They are saying Ike is coming to Austin. We're a few hours inland, so I'm not sure what these people are talking about, but we're gonna get some weather. And so people will probably overrreact and freak out.
I recall when Hurricane Gilbert was tearing up the Gulf, circa 1988, we were going to get some crazy weather. It rained mildly for about thirty minutes.
I'm still buying some batteries, water and a 6 foot party sub to get me through...
Tonight Jamie and I were discussing CERN's Large Hadron Collider, and it's possibilities for accidentally ending life, the universe and everything. And it was one of those instances where I felt a little bad, because we had wildly differing opinions regarding the possibilities of the worst case scenario.
I guess I made reference to the fact that if the Hadron Collider does, in fact, end Everything, I was okay with that.
I am, I think, in the minority on this one.
It boils down to a few things:
1) If I'm gonna be ended, I would prefer it happen by my atoms spontaneously zipping away from one another at the speed of light rather than, say, eating bad clams or something. 2) At least we were trying to learn something when we'd end the universe rather than getting into some petty political squabble that, frankly, isn't that important, and so we all wind up waiting twenty minutes for the rockets to come down on our heads. 3) I have nothing planned for next week, anyway
In some ways, I am intellectually aware that my survival instincts can't deal with the abstraction of sudden proton reversal, and I just can't get worked up about this Hadron Collider stuff. But having grown up under the threat of imminent nuclear war which could break out at any time and end the world twenty times over... I've kinda been figuring on reaping the whirlwind in some firey blaze since I was in first grade. Thanks, TV.
Anyhow, I'm about as worried about this as I am about the end times coming in 2012. With the added bonus of: hey, I could be sitting at my desk reading e-mail from Randy, and.. zip... that's it. We all get blue screened. There's nothing I can do about 99% of the ways we could go, and if you have to pick one... again, sudden protonic reversal seems not all that bad.
I also suggested to Jamie that even if the universe does end, all that energy has to go somewhere, and so in a trillion years of linear time, most likely we'll all be back doing exactly the same thing when the universe simply recreates itself, following roughly the same pattern.
Sure, we might be giant flagella-wielding manta rays or something as random circumstances effect minute changes in progress... but I'm pretty sure the universe, even destroyed, will sort itself out without us. I mean, we're just recombinant DNA packages swimming in a soft atmosphere passing data back and forth to one another, when you get down to it. Sort of just little self-running programs collecting and analyzing data and passing it on through DNA or sensory-based transfer (for now). In the grand scope of things, we're a blip in the infinite and not even a picamoment in the cosmic timeline, so...
Yeah. I'm not too worried.
The LHC is part of Machine: Earth, of the Solar System. If the systems running on Machine: Earth bluescreen, well, the universe will figure its way out somehow beyond our miniscule comprehension. There is cosmic-level systems support, I assure you.
And for all we know, this is but a reboot in which we've already been here countless times, and this is the one time we've gotten it right, so when they fire up the LHC, this time its smooth sailing.
You gotta think positive about these things.
Anyhoo, here's Yakko Warner putting things into perspective (and song):
Before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, Jack Kirby's "New Gods" aren't some religious whatzit. It refers to Kirby's crazy-bizarre ideas regarding a celestial race of beings spawned from the wars of celestial beings who may or may not have been the same or precursors to mythological figures of Earth culture. It's hazy.
But what you also need to know is: The New Gods are awesome.
If I tried to explain this scene, I would never do it justice...
But this weekend, while watching an old episode of the animated Superman show from the 1990's, I was reminded of how Timm's crew recognized that the show was a great opportunity to bring in Kirby's Fourth World characters. After all, they'd first been introduced in "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen" (no, really. I have the issue.), so a Superman cartoon was a great excuse for them to bring these characters to the small screen.
Here's the nickel tour of how The New Gods stuff works:
The traded babies? Orion and Scott "Mr. Miracle" Free. Just FYI.
Keep in mind, this was just one of Kirby's ideas. The man is responsible for: The Fantastic Four Dr. Doom The X-Men Captain America Thor
and I could keep going... But, suffice it to say, The Fourth World/ New Gods concepts were a later-era Kirby creation, dreamed up during a period when he was coming up with whole worlds between breakfast and lunch.
I posted the clip above because it's a pretty good summation of The New Gods, and I find Orion to be an underappreciated DC character. I have to thank WB animation for giving Orion his due.
Timm's team would carry Darkseid and Co. through as a major force in their DCU cartoons until the very final episode, providing for some of the best stories in what was a phenomenal set of series.
Anyway, if WB is looking for a mythology and villain for the relaunch of the Superman movies? And they want dark?
Simon is in some sort of Canadian foot race where he'll be raising money to research cancer. Leaguers should support Simon as he participates in the Terry Fox Run 2008.
Whenever I hear the name of Terry Fox, I am reminded of the set of books called Value Tales my mom got me as a kid about famous people who represented various values and virtues a good little kid was supposed to internalize. Its how I learned about Jackie Robinson as a kid, Terry Fox, Ben Franklin, Harriet Tubman... we must have had three dozen of those books. They came mail order, and it was always a big day when we'd get them in the mail (shortly after we quit getting Sweet Pickles).
I looked it up, and... looks like you parents could be landing these books for your kids. go here. (Terry Fox has, ironically, been left out by the new publishers.)
Anyway, I'll always remember the Terry Fox book because... well, here's Wikipedia on Terry Fox.
As some of you know, Jamie was out of town from Friday morning until Sunday afternoon. Jamie returned to Lawton for the weekend for a high school reunion (which was sort of informal, and a "girls who grew up together" sort of thing, and so I did not attend).
Jamie's absence left me in a curious position.
As a married gent, it is not often that I am left to my own devices for such an extended period. We enjoy spending time together, and as such, neither of us ever get too weird and Gollem-like.
But rather than run around and fill my weekend with social-butterfly-ness, making friends entertain me, I spent quiet time with the pets. Watched some TV, an episode of Mad Men, read a stack of comics, and worked on my long-suffering prose piece. I'm still pretty embarrassed about the whole thing, but I did get some pages done, which I haven't in a long, long time. It's odd to talk about it, but I figure if I talk about it here, maybe I'll feel like I can keep moving forward.
I did try an experiment to see if I could make it all day Saturday without leaving the house, but that fizzled when I went stir-crazy and went to Target for dog food.
Plus, I was involved in a post-car-wreck phone-relay scenario with Letty & Juan and Lauren & Steven. I think Lauren is okay. Hopefully she'll pop up and tell us.
Aside from that, I just watched the UT game and took Mel and Lucy for a nice, long walk (I don't want to screw it up by talking about it, but the temperatures have been nice at night here lately).
Today I hung out with Jason a bit, watched some pro-ball (hooray, Cowboys!), and was happy to see Jamie returned to me in one piece. Mostly, I just missed her. It is nice to have her home.
