Dad's new kitten. Too much cute in one photo!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
superpowers
Got a good chuckle out of Wil Wheaton's most recent post, great moments in instant messaging. My spelling-fu has always been pretty strong. Except that instant messengers appear to be my kryptonite.
Which geeks among us haven't pondered what superpowers we'd most like to have? For me, it was telekinesis, and the power to converse with animals.
Though, honestly. Really. The most welcome super power for me as a kid would have been the ability to grok the kids around me, so I could walk in their social circles without sticking out. To be a social chameleon.
This would, of course, have had to be accompanied by a native ability to play school yard games. You can't blend in when the dodge ball teams at PE are arguing over who will be stuck with you; and the teacher - despite their pleading - won't let the team that you end up on take a handicap to compensate.
I didn't necessarily want to BE like them. I enjoyed reading for pleasure, and was glad I'd lived and traveled in more countries by the second grade than most of them would see in their whole lives. It was super cool having computers in the house before most of the neighbor kids had even seen a computer. Being a Star Trek fan, and an avid watcher of nature and historical documentaries on PBS were not things I'd've willingly abandoned.
It would just have been awful handy to have been able to avoid the inevitable shunning that kids are so good at when there's a misfit in their midst.
Which geeks among us haven't pondered what superpowers we'd most like to have? For me, it was telekinesis, and the power to converse with animals.
Though, honestly. Really. The most welcome super power for me as a kid would have been the ability to grok the kids around me, so I could walk in their social circles without sticking out. To be a social chameleon.
This would, of course, have had to be accompanied by a native ability to play school yard games. You can't blend in when the dodge ball teams at PE are arguing over who will be stuck with you; and the teacher - despite their pleading - won't let the team that you end up on take a handicap to compensate.
I didn't necessarily want to BE like them. I enjoyed reading for pleasure, and was glad I'd lived and traveled in more countries by the second grade than most of them would see in their whole lives. It was super cool having computers in the house before most of the neighbor kids had even seen a computer. Being a Star Trek fan, and an avid watcher of nature and historical documentaries on PBS were not things I'd've willingly abandoned.
It would just have been awful handy to have been able to avoid the inevitable shunning that kids are so good at when there's a misfit in their midst.
Friday, October 3, 2008
This morning...
Wake with a sinus cold. Just what I did NOT need right now.
Confirmation that the world is watching our presidential campaign with interest. Last line in an email from an Australian friend of mine... [We are] taping the debate. Guess that means we get to yell at the TV tonight.
As if Rickrolling wasn't bad enough. This morning my Mister Obamarolled me. Ouch... my brain.
I switched the channel from KSTP morning news to WCCO after KSTP's "Truth Test" segment. On the very small number of things covered by the Truth Test segment, they included Biden's statement about climate change as "unknown", because of an unspecified quote from National Geographic saying that climate experts disagree. Rather than, say, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which has stated:
You can technically claim that there are still scientists who disagree on the causes of global warming. You can technically argue that there are scientists who believe in Intelligent Design, too. But giving someone a negative mark on a political fact checking segment (and that big question mark is effectively a negative since it contradicts what Biden was saying) because there are a few scientists who are still in disagreement with the majority of the scientific community strikes me as irresponsible and misleading reporting.
Wake with a sinus cold. Just what I did NOT need right now.
Confirmation that the world is watching our presidential campaign with interest. Last line in an email from an Australian friend of mine... [We are] taping the debate. Guess that means we get to yell at the TV tonight.
As if Rickrolling wasn't bad enough. This morning my Mister Obamarolled me. Ouch... my brain.
I switched the channel from KSTP morning news to WCCO after KSTP's "Truth Test" segment. On the very small number of things covered by the Truth Test segment, they included Biden's statement about climate change as "unknown", because of an unspecified quote from National Geographic saying that climate experts disagree. Rather than, say, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which has stated:
There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.And:
Furthermore, it is very likely that the 20th century warming has contributed significantly to the observed sea level rise, through thermal expansion of sea water and widespread loss of land ice. Within present uncertainties, observations and models are both consistent with a lack of significant acceleration of sea level rise during the 20th century.Even the Republican platform includes language accepting that human activity is at very least contributing to global warming.
You can technically claim that there are still scientists who disagree on the causes of global warming. You can technically argue that there are scientists who believe in Intelligent Design, too. But giving someone a negative mark on a political fact checking segment (and that big question mark is effectively a negative since it contradicts what Biden was saying) because there are a few scientists who are still in disagreement with the majority of the scientific community strikes me as irresponsible and misleading reporting.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Snippets of Woodwardian Goodness
My sincerest thanks to a good friend in Australia, who pointed me in the direction of this video on au.youtube.com.
