La Sandwichera

Study abroad should be one of the best experiences of your life. You should have a great host family that adopts you as one of their own, looks out for your welfare and teaches you about the country and its culture. You should come out with a good mastery of the local language. However, it looks like things went horribly wrong for this kid. His parents sent him off hearty and healthy -- he came back looking like Karen Carpenter.

From personal experience, it seems like this kid got placed with a family that uses the Exchange Program as a means of additional income. It's pretty obvious from the host father's comments that it all boils down to money. There's nothing inherently wrong with this -- as long as you provide your exchange student with enough to eat and a safe place to live. Indeed, I like the idea that both parties gain something from the exchange experience. However, there's a serious difference between mutually beneficial, and pocketing all the money for yourself.

I hope that the kid mentioned above had great experiences outside of his host family, and is able have some good memories of his time there. Hopefully, he'll be willing to do another exchange in the future. And hopefully, he'll get a much better family.

[Note to BMC: Does this remind you of anyone?]

Please, Recompete

We've got some serious issues with our property management company. Unfortunately, our Board decided that we're going to stick with them for at least another year. This despite the fact that there is wide-spread discontent with the antics of the property management company. (I know there were some compelling reasons to hold off on the recompete, but seriously ... )

Things got pretty interesting this weekend. Without any advance notice, we were advised that our garages are going to be power-washed, "effective immediately" and starting on Monday. A schedule, by level, with poorly written instructions followed. The notice finished with a disclaimer that all cars will be towed -- at the owner's expense -- if they are not removed prior to the power washing, and that the Association is not responsible for any damages.

Never mind that Monday was a Holiday. Never mind that many people had already left for a long weekend. Never mind that there aren't enough guest spaces to accommodate 5% of the cars on any given parking deck. Never mind they knew about this for 2 weeks prior to the event. We won't even talk about how ridiculous it is to clean a garage right before all the salt and grime of winter is going to start accumulating. And, finally, never mind that the Board was never asked for approval of this project.

There are going to be some seriously pissed off residents/owners when they discover their cars are missing from their assigned parking spots. Hopefully, this will be the last nail in our property management's coffin, because they are getting seriously out-of-hand. Someone needs to remind them that they are not running an apartment complex, so heavy-handed mandates from on high are not acceptable. They need to be reminded that while they exist to manage the complex and to a certain extent enforce our by-laws, at the end of the day, they work at our discretion. As far as I'm concerned, these people are going to find themselves out of a job.

The Art of Being Ridiculous

It looks like there are some people out there who don't understand the definition of hate speech. Apparently, the concept of satirizing/mocking all those people who give their award speeches and thank God and Jesus now qualifies as hate speech. At least in the eyes of people who think Kathy Griffin shouldn't have said the things she did.

Personally, I think it was funny. I've often watched award shows and thought to myself why are all these people thanking God. It's not like the majority of them go to church or are particularly devout in their faith. It just seems like that's what you say when you win an award. Much like complimenting all the others who were nominated in your category and didn't win. Puh-lease. You know if you win the award you're thinking "I'm the best, that's right bitches" and if you lost you're thinking "damn, how did that no-talent heifer beat me."

I'm also angry that people would equate Kathy's words with hate speech, because they just don't get it. When you hear "homos are evil" and "you'll burn in hell" and "all fags should die" on a daily basis, you kind of get a good idea of what hate speech is -- and what it isn't. Kathy didn't hate anyone, she just made fun of a perceived hypocritical behavior. I think these idiots just need to get over themselves. Kathy's words would have been nothing more than a flash in the pan, but now that they've been highlighted it's sure that everyone is going to know about it.

Function In Progress

Gamestop is now officially on my list. They were previously just 'on notice,' but they've been upgraded. Or would that be downgraded? Semantics, I suppose.

