New Years

Ugh. I just got back from the gym (45 minutes of cardio plus 20 minute walk each way) and I'm beat. I think I'm still not 100% well. I still don't know what -- if anything -- I'm going to do tonight. maybe i'll watch some more I, Claudius.

On the radio (Earth & Sky, on WETA) today they talked about how New Year's was based on an old Roman thing (isn't everything?) involving the god Janus (get it: "January"?) but there is one astronomical significance: the earth is at perehelion (closest to the sun in its elliptical orbit) tomorrow.

Ah the Holidays

Just got back from my Thursday spin class. Mood: melancholy.

The fact is, I have no reason to be. I had eight people, almost all regulars, and also Richard, a cute little guy I kind-of know from Vicki's classes who has started coming to mine. Most other classes this week are practically empty. In fact, I noticed on the sign-in schedule (we sign off after a class and note down attendance) that for Doug's 6:15 class today that is usually full, it was subbed by Sharon (a very sweet British lady who's class I have taken at the downtown club a few imes, usually well-attended) and it was EMPTY. No one showed up.

That happened to me once, when I first started the Thursday night class. I can't tell you what an ego-blow that can be, even though in both our cases there is no reason to take it personally. It's not as if we had the class for months and people stopped showing up. Obviously Doug told his class that he wouldn't be there this week though; it really shows how much his class is a cult-of-personality thing as opposed to an exercise-on-Thursday-morning-thing. Which, when you think about it, is kind of creepy.

Anyway, I still felt terrible for Sharon. That big "0" jumped off the sheet (she even circled it). Hopefully she just shrugged it off. It's like Saturday mornings at Capitol Hill, I always feel bad for cute little 'L.' (this kinda hot young asian guy who teaches a cardio-kick class after my spin class) when I see that no one shows up for his class -- or, almost worse, one person shows up. I did that once, subbed a class and one person showed. It's... weird.

ANYWAY, I had my 8 regulars so I have no reason to complain. They just seemed a little unenthusiastic today, even though I felt like I was putting on a pretty good face, what with the lingering sinus infection and all. I guess the Thursday group is usually pretty quiet. My Saturday crew are the ones who are more demonstrative. I know I need to work on my eye contact and rah-rah encouragement. But jeez, I'm not exactly Mr. Warm and Fuzzy. I still wonder sometimes why Mitch and Vicky thught i would make a good instructor....

And maybe it's just still feeling a bit run down, and a little weird because I was off work today. And "The Holidays." I don't think I've really liked "The Holidays" since, well since the year my sister and I opened our gifts without authorization from Mommie Dearest.

Press "0" again! AGAIN!

Consumers Hunt for a Human in Customer Service
By KATIE HAFNER, The New York Times

Try to reach customer service at Amazon.com to fix a problem with an order and you will encounter one of the most prominent and frustrating aspects of the Internet era: a world devoid of humans. Not only is there no telephone number on Amazon's Web site, but the company makes a point of not including one. Instead, customers are asked to fill out an online form and wait for a response.

"It's incredibly annoying," said Ellen Hobbs of Austin, Tex., whose frustration has led her to publish Amazon.com's customer support number at her own Web site (clicheideas.com/amazon.htm). "They haven't invested the kind of money in helping you solve problems as they have in selling you things." In December alone, some 1,100 people visited Ms. Hobbs's site.

Indeed, in the pursuit of customer service, the Sisyphean challenge of making contact with a human defines the automated age, and can sometimes feel like a full-time job.

"It's almost as if we're dealing with this ghostly machine," said Lauren Weinstein, a telecommunications consultant in Los Angeles who has made an avocation of studying customer service. "You assume there are people back there somewhere, but it's as if the whole purpose of these systems isn't to provide customer service but to keep the customer at arm's length."

Now, by punching or typing in a sequence of numbers, or by speaking to a machine that has been programmed to understand human speech, you can have access to information previously impossible to obtain without a human - the whereabouts of a package, for instance, or the balance of a bank account.

What is increasingly difficult to obtain, though, is the actual human. "Unless you want to call a neighbor," said Dorothy Meyer of Escondido, Calif. "You get them right away." Then she thought better of it. "But then, you don't. You get their answering machine."

Many consumers have developed any number of tricks for reaching a sentient being. Mr. Weinstein and others have discovered a number of techniques for outwitting the automation to reach a human, especially when confronted with the labyrinthine menus that accompany most phone-based systems.

Most people, for instance, know to punch zero even when the option isn't offered. And many a frustrated consumer has learned to pretend to be one of the few remaining telephone customers in possession of a rotary-dial phone.

"But a lot of people don't take it far enough," Mr. Weinstein said. Sometimes, for instance, he said, automated phone systems are programmed to ignore the first one, two or three pushes of zero. "But if you push it again, and then you do it again, then it goes through. That's fairly common."

