Leg cramps now.
Man, nothing to make a guy feel thankful that he's a guy than to watch a woman going through pregnancy every day. End result is great for me, but holy shit what a drag for my wife. Pregnancy apparently agrees with her though; she looks awesome and because of that, she's at least smiling through most of it. I'm starting to think she actually really likes being pregnant.
Oh crap.Does she like it too much perhaps?
I'm getting worried that the whole 'Let's just have one baby ever' agreement we had just went out the fucking window.
What was I on?
Oh yeah, the news.So the news clip in question was about a find (didn't catch where) of a large leg bone of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Not that strange you say? They've been digging up bones of this guy for years?
Well, this particular bone from an animal who is believed to have been walking around and playing bully over 70 million years ago had to be split in half for transport, and what was found inside made me turn the news up. Apparently, there is a small amount of organic material left inside the fossil.I shit you not.
Scientists believe it likely that they will be able to process a complete DNA profile of the animal from this sample. Now, the last thing I want to do is suggest that this dinosaur has been in the ground for only the 7000 or so years that the Creationists will claim the Earth's age to be. But, I mean how the fuck can DNA be preserved for 70 million years? Seriously. How is that even possible?
And maybe I'm ignorant of the processes mother earth is involved in whilst fossilizing a bone (and quite frankly, I am), but that just doesn't seem right to me. So if it's not, what then? Throw the whole scientific community on its ass and go back to the church telling us the earth is flat?
Think I'm over-reacting? Ok, maybe a little. But, this could really be a coup for the Thumpers of the world. They can say that if we were wrong about something as 'big' as the dinosaurs, what else have we been wrong about? I say we because I'm a rational human being and have happily (maybe a little militantly) rejected any kind of spiritual answer to our creation and subsequent omnipotent observation and occasional interference, and instead embraced a scientific stance.Not that I'm saying that it isn't at least possible that some entity or energy or whatever had something to do with the creation of the universe, or the big bang or whatever. I can't know that for sure. No one can. What I'm saying is that if there was something before the universe existed, then perhaps that something did create the universe. But I think that any assistance we received in development ended with that big bang. I think we've been on our own ever since. I know, sounds agnostic, but believe me I am not. I am an atheist in every sense, but I'm just allowing that I could be wrong. Just like I wish that Christians could admit that they could be wrong. Just could be. And then when they admit that they could be wrong, I could tell them that once they understand why they do not believe in other religion's gods, they'll understand why I don't believe in theirs.
Ha.
Half the time I subscribe to the Minbari philosophy that because we are all made up of the same basic elements (people, animals, this planet, this star system, this cosmos) each of us may be in a very small way a tiny part of the universe that has divided in an effort to explain itself. Sounds cool anyway.
Of course, the other half of the time I think it's very likely that we're all in some kind of Matrix-ian virtual environment and maybe nothing we know is real at all. Maybe not even ourselves. Read 'Are We Living in The Matrix' by Nick Bostrom in a book called 'Taking the Red Pill' if you get the chance. He gives a very convincing argument that we are in fact living in a simulation. I just took a few minutes out of blogging to re-read it. What a mind fucker.
But maybe I'm just ranting about some old bones.
Maybe, if given the chance, Arthur Dent would just tell me that when the Magratheans were putting the skeletons in the earth's crust just to fuck with us, they decided to throw in some DNA just to up the ante.
Or, maybe I should stop watching the news when I'm high.
Either way, I'm sure we'll be hearing more about this one.
Labels: atheism, philosophy
I watched Wil Wheaton on CSI last night and it was odd afterwards talking about it with my wife. I realized while we were talking that I felt proud of him for his accomplishment. I identify with this guy for a couple of reasons, some more meaningful than others.
First because we are close in age, and in interests. He's an avid gamer, writer and has a fairly sarcastic sense of humour that anybody who knows me well enough for me to let them know, is just like me.
But more than that he is a person who has tried very hard to deal with the demons of past mistakes, and reconcile the life and happiness he now enjoys with the long, strange trip it took to get there. This is where my identification really kicks in.
I think about (and talk, and blog) causality a lot. More than is healthy, probably. I think about it because I know that the sum of my life as I know it is described by the circumstances I've been in, and the choices I've made on the way to this point. All of them, and particularly the 'bad' ones. And its funny, because I like to think that there are so many things that I would change about my life if I had a do-over, but knowing what I do about the causality of my life, would I really change anything at all?