I was out running errands the other day and I walked into my local Gamestop (Bailey's X-roads for anyone's who's interested). The salesperson said hi to me when I entered and that's the only thing he said to me for the 15 minutes I was in the store. I tried to find the game I was looking for on the wall, but the place was such a mess I couldn't be sure that they didn't really have the game. I walked up to the counter to ask the salesperson about said game -- he was in the middle of an exchange. While I waited, a little rug rat ran up and started talking to him then ran off. Also, the salesperson's friend walked in and they started having a little powwow about how he wasn't going to work open-to-close tomorrow, and complaining about work in general. He finally finishes the return, the crazy rugrat runs back up cutting in front of the now 5 people waiting in line (I'm at the head of this line). The salesperson finds the other person working and tells him to man the register because he's going outside to hangout with his friend for awhile and then walks out. (I didn't even know there was another salesperson in the place because this guy looked like he was shopping for games.) Finally it turns out that his 'friend' is really the manager of another Gamestop in the area.

I was so fed up at this point, I just walked out of the store. I will not be shopping at a Gamestop ever again. It's really just the last in a long string of bad experiences I've had at Gamestop (notably, salespeople lying about release dates, lying about their available stock, trying to sell me damaged merchandise, trying to sell me used games as new games, and my favorite trying to scare me into pre-ordering a copy of a game with them because "you won't be able to find it anywhere else if you don't pre-order it with us.") From now on, I'll be buying all my games online or at Best Buy. I'll miss being able to pick up some used games on the cheap, but it's not worth it to me to do business with such a poorly run company.

Gen X for the win

I was reading this article the other day about how the boss-men are all irritated with Gen X and Gen Y employees. Basically, we're the worst 2 generations of ungrateful brats that have ever graced the planet. We're lazy, we're disloyal, we feel entitled, we're too informal, we're disrespectful, we dress like slobs and they don't want to hire us. [I'd look the article up and link to it, but yeah, I just can't be bothered to do that.]

Beside the obvious comment that every generation has said this about the generation that comes after them, there is just so much wrong with this. I'm like totally fer sure that all Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers are exactly the same. We all belong to a great hive mind that tells us when, where and how to irritate our higher ups. I don't know about you, but I get that information beamed into my head every night when I'm sleeping.

The way I see it is, I'm not lazy (although I can be). I prefer to work smartly. I'm not going to put in a ton of hours in the office for no compensation. I'm of the work to live camp, and I have a life outside of the office. I'll admit that I'm not particularly loyal to any employer. That's becaue I know they're out to get the maximum amount of work out of me for the least amount of money. And when push comes to shove, they'll can me if it helps the bottom line. Why should I be loyal to a company that isn't going to be loyal to me?

Don't get me started on ties and formal office wear. Wearing 'nice' clothes does not affect my ability to do my job. The only time this comes into play is when one is dealing with clients and the expectation is that you look nice. I'll dress up for that -- but to sit in my office and mess around with HTML? I'm not getting all dressed up. Also, don't expect me to respect you just because you have a great title. I'll respect you when you've proven to me that you're worth being respected. I'll treat you politely, and I expect that you do the same to me .... but I'm not going to lick your boots because you're the Executive Vice-Assmunch of Development and Tossed Salads.

Basically, what it boils down to for me is that some people are really mad that on the whole Gen X and Y have completely rejected the established idea of how the workplace should be. We don't want to put up the crap our parents had to put up with, we've seen that there is a better way to do things. I don't want to spend the best years of my life slaving away for a company and sacrificing things and then when I've retired enjoy myself. I want to be able to enjoy my life now, and I want to be able to enjoy my job. Which means that I'm aware of how much I'm worth, and I'll jump ship the minute any sort of crazy comes down the pike. I'm not a bad worker, or afraid of hard work. There's just a limit to how much I'll actually tolerate.

Grow Up Already

I don't know what Isaiah Washington's problem is, but I know he's not making things any better. Last week, it was all T. R. Knight's fault (mmm, yeeeeah. Let's blame the victim.) Or was it the gay mafia out to keep the black man down? I can't keep the crazy straight, so to speak.

Before that it was all the mean ABC's fault. I mean he did everything they wanted him to do so he could keep his job. Bzzzzz. Wrong. Thank you for playing. The correct response here should have been "I did everything in my power to show my regret and remorse over my actions." not "I did everything in my power to keep my job." As they say in crime, motive is a factor.

