The random rants of a 30-something West Texas high school biology teacher
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Ever feel like shooting someone in the head?
If so, give this a try. I played all the way through it, and felt not one iota of guilt. I'm not sure if that's because I have no soul, or because my targets were all stick-men. Either way, it's fun.
Then, take a minute to give thanks. Give thanks that you live in a time in history when miracles like this can take place. Give thanks that the heart of what makes us human is intact enough that our jaws drop, our eyes well up with moisture, and our thoughts turn to oh my God, or at the very least, wow, when we read about things like this.
Thank you, God, for the miracles of life, courage, and imagination. Thank you for little Naseem...
Surprises keep trickling in from the informational wellspring known as the Human Genome Project. Today we find out that you and I aren't as close as we thought we were. It turns out that we differ not only in the sequence of A's, T's, C's and G's, but also in how many REPEATS of certain genes we have.
In related news, we also aren't as close to the chimps as we once thought we were. This is extremely timely news, seeing as how many of us are locked in Darwinian struggles with our relatives this very day... Happy Thanksgiving!!
My brother-in-law was planning to be at a Hastings at midnight last night. They were raffling off the chance to buy a PlayStation 3.
He doesn't actually want to play a PS3... he wants to sell it on eBay, for about 4 times the retail cost ($600 times 4 = $2400).
I still have mixed feelings about gouging idiots with too much money, especially with video games, which are a bit of a sacred cow to me. This feels a little like running a prostitution ring... at a mental hospital.
Anyway, I thought I would check the expected glut of PS3s on eBay this morning, so I surfed over... and found THIS.
Ho-lee freee-kun cuh-RAP.
The actual sale price dropped dramatically as bids were retracted during the last minutes of the sale. I have a feeling that this idiot will be re-listing his cash cow, as the likelihood of someone ponying up 89 mil seems... well, less than likely.
...and I miss them already. Technically they don't get on the plane until tomorrow morning, but I just got back a few hours ago from driving them to my parents' house (about an hour north of here, and much closer to the airport), and already I feel like poop.
I swear, I would completely fall apart if anything ever happened to them.
Geez, it's midnight. Gotta' go learn' the young-unz' in a few hours. Maybe sleep will help.
THIS really pisses me off, for a whole host of reasons. First, I'm sad for the kid, Micheal Gromek, for having a potentially great experience in America tainted by having to live with these people. Second, I'm livid that once again the media has a perfect set of poster-children to point to when they talk about "those right-wing, fundamentalist, bible-thumpin' kooks."
In case you've bought into the hype (and really, given examples like the fruitcakes in the article, who would blame you?), let me assure you that the vast majority of fundamentalist, evangelical Christians aren't like this. We're normal people, leading normal, sane lives.
Why don't you believe me? Oh, I know why... and no, it's not some big media conspiracy (I don't think, anyway...). The fact is that legalistic fruitcakes tend to stick out like sore thumbs (sore from all that bible-thumping?), and most of the rest of us... well... don't. We're the ones who live fulfilling, joyful lives, even in the midst of the constant chaos around us--because we know that no matter what life throws at us, there's something better waiting after this life is over. Something much more important. More real. And rather than push your nose into "what a lousy, stinking, sinner you are, glor-ah , howl-uh-lew-yuh!", we'd much rather wait until you notice and ask about the blessings in our lives before we share our faith with you.
No real Christian would be caught dead claiming to live a perfect life. We screw up. A LOT.
For every "Pat Robertson" out there, I guarantee that there are a few hundred-thousand low-profile evangelicals groaning and scratching their heads at what the guy just said on national television. Or radio. Or to the unsuspecting 19-year-old Polish exchange student, who will probably, for the rest of his life, see every self-professed Christian as a legalistic, cold-hearted, weird S.O.B..
So before you write us ALL off as kooks, I invite you to see past the loud-mouth demagogues, and take a closer look at the quiet ones. We're all around you. We're real.
The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had...
Most depressing, beautiful song ever.
I just heard this recently (on a video game commercial, of all things), and it makes me really want to play the game, but I feel like I might need to hug a puppy or something after I do so---pretty sad stuff.
The wife and the monkeys will be flying off to spend time with her fam in about a week. So I'm looking at about five days when I will have the house to myself. I've already scheduled some deep, dirty honey-do projects (the kind which are best performed when there are no little fingers or feet to get squished--or little ears to hear the dirty words produced), but I think I will still have lots of goofing-off time left over. I'm thinking of doing some or all of the following:
Watching all six Star Wars films back-to-back (to back, to back, to back...etc.) at full volume on the old home theater.
Leaving the house to catch a flick by myself (thinking about Casino Royale).
Trying to make some serious headway on MP2, Geist, Z:OOT, and other similar "scary" adult Gamecube games I rarely get to play. (Noticing a trend here?)
Trying to see how long I can exist on nothing more than coffee--to get me in shape for piles and piles of turkey.
Curing polio.
Running for public office (no actual running involved, I checked it out).
Seeing how long I can go without changing clothes before someone notices and makes a comment.
Strip solitaire. Or strip minesweeper.
I am deeply open to suggestions on more original (or just less pathetic) ideas. Talk to me people.
Haven't updated much lately, mostly because I've been too busy reading lots of good stuff that the rest of YOU are writing. I'm officially adding the "Teh Internets" sidebar, to try to tie all of you monkeys together. Enjoy.