It took a LONG time to finish buffering the video (I guess the interwebs were slow from Australia tonight). But for a Peter Woodward junkie like m'self, it was well worth the wait, since it includes a few snippets of his work that I hadn't seen before.
GleeeEEeeEEeEEEeeee!!!
Pssst... There's a very little tiny bit of swearing in one of the clips. Just so you know.
It took a LONG time to finish buffering the video (I guess the interwebs were slow from Australia tonight). But for a Peter Woodward junkie like m'self, it was well worth the wait, since it includes a few snippets of his work that I hadn't seen before.
GleeeEEeeEEeEEEeeee!!!
Pssst... There's a very little tiny bit of swearing in one of the clips. Just so you know.
Veep Debate Bingo
Yes. Yes indeedy. I will be playing Vice Presidential Debate Bingo tonight.
There are a couple of bingo cards out there for download. I got one in an email from a friend. Here are a few links to some others I found by checking the googles.
I'll be playing along with VP Debate Bingo card in hand, and I'll post to Twitter when I fill a row, since that seems like the equivalent to shouting "Bingo"on the intertubes these days.
There are a couple of bingo cards out there for download. I got one in an email from a friend. Here are a few links to some others I found by checking the googles.
I'll be playing along with VP Debate Bingo card in hand, and I'll post to Twitter when I fill a row, since that seems like the equivalent to shouting "Bingo"on the intertubes these days.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Night time
The cats are zooming around the house like they're in some kind of kitteh relay race. It's 47°F (8°C) outside, the windows are open, and the air smells like Autumn.
The Mister is playing World of Warcraft with some guildies. I'd be playing except I'm going to shuffle off to sleep early (as in any minute now), to try to make it to work early tomorrow.
So instead of playing I watched Ghost Hunters. It's a little guilty pleasure of mine. The Mister won't watch it. He rolls his eyes when I watch it, in fact. But it's my favorite ghost show, and I admit to watching quite a lot of shows about hauntings. NOT Most Haunted, though. Can't stand a show that features ghost hunters who all freak out every time an old house creaks, or a spider web brushes their faces.
I believe in ghosts, but I don't believe in an awful lot of the things people on TV take as evidence of hauntings. Even so, I can enjoy shows about hauntings even if I'm highly skeptical about the "hunting" methods employed in said show; or programs that are just recountings of tragic events, rumors and annecdotes, mixed with spooky background music, old photos and a melodramatic narrator for extra flavor. I've got a high tolerance for silliness when it comes to this kind of show. But I can't stand a bunch of "investigators" who get hysterical when anything vaguely unexpected happens.
Why does that draw viewers? Would a show about spiders or snakes do well if the host flipped out every time they found a creepy critter? Or if they assumed every rustle in the underbrush was a man-eating viper of mamoth proportions, and they fled instead of trying to determine the truth of the matter?
Oh, and before you point at me and say, "Hey, don't you have problems with nightmares? Should you be watching ghost shows before bed?" I can assure you that if my nightmares were about normal nightmarey kinds of things like ghosts, I'd go cold turkey on episodes of Ghost Hunters at bedtime.
Speaking of which, it's past time to get m'self to sleep.
The Mister is playing World of Warcraft with some guildies. I'd be playing except I'm going to shuffle off to sleep early (as in any minute now), to try to make it to work early tomorrow.
So instead of playing I watched Ghost Hunters. It's a little guilty pleasure of mine. The Mister won't watch it. He rolls his eyes when I watch it, in fact. But it's my favorite ghost show, and I admit to watching quite a lot of shows about hauntings. NOT Most Haunted, though. Can't stand a show that features ghost hunters who all freak out every time an old house creaks, or a spider web brushes their faces.
I believe in ghosts, but I don't believe in an awful lot of the things people on TV take as evidence of hauntings. Even so, I can enjoy shows about hauntings even if I'm highly skeptical about the "hunting" methods employed in said show; or programs that are just recountings of tragic events, rumors and annecdotes, mixed with spooky background music, old photos and a melodramatic narrator for extra flavor. I've got a high tolerance for silliness when it comes to this kind of show. But I can't stand a bunch of "investigators" who get hysterical when anything vaguely unexpected happens.
Why does that draw viewers? Would a show about spiders or snakes do well if the host flipped out every time they found a creepy critter? Or if they assumed every rustle in the underbrush was a man-eating viper of mamoth proportions, and they fled instead of trying to determine the truth of the matter?
Oh, and before you point at me and say, "Hey, don't you have problems with nightmares? Should you be watching ghost shows before bed?" I can assure you that if my nightmares were about normal nightmarey kinds of things like ghosts, I'd go cold turkey on episodes of Ghost Hunters at bedtime.
Speaking of which, it's past time to get m'self to sleep.
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