This week we finally get the racism card. The trump card that is supposed to excuse all bad behavior and make everyone in the U.S sympathetic to what he's went through. I'll be the first person in line to admit that black people in the U.S get a raw deal. Bigots abound, and life is probably 10 times harder than for a white person. However, this whole incident isn't really about race. People aren't scared of Isaiah because he's a tall, dark, non-submissive black man. People are scared of him because he's a crazy-ass pyscho that physically assaulted a coworker. Does he not realize how lucky he was that ABC let him finish out the year? Does he not realize how lucky he his that no law suits have been brought against him for attacking Patrick Dempsey? (Talk about creating a hostile work environment.)

I can't wait to see what the excuse is going to be next week. Maybe it will be flying pig-beasts from Mars. Or maybe body thetans. Yeah. I'm going with Scientologists for next week.

Whipping Boy

I don't know what I've done to offend people at work, but I am now the official office pariah. Nothing I do passes muster these days. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it's because I've been sticking up for myself lately. In the past, I'd just grin and bare it. Now, I call them on their shit. I think it really started when then neck went all WWE and busted itself and I decided to do whatever it took to take care of myself. The boss wanted me work PT around what was convenient for him, I decided that wasn't going to work and did what was in my best interest. I know he's royally roasted that I'm back at PT again -- he's made it clear he thinks PT is a waste of time. However, just because he's thrown his back out and refuses to see a doctor, doesn't mean I'm going to suffer the same way. I'm quite over living in pain, thank you very much.

They're also into this whole let's treat AJ as if he were a mental deficient thing. Now, I have my moments, but by no means am I stupid. If I don't understand what you're asking me to do, chances are the problem lays with how you explained it to me. My personal favorite this week was an argument over my timesheet. I don't remember what the hell I had for breakfast today, so I'm certainly not going to remember if I got to work at 8:40 or 8:50 last Monday. We're all salaried anyway, so it's not like it really matters. Also, despite the fact I've been asking, nay BEGGING for work, they haven't been giving me anything to do. So I fail to see how it really matters when exactly I arrive at work. Either way they're paying me to nothing. They may hate the fact that they I'm being paid to do nothing, but it's their own damn fault. To wit:

Of my own accord, I started reading some compnay documentation and one of our products so I could be of help down the line. When people saw what I was doing I was told that a) it was way too complex for me to ever be able to learn and b) it was a waste of my time and c) that I should stop immediately. I was a little amazed at this reaction, because I was sure that surfing the internet would qualify as a waste of my time, but apparently I was wrong.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I was given a project a few weeks ago with a totally arbitary and unreasonable deadline that I was unable to meet. I couldn't meet the deadline because the project was riddled with errors and I had to stop every 2 minutes to document said errors. Yet somehow that equated to me sucking at my job.

I know this will get better when they get used to the idea of me standing up for myself, I just wish they would grow up already before I snap and go all Jerry Springer on them.

I Need A Y-wing Fighter Up In Here

Yesterday my friend J. and I were tooling around town. One of our stops was to the local grocery store. As we were walking out of the store and meandering back to the car, I noticed that this guy made a really random face at J. as he checked her out. I couldn't tell if he approved or disapproved of what he saw. So, I told J. that some crazy guy just checked her out. She turned around and said something, and we started to laugh.

We got back to the car and started to get in when the woman in the car next to us rolled down the passenger-side window and yelled over at us: "I saw you laughing at that woman. You all shouldn't be sos ig'nant. Get some culture." This crazy woman assumed that because she saw us laughing we had to be laughing at Darth Burka who was walking into the store about 10 feet ahead of the guy that checked J. out. (I know I shouldn't call this arabic woman 'Darth Burka' but she was all covered from head to toe in cloth with only that Cylon strip of an eyeslot to see out of.)

OF COURSE, J. and I noticed her -- it's hard to miss something like that. J. was thinking "wow, she must be really hot under all that cloth." I was thinking "holy crap. It's amazing that a woman's ankle or wrist or any part of her body is so subversive that the men in her culture have to keep her all wrapped up because the power of her pussy is so great that they won't be able to control themselves if they see even a bit of her pinky toe."