Mr. Weinstein said he knew of one system where you had to do it four times in a row. "Then it's like a jackpot in Vegas - you say, 'Bingo.' "

Increasingly, it is the Internet that engenders the frustration. Lou Garcia, president of the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals in Business, a group based in Alexandria, Va., said that in a recent survey of 1,000 people about their experiences with customer service, the society found that "at the top of the dislike list is that they can't find a human."

And while calling a toll-free number is still the preferred way to reach customer service, he said, his studies show more and more people using the Web because they have no other choice.

"Each time we do one of these things we see a big uptick in customers contacting the Internet," Mr. Garcia said. When they do, as at Amazon.com, there is little, if any, indication of how to get live assistance.

Rachael Flynn thought she was getting an early start on the holidays when, a good two weeks before Christmas, she clicked on a British Web site called Everything iPod (everythingipod.co.uk) and ordered a radio transmitter for her boyfriend's iPod.

But when her credit card was declined and Ms. Flynn tried to get through to a customer-service representative, one wall after another presented itself. She scoured the site in vain for a telephone number or even an e-mail address.

"I was getting a bit panicky," said Ms. Flynn, who lives in Cork, Ireland. "And when you're in a panic state you really want to talk to a human being." Finally she found an online customer-service form and filled it out, twice, just to be safe. It took four days to get a personal response by e-mail.

All ended well. The purchase went through, and the gift arrived with a few days to spare. "But I never did get to a human being," Ms. Flynn said.

As it turned out, the company had removed its telephone number from the site last year because although the site sells only accessories, people desperate for technical support for their iPod had been calling for help.

"We had to withdraw all telephone support," a page on the site says. "We were being used as a free technical support line for the Apple iPod."

People had been driven to call because Apple's free telephone support is generally limited to the first three months of ownership. Also, if the volume of calls to the Apple support line is too heavy, callers are redirected to the Apple Web site. Another alternative, assuming the geography works in your favor, is to visit an Apple store and consult a technician.

Amazon sees no reason to apologize for its decision to leave the customer-service phone number off its Web site. "We've found that customers really do appreciate the self-service features we've got," said Craig Berman, an Amazon spokesman.

Not everyone agrees. An underground movement to publicize Amazon's customer-service number, 800-201-7575, along with other numbers for Amazon noted on Ms. Hobbs's site, has spread across the Web. (A reporter's call to the number this week produced a human within a few minutes, but only after a recording suggested a visit to the Web site instead.)

EBay, another Internet giant, likewise has no customer-service number listed on its site. Instead, like Amazon, eBay asks its customers to fill out an online form, and they receive a response in 24 to 48 hours, said Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman.

"We've worked to make sure customer support is dealing with community issues as quickly and effectively as possible, and this is the best system we've come up with," Mr. Durzy said. (EBay does provide a phone number to a subset of its power sellers who qualify for phone-based service.)

True desperation leads some enterprising consumers to look up the name, address and phone number - often complete with a contact name - under which a company's domain name is registered on the Web, through the Whois lookup service. Yet some companies, aware of this ploy, no longer provide more than a minimum of information when registering a site.

"I noticed Amazon has taken off most of its references in the Whois database," said Peter Flynn, Ms. Flynn's father and a computer consultant in Cork.

Mr. Flynn occasionally goes a step farther, drilling into a Web site's inner workings to look through the HTML code in case contact information is revealed. But when he used these various schemes to find a phone number for everythingipod.co.uk, Mr. Flynn was stumped.

"It appears they don't want to be traced," he said. "A lot of people want to do business on the Web only, and they don't want people calling them."

Sometimes the pursuit of a human can require travel. When planning a recent trip to Brazil, Randy Cook, an elementary school teacher in Sonoma, Calif., went to the Web site of the Consulate General of Brazil in San Francisco and downloaded a visa application. When he wasn't sure how to answer a question, he looked for a customer-service number for the consulate in San Francisco.

"I listened to a message that gave a number to call to talk to an actual person," he said. "So I tried this number and received a scratchy-sounding message in Portuguese only, which ended with an alternate number to call. But it went by so fast and my Portuguese was so poor that I couldn't get it."

So Mr. Cook took a day off work and made the hour drive to San Francisco to go to the consulate in search of a person.

Mrs. Meyer, 82, remembers well the days, long before touch-tone phones, when a customer-service phone number was promptly answered by a person. A friendly person.

"The way it used to be, you'd ring the number up and a person would pick it up and ask you, 'What can we do for you?' " Mrs. Meyer said, as if describing life on Mars.

Yet she, too, is now victim to automation. Several months ago, Mrs. Meyer's Amana refrigerator began to lose its capacity to chill, a problem complicated by the fact that the service contract was with someone besides Amana. Mrs. Meyer spent hours at a time punching numbers into the phone. "I dialed this number, then pushed that number, then pushed this number again," she said.

