The Rawr Monster

Alright, I’m sure not everyone is going to agree with me about this point but I’d like to make my opinion clear on this whole "Green, Save the Planet" chant that has been attached to our generation.

I’d like to preface everything by saying that I do think making cars with better fuel efficiency is a good thing and recycling your plastics and such a great way to reduce waste and allow us to make better use of our resources.  I just have a problem with the lobbyists and people behind this green movement phrasing the reason why we should do these things is because we have to save the planet.  I would like to point out that this planet does not need saving.  To illustrate my point, let me make a list of the events this planet has already survived:

Earth: Tougher than you Think

1. Birth - The Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago from the nebula (nebulan?) disk of which the other planets and sun formed.  First the Earth was molten and very very very hot.  And was bombarded with meteors and meteorites day after day after day for about 2.5 billion years.  There was very little atmosphere on the planet so there was nothing to protect the Earth from the meteorites.  Earth was a very tough place to live back then.  But you know, nothing lived back then

2. The Moon - a theory suggests that the Earth was hit with a large mass (probably the size of Mars) and thus this probably resulted in the Earth being knocked around and then ejected a certain amount of monlten mass into space - forming the moon in the process.  I’m sure this wasn’t a rosey day for the Earth but still it survived.

3. Oxygen - Water on this planet probably came from ice comets or other proto-planets that contained ice and such in the young solar system.  The mixture of the atmosphere at this time was mostly water vapor (also from volcanoes), nitrogen, ammonia and other trace gases.  But it wasn’t until, somehow, life appeared that the Earth was really plagued.  Early organisms were able to use the nitrogen and ammonia for respiration (something very few organisms can do today).  But as evolution moved onward, there arose organisms that were able to transform carbon dioxide (and I suppose ammonia as well) into pure oxygen. But you’re saying to yourself, "I thought oxygen was a good thing?"  Oxygen is good for us and the animals that live now on Earth but oxygen is actually a toxic gas.  It killed off most of the earlier organisms on the young planet. 

Fun Fact: The U.S. Constitution is actually locked up in a glass case filled with inert Argon gas since oxygen has been proven to react with the paper and ink to cause decay/degredation. 

You know how red Mars looks?  Do you know why?  Mars is rusted.  Iron oxides as far as the eye can see.  Oxygen isn’t free anymore, its locked up in a molecular bond with Iron on Mars until someone decides to mine it, of course.

4. Plants and water -

Plants are able to dig right into the Earth, much like water, and slowly pry the rocks apart and eventually topple mountains.  These fources change the surface of the Earth over many many years.  But, hey its for a good cause - this creates soil and junk, right?

5. Extinctions - Let’s talk about animals.  There have been many many mass extinctions on this planet.  It’s not just the one 65 million years ago that killed the dinosaurs.  I believe that one was actually not that bad.  These are the Big Five mass extinctions:

a. Ordovician extinction - 450-440 million years ago.  Second biggest marine extinction to be studied.  Probably caused by the continental plates shifting and causing temperature changes and such. 

b. Late Devonian extinction - 364 million years ago.  The cause isn’t really known.  We do know that the two major continents before Pangea (Euramerica and Gondwana) were racing towards each other to form Pangea, this might cause some mineral imbalances in the sea as well as ocean anoxia.  Another theory includes a comet.  Mostly affected marine life.

c. End Permian - 251.4 million years ago.  Earth’s most severe extinction, wiping away 96% of marine life (they don’t get a break, do they?), 70% of land vertebrates, and the only extinction to affect insects!  This translates to 57% of animal families and 83% of all genera killed.  And it also came in pulses so it must have felt that it kept going and going.  Possible causes include increased volcano activity, continental shift, ocean anoxia, and some more comets or asteroids.

d. Triassic - Jurassic extinction - 199.6 million years ago.  This extinction basically allowed dinosaurs to be the dominant lifeform on Earth since a bunch more marine life and amphibians and some other reptiles were killed off.  Possible causes come from the usual gradual climate shift, space impacts or increased volcano activity.

e. End Cretaceous - 65 million years ago.  This is the extinction that allowed mammals to be the dominat lifeform on the planet since it killed off the dinosaurs, all of them.  The cause is generally accepted to be an impact from some rock from outer space.

