Our Long Lost Relative

It seems that elephants and people have more in common than previously thought. Not only do we both cry at the death of a loved one, we both have a hard time getting ourselves motivated to get onto the treadmill to exercise. Maggie, the only elephant in the entire expanse of the state of Alaska, has a brand new $100,000 treadmill on which to walk, and yet she seems to have no real desire to use it. Pat Lampi, the zoo's director, predicts that it may take a year or more to get her to walk on the machine. So much for a New Year's resolution.

Ouch.

We now know that the people a long time ago were suffering under the hand of their "friendly" tooth doctor. A really old tool for torture has been discovered--an ancient dental drill. It seems that ancient people also had to endure the nasty drill...but with out any novacaine. There is only one thing to say...ouch. That'll teach them to brush and floss.

The Mouse Maze for the Rat Race

There are many things in our lives that we just seem to take for granted. It has been brought to my attention this morning that I have always just accepted the existance of cubicles and believed that they must have just always been since the beginning of the business office universe. The fact that the cubicle had to be invented by someone at some point in history had never crossed my mind. But that has all changed now that I have learned of the existence of a creator. Yes, there was intelligent design behind the cubicle, it did not just evolve by itself along with the myriad of desks and file drawers contained within. That creator was a mere human being who went by the unassuming name of Robert Propst.

NEW YORK (FORTUNE Magazine) - Robert Oppenheimer agonized over building the A-bomb. Alfred Nobel got queasy about creating dynamite. Robert Propst invented nothing so destructive. Yet before he died in 2000, he lamented his unwitting contribution to what he called "monolithic insanity."

Propst is the father of the cubicle. More than 30 years after he unleashed it on the world, we are still trying to get out of the box. The cubicle has been called many things in its long and terrible reign. But what it has lacked in beauty and amenity, it has made up for in crabgrass-like persistence.

Next time you enter an office building and you feel like a mouse entering a maze with no cheese at the end (unless your coworker is nice enough to offer you some), you will now know who to blame for it.

How Bizarre

The weather has been really strange this winter. First we got lots of snow and freezing cold temperatures before Christmas. Then January came and it seemed that spring had arrived along with it. In the last week or so we have had snow, freezing cold, almost 60 degree temperatures, and now a tornado watch to go along with our thunderstorms. Soon it is supposed to be cold and snowy again. I suppose that is what comes with living where we do.

In other news, I found this quote the other day among some old papers and thought that it was very accurate:

"Everyone is biased. It is just a matter of which bias is the best bias to be biased by." - Bill Jack

It would go well back with my post on the failure of objectivity, but if I did put it back there in the January archives nobody would ever read it. Thus, it gets put here where it obviously does not belong and feels out of place, like I am trying to pound a puzzle piece into the wrong jigsaw puzzle.

Yes, once again I have failed to post anything truly meaningful or inspired. I have been overthinking this blogging stuff again and have paralyzed myself and kept myself from writing about anything. My life has also been falling to pieces around me, so once it finishes its decent and falls back into place my words of wisdom, or unwisdom as the case may be, will become more abundant. Just please be patient with my disjointed and sparse posting.

Arachnid Hit Men

It is good to know that there are good spiders out there in the world, namely the "assassin spider" which preys on other spiders. It is comforting to know that, while performing its good deed of ridding the world of other spiders, it is completely harmless to humans, at least according to Charles Griswold from the California Academy of Science. Unfortunately, these wonderful creatures can only be found in such places as Madagascar, South Africa, and Australia. I guess that is just one other reason to move to the land down under.

I'm Still Here

I'm sorry I haven't posted on here in a while. I have been really busy lately, and this just got pushed to the bottom of the list of priorities. I am still alive and I hope to be able to write a better post than this on my blog soon. Have a Happy New Month's Eve!

Just a Second

Most people complain of a lack of time in their busy lives to do everything they want to. For those people the following news will bring great joy: The official time-keeping officials have added an extra second to our lives. Yesterday at exactly 7 PM Eastern Standard Time the minute became 61 seconds long just for that special moment in history. Why, do you ask, did they do such a thing? It seems that our precious world is not as young as it used to be and is slowing down. Scientists say that this deceleration is due to the moon's gravitational pull on the Earth. An article from the Associated Press says that "The same force that brings the tides is putting the brakes on the earth, albeit very slowly." I sincerely hope that all of you enjoyed the extra second in your lives and put it to good use. Speaking of time keeping and time passing...Happy New Year!

By the way...

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!
and Happy Boxing Day!

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." - 2 Corinthians 8:9

The End of an Era

Tonight's game between the Patriots and the Jets is going to bring to an end a tradition that has endured for many seasons: Monday Night Football on ABC. The good news is that there will still be Monday Night Football next season. The bad news is that I will be unable to watch it. It is going to air on ESPN, a station I do not receive since I only have broadcast television. It will be sorely missed and Monday nights will never be the same again. I like it! I love it! I want some more of it!

In other news: The Bears clinched their division last night when they defeated their arch enemy the Green Bay Packers and will be going into the playoffs! It hasn't been too bad of a year for Chicago sports teams...well...at least for the White Sox and Bears.

