nervous as a kitten

heh, feeling nervous as a kitten at a bulldog convention.  have been emailing with a professor at Tufts about going there to continue my work in computational consciousness, and it always makes me a little giddy to consult with high-powered profs.  like asking someone out on a date (which i've almost never done).

now i just have to get the nerve up to jump back into the academic thing (and pay for it).  ugh.  oh well, i'm not doing anything else . . . .

chicken soup and the gods

i've spent the last couple of hours making chicken soup from a chicken carcass, and i've maybe begun to understand why some people act so proudly of their chicken (or turkey) soup.

being a god involves (among other things) taking inert matter—dirt or dust, for all intents & purposes—and making a living being from it:  a bird, for instance.

making soup, on the other hand, involves taking a cooked (and therefore deceased) bird and slowly & carefully pulling it apart, bit by bit, until all that's left is . . . well, not quite just dirt or dust, but nasty enough that the soup-maker is ready to toss the lot into the trash with no hesitation.  and while pulling the bird carcass apart (and learning more than anyone ever really wanted to know about all the little meaty bits & connective tissues & miscellaneous bony bits), the soup-maker has "created" a pot of delicious (if you like that sort of thing) homemade chicken (or turkey or whatever) soup.

so of course they're going to feel somewhat god-like in the process and be proud of their creation (and expect anyone else who happens to partake of it to give proper thanks).

making soup has given me a little sympathy for the gods, who (understandably) want some praise for their creations, after all the messy work they did.

so have a little sympathy for the soup-makers and for the gods.

and enjoy!

pessimism briefly in the lead

surprise, surprise:  the WHO finally got the cojones to admit that placing a microwave transceiver — a cell phone, for instance — next to your brain for ten years might well give you brain cancer.  (as if the years of anecdotes from neurosurgeons about finding cancers right near the cell user's ear of choice weren't enough.)

and sadly, it's probably not the Gen X crowd most at risk; it's kids growing up with cell phones glued to their ears.  so they and we will finally switch to using wired ear-pieces and keep the carcinogenic phone in a less sensitive spot (and not near our crotches, i'd hope), climb back into the automobiles robbing us of cardiovascular health, and drive to our jobs sitting in front of computer screens.

at least the toxic CRT screen is mostly a thing of the past.  be thankful for small advances.  :-)

The "Path To Prosperity" — Just Say No!

Don't be fooled!

They're Back . . .

Hooray!  The Sox are back in town (and being broadcast on NESN), and Jerry Remy is back announcing after a bout of pneumonia; so no more of me hating Fox or ESPN for their pro-Yankees slant.  I suppose i should be more understanding of those (subconsciously) wishing they could live in Red Sox Nation but are (for whatever reasons) unable to make the border-crossing — of course they're going to be hostile and preoccupied with the hapless Yankees.

Yesterday i watched 'Fever Pitch' for the first time, and it brought a real smile to my face.  Made me think of my ex- and her ex- (who was a major Red Sox fanatic).

Enjoy the rain, peeps.

Don't Get A Fox Network Lobotomy — Just Turn The Volume To Zero

Wow, i could not have underestimated how monumentally bad the Fox Network coverage would be of tonight's Red Sox at Yankees game.  The announcers are two duds whose names don't even appear on the Fox website (which is too bad, because i gladly would have named them).  They just go on and on about nothing; it's like they forget that there's actually a game going on.  And then to make matters worse, they have Sarah Silverman make a cameo as a supposedly famous Red Sox fan; only she has even less to say about the Red Sox than the dud announcers (and apparently knows nothing about anything, except how to appear mentally deficient; maybe they drugged her).

And since the Fox Network headquarters is in New York City, it's no surprise that their coverage of the game would be pro-Yankees.  But what makes their announcers seem so severely obtunded?  Perhaps it's the continuous low grade gamma radiation present in the city combined with the repeated inbreeding of Fox employees that leads to neural degradation.  Or perhaps it's that their health insurance offers radical frontal lobotomies with a zero co-pay — New Yorkers are loathe to pass up a bargain.

Do Your Bit for the US Postal Service!

We all get junk mail, right?  Of course.  But instead of tossing it in the trash (or recycling it), take out those postage-paid return envelopes and send them back — the Post Office will appreciate the business!

Either send them back empty (boring) or enclose some interesting paper tidbit of your own.  After all, the junk mail company went to the trouble of providing you with a little surprise in the mail; why not surprise them back?

Keep the Post Office in business.  If junk mailers want to pay for prepaid return envelopes, they must want you to send them back no matter what the contents; let them sponsor some re-investment in our Postal Services.

Ciao!