after we’ve screwed you over by ditching the show.
Why does Fox bother to have the “cool” to pickup good shows in the first place when it’s only going to jerk them around like a stodgy old network anyway? It’s schizoid behavior. Almost as if one arm of the organization is charged with deciding on shows to run, and another arm of the organization is charged with shooting them off the air like so many clay pigeons.
As implied, the first episode was superlative. If I’d watched it as a pilot, they’d have had me at the musically catchy, lyrically libertarian theme song, never mind hooking me fanatically by the end of the show. And yet… I felt that it made more sense, having watched Serenity the movie (the first episode of Firefly is also named Serenity) first, getting a full explanation of the diaspora, reavers, and what’s up with River. In the pilot of Firefly, we don’t get any explanation of how these humans got where they are, or that it’s all one solar system.
I did keep making Star Wars references throughout the episode, like “welcome to Mos Eisley.” But hey, it’s hard to eliminate that sort of thing.
For those who have read their Peter Hamilton, Malcolm Reynolds struck me as very Joshua Calvert. I could almost see his character as “inspired by,” which is all the more intriguing in light of the use of the ship and place name “Serenity” by Joss Whedon. If you were casting the Night’s Dawn trilogy for film, you could lift Mal straight out of Firefly, change his character name, and run with it. If I had to guess, I’d venture that similarity as more intentional than any Star Wars homages. The other thing that reminded me of Hamilton was the reference to people being dumped on newly terraformed worlds with limited supplies and technology, and left to do what they could do with what they had.
After the pilot episode plus having seen Serenity, I highly recommend Firefly. Presumably I’ll have more comment later.
Ronning From Reason
When Fonzie and Happy Days did it, we called it “jumping the shark.”
What shall we call this whole new spectacle; “pulling a Bailey”? “Running from reason?”
This kind of thing is something I would never have expected to read - well, the punchline anyway - at Reason Magazine.
Groundhog Day
Ayn Rand’s birthday.
Coincidence?
After The Fire
I hadn’t seen the Great White fire mentioned anywhere in ages. These things take time, so it makes sense that about three years later there’s news. It was the topic of my second post ever. The page I’d linked to there is now gone. Then I posted about it on March 1st. That link still works, but to get to what I’d actually linked, you’d need to hit this and scroll.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Well, There Is One Exciting Thing…
Since people are pining for posts, here’s one I hadn’t gotten around to yet since I learned of it yesterday.
My 17 year old niece, Brittany, is practically a musical prodigy. She plays four wind instruments fluently and can generally pick those up and figure out how to play them in record time, and is working on guitar and piano, which are more of a challenge to her. She has been planning on going to Berklee, but the guidance people talked her out of it. She wants to be a music teacher, and Berklee is performance oriented.
At the same time, by virtue of being one of the top students in the state, she just won a scholarship for all four years (just tuition, I gather) at any state college or university she wishes to attend. Woohoo!!
Her current plan is to attend my alma mater, Bridgewater State College, which apparently has an excellent music program and is the teaching college. I had no exposure to the music depatment there myself, but I know Journey did a song inspired by/dedicated to one of the music professors there. My great-grandmother also graduated from Bridgewater State College. Then she became a teacher, met this crazy farmer and produce truck driver from Prince Edward Island, and apparently saw something in him sufficient to move her there. But I digress.
Anyway… no tuition… that’s great! While I generally recommend to kids that they go away for college, being easy commuting distance and saving money are good things too.
Nope, nothing exciting happening.
Jay’s just busy and I’m just pregnant and cranky. LOL.