Celebrate the Times, Come On!

In honor of my anniversary I decided to celebrate by going nostalgic.

A year of blogging in review: It all began with a post in which I declared I would take over the world. Since then I have waxed eloquent on subjects ranging from politics to books to movies to religion to science to everything in between. I have had my good months when I was a good little blogger and wrote much. Then there were those other times (like last month) when I got busy and nothing seemed suitable to write about. I have gotten comments from people I know, people I have never met, people I will never meet, and people I'm just not so sure about. I have enjoyed this past year and hope to enjoy another good one.

I have been glancing over my 130 or so posts of the past year and have discovered that I received comments that I never knew about! I love getting comments and reading them today brought a smile to my face. Please comment away. You have know idea how receiving a comment makes my day that much brighter, even if it is a comment that completely disagrees with what I have said. I just like knowing that there are people out there and I like receiving feedback. You can even comment just to say hi or on some random thought.

Here's looking forward to another great year in the blogosphere!

IT'S MY 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

Which means...I should be seeing some paper gifts soon, as they are the traditional present for the first anniversary. Paper 10s and 20s are nice. ; ) Just kidding. I hope that any of you out there who have read this blog sometime during the past year have enjoyed what you have read or at least been given something to think about. The traditional gift for second-year anniversaries is cotton. Did you know that here in the U.S. paper money is about 75% cotton? Just thought you might find that interesting...


btw...I just ran this post through Blogger's spell check, and the word "blog" is not in their dictionary!

The Tale of a Lion

The new Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie was much better than I expected. I have been raised all my life with the Chronicles of Narnia stories, from having the books read to me as a young child, to seeing the BBC versions, to reading the books for myself as I got older, to listening to the stories as radio dramas put out by both BBC and Focus on the Family. I would have to say that I am quite familiar with the stories, and because I am so familiar with them, especially the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, they have become rather blase and...well...boring. But seeing the new movie really breathed new life into the story.

First of all, I must say the it is more than a thousand times better than the old BBC movie version (referred to from now on as the BBC MV), and, if you have seen that one, disregard it and forget it ever existed. The acting, the casting, the effects, and the scenery were all quite bad, but in the new one they are just about perfect. In the BBC MV, I really disliked Mr. Tumnus, the faun. He was so wooden, cold, and had no depth to him. I didn't feel sorry for him at all when he was betrayed by Edmund and arrested by the White Witch's secret police. I could really care less. However, the new Mr. Tumnus is quite a different story. I felt like I knew him and could feel for him and the things he was going through from the moment Lucy screamed upon meeting him. Instead of being a character of no consequence like in the BBC MV, he quickly became my favorite. I must admit that I rather liked the added scenes with Mr. Tumnus as they added so much more depth to his character. (I must also now go into hiding as no self-respecting Narnia purist would allow me to get away with writing such blasphemous thoughts.) In fact, I think that the director and writers did a good job with the most scenes that they added to the story as they made the characters, the children especially, more dimensional and endearing.

The biggest fault that I have with the movie is the fact that they changed a couple lines so that it was the hope that the children's coming brought that was thawing the eternal winter and not the fact that "Aslan is on the move." The focus of the story was definitely the children and not so much the lion who was the king over all Narnia. They took away most of the mystery, excitement, enchantment, magnificence, and power associated with Aslan, at least as I saw it. They still did a good job, though, and I have to give kudos to the movie's makers for making such an almost explicitly Christian-themed movie. The death and resurrection scene was still powerful and moving, even if it wasn't the movie's focus.

One thing that I found really interesting and that helped me gain a new perspective on the tale was the people sitting behind me in the movie theater. They had never heard the story before so they were coming to the movie with fresh eyes and minds. Hearing their comments throughout the movie was like hearing the comments and exclamations of a little child making new discoveries in a world that has become commonplace to adults. It is wonderful to know the joy of rediscovering the familiar in new ways, and that is exactly what the new movie version of The Chronicles of Narnia has helped me do.

The Other Side of the World

It seems that South Carolingian Carrie Rodgers has become fed up with the constant barrage of bad news and is trying to do something to show the other part of the world that goes pretty much unreported. Her attempts are culminating in the website happynews.com. Her site's slogan says it all: "Real news. Compelling stories. Always positive."

The downfall or giant corporations, the failing economy, natural disasters, terrorism, murders, fires, the loss of life; it's quite depressing, really. Why is it that most of the news that we are used to reading and hearing is so negative? It could be because bad news sells, while good news may be good, but it is also generally boring. People don't want to hear the good things, they want to know what bad, terribly awful and shocking things are going on. Maybe it confirms their view of the world. Maybe they just want to know if they should be more careful stepping out the door and if there are any hazards awaiting them. Maybe people just like seeing other people hurt so that they can feel better about themselves. Maybe it causes an adrenaline rush of excitement knowing the world could fall apart at any moment. What ever the cause of it, the worse the news is the more people want to hear about it, and the only real responsibility the media in America has is to make money. That is their major motivation and if they end up making people more knowledgeable that is an added bonus. Thus, bad stories become sensationalized and at times blown way out of proportion and the good things that happen are buried or just go unreported. People are given the view of one side of the world, while the other side is hardly ever glimpsed.