We ignored the crazy woman in the car next to us hurling insults at us, which she continued to do while we got into the car, loaded our stuff in and got ready to leave. Finally, as we were pulling out she screamed out the window "That woman was about as funny as you being fat." (J. is a big woman, and this lady had a real beef with J. In fact, all of her rants were directed at J. and not me.)

J. was really bothered by this woman's insults. I told her that it didn't matter what we said, this woman was going to have a negative impression of us no matter what. J. eventually got over the parking lot terrorrism, and we went on to enjoy the rest of our day.

To the crazy lady that cussed us out (if you ever read this blog):

1. before you accuse someone of being culturally insensitive, you might want to be sure you know what you're talking about.
2. before you call someone ig'nant, you might want to actually learn how to speak proper English.
3. J. was engaged to a muslim for 3 years.
4. It's not particularly smart to sit in a car with the windows cracked just a hair on a hot day in the middle of a sunny parking lot. It's even less smart -- ignorant even -- to have your baby in the backseat.
5. I would assume that being a black woman you would be fed up with people teasing you and thinking less of you because of your most obvious physical trait. Therefore, it was really uncool for you to go for the gold and insult J. on her most obvious physical trait because we were ignoring you and not wanting to start any fight with you.
6. Mind your own business.
7. That is all.

Choose Life

I ran across this site a few weeks ago, and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. Every time I play with my dog, thoughts of what happened to that dog cross my mind. I've lost pets before, but never have they been forceably taken from this life.

What stuns me the most about what happened to Marbles is that Gee's first choice of action was to get a gun and blow the dog away. Not only killing, but in this case the gun she used was the equivalent of taking out an anthill with a nuclear bomb. Why didn't she fire the gun in the air to scare the dog off?

I've read every article and link at the site. One thing that is abudantly clear to me is that Gee's story is wildly inconsistant. The only fact that she consistantly states is that she shot the dog. Gee seems oblivious to the fact that she killed a living being, and she's stated that she would do it again. Death is not the only solution.

I don't know how Marbles came to be on Gee's property. Maybe part of the electric fence was broken. Even so, a pet owner shouldn't have to fear that their dog will get shot dead by their neighbors. My heart goes out to Marbles and her family. I know it's never easy to lose a pet, but to lose one in this manner seems unbearable.

Postscript:
I had a really hard time writing this entry. I wrote, edited, rewrote and removed entire passages. I finally decided to focus on 'killing as a means of first recourse.' I want to be charitable towards Gee as we'll never really know what happened. To that end I removed a lot of text about her behaviors (i.e.: why were her children playing outside apparently unattended? among other questions I had.)

My final thought on the matter is that dogs will continue to escape their yards and roam around. We can't really change that, they're dogs. We can build better fences and keep a closer eye on them, but there will always be that one time the dog gets free. To that end, we can change how we react to a strange, possibly threatening animal on our property. We can chose many other options that don't involve killing the animal.

Let There Be Homo

This is an eye opening site. Click on the billboards on the right-hand side for a discussion about each.

Some of the arguments are less compelling than others and seem more like rhetoro-semantical mental masturbation, but they do raise interesting and valid points. As someone who speaks multiple languages, I appreciate the difficulties in translating from one language to another while still retaining all of the original meaning. Many times there aren't equivalent words, so you have to choose one that comes as close to the mark as possible. Something inevitably gets lost.

That's the one of the points that the authors of the site are trying to make. Modern society doesn't really have the concept of "sluts for Jesus" or "Hindi hookers" or what-have-you. There are no major world religions that use sex as a ritual part of their worship. But this cultural concept certainly existed in the old world. It seems to me that equating homosexuality with the types of sexual practices associated with the specific word(s) used in the Bible is disingenuous. The original words refered to some very specific types of ritualized sex. Additionally, it's not intellectually or practically honest to translate the original terms as 'homosexual' when that word and its modern meaning were coined no earlier than 1898 in Germany. It's like saying that all gay people are into fisting and that's the only type of sex they have. It doesn't make sense; it's not logical.

Another thing I find very interesting is that nowhere in the Bible is lesbianism condemned -- I don't think it's even mentioned. All the passages seem to be geared at man-on-man action. This speaks volumes about the cultural constructs of 'manliness' and 'womanliness.'