Finally, once Mrs. Meyer got through, "a very, very nice gentleman came out and fixed it," and all was well.

The same is true of Mrs. Meyer's medical prescriptions and her banking service. "You never, never speak to a person," she said. "I have a lot of patience, but not that much."

Sometimes Mrs. Meyer's frustration reaches the point where she simply starts speaking into the phone, human or no human at the other end.

"I'll just talk to the phone, anyway," she said. "I say, 'I've already pushed this number.' Of course, you're just talking to yourself. It's sad."

Mr. Garcia, from the consumer affairs group, said that he planned to stick to his guns; that it was in a company's best interests to make sure a customer could get through to a person. "Because if they can solve your problem, the chances are really high that you'll be a satisfied customer," he said.

Mr. Garcia said his organization helped put out a consumer resource handbook published by the General Services Administration. The handbook, which includes a directory of corporations, with many phone numbers for customer service, along with e-mail and Web addresses, is available online at pueblo.gsa.gov/crh/corpormain.shtml.

Sometimes happy accidents occur. Phil Bernstein, of Portland, Ore., a radio station advertising representative, deals with many business owners who have set up elaborate screening systems designed to limit a caller's access.

In the course of one memorable attempt, Mr. Bernstein managed to get through to the president of a mattress outlet. Usually when calling this number, Mr. Bernstein got only as far as an assistant, who decided whether to put the call through.

But one day he inadvertently hit the star key, which took him to an automated company directory. It invited him to spell his target's last name, and he was put straight through. Mr. Bernstein could hardly believe his good fortune.

" 'Hi,' I said, 'It's Phil Bernstein with KEX Radio.' There was a long pause and the president of the company asked, 'How did you get to me?'

"I explained about hitting the star key by mistake and spelling his name in the company directory," Mr. Bernstein said. "There was another pause, and then he said quietly, 'Don't ever do that again.' "

Mac Users Face Malware Threat

Be afraid, fellow Mac users... be a little afraid.

Phelps Pleads Guilty, Gets Probation

From the Washington Post Online, courtesy of Enviroboi...

Phelps Pleads Guilty, Gets Probation

By Randall Chase
Associated Press
Wednesday, December 29, 2004; 4:03 PM

SALISBURY, Md. (AP) -- Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps was sentenced to 18 months' probation Wednesday after pleading guilty to drunken driving.

Judge Lloyd O. Whitehead granted Phelps probation before judgment, meaning his record will be expunged if he follows the terms of probation. Phelps pleaded guilty to driving while impaired, and prosecutors dropped charges of driving under the influence, underage drinking and failure to stop at a stop sign.


"I recognize the seriousness of this mistake," Phelps told the judge in a packed courtroom. "I've learned from this mistake and will continue learning from this mistake for the rest of my life."

The 19-year-old Phelps was fined $250, must attend a meeting sponsored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and must give speeches to students at three schools by June 1, advising them about making choices and warning them about the dangers of alcohol.

Whitehead also ordered Phelps to abstain from alcohol and illegal drugs during his probation.

As he left the courthouse, Phelps was besieged by people seeking autographs.

"The past few months have been extremely hard," Phelps said. "I'm looking forward to getting back into the water and getting back to a normal routine."

Ah, Americans

Check out this woman's report on her tsunami experience, in particular what she says about how she was treated by the American Consulate officials who were apparently hanging out in the VIP lounge. There seems to be a contradiction in their stories.

And interesting how that U.N. official suddenly backpedaled on his criticism of the 'stingy' wealthy nations. Bush probably had his cronies threaten to have the guy fired. This administration is all about bullying and intimidation. Just as that senator from Vermont.

Now I'm going to go back to worrying about Fernando.

I'm seeing triple!

You know that Cingular ad with the cute college-boy triplets? Well, they are Craig, Ryan and Nick Karshner, and they of course have a web site. Yum.

Mommie Dearest

When my sister and I were kids and had colds, I remember that our mother would criticize us for how we used Kleenex.

While my sister would do one delicate little blow in a tissue and immediately toss it ('wasteful! You could get several more uses out of it!), I took the opposite approach. I would use every available absorbent square inch of it, and wad it up and hold onto it. This would inevitably lead to pockets full of nasty, hardened little balls of tissue. Or worse, I would leave half-used ones sitting around my room for 'later.' I know, gross.

I have no idea what led us to two such opposite approaches.

DVR vs. TiVo, round VII

So this morning I wander into the living room, and on the face of the DVR, instead of the usual time, is a row of four dashes. WTF? I've had this thing for four months and it's crashed twice (once while I foolishly tried to watch a show while it was recording); I've had TiVo for maybe 4 years and it's crashed maybe three times -- usually after a power outage. And it always rebooted and was fine afterwards.

