The Occasional Solipsist

I pride myself on being a pretty smart fella. Back before I did all that damage to my cerebellum in high school, I scored a 150 on an IQ test. More recently I still scored a respectable 123, so I don't consider myself too much of a dumb-dumb. Regretting some of the stupider things I did to myself when I was a kid maybe, but still not too shabby.

So it was with something akin to astonishment that I came across a post today discussing our solar system and its 11 planets. I was all over the demotion of Pluto to dwarf planet a few years ago, but it was my understanding that we now had 8 official planets, and an as yet undetermined number of dwarfs. Turns out I was wrong. We have the big 8, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, but now we also have Pluto, Ceres and Eris, the three (so far) dwarf planets. And 6 more on the NASA/JPL 'watch' list.

Guess I should read the news more often. And I also guess its good that I didn't shell out that $100 on the ceiling model of the solar system for Trin's room. I have a feeling it might go on sale shortly.

If anyone else feels like getting an intelligence inadequacy adjustment (like I just did), hit these links:

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/index.cfm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_system

Labels: everything else, narcissism

Haven't blogged in awhile now. Not sure what excuse to use first: My laptop is back with HP again and I have to use a loaner; I am flirting with the idea of dumping the blog entirely because I really don't seem to have anything worth saying anymore. Probably a combination of columns A and B.

Either way, there is a new post on Rick Mercer's blog about the disrespect that the current Canadian PM Steven Harper showed to some Nobel Peace prize winning Canadian scientists that makes me think we're at the dawn of a new Dark Age. Harper's representation of Canadians pretty clearly shows that if you aren't making money off of the rape of the natural world, and instead want to use science to fix the world before we ruin it, we're just not interested. Thanks a lot, Harper. I wonder if he's ever read A Canticle for Leibowitz?

Article here.

Labels: everything else, politics, rants

Dear Trinity,



I have to gush about this one. When I saw this picture that you drew when I came home from work tonight I was so taken aback I actually said the words ' I am completely taken aback.'

At which point you said 'Don't take it back!' and proceeded to remove the object of my fandom from the refrigerator. But seriously, this thing is getting framed. You have been drawing, painting and colouring for months now, but out of nowhere your random squiggles and lines and shapes coalesced today into a fairly clearly recognizable depiction of a person, a little baby in fact. I was so taken aback.

And here's an interesting thing; You just watched me open my utorrent client on my laptop and with no prompting from me whatsoever you asked if we could 'download shows Dad?' So either I am introducing you to illegal downloading or I am exposing you to the communal experience of filesharing, depending on one's point of view. But either way, you are paying close attention. If I hadn't already used it, I would claim that the event had me taken aback. But I digress.



This past month has seen your Mom and I expose you to something we thought we wouldn't do for years: ice fishing. I had myself convinced that you were going to end up in the lake if we took you out, but as it turned out, it was a very safe, enjoyable experience. You loved helping out with the bait and were very into being taught how the whole operation worked. It was a lot of fun. And your Mom introduced you to the sole reason why she goes ice fishing; Hot Dogs. Apparently in her family, no matter what time you go out, or if you ate immediately before you left, went you get to the ice hut and light the stove, it is necessary to cook and eat hot dogs. I think it likely that it contributed to your enjoyment of the whole experience.



You have been busy this past month snapping pictures with your new camera, so we have lots and lots of digital pics of the floor, the ceiling, body parts that come off as random blurry somethings, and the occasional self-portrait that would make any MySpace Profile-portrait-taker envious. I mean seriously, things don't get much cuter.

When I sit down to write these letters, I always feel like I need to tell you more about what's going on in your life, because it seems like I fall short of accurately capturing how you've changed since the last month. But I also don't want to feel like I am taking notes either. I guess as long as you look back on these and know how I felt about you when I wrote them, then my work is done.

Love Daddy

Labels: family, trinity

So my laptop is back and now I so am I, at least in a connected sense. If anyone is wondering what kind of warrantee service HP offers, it rocks. Had my baby back in no time, and it is as good as new now.

UPS however, is a gang of douchebags for leaving my repaired laptop on my porch in a Northern Ontario winter, but since it was mild (for here) and my laptop was none the worse for the experience, I am going to forego making a stink and just let it go.

While I waited for my laptop to come back and have been off on the long break part of my swing shifts, I have been keeping busy doing a ridiculous amount of ice fishing, had a great bud of mine stay with us for a few days, fixed my snow blower (all by myself and I am SO proud of myself about it), watched a few movies, notably the fantastic Juno, and the lackluster Justice League New Frontier, and got caught up on every comic book in my read pile that I hadn't yet gotten to.

And about those comics: My take on the recent Spider-Man One More Day/Brand New Day business is that it fucking stinks. Spider-Man's marriage to Mary Jane and its subsequent Omega Level Retcon was nothing short of ludicrous. I love Spider-Man (and usually JMS), but I don't see how erasing his marriage, his revealing his identity to the world and pretty much anything else than lent substance to the character is supposed to make the character better. And as some kind of struggle between the devil and god no less. Grrr. I always loved the idea that Superheroes can have family lives and still be cool, and the fact that I myself am a family man probably has something to do with that appeal. So, boo Marvel. Bad decision.

And did I mention that I single-handedly diagnosed and fixed my snow blower? I did? Oh. Cause I did. All by myself.

Labels: comics, everything else, family, movies, narcissism, rants