Just thought you might want to hear some bad news about our news-reporting media. ; )

A Cliched Thanksgiving

Here we go again: turkey, football, and...oh yeah...I guess we should be giving thanks for something, too. However, many times people (myself included), when asked what they are thankful for, just give a bunch of cliches that really mean nothing at all. So...what are you thankful for? Food? Family? Shelter? Friends? Are you really?

It is difficult to be thankful for something you have never had to do without. Here in America we really have everything that we need and much more. Most of us do not have the problem of going hungry and not knowing where our next meal will come from. Most of us have never had to worry about not having a shelter over our heads to protect us from the elements. Most of us do not know what it would be like to be all alone without any family or friends to be there for us. We are very spoiled, and because of that it is hard for us to be thankful for what we have. It is even harder to be content with what we have.

As I believe that honesty is the best policy, be honest, starting with yourself, this holiday season. Are you really thankful? If not, why not? What would make you more thankful? Just a thought.

Love Songs

Scientists have made the discovery that mice are much more musically inclined than previously thought. When in the presence of their mate, male mice sing! I actually have known that mice can sing ever since I was about 4 years old and watched Cinderella for the first time. I suppose the scientific elite just never got off of their pedestals long enough to watch an animated movie in which mice break into song before being changed into horses. (They will next have to investigate whether or not horses can sing. Hmmm...)

King Tut Drank Red Wine, You Should, Too!

Wow, what a discovery. You know, it would make perfect sense for the wine he drank to be red, especially if the grapes that were used to make the wine were red. To me, red wine seems much more natural than white. I mean, how often do you see clear, white grapes? I suppose it must come from the green grapes, but still. (Can you imagine drinking green wine? Yuck!) As you can tell I am in no way a wine connoisseur and can hardly stand the stuff. By the way, King Tut died unnaturally young, which means that drinking red wine may not be that great of an idea after all.

Update 10/15/09:  I feel as though I should amend this post since most of what it claims is no longer true for me.  I have actually developed quite a penchant for wine and enjoy both the red and white varieties.  It was just an acquired taste, I suppose.  I'm glad I can feel a connection with King Tut now in our common enjoyment of wine.  Who knew that I would have so much in common with an Ancient Egyptian Pharoh?

A Lady With a Right

Rosa Parks died yesterday at the age of 92. To tell the truth I did not even know that she was still alive, but she is a very important figure in the history of America and deserves to be remembered. What was her big accomplishment? Saying a simple "no." It was December 1, 1955, almost 50 years ago, and Ms. Parks had been working all day at her job as a seamstress and had heavy bags of groceries to take home. Being black she couldn't sit near the front of the bus, so she took a seat towards the back. As the bus continued on its route it picked up more passengers including the rush hour crowd and the Christmas shoppers. The bus quickly filled and it wasn't long until she, along with the other black passengers, were told to give up there seats to some white gentlemen who had just boarded the bus. It may have been because she was so tired from her long day or because she saw the injustice in it all, but Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. She realized her right as a human being to be an equal who should be treated with just as much respect as those men, perhaps even more since she was a woman. Whenever I hear of Rosa Parks and her story I think of the times that I rode in the buses down in Disney World and my dad and uncles would give up their seats to the women who would otherwise have to stand up for the ride. It always makes me proud when I think of it. Rosa Parks was an inspiration for the civil rights movement as she stood up for herself and her rights amid the persecution and inequality with which she was treated. Even though there is still bigotry and racism in our country today, we have come a long way in the past 50 years in recognizing the equality and dignity of all human beings. We owe a lot to a little lady with a right.

Attack of the Robo-woman

Oh, yeah! That is so me! Just kidding. I am generally a mild-mannered person and I am not really inclined to yell. I just thought that this was rather funny.

Hey, It Makes Sense!

Dr. Stat has an awesome post on Education vs. Instant Gratification. I would recommend checking it out. I have never heard the theory that he puts forth before, but it definitely makes sense and is worth a read.

Roman Explosion

I love ancient history, in particular that of the Roman Empire, and that is why I am so excited to see that there is going to be a Pompeii exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago. This is definitely an exhibit I do not want to miss. The explosion of Mount Vesuvius may have been horrific for the residents in 79 AD of the city of Pompeii and its neighbor Herculaneum, but the objects that have been preserved in the volcanic have given historians a great glimpse into Romans and their way of life. One thing in particular that is an unprecedented find were the people who were the actual victims of the explosion. In Pompeii, they were covered in ash that hardened while the bodies decomposed, leaving cavities that have since been filled with plaster. The resulting statues show the agonies of the last minutes of the citizens' lives. Herculaneum, however, was not buried in the rain of ash and bodies of its people were covered instead in the mountain's pyroclastic flow with only their skeletons left behind, but there is still much to be learned from their bones and how the Romans lived. The volcano also preserved other parts of the daily life such as ointment bottles, jewelry, and food still on someone's dinner table, although I wouldn't recommend trying to eat it since it is thousands of years old and hard as a rock. I am definitely looking forward to this exhibit.