Anyway, I tried turning it on and still nothing. I considered pulling the plug, but first turned on the TV. The message on the screen said Your Explorer settop is not authorized for use. Call...

Whaaaa!? So, even though it was 7:15 AM, I thought, what the hell, I'll call Comcast. Two Press one if...'s later, I was talking to a real, intelligent-sounding person with no hold time (and no discernable Indian accent)! Wow!

She knew immediately what the problem was; in fact she said that fifty people had called in the last hour with the same problem. Apparently they had sent out a software update and the machines weren't refreshing. Oops. However, she was able to remotely force the machine to reset while I was on the phone. And no episodes of Degrassi were lost (except the ones that were on early this morning while the machine was locked up).

To summarize: once again, TiVo, though an older machine, has once again showed itself to be the superior box with better software. However, Comcast's local customer support beats by a mile the last time I tried to call TiVo and got one of those infuriating "voice recognition" systems.

Achoo!

Ugh, well the crud hit me full-bore yesterday, and I was up half the night, partly stressing about teaching class this morning. As it turned out I was there in plenty of time, actually had a good turnout (including this quiet cute little guy named Richard who I've seen for years but just shows once in awhile). I taught it 'Doug' style, i.e., in sweats just walking around the room and barking orders (and popping lozenges), and it seemed to go fine. Now I'm just huddled up in a robe and drinking tea.

Happy Holidays...

...everyone. I now have a full-blown cold or something worse. Blech! Guess I shouldn't have stayed up watching so many Degrassi episodes.

Oh and the Huygens Probe launched successfully!

whee! Not the head!

Guess what my sis got me for xmas? Now I need to play the I, Claudius Drinking Game

sick/not sick?

The last two mornings I have woken up with a terrible sore throat and runny nose, but after a big glass of water and a shower, I feel ok. Maybe it's an allergy thing.

I'm off to the gym for some cardio and pick up 'essentials' at Whole Foods. I'm walking, because hell if I'm going to pay for parking. Only in Arlington would they enforce meters on xmas eve.

Huygens Launch

Today, if all goes well, far out in our solar system around Saturn, Cassini will relase the little Huygens Probe, designed to descend into Titan's atmosphere and see what's down there!

It reminds me of when they go to Jupiter in the cool movie 2010.

TiVo vs. DVR: no contest

Compared to TiVo, my HD DVR built into the cable tuner is pretty crappy. I've talked about this before, but last night I was given further evidence of how I take TiVo's smooth, elegant functionality for granted.

TiVo is like a bright, intuitive little helper, while the Comcast DVR is big and clumsy and stupid. The only reason I use it is that the TiVo isn't compatible with the hundreds of scrambled cable digital channels, and the little old TiVo disk wouldn't handle the HD programs I record on the DVR anyway.

Last night, reminded by Eric, I wanted to watch the very special 2-part episode of Degrassi, the Next Generation where Marco faces his gayness and gets bashed and his friend Spinner cuts him off and... well more on that another time. Anyway, I was eager to watch it, so, like I usually do with TiVo, i started watching it while it was still recording. However, when I went to the DVR control and hit Play, it started right in the middle of the episode. I had to manually Rewind it to the beginning. I covered my eyes so I wouldn't see what happens. Then, right in the middle of part one, it stopped and cut to the beginning of part two! Apparently when it started the new recording, it decided to put the other one away and show me what it was doing now. For a moment I panicked, thinking that it had cut the previous episode; but no, it was still there. I had to select it and Fast-forward to the point where it had stopped, however. This kind of crap never happens with TiVo. I'm glad I still have it, sitting happily in the bedroom with my smaller tv, recording programs on the old analog connection (I actually think most non-HD shows look better on the analog signal).

And while /i>Lost and Desperate Housewives and Michael Phelps look great on the big HD tv, there are still some annoying pixellations every once in awhile. Really, the TV is best for watching DVDs.

Active Volcanoes May Still Exist on Mars

More cool
News from Mars!

Cloned Cat!

You know Michael Jackson has already contacted them about
cloning himself. Though of course, the new Michael would look like the pre-multiple-operations-and-skin-bleaching Michael...

I have to say I love the name of the company though: Genetic Savings and Clone. It's like something out of a William Gibson book.

I wonder...

...if somewhere in the back of his mind, John Kerry isn't a little bit glad he didn't win the election, because he would have inherited this nightmare that seems to get more horrific every day.

At least Rumsfeld came out with a halfway convincing speech that he really did care about the troops and didn't sleep at night thinking about the danger they were in. Of course, he's about the only one in the entire Bush Kabal who actually has seen military service.

I'll bet Bush sleeps like a baby.

On a related front, I see these ads on TV for the national Guard or reserves showing empty job locations, like an auto repair shop or office cubicle, with a caption like "Hunting Bin Laden in Afghanistan" and such, trying to convey that these people are off on rewarding, exciting assignments. But What I think when I see these empty places is "Killed in action by a suicide bomber" and "Maimed by a roadside bomb." Sigh.