But look at life now.  It surely has rebounded, huh?

Oh, I forget, there’s one going on right now.  It’s called the Holocene extinction.  This is the count of species being killed off from the start of human history (probably because of human activity - not volcanoes or asteroids).

6. Lastly, the Earth is going to be swallowed by the sun when the sun becomes a red giant after a few billion years.  By then, I’m sure there’s going to be tens more mass extinctions and the continents are going to shift some more (and so the face of this planet isn’t going to be familar at all).

Okay, so my point is - the Earth is one tough piece of rock.  It’s not going anywhere.  If a thousand asteroids could hit it and billions upon billions of animals dying on it hadn’t totally devasted this planet, I don’t think we will.  My gripe is that although this green movement is totally appropriate for humans, it’s not really appropriate for the planet. 

Yes, I know that the trash we produce is going to remain on this planet for thousands of years (some even millions?) but when time is measured not in single years but in millions of years, it really doesn’t matter. 

This green movement should say something like, "Recyle and help save the human species".  If we don’t recycle, if we don’t find an alternative fuel, if we don’t change our ways we will change this planet so much that it won’t be inhabitable for humans and a bunch of other animals.  But the fun thing about biology is that other animals will evolve and adapt.  So what if the humans die off?  Some other animal, after million of years, will become the dominant lifeform on this planet and they’ll see our buildings and trash (if its still here) and say "Boy, I sure hope we don’t end up like that."

Let’s not be dreamers, let’s call this movement what it really is. This planet does not need saving - Humans need saving.  We are an endager species to our own destructive actions.  When humans disappear, the Earth will still orbit the sun and the moon will still be there hanging in the sky and I’m sure someone using some sort of eye-like organ will gaze upon it one day in the future and hopefully they won’t be as destructive as us. 

So I was listening to one of the many talk shows that I listen to (in podcast form on my way home from work) and the hosts were talking about this “phenomenon” that the New York Times reported.  Apparently, this is a craze sweeping the nation in every middle and high school, many students are giving each other hugs frequently.  There are types of hugs (friend hug, bear hug, the bear claw, etc) and everyone is doing it - even the jocks and geeks!  There are no boundaries to this hugging, no socio-economical class barrier, no popularity scale rating requirement, it is an all out hug-fest.

Researchers and experts are saying that this hugging trend is a new form for the traditional “hello”.  Instead of waving at your friend or giving them a high five (a perfectly acceptable form of “hello” in my book) many kids are now hugging one another.  So much so that some schools are forced to make rules about hugs in the classroom.

Now, I am not the number one fan of hugging - in fact, I think most of the time it’s unnecessary - I think that this trend (or you can call it a fad, I know I do) is incredibly interesting.  Why?  Why are these kids expressing their need for physical contact?  Don’t they get enough of that crap at home?

I’m no expert but it raises a few interesting points.

For one, perhaps it is an evolution of the classic greeting.  I’m sure back in the 1800’s, people wouldn’t touch each other.  A simple wave or a bow/courtesy would do nicely.  That is the socially accept greeting.  And I suppose people then began to smile more and maybe that lead to the good ol’ fashioned high-five.  I am a big fan of the high-five.  It takes skill to hit that hand especially when you’re moving.  And it is most certainly macho and quite satisfying to hear that slap of two hands belonging to two kindred spirits that - for one second - are connected in a purely physical way.

Then there’s the hug.  Yes, perhaps it is beyond Generation Y, the generation that I am now a member.  Maybe the NYTimes is right, call it Generation H.  I just don’t understand it.

Secondly, some experts say that its a sign of grieving.  Grieving of what?  Some might suggest a grieving of times changed OR for 9/11.  Always about 9/11.  Sure, these kids were young when 9/11 happened but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be affected by the post 9/11 world.  Americans are, in fact, trying to create that “old time American feeling”, the kind you see in movies or read about in books.  I know that my parent’s neighbors are trying their hardest to reach out and know their neighbors (a fact my mom bemoans often).