At any rate, all the passages dealing with homosexuality should be dealt with very carefully for 2 reasons. 1) Problems with translation pertaining to cultural concepts and practices that existed 2000 years ago but are no longer. 2) Jesus placed one rule above all the others -- 'love thy neighbor'. He was very adamant to remind everyone not to throw stones or judge others.

Angst

My patience for all things stupid is at about 0.17% these days. I'm seriously ready to bring the beat-down to most people who cross my path these days. I'm wondering if there's some mass conspiracy going on out there, because there is just way too much asshattery. People on the metro, people at work, people driving [granted, that's a given in DC], and even on the airwaves.

This whole Imus thing is completely out of control. He's a shock-jock. He says cataclysmically retarded things for a living!! Granted, he had no business calling people nappy-headed hos. But still, this type of speech is his whole thing. Personally, I have no use for shock-jocks. They're vuglar and bring the whole culture down into the muck. But some people like them. So, I don't think the whole country should get up in arms about what some idiot who gets paid to say stupid things says on the air.

His comments were most definately racist and sexist. But don't we have much bigger fish to fry? Last I checked G-Dub is still in office and all sorts of crazy is still coming out of the White House on a daily basis. Iraq is still a cesspit (now with more bomby goodness). And the Dept. of Justice has been seriously hijacked by right-wing ideologues. Racism in the U.S. is definately a problem -- but this type of media-hype isn't the way to address the issue.

In Which Our Hero Goes On A Tear

Neil blogged about his anger last week. I've refrained from commenting, because I'm trying this new power-of-positive-thinking, happy outlook on life thing. It's one of those deals where I focus on the good I see around me rather than all the hot messes running amok. However, it's hard to keep this mentality alive and well when I run across things like this.

If I don't think about the status of gay rights (i.e.: civil rights) in America these days, life seems pretty rosy. But all it takes is one whiff of morons like Ms. Marcia, and I remember that there are people out there willing to hate, condemn, marginalize, attack and even kill gays. And in this case, it's someone making her living from U.S. tax-payer dollars. How, exactly, is she defending the U.S., its citizens and its Constitution?

What's notable about this particular item (besides that crazy racist Tango-Wango and the homophobia) is that she initiated the conversation; she thought this man would be a good candidate for the U.S. Army based on his resume. Her dreams of meeting her recruitment quota thwarted, she stooped to base bigotory and unprofessionalism. (Seriously, who in this day and age thinks it's acceptable to send out something like that from your work e-mail?!?)

But what really gets me angry is that if any other class of professional were to send something like that to a prospective job applicant, customer or business contact, they would be fired on the spot. No questions asked. The more liberal workplaces for the entirety of her comments -- the more conservative workplaces for the racism and unprofessionalism. I'm thinking that she might just get away with a slap on the wrist at best ... and at worst a reassignment, maybe a pay cut and a demotion.

This is why I'm so angry with Red-State America, Conservatives and those gay allies that love their gay friends, but not the gay rights portion of their gay friends. We work, we pay taxes, we own homes. We're friends, brothers, sisters. We go to the same schools, see the same movies, read the same books. We're Americans. Just like everyone else in this country. The only difference is in who we love. But that difference makes us unequal. Not deserving of having our relationships honored. Not able to see our spouses in the hospital. Not able to retain any hope of living in the home we have built together if one partner dies. Not able to walk down the street at night without the fear that someone might decide to beat and/or kill us just because of who we are.

I could go on with the list of inequalities. But in the interest of brevity (such as it is at this point), I'll refrain. I can at least give a little respect to the virulent homophobes --they're consistent in their beliefs. I find it much harder to respect people who say they love their gay friend/family member/co worker, but with the next breath aver that they don't support gay rights. Neither group of people really 'get it' -- but at least one is a lot more honest about it.

Gentlemen, Behold!

This is getting just plain ridiculous. Do we live in an society that has surrendered all claims to rational thought and common sense? And no, I'm not talking about the people that placed the ads.