Would I really?
Because if I changed any of the things that had any meaningful influences on the course of my life I wouldn't be where I am today, be with the person I want to spend the remainder of me life, be expecting my first child, be at peace with myself. Well, most of the time.
So I identify with Wil because he's the same guy. He spent years torturing himself over the decision to leave a popular tv show in the hopes of a brighter future that never materialized. Even went so far as to label the voices in his head, most prominently 'Prove To Everyone The Quitting Star Trek Wasn't A Mistake'. I have yet to name my voices to you, but believe me they are in here. All of them. But because Wil is content with where he is now with almost all facets of his life (except how the acting is going), he can no longer afford to look back and bemoan the choices he made to get thus far.
And in that sense, I'm him, or he's me, or whatever.
I love my life right now. I have never been closer with my wife. I have finally freed myself from the self-imposed torturous relationship I maintained with my father for years, a relationship I truly feel that I carried single-handedly simply out of my need to have any relationship at all with that particular genetic benefactor. I have a son or daughter on the way, and I can hardly describe the wealth of emotions (almost entirely good) that stem from that whole thing. I'll write a book someday. So other than my professional life, I am really pleased with myself. Just like Wil.
So because of all that I have to covet from that other me that would have had things turn out differently, I can look at the course of my life and the many, many poor choices and say
'What the fuck is the problem? Every stupid thing I've ever done and every bonehead choice I've ever made led me here. And I like here. And me. So all those wrong choices had to be right.'
But it still gave me a real sense of pride to see that now that Wil has exorcised the demons of his past, the acting thing is working itself out more or less on its own. So maybe the same can happen for me someday, too.
Labels: everything else, star trek
Yup. That's a car parked in the middle of an intersection.
It's my Mom, if you're curious, just on her way home after coming to visit us for her birthday. Why do anything normal like pull out of a parking spot when you can back her up 15 feet and hang out in a busy intersection for about 5 minutes, right?
The rest of the visit wasn't quite as perplexing. Close, but not quite. It was good until the praying over the cake started. Personally I would've gone with the more traditional 'making a wish' over the cake, if anything, but who am I to judge? Besides, a little holy-rolling is usually good for some comic relief.
What else?
Well, the quest to keep Enterprise on tv continues. A group of three anonymous donors stating they work in the 'commercial space flight industry', have pledged $3 million towards the budget of a season 5. Now I know I'm a fan, but holy fuck that's a lotta dough. I think the list of people that are crazier about Star Trek than I am just got a little longer by three. Although that being said, one of the people rumoured to be involved is Richard Branson, head of Virgin Everything and money spender extraordinaire. So I guess it'd be like grocery money for him.
Some really cool news: Superwife and I have finished the nursery. Well, let's be honest, it was mostly me because I have been fanatical about keeping her away from the paint fumes. But she and I had a really good time hanging the Winnie-the-pooh border around the room, and it finally looks like a 'real' nursery. I think the baby is going to love it (when he/she gets old enough to appreciate it of course). I totally get that the baby couldn't give a rat's ass what colour the valences are. But Superwife and I are happy with it, so that's what matters.
Some other baby updates: Yeah get used to 'em, babybrown is coming in a few months.
We have been reading to the baby a fair bit. In fact, we just went to the library yesterday and laid in a supply of Seuss' Horton books. And we have been playing music to the baby as well. I've been loading up my mp3 player with a nice selection of quieter tunes from some of my favourites. All the literature I've read suggests classical. So baby has been listening to Zeppelin, Floyd, pretty much as 'classical' as I get. I think 24 minutes of Echoes is going on the menu tonight. Gotta acquaint baby with the stuff he/she's going to grow up thinking is so uncool, right?
And the job hunt continues. I am still getting work from the few contract gigs that I maintain and 8i apparently has a bunch of work in the wings from our sales guy. But I can't eat unsigned contracts. So I am still looking for something a little more permanent and a lot more regular with the paycheques. I have been expanding my job hunt to include any kind of technical position, be it hardware servicing, network admin, help desk, all of which I am totally capable and expensively educated to do. But so far, no bites good enough to reel into the boat.
So hi-ho, hi-ho, it's back to the job boards I go.
Labels: family