That’s really all of the reasons I can think of right now.

Do I really think that everyone is hugging?  No.  I’m sure there’s some people who are not as popular who are not getting hugs.  Do I think this is a bad thing?  Not necessarily, people can do whatever they want - sure, whatever.  But please, let’s not expect this trend to become the next big thing.  I, for one, will be fighting tooth and nail against this movement if it requires me to hug every single person I see on campus.

[VIA: NY Times: For Teenagers, Hello means 'How about a hug?']

This is going to be a rant.

So I work in a hospital.  Yeah, I save lives (does this turn you on?  If so, then please e-mail me and we can go from there).  And you think that of all the professional places, the hospital would be near or even on top of the list of the most professional no-nonesense types of places if one were to make a list.  But sadly this isn’t the case.  Let me illustrate (with words):

1. One of my coworkers is suing the hospital because she has a hard time deciding whether or not she’s Jewish or Catholic.  I’m sure many people in the world have this problem too (sarcasm).  But honestly, I applaud her questioning her faith, I think its a sign of a healthy relationship with both God and her inner spark.  But, however I hardly think its fair to blame the hospital because we don’t give holiday pay on Jewish holidays.I love the Jews.  Let me say that.  They’re God’s chosen people and they’re my chosen people.

   But there’s a reason why my hospital only gives holiday pay on certain holidays: because they’re federally mandated.  I’m no lawyer or at all an expert on laws but my hospital only even celebrates a fraction of that list (by celebrate, I mean gives free lunches or time and a half to its employees).  We have New Years, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  No President’s Day or Martin Luther King Jr Day, none of that nonsense.

   My co-worker is suing on the basis of discrimination.  Partly due to the holiday misunderstanding and to the fact that she’s not allowed to call out and/or go home early every time she’s scheduled because of her medical condition.  That medical condition being that she always has a migraine or her legs are falling off.  Now, I may be too optimistic but when one works in a pharmacy, one can surely get any drug one wants quite easily.  I know I do.

   Whatever her reasoning is, she walks around with a smug look on her face - which leads me to my second point…

2. She comes up to me the other day and says something to the effect of “Yeah, so I’m suing the hospital for X Y and Z.  I hope I have your support.  I’m bringing this hospital down.”I responded something to the effect of “I think your efforts are in vain because, quite frankly I don’t think you don’t have a case.  But if you are going to pursue this venue, also know that you will indeed not have my support because if you manage to ‘bring this hospital down’, that means I will lose my job OR (if the planets align themselves right) its going to be under new management, possibly by the state, and that is not something I want.  Your personal vendetta against this hospital is actually quite stupid and I hope you waste all of your money on lawyer’s fees.  And for goodness’s sake, take some migraine medicine.”

   She didn’t like that very much.

3. Oh, and she smells like dog.  All.  The.  Time.She also has a seeing eye dog.  One of the pharmacists (of foreign origin) asked me one time, “Why does she have dog?  She not blind!”  I answered with, “Sometimes she is because of her migraines.  But since she’s blind, it probably prevents her from taking a bath every once in a while.”
4. My mom is a nurse and I like to think she’s a pretty good nurse.  This isn’t because I have a certain familial bias towards her but because she doesn’t ask me inane questions about where certain drugs are, whether or not they’re already on the floor or say the dreaded words, “Um, so I lost that vicodin I took out of the Pyxis.” and “Which one of these pills is the morphine pill?  My PO’s got mixed up.”
5. Its a smoke-free campus.  Enough said.
6. I try my best to leave work on time but I’m always half an hour to an hour late because all the nurses and their mothers decide to fax down medication orders at the last minute and all the doctors and their mothers decide to call down at quarter to closing to ask about acetaminophen.  Let me quote Dr. Cox on the correct dosing of acetaminophen:”You open the patient’s mouth, grab a handful of Tylenol and throw it in their mouth.  What doesn’t fall out is the correct dose.”
   –Dr. Cox (Scrubs, Season 1)
7. I can’t even continue.  There’s just too much.  Just too much.