Seriously, I find it very hard to believe that not a single person associated with the investigation recognized what show the character on the bilboard came from. How hard would it have been for someone to say, "hey, that's a mooninite from that show Aqua Teen Hunger Force on the Cartoon Network?" And then some muckedtymuck could call over to Cartoon Network get all the specifics and then realize this was an ad. But no, they chose to go all out, buy into this culture of fear that has pervaded this country since 9/11 and make a huge production out of it. When a simple phone call could have put an end to this before they shut down an entire city for the day.

Granted, this ad is a little questionable, and should have been thought in the context of our "it's-a-bomb-happy" law officials. What gets me is that Boston and Co. looks like it might be on the path to recovering the costs for this little endeavor. If they try to make someone else pay for their lack of research, accountability, doing one's job, and common sense will surrender and die.

Follow Up

I made a comment in the post below about Religion, and after posting it I realized 2 things.

1) I didn't feel very good about it, as it stood, and
2) I felt it needed a bit of explination, so:

Let me start by saying that the word that best describes my religious views is agnostic. When I was younger (say around until the time I was 16 or 17) I was very involved in my local church and did all sorts of things with the Youth Group, and Church Camp and the whole nine-yards. Then I started too actually look around me and see what the people in my Church were actually doing, and I realized it was some pretty un-Christian stuff. The last straw for me was the bully-pulpit one Sunday about how we all needed to tithe more so we could have an elevator put in the Church. I stopped going shortly thereafter. Last year I was stricken from the membership rolls because I hadn't attended services in over 10 years (duh, I've lived in VA for the past 10 years, not OH). I actually got a letter informing me of this, and that if I wanted to keep my membership I could either "come to a worship service, or give the traditional tithe to the church".

I also became dissillusioned with the Church when I realized that I was gay. I read lots of books to see if my faith and who I am were compatible. I eventually had to decide to be true to myself, because no matter what I did that wasn't going to change. Things might have turned out differently if I had access to the books that have been published since the 1980's and the internet, but I worked with what I had. And what I had wasn't very helpful. There was one particularly good book -- I've long since forgotten the title -- but amidst the sea of fire and brimstone, it wasn't enough to help me keep the faith. As I did then, as I do now, I refuse to believe that just by being who I am that I am a sinner, and the only way to get to heaven is for me to be something, somebody I'm not.

After much exploring, I settled on the view that every human has a spark of the divine in them. And if you listen close enough that spark can give you guidance and direction in life. It's kind of like deified self-reliance or spiritual individualism. Maybe it's just Senor Holy Ghost talking to me in my mind. It's kind of hard to explain, but it keeps me centered.

The long and the short of it boils down to: I've seen (and experienced) how institutioanlized religion is used to marginalize, demonize and manipulate people, so I'm always very mistrustful of it. I hate seeing whole Churches use Bible passages they don't even put in context to vilify whole groups of people. Even more, I hate seeing politicians using people's religious beliefs to further their own goals.

A person's relationship with the Divine should be personal and private, and not used to steer public policy. And I respect every person's relationship with their Faith.

So, if my previous post came across as being antagonistic towards Religion, now you know why.

East Siiiiiiiiii-de!

I like following hurricane news. I like reading about natural disasters. I like reading weather.com. And I must say, I'm very disappointed with the Atlantic this year. What's wrong with you Atlantic? You're only up to Hurricane Gordon (no threat to land) and Hurri-something Helene (which may or may not destroy things.)

I'd like you my dear Atlantic, to take a good look at your sister -- the Pacific. She's been busy this year. She's already up to Tropical Storm Lane. That means she's 4 storms ahead of you. Yes, you may have produced Katrina, Rita and Wilma last year, but the Pacific gave us Typhoon Longwang. -- We'll call that one a draw. But you're losing this year, and you just can't rest on your laurels.

Besides, the "k" storm for you this year is "kirk," and I want to see the following headline:

Hurricane Kirk (Cameron) blows and blusters in South Beach.

So get to churning! My edu-tainment is depending on you!

Random Thoughts

I've been trolling the threads over at Fark and things were getting kind of heated (and interesting) in one of the Steve Irwin threads -- so it's related to yesterday's posting, but not really a follow-up.