SciFiDaily

Thanks to my friend Eric, a very entertaining Sci-fi blog!

New Poll Shows Majority of Americans Oppose Arctic Refuge Drilling

So There!

Holiday Drear

So the company holiday party pretty much sucked.

The evil VP from NY (he's supposedly in charge of production, but seems to be in charge of every little thing) was here (gave his annual 'pep talk' which actually consists of a guilt trip about how we need to kiss more client ass) and went to the party, to everyone's annoyance.

My theory is that he is here because they had a company party a couple months ago with a full open bar. And trust me, these people can drink. I didn't go, but one co-worker told me he had nine apple martinis -- imagine that bar tab!. So I bet that NY got the bill and being the cheap-asses that they are, put a stop to it. So, they wouldn't pay for liquor at this party, just beer. Who wants to drink beer in the middle of winter at night? AND, they put a limit on how much they would pay for.

I spent most of my time talking to Marine Ryan and Pixie (no, Elf didn't come). The one highlight of the night was when my boss bought me, Ryan and Pixie large-sized good beer (Yuengling) instead of the Michelob crap they were giving us. Pixie turned to me and it true Hobbit fashion said "As soon as I saw one of those big ones, I knew I had to have one!" and I said "It comes in pints!?" He knew exactly what I was referring to.

They had it in a private room at this pool place, which doesn't do much for me either, so I'm sure I was grumpier than usual. I usually stay away from these company things, and now I remember why.

Emotional twilight

That's what I think I live in most of the time, never happy, usually not 'can't get out of bed' clinically depressed, but below the level of happiness that most people exist on. Which I guess is what living with dysthymia is all about. I just get by day to day. My boss Peter (who is a pretty good guy when you overlook his infrequent bouts of passive-aggressive weirdness) keeps asking me how I'm doing, and I say "all right." Never great. I can't remember having been 'great' in several years.

I do remember a kind of fun for a bit on a couple of cruises, and a certain joy (relief?) when first seeing the Fellowship of the Ring, but that was awhile ago.

Elf and Pixie Update

I've been meaning to do an update on the Elf and Pixie drama, and here it is.

Pixie and I had a long talk the other night about Elf, and it turns out that Mr. Shy and Quiet has a bit of a dark side. He did blow the snot rocket, and he smirked at the receptionist after getting busted for doing it! And, he has a bit of a temper: one time he broke abunch of wine bottles (wine bottles?) when they got home from a club after Elf got kicked out for trying to sneak backstage. Pixie says Elf has some 'issues' partly because he is coming off of a bad (Pixie used the term 'thermonuclear') relationship back in Dallas. I noted that gender-neutral terms were used throughout Pixie's explanation...

So, I still see Elf once in awhile; he comes sneaking around back to meet Pixie for lunch or a cigarette. The other day he was in a brown 70's leisure suit with contrasting stitching, with the pants rolled up. He proudly said he got it at a thrift store for $10.

Too bad Elf probably won't be at the holiday party tonight... though he would be welcome to come as Pixie's... um... date?

Return of the King, extended edition

I watched the entire thing Thursday night. Some minor spoilers below.

I enjoyed the long-awaited confrontation between Saruman and Gandalf, but it seemed rushed. In the book Tolkien conveyed the power of Saruman's Voice, and how Theoden paused before responding to the White Wizard's offer to come into Orthanc, while the rest of the company worried that they would be abandoned. All that was lost. The final conclusion was handled pretty well, considering Jackson had to deal with cutting the whole scouring of the Shire.

I found the other additions (mostly extended versions of already-present scenes) to be nice, though not as meaningful as in Two Towers. One new cute scene is the Gimli and Legolas drinking game. The Gandalf vs Witch-king encounter was a bit surprising. Shelob was as creepy as ever. I still think the opening Smeagol/Deagol scene was gratuitous (maybe it just creeped me out too much, which I guess was the idea).

As before, my two favorite scenes are still the poignant parting of Merry and Pippin when Gandalf takes Pip to Minas Tirith, and near the end at the coronation atop Minas Tirith, when Aragorn tells the Hobbits "You bow to no one!" And the assembly, including the King, in turn bows to the four Hobbits. I always get teary-eyed then. :-)

Yoicks

I got on the scale at the gym yesterday... and I had gained 5 pounds in the last week! How does this happen? I went from 167 to 172 (with gym clothes on, so maybe take a pound or so off both weights). Argh. I haven't been eating that much (well maybe a couple bags of those yummy sea-salt and vinegar chips from Whole Foods), and I've been doing cardio every day despite the aches from last week's training. Could any of this be muscle? I did start doing squats the last few weeks to build up my legs, and my jeans don't seem noticably tighter. I've been telling myself that it's time to finally lose that 'last five pounds' of the 20 I abruptly put on after taking Zoloft and I went from 165 to 185 (in the next 2 months hopefully, before the cruise). I still have this really annoying little roll I would love to get rid of. You'd think that teaching 3 spin classes a week, plus 500 cals of cardio and weights all the other days would get rid of it. And I don't eat that badly.