But I love my job.

It’s a cycle I go through about every month or so.  And I’ve discussed this several times with Greg (who does not have a blog so I cannot link his name to his blog like I would with my other friends who do have blogs.)  Let’s not digress.  But yeah, about every month or so, I go through my AIM buddy list and get rid of all the screen names of all the guys who somehow tracked down my AIM screenname from my various social sites like YouTube, Facebook and to a certain extent - the blank ether of the Internet.

The reason why I like to keep my AIM list neat and tidy is that on my MacBook, there’s only 800 pixels going vertically and so there’s only so many spaces for screen names that fit onto the side of the screen on my Adium contact list.  Plus, I never became good enough friends with the person to know their names (first and last since that’s how I like to organize my AIM contact list).  Screennames like (Chunkylova65, which is a real screenname owned by me) makes my contact list look cluttered and just stresses me out.

So, I delete a bunch of screennames.  I don’t block them (and maybe I should), I just delete them then perhaps I have a celebration glass of orange juice or something.  Then, a few days later those screennames who haven’t contacted me in a blue moon contacts me.  A little window pops up with a weird screenname and a message saying, “Oh hey, we haven’t chatted in a while.” and the process begins again.  Adium automatically adds the screenname to my contact list and I’m too “D4W” (down for whatever) to do anything.

Then we’ll go through the same questions.  Sometimes the other guy is very clever at disguising his questions in conversation but other times it’s very direct.  Just now, I was asked, “You still with your boyfriend?”

Now, I don’t want to shoot myself from the past in the foot in case I had said “Oh, not interested, I’m taken.” because it’s also one of my excuses when I’m not interested in someone.  Or, this guy is one of the clever ones and is trying to disguise his “You single, honey?” questions in another question.  Either way, tonight I said, “Yeah, it’s going great.”

Maybe this time, he will leave me alone.  Maybe this is the end of any futher inquiries, anymore applications to court me.  Why didn’t I think of this before?

Oh, BTW - he has stopped chatting me up.

I’ve been having flashes of memories lately and so I decided to indulge myself and perhaps you and put onto the computer screen the best I can those memories.  They’re just random memories, really.  No pattern, not really I don’t think.

So, without futher ado, let’s go back to the first time I met Milo.

—-

Who is Milo?  He is probably my most loyal best friend ever.  I cannot think of a day that can be called complete without seeing his face and hearing his voice.

Milo is my cat.

Actually, when I look at the records - and this is no coincidence - it was give or take a year ago.  My roommate, at the time, and I were thinking about getting a cat for our apartment.  I was very hardcore about it.  I always wanted a pet and I had always admired cats for their grace and individuality.  But at this time I had no idea what I wanted so I went to the first place I could think of for pets - Craigslist.

It’s unfortunate that the craigslist ad has long expired.  But I do have the original correspondence with Milo’s previous owners:

Hey,

I am inquiring about the cat you posted on CL (http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/pet/569508909.html).  Is he still available for adoption?  And where are you located in Philadelphia?  I live in S. Philly.

Dennis

Sometimes while I’m walking around the tundra that is Philadelphia (it was like…15 degrees today!  Yikes!) I say to myself that it was stupid to go to college in the northeast.  The winters are so cold and I am such a fragile little guy that I cannot stand all the snow and wind and coldness.  

But I see things like: 

What is that?  Apparently, its a caribou.  I don’t really know what a caribou is so let’s just call it some sort of moose/deer combination.  Look at it.  All covered in snow.  OH DID YOU MISS THE FACT THAT THIS POOR SOD FROZE WHILE STANDING UP?

How would you feel if you were just walking to the nearest 7-11 to get some milk and maybe eggs to make brownies later and all of a sudden you froze while in mid-stride?  Scratch the milk and scratch the eggs and you better bet you have to scratch off the brownies because you’re going no where.  And how about the fact that no one else really cared.  