The farkers seem to be divided into 2 distinct camps: those who think Irwin was a veritable man of giant bronze cajones, and those who think the man was an idiot deserving of a Darwin Award. The cajones camp are irritated that Darwinians are "disrespecting" him in death, and argue that Irwin can't be a recepient of a Darwin Award because he has spawned 2 kids. The Darwinites make jokes and say he can get and is deserving of a Darwin Award. They are fighting like wet cats in a sack. Which brings me to my random thought for the day: The Darwin Awards.

Some farker was kind enough to cut and paste a section from the Darwin Awards website that details what makes one eligible for a Darwin Award, and it clearly states that you can have offspring and still get a Darwin Award. Yet many over there are claiming "Well, those are the "rules" for an Award, but I think they're wrong and they just don't understand Darwinism/natural selection, and I know better, so my beliefs are the right ones." OK, what are these people not getting about the rules that the creator of the Darwin Awards set down? Everything has rules, and whether or not you agree with them doesn't mean they don't apply. It really is that simple.

Besides, the way I understand natural selection is that certain traits/genes end up being eliminated from the gene pool because they have some disadventageous affect for the affected organism(s). So, Irwin had 2 kids -- big deal. That does not mean he passed his "let's go out and poke at venemous spiders" gene on to his kids. They could grow up to be complete non-risk takers. So, you can still have kids sans the defective gene, and naturally select that gene out of the pool (in this case barb to the heart) and that particular trait from your genetic line has not contaminated the gene pool.

Additionally, creatures with maladaptive genes reproduce all the time -- yet over time those better suited to the environment produce more offspring and eventually the trait is eliminated from the gene pool. While it can happen in a single generation, it can also happen over time.

It also makes me think about this. I have an identical twin who has a nephew, but I have no kids of my own. If I die by some stupid act of my own which is Darwin Award worthy -- am I ineligible? Technically, my nephew carries 50% of my genes, so I live on in the gene pool. And what about those people who have may have siblings they don't know about? Because if the fark-darwinianin purists who worship Irwin's giant brass-ones have their say, the trait has to be eliminated completely from the gene pool. In which case, only people with the last existing copy of a Darwin Award gene who kill themselves in a remarkably spectaluar method are eligible for an Award.

And finally, Cojone Purists -- get a grip! The Darwin Awards are loosely based on evolutionary principles and are used as a means to poke fun at the stupid things that people do, which usually results in their (un)timely demise. To wit:

The weather's a little too rough to go out in the deep sea where we were going to film today, so let's take this time to get some footage about stingrays for another show I'm doing. Let's go to a place where we know they are and there are lots of them -- swimming around, hiding on the sea bed, you know just doing their whole manta ray thing in their natural manta ray environment. And then let's take a gander at one of the largest bull male manta rays we can find. Now, no one should be surprised that Mr. Irwin got stung! It is a little shocking that the ray managed a heart blow, but this is not surprising. Smart people avoid dangerous creatures. Smart people don't swim in ray infested waters. Smart people, well, they read the article that is actually linked to at Fark, and get all the facts before they open their mouths!

Can You Hear Me Now?

So the other day, I got home from work -- completely exhausted as usual. The dog's running around the house like she's never let out of her crate and the cat is hiding some where but still meowing at the top of his lungs. I rifle through the mail to see if anything good came. It didn't. But I did get this nice and pretty shiny silver envelope from Verizon Wireless (my cell provider). They want to give me a free gift for being such good customer. They want me to know how much they value me and my business. I open the shiny envelope and I've won an Oscar! Whoo-Hooo. I'd like to thank the members of the Academy.

OK, back to reality. They actually gave me 100 free Anytime Minutes -- that have to be redeemed by November xx, 2006 or they're gone. Now, I'm on the family share plan, and my better (or not so better, depending on your point of view) half and I don't come anywhere near using all our minutes each month. So, they've basically given us a gift that they know we can't use. Add in the fact that I've been with these people for 6 years, and I had to go through customer service hell to get my "deposit" back from when I first signed up with them, I'm completely underwhelmed with them. In fact, you could say, instead of impresing me with their company and corporate do-goodness, they actually managed to remind me of all the reason why I think they're a horrible company. So, Verizon Wireless:

Suck It!

*it's too bad you have the best coverage in the Metro Area or I'd ditch your sorry butts.