"Anonymous said...
u r gay"
People! I don't mind the accusation, although I am not gay. However, as previously stated, I think people who comment anonymously are spineless. If you want to insult me, use your name. From this point on all anonymous comments will be deleted unread.
Later.
I suppose that I am an atheist, in the sense that I do not believe in God (or gods).
If you define atheism as an ideology (apparently the definition is, "Nihilistic, Nietzsche-spouting, communist jack-ass"), then no, I am not that.
All religious arguments aside, I do not believe in God in pretty much the same way that I do not believe in leprechauns, the tooth fairy, or Santa Claus. I would invite people to read Richard Dawkins' essay "Snake Oil and Holy Water". Although I do not agree with Prof. Dawkins' agressiveness, I do agree with the main point of the essay.
I am sure that I will now be pariah in my family's eyes. Mom's side is religious (Lutheran, Mormon, or Messianic Jew). Dad's side, while not particularly religious, per se, is spiritualistic with Christian leanings. I am not hostile toward either belief. I just don't agree with them. (Ok. If you want my opinion of religious beliefs, "steaming load," would just about cover it, but that's just my opinion, you can believe whatever you want. Please note Peter Atkins' teapot in "Snake Oil and Holy Water.")
I don't preach God's non-existence. If you want to believe, that's your business, and none of mine. I just wish everyone felt the same.
Later.
I have more important things to do. Much more important. Why, then, am I writing a post? Because I am the king of procrastination.
I am reading less fantasy/science-fiction these days. Not because I no longer enjoy it. I do, very much. It provides me with an escape from my own crappy life. I may have mentioned this before: my life sucks. I know that it's my own damn fault. In fact, to an objective observer, my past probably seems full of self-sabotage at critical points. But I don't want to gripe about that. It's my own problem.
I am cursed with intellectual curiosity. I say cursed because this is not the drive-to-know that produces scientists and engineers (I learned this after wasting 5 years and a lot of money at Penn State). Just an annoying itch to know a little more about stuff. So I read books by such authors as Richard Dawkins, Michael Shermer, and Bertrand Russell, among others.
Ok. Just because I read something does not mean that I believe it. Reading books by Aleister Crowley (I have), does not imply that I believe in Thelemic magick. I do not. It's just that pesky intellectual curiosity asking, "What's all the fuss?"
On the other hand, I suppose that I am a Darwinist (I don't really consider myself any sort of "-ist"). So I had a bit more reason to read "The Blind Watchmaker" a few years ago. My mother is a devout Lutheran and Creationist. When she saw what I was reading she said, "Why are you reading that?" As if merely reading about the vile, satanic idea of Evolutionary biology was a one-way ticket to eternal damnation. I don't understand this attitude (which I have encountered many times, before and since). How can you condemn something when you know next to nothing about it?
Well, there's more that I want to say, but I really do have things that need doing.
Later.
Wow. Do you see how crappy my last post looks? I typed it in OpenOffice, and pasted it into the post page. I'm never going to do that again.
Later,
With the DVD release of the HHGttG movie imminent, I thought I'd say a few things.
I saw this movie with Philip, Thomas, and Caleb (we couldn't justify leaving him behind).
Overall, I enjoyed it. That may be because I went in determined to do so.
But I did have some issues.
Marvin. At first I hated the way Marvin was designed. After a while I got used to it, and decided it was okay.
Zaphod. I hated the stupid “pez-dispenser” head thing. I still do. Given today's CGI technology, would it have really been that hard to give him two heads he could bang together?
Ford. Mos Def was okay, I guess, but he's certainly no Geoffrey McGivern.
The Vogons. Actually they looked pretty good, but they should have been green.
I read some reviews that complained that the story just ended, with unresolved plot points. To them I say, “Ever hear of a sequel, dumbass.”
Philip hated it. Halfway through the movie he said, “Disney must have had Douglas Adams killed to get this piece of crap made.” That's hard to misinterpret.
Thomas said it was okay.
I don't really care what Caleb thought.
Moving on...
By general consensus (that is to say, I was outvoted) the radio at work is usually kept on a country station, and I want to gripe a bit.
It claims to be a mix station, but really it's a top twenty station that occasionally plays some other songs.
I work from 5am to 3pm, Monday through Thursday. I hear the same songs at least two, sometimes three, times each day, everyday that song is in the top twenty.
I want to say something about a few of them.
Nothing About Love Makes Sense – Leeann Rimes.
Jayzeez Chroist, this song is dumb!
"Like an ocean liner shouldn't float on the sea" - Archimedes' Principle?
"That big Italian tower, well how does it lean?" - no mystery there either.
"or a bumblebee fly" - okay, I used to hear this one a lot from people trying to defend the "mystery of the universe." The claim is that, according to physics, bumblebees should not be able to fly. This is bullplop. BULLPLOP! I am not a physicist, but I can explain how bumblebees fly. It certainly does not defy science. If you want an explanation, just ask. I will happily bore you to tears.
There are other lines like this, but I want to move on to another song.
Goodbye Time – Blake Shelton
This has got to be the whiniest crap I have ever heard. Grow a pair!
Angels – Randy Travis.
Ok. Randy Travis has some songs that I like. This is not one of them. The song starts with a discussion about the literal existence of angels. One guy says that he has never seen one. The rest of the song is about a mother's love, which is a wondrous thing and certainly a worthy subject of song. But what does it have to do with the literal existence of angels?
You'll be There – George Strait
This song begins by comparing life to a ship on the ocean. How very original. I don't think I've heard that more than a dozen times. Other than that, it was okay the first couple of times, but it got really old really fast. There's a line in the chorus: "I want to go where the streets are gold, 'cause you'll be there." Every time I hear that I think, "He wants to go to Rigel?"
(I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't get that joke. If I explain it, it won't be funny anymore.)
And the not-in-the-current-top-20 songs they play.
By all means, play Reba. But she has more songs than "Fancy." (at least once a week) And is it just me, or is that song actually about a mother pushing her daughter into prostitution?
There are some others that crop up pretty often, too.
I almost passed out with shock a few months ago when they played "Poncho and Lefty" (the Willie Nelson – Waylon Jennings version).
Later.
Please don't think I was ridiculing you about "it's self." I am a geek and have been for many, many years. Correcting other people's English is an almost Pavlovian response. I can't help it.
I visited your blog. I didn't have time to read much, but I will when I can. It looked pretty good.
Anyone else - check out Milton's blog: thoughtsfromchemistry.blogspot.com
Later.
I read my posts several times before and after I post them.
I re-edited "more on EvC" several times after I posted it, because I missed some typos beforehand. This one, too.
Please, at the very least, re-read your comments to see that they make sense. If you aren't sure how to spell a word, do what I do, copy it into a word-processor (I use OpenOffice) and spellcheck it.
Later.