“Hey, where did ol’ Bucky run off to?”

“He’s certainly taking a long time to absorb the scenery.”

“Larry, I think he is part of the scenery now.”

“Aye, that’s a shame.”

“Aye.”

“Do you see any dandelions?”

Note to self: Do not live in Alaska.  Especially never.

FROM: Viral Nerd via Towleroad

So I’ve been spending about two hours on Stumbleupon, just pressing the little button over and over again and I tell you what - I’ve seen a few great sights on the Internet.  Pictures of majestic cliffs and stories about suicides and murder as well as really bad guy make up.  But I found this interesting story about how some astronomers found this Earth-like planet about 20 light years away from us.  The planet is about twice the mass of Earth so there is about twice the amount of gravity but it is a lot closer to its red drawf sun so a year is only about 13 Earth days (a birthday every two Earth weeks? yikes).

I’m sure in a few years we will be able to study this planet more closely and a few more years we’ll be able to travel there in suspended animation or through the use of Faster Than Light drives (F.T.L. drives, if you will - a la Battlestar Galactica).  But that’s to be expected.

What is interesting is one of the comments left on the post.

By all means we must demonstrate our resolve as Americans to respond to this Godless alien menace. Time may be short, but an invasion fleet could be assembled in near earth orbit to launch a dagger strike at the thick-ankled mutants. If they know not the name of the LORD, let them learn it at the barrel of a gun.

Posted by: Geordie | January 14, 2009 at 09:32 PM

I think its poetic.  Let them learn the name of the Lord at the barrel of a gun.  Let us conquer this planet that would probably crush the weakest of us (I would weigh…260 lbs!) and render the strongest unable to move but slowly.

Daily Galaxy | Earth’s Twin Habitable?

Okay, sure. Everyone is going to be talking about school at this time. School for us (and consequently for most of my friends) starts tomorrow so I guess I held off talking about for a long time. But something else happened to me today semi-related.

I received a call today at about 8:30 AM.  I think I was having one of those dreams where it incorporated whatever was happening in the real world into the actual dream.  My ringtone being a cardinal chirping so I vaguely remember being in a forest or something and everything was very green.  But I woke up, scrambled to see who was calling and realized it was the hospital calling.  At 8:30 in the morning.  This could only mean one thing: I was late for work.

I picked up the phone and it was my coworker/faghag/workBFF Ashlee.  

“Wha…?”

“Dennis, wake up!”

“What?  Why?  What’s up?”

“I’m having a minor freak out here.”

“Huh?”

“Dennis, it’s eight thirty in the morning, wake up!”

“I’m not scheduled today!” I said defensively, “Am I?”

“No, I just wanted to ask you when school starts.”

“Um…tomorrow.”

“Oh.  I thought it was on Thursday, the 22nd.”

So we got into this conversation about how she hasn’t registered for classes yet and the people there at the Fox School of Business weren’t really helping her and she’s confused about the whole process.  I was giving half answers because I was so gosh darn tired.  So one of the pharmacists joins into the call (now a conference call) and says, “Dennis, if she comes up on campus now, will you be able to help her?”

“…sure?”

An hour and some time later, Ashlee is outside my door and I forgot my driver’s license.  We drive to campus and along the way I give her a little tour of Philadelphia.  She’s a suburban chick so she has no idea where anything is located.  She actually asked me if I walk to school.  Mind you, its about a five mile walk from my house to campus.  No, dear, I take the subway.

By the time we get to campus it is about 10:00 AM.  It’s kind of snowing but nothing too serious.  We parked on the street and she was afraid of forgetting where her car is parked.  I told her that despite what some people say, I am very smart - I can remember where a car is parked (most of the time).  We arrived at the Fox School of Business building and I have to say that I am really impressed.  It’s a beautiful building compared to Barton or something.