Well, I'm going to start going to Club Strength classes at least once a week, for two reasons: I need to get more comfortable with the format before I can teach it, and to get in more strength work. Plus I think I'll try to get to Doug-doug's class on wednesday mornings.

Google Search:

Hey! There's a Google Search for Mac users!

200 million downloads

Apple's iTunes Music Store continues to kick ass! I'm doing my part, downloading songs for my spin class...

Happy Birthday

Arthur C. Clarke!

My favorite books of his were Against the Fall of Night (and its rewrite, City and the Stars), Rendezvous with Rama (but not the co-written sequels), and I really enjoyed the movie 2010 but never read the book.

Any suggestions for what else of his I might enjoy? I've got a cruise coming up and could use some reading material suggestions.

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

An interesting (if ultimately unsatisfying) article about sleep in this week's TIME magazine. Though there are more refined theories, scientists apparently still don't agree on why we dream, or even why we sleep. (Did you know that dolphins sleep with half their brain, the other half monitoring swimming and breathing, then switch sides? Wild.) Anyway, their is increased interest in slow-wave sleep and how it aids in learning.

I was more interested in dreams, which were dismissed by most scientists as pretty much meaningless: "random recycling of bits and pieces of the previous day's events." I beg to differ. None of the vivid and disturbing dream I had last night happened yesterday.

I was in a huge hall with a glass, vaulted ceiling. In fact it reminded me of the pool deck (with retractable glass roof) of the vast Holland America cruise ship I was on a couple years ago, except there was a big stairway going down to it and a balcony around the perimeter. And on the floor was an array of weight equipment. As is typical of my dreams, there were bright colors, detailed imagery, powerful emotions, and mulitple senses. This gym was full of people working out. I was on the balcony, looking down, and I noticed my former assistant (and ex-Marine) Ken down there. This was strange because Ken is in Denmark, and he doesn't work out. In the dream it didn't seem strange though, and I had the feeling I had seen him there before. Someone appeared at my side and said "Why don't you go down and talk to him, you guys were friends, and since he's apparently back in town, maybe he'll come work for you again." I was surprised this hadn't already occurred to me, and headed down with a little trepidation, since why hadn't he tried to contact me if he was back in town?

I approached him and he was huge. Ken is a tall guy, but not in particularly great shape (he was proud of the little gut he was getting before he left). Now he still had the gut but he had massive muscles, and seemed taller. He was friendly enough but seemed a little arrogant and condescending (things Ken definitely is not). Then the next thing I knew, this woman pulled me aside. She pushed me onto a chaise lounge (the place was changing) and while an older couple and a young woman (who I assumed to be Ken's wife -- who was stationed in Denmark and the reason he left) approached him. While they talked, the woman who pulled me over (an attractive, slender young black woman with a huge afro and wearing a bright orange leotard) began to whisper that I should not have come, and that I would only make trouble for myself and Ken if I kept trying to talk to him. She continued, telling me that Ken's parents did not approve of 'my kind of people' (meaning gay) and that him just talking to me would cause problems.

All the time she was talking, she was running her fingertip along my lips in a gesture which was supposed to look seductive to others, but it was quite clear to me for some reason that she was threatening me somehow.

By now Ken and his wife and parents had moved to a huge buffet along the side of the room. I was afreaid of this woman, and that Ken wouldn't speak to me, but I decided that I would try anyway, But then my dream turned into one of those strange sequences, where things keep getting in my way. As I walked towards the buffet, it kept moving further away, and the weight equipment was replaced by banquet tables covered with dirty dishes. The next thing I knew I was alone in the room, with the tables and dishes.

Then there was a derivative sequence involving me and a dishwasher and a small swimming pool; when I leaned over the pool and my gym locker key (that I wear around my neck on a bead chain) dipped into the water, suddenly the suction from the adjacent dishwasher threatened to pull me into the pool and drown me.

I still feel kind of out-of-sorts, and can't get this bizarre dream out of my head.

More cool news from Mars!

Care of CNN

I can't wait

the comic FoxTrot is great today!

New Keanu Movie

Constantine. Looks kinda wild.

Whimper

Good morning, gentle readers.

Those of you who lift weights (Joel) know that sometimes, the second day after really working a muscle can be more painful than the first. So, here we are two days after my six-hour Club Strength/Club ABS/Club Stretch training session, on top of teaching spin both weekend mornings.

My entire body hurts. My abs hurt when I cough. My arms hurt, my legs hurt. And on top of that, I watched The Fellowship of the Ring, Disc One last night with a nice merlot, so now I also have a bit of a hangover.

