Upcoming Fringe!

Tomorrow night is another night of Fringe! Looks to deal with some sort of horrible contagion, possibly spread by the ZFT terrorists? If not, then definitely created by some unethical scientist doing human experiments. Peter is infected and apparently under quarantine. So the question becomes: will they risk everyone's lives by setting Peter free? Will they allow Peter to die (oh, definitely not). Will Walter find the cure before or after the decision is made whether to set Peter free? Or even more unnerving, will setting Peter free show the infection to be psychosomatic and therefore not a threat? I cannot wait to see what lies in store, what Walter will call Astrid, and whether Walter will fixate on a food or just make inappropriate comments...

xfiles vs fringe (spoiler alert)

Many Tweeters noted last night that Fringe seemed to be a rehash of X-Files episode Home. Several went on to make disparaging comparisons between Xfiles and Fringe. However, I would say they missed the point.
Sure, there was a similarity between Johari Window and Home, in that both dealt with hideously deformed people. But that is where the similarity ends.
In Home, the people were deformed due to generations of inbreeding, chosen by the family themselves. They were violent by choice and driven by their own choices into the horror of their lives. In Johari Window, the people were deformed due to secret government/military experiments, which affected all the living creatures within the town - victims of the choices of others rather than of their own choices, and not universally violent, especially as shown in the end when one victim chose truth over concealment (although she did use violence to achieve that end).
This gets to one of the primary differences between XFiles and Fringe. In XFiles, the monsters and the mythology were driven by the existence and intervention of aliens - monsters were weird hybrids or results of alien experimentation, and the government conspiracy related primarily to the existence of aliens and their coming invasion. People were made who they were by their choices, or driven by their biology. In Fringe, the monsters and mythology are driven by unethical experimentation on willing and unwilling subjects, which Walter himself participated in. The people are driven by the results of other people's choices for them - they are victims. Further, the conspiracy is not, so far, well connected between evil individuals (David Robert Jones), massive corporations (Massive Dynamic), and the government/military (Russian cosmonauts, Johari Window).
In the X Files, a big focus was on the truth: what is it and how do we find it and prove it. In Fringe, the big focus is on the coming inter-dimensional war, and what is ethical in the face of that. William Bell still clearly believes that human experimentation is justified by this war, while Walter is learning that it is not, and is trying to make atonement. Yet Walter has still not dealt with one of his most heinous crimes, one which may be responsible for the coming war: the kidnapping of his own alternate son.
So yeah, Fringe borrows themes and ideas from X-Files, but they are examined and developed very very differently.

Sure, we're a Christian nation

I remember on September 12, 2001, I was reading an advice column. The columnist was so infuriated over the events of the day before that most of the column was his venting. But he did answer 1 letter. The poster had sent him an email during the attacks - while one of the towers was actually falling. The columnist sputtered on and on, venting all sorts of disgust at this human who was more concerned about his sex life than with the death of thousands of innocent Americans.
Today I was listening to K-Love (Christian radio) and they were talking about yesterday's horrific earthquake in Haiti. They talked about the poverty there, about how there are many missionaries there, etc. I switched stations to classic rock and was instantly hit with an advertisement for some woman's burlesque show. And that, right there, is the kind of Christian nation we are. We are completely capable of focusing on our own enjoyment even while our own countrymen are dying, much less when people outside our country are suffering.
I'm not saying we have to go around wringing our hands all the time (which we surely would if we were attuned to all the daily suffering in the world). But we could all benefit from some occasional hand-wringing, a little less focus on self and a little more focus on those around us.

Why is healthy eating so unfulfilling?

And I do mean unfulFILLing. I had a salad for lunch. It was quite a large salad - probably 1.5 to 2 cups of spring mix lettuce alone. It had chicken, almonds, and edamame, along with mandarin oranges and a ginger soy dressing. Good solid protein there. Yet I am starving, very very hungry. Worst part: I was hungry less than an hour after eating the salad.
On the plus side, I went to Teavana (lunch at the mall) and got myself 2 caffeine free teas to enjoy. I'm gonna go enjoy one of them with a serving of peanut butter M&M's (270 calories and very filling).

The Force of a Sleeping Cat

A common formula for force is mass X acceleration. Given this equation of a sleeping cat, like Duchess, is 9 pounds X 0 = 0. However, there must be a special formula for sleeping cats. Because last night, my 9 pound cat pushed me to the edge of my bed, while doing nothing but sleeping. Given that she pushed 150 pounds of weight, her force must have been at least, what, 150 pounds? (I bet my Dad could calculate this exactly).
I propose changing the acceleration variable. It simply cannot be zero. I propose that when a cat falls asleep, their acceleration changes from 0 to 10x their weight. This results in the equation, for Duchess, of 9 pounds X 90 = 810. That surely explains her ability to shift my dead weight several inches.
Science experts, care to explain further?

7 quick takes

1. Baby, it's cold outside, but the sunlight streaming through these windows is keeping me nice and toasty!
2. Tonight Dale and I get to meet some new people - a young couple that just moved here. I'm pretty excited about the prospect of widening our social circle.
3. I'm short on hours this week, but that doesn't matter because I'll pretty much be working all day tomorrow.
4. Dale surprised me by saving up all his "mad money" in order to buy a flat screen TV. Sneaky guy! Can't say I'm upset about the decision though - a larger higher quality TV will make reading basketball scores much easier.
5. Dale also sweetened the deal by buying a waffle iron. If you are my brother, sister-in-law, or parents, you will know how much Dale and I love WAFFFFFLES!
6. I was saving my mad money to buy a pair of kick-ass Doc Marten boots. When I tried on said boots, yesterday, they were unbearably uncomfortable.
7. Any suggestions on a great treat (preferably shoe related) I could spend my mad money on? (Please, no worthy suggestions like charity - we already give away $ and our mad money is meant to be spent indulgently!)

Horror Stories of High School Abstinence Classes

My only source for this is a group of teens who attend Leesville High School. I would love to believe that these stories aren't true, or are exaggerated, or even that all of them have conspired to deceive me, but I think it's most likely that these stories are at least partially true.
We taught our high school group about sex this fall. We taught them the Biblical view that sex is good, it is spiritual, it is designed for procreation and pleasure and intended for marriage. But we were also real with them. We taught them about birth control. We taught them about how to think through the consequences of premarital sex. We tried to teach them that their sexuality is valuable - a priceless part of themselves that can only be shared so many times before it becomes less special. And we had a no-holds-barred Q&A period when we discussed many issues about sex.
In response, they told us what they are learning in high school. They report that their health teacher takes a goldfish out of a bowl and lets it die, demonstrating what premarital sex is. Today one of them said the health teacher brought in cookies and said the cookies were cheap prostitutes. Then they performed a skit in which one student tried to convince another student to eat the cookie, while another student tried to dissuade him from eating it. They tell us that they are so grateful that we have given them more information about sex. That we have talked about sex as more than just some bad thing that must be avoided at all costs.

I wonder how many goldfish have to die before our kids are taught the truth about sex.