The security guard had no idea where the advising office was and I also had no idea.  ”I got you in, that’s all I can do.  Now we’re both lost.”  Turns out the advising office is in room 101 but tucked away somewhere.  We found the room and we signed up, the last name in a long list of about ten or fifteen people.  This was about 10:30 or so in the A.M.

I was going to go on campus anyway to do a Craigslist printer transaction (Canon MP210 for $40 - not bad I say) so I left her at 11:45 or so.  I wanted to buy some cigarettes but I had forgotten my I.D.  When I came back I convinced her to go to the convenience store with me to get some cigarettes and when we came back they still had not called her name.  It wasn’t until almost 1:00 P.M. when they called her name and she only took about two minutes.

I then asked Ashlee to drive me to the Walmart so I can get a printer cable since many printers don’t come with them anymore (for some reason).  This makes no sense to me because when I got my monitor, it came with a DVI and a VGA cable.  Like I would need both at the same time.  Well, actually I use my DVI to hook up my monitor to my desktop tower and my VGA to hook up my Macbook.  So that is useful.  But the printer was just an annoyance.  And I hate going to Walmart.  Too many people.

Not a bad way to spend my last free day before school - on campus.  My printer looks sexy on my desk.  I’m slowly upgrading my desktop and its accessories and everything is coming together very nicely.  I have a nice widescreen monitor (which I wish is a bit bigger).  Wireless keyboard and mouse and now a new printer with a shiney black glossy front.  And I had a great day with Ashlee.  

Which brings me to my next point.  After my heinously long nap, I logged onto Facebook and and saw that a bunch of my friends from high school still get together sometimes and I’m no longer invited.  And it’s not the fact that I’m not invited that makes me think but the fact that I don’t even really care enough to be sad or do anything about it.  

I always thought that one should be grateful for one’s family because one doesn’t get to choose them.  They’re chosen for us when we’re born.  I can be embarrassed by my mom or something but in the end I still love her to death because she’s so cute.  I can hate my brothers for a day but I still come home and play with them or drive them around.

Friends are another story.  You can actually pick your friends and drop them if you don’t like them.  And I figured that my high school friends and I were going to be one of those people who stayed friends for the longest time until we’re old.  But when we went off in our different directions and interests I just kind of lost touch and got new friends.

One of the golden rules, “blah blah blah keep your old friends new ones are like silver something something.”  And sure, I didn’t follow that but I think I kind of realized that when I did try to keep in touch with them, we all realized that we really didn’t like each other.  My high school friends and I were always competing.  And I think that’s great, it made me so much better as a student.  It pushed me to graduate top ten in my high school class.  But now that there’s no common “competition” between us, there’s really nothing else to talk about.

I think the last time we were all together was for my friend’s father’s funeral.  And I went because of necessity.  

Hey, that’s all.  I’m done.  This Kayne West CD isn’t that bad.

If you guys know me, then you know that one of my archenemies is a nice looking…bin? Pail? Container of cream puffs.  And this is exactly what I was greeted when I came home to visit my parents this weekend.

WHY DO YOU HATE ME?  YOU KNOW I CANNOT RESIST YOU!!!!

I perhaps had one or two.  You know, whatever.

I’ve been in possession of a cough since last week.  At first I just thought that this cough was just a regular cough that I’ve had my whole life.  The kind that comes and goes, no big deal.  Well, a week later, this cough has pretty much ruined my life.  

I usually no longer go out.  I’ve been staying in and whenever I do go out I feel like a vampire because the sun is awfully bright these days (maybe God’s just hugging us a bit closer, huh?).  This no-going-out business isn’t good for me because I made promises.  Last Saturday (which was my birthday, 22 is sexy) I didn’t go out because I wasn’t feeling all too well and I promised a bunch of people that I’ll be going out this Friday coming up.  Only this cough is making my Tavern debut somewhat unlikely now.

Question: Can someone actually cough up their lung?  I think mine made a valiant attempt to jump out of my throat this morning.  If I die and they find my lung next to me, let it be known that I had all intention of going out this Friday but because of the circumstances (i.e. lung being on the floor and not in my lung area) I couldn’t make it.