I so do not want to be at work today.

Urg, ug, Ow.

Well, I'm awake, I'm having my coffee. I want to go back to bed. Oh wait, I'm in bed. My arms hurt, my back hurts, my... everything hurts. I really wish I didn't have to teach again today. Well, it'll be over before I know it. And then I have all Sunday afternoon to relax! Yay.

Time to get more coffee and drink a gallon of water.

sigh

From the Movie version of the Two Towers, close to the Tolkien original...

"Oh, but you are alone! Who knows what you have spoken to the darkness, in bitter watches of the night, when all your life seems to shrink, the walls of your bower closing in about you, like a hutch to trammel some wild thing in. So fair, so cold, like a morning pale spring still clinging to winter's chill."

-- Grima Wormtongue to Eowyn.

soon we shall see the final cut

What a day

I'M EXHAUSTED!

Teaching a spin class at 10 then grueling 6-hour training at noon. She ran us through the whole Strength class (45 minutes of weights with a barbell; I foolishly put on the heaviest weight) while apologizing "for your poor guys who already taught a class today!" THEN the 15 minute abs class then the 15 minute stretch, THEN we went throught all the exercises AGAIN, then we each had to do part of a class.

So now I am certified to teach Club Strength, Club ABS, and Club Stretch. Whee!

I can't believe I am still up. I watched some tv, including an ep of Crossing Jordan. I don't know why I love this show now. Okay, yes I do: Ivan Sergei. He is so totally hot, with lips better than Angelina Jolie... and maybe the Indian guy and the goth brit guy and of course Miguel Ferrer, who played the wonderfully abrasive FBI investigator on Twin Peaks. Though I want more eps with Jerry O'Connell AND Ivan. Do I expect too much?

Now I just need to finish this glass of merlot and sleep, I have another spin class tomorrow.

HRC Corporate Equality Index

Download the pdf file of the HRC Corporate Equality Index that shows how various corporations rank on how they treat their gay employees. I guess I won't be buying gas from Exxon anymore (not that I buy much). I'm glad to see that Apple and Amex both rate 100%. But Apple doesn't surprise me; Stevo rawks (sorry, I had a Wil Wheaton moment).

Bad news

Is the news worse than usual today?

A soldier (with coaching apparently) puts Rumsfeld on the spot and the Sec. of Defense says that armor manufacturers are at capacity, but now there are calls from manufacturers that they are not at capacity, that all the Pentagon has to do is ask for more armor.

Then there is an oil spill in Alaska, right off the coast of a wildlife preserve.

Ther was another fatal mine accident in China.

George Bush is still president.

Oh, and the astronauts in the International Space Station are on rationing.

Well, there is some good news: marriage between two men is legal now! If you're Canadian.

Weird

I've been having really bizarre dreams every night for the last 3-4 nights, dreams that wake me up and them continue when I go back to sleep. I happened to be checking out the blog archives, and look at this from 2 years ago.

Hubble Telescope News

While the Mars Rovers continue to soldier along (can you believe it's almost a year since the excitement of the landings?), a controversy is brewing over the Hubble repair plans.

I say send a volunteer crew up to fix it. What happened to Columbia was an inexcusable safety failure, especially after the Challenger tragedy, but we must move on.

LOST

Another totally freaky episode! Siad says that the French woman held him captive, Charlie comes back from the dead, and Locke seems to have endless outdoorsman talents.

I'm worried about Boone though. He's so cute and I'm afraid he might befall the fate of a 'redshirt.' I also have the weird feeling that there is something weird between him and his 'sister.'

Varekai

Well the fabulous Atherton Twins are back! Varekai has barely been gone from DC and now it is coming to Baltimore. I'd love to see them again, but it's a bit of a drive, and I should save my pennies for my vacation. Besides, I have them on DVD now.

My Ex's house

A reader wanted to know more about Supon and my Hawaii trip, so let's start with this. When I knew him he lived in a condo on the West End, but a couple years later he bought a townhouse, where he actually lives with his bf (more on that later). Here it is. My eyes hurt.

A Vexing Dilemma

So I am going on a big cruise in February (and staying at a little place in Ft. Lauderdale for a couple days beforehand), and I want to book my flight. And I want to use some of the points I've accumulated on my American Express account. The way that works is that you book the flight, transfer the points into the frquent flier program of that airline, and then they get applied.

The dilemma is that I want to fly U.S. Airways (motto: "We're not in liquidation... yet!") because they fly out of National, which is WAY more convenient for me than either Dulles or BWI. And I don't want to wait too long or the frequent flier seats will be snapped up. What to do???

Thailand meets Australia

Halfway into a bottle of Yellow Tail Chardonnay, I ventured to read Enviroboi's latest entry entitled Thailand: Interrupted and was moved to post one of my snarkier comments.

Me, bitter? Naw, my mother is bitter, and has been for 35 years. Geminis can be viciouosly bitter. I'm a Libra, so I'm more just... resigned.

Today's Pet Peeve:

People who block the doors on the Metro. Today we were getting on and this very large (as in round) man stepped onto the train, turned and put his back to the side panel and stopped. There was already another guy leaning against the other side, so between them they practically blocked the entire doorway. WTF? The remaining several of us had to push between them single-file. And it's not as if these guys were even getting right off at the next stop and had a reason stand by the door. What's even worse are people with their suitcases on rollers to pull the same stunt, parking their bag right in the doorway. When I got off through the opposite set of doors, the same thing happened: this very large woman refused to step out of the train to clear the doorway so we could get off; she just stood there blocking almost half the exit.

Right up there on my list of annoying Metro riders are the ones who walk right up to the fare gate and then decide it's time to start looking for their farecard/pass. So they stand there, blocking the gate and creating a backlog of people while they search through purse or pockets. These must be the same people who go to the express checkout line that says 10 items or less with 15 items in their basket, then wait until the checker has finished scanning every single item before they start looking for their checkbook.

Are these people rude, selfish, arrogant or just clueless? Miss Manners, help!

Marines!

Hot hot HOT!

Bloated

There's no other way to describe the way I feel today. My pants feel tighter and I have that vague feeling of... bloatedness.

I want to go home and lie down.

Remember Dan Renzi?

I sort of do. He was on Real World: Miami He (like everyone else and their cousin) has a blog.

It's actually rather entertaining.

Finding My Religion

Take the Belief-O-Matic Faith Quiz!

My results below. I'm a Secular Humanist, no surprise there! Note, however, that Mormons are way above mainline Christianity! Maybe there's hope for me and Elder Davis after all. Neo-Pagan sounds kinda fun...

The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.

Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.

1. Secular Humanism (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (99%)
3. Liberal Quakers (84%)
4. Nontheist (77%)
5. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (75%)
6. Theravada Buddhism (73%)
7. Neo-Pagan (63%)
8. Taoism (51%)
9. New Age (46%)
10. Bahá'í Faith (45%)
11. Mahayana Buddhism (37%)
12. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (37%)
13. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (35%)
14. Orthodox Quaker (35%)
15. Reform Judaism (35%)
16. New Thought (28%)
17. Jehovah's Witness (26%)
18. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (26%)
19. Scientology (24%)
20. Jainism (23%)
21. Sikhism (22%)
22. Seventh Day Adventist (15%)
23. Hinduism (11%)
24. Eastern Orthodox (8%)
25. Islam (8%)
26. Orthodox Judaism (8%)
27. Roman Catholic (8%)

DataLounge Hilarity

Crypto-gay characters!

God created us as we are!

Geez, I've been wrong all the time, since mob rules now in the USA. Check out this mind-bending poll.

Excuse me I need to go pray for forgiveness for my ignorance and arrogance...

Bahahahahahaha! Yeah, right.

It's a good thing there's no hell.

Mars Update

From CNN, an interview with Stevarino and a nice summary of the situation.

Eeek

Elton John, Lukas Ridgeston, and Johan Paulik Elton! Get our grubby paw off of Lukas! And why does Lukas have that scary, fixed smile? He's cuter when he's not grinning like that. Maybe it's a grimace.

Sleepy...

So I drag my butt to my 6:30 spin class tonight, thinking how nice it will be to go home afterwards. But I'm barely in the club door when Adam the instructor for the hour-long 7:30 class rushes up to me and asks if I can sub it for him because he doesn't feel good. Umm... ok.

Well two classes later, I survived, and my quads don't seem to hurt any more than when I started....

The DataLounge Editor's take...

...on the Nick & Jessica Holiday Special. I can't believe he doesn't mention the part about some guy licking Nick's armpit.

OW!

I thought my quads hurt yesterday! Walking is a real pain. (though in a way it's kind of exciting to know that there is a machine where I can really get some muscle building in the legs).

I may have to pop an aspirin or two before teaching my class tonight. I got up early to burn a new CD (I meant to last night, but I was too tired after Lost and the tear-jerking episode of Degrassi that I promised Eric I would watch (Craig really looks a lot like Elf), and dammit but my new LaCie DVD/CD burner wouldn't work with iTunes. Vexing. A quick visit to the Apple support site (what did we do before there were online discussion groups?), and it looks like I just need to download a new driver for it, but it was way annoying this morning since I was in a rush.

I had downloaded a bunch of new tunes, partly because there's a regular guy on Thursdays who keeps half jokingly asking for heavy metal -- or at least rock. It's true, about the only teacher you'll hear metal from is Doug-Doug. I'm not a metal (or even that much of a rock) fan, but I pulled some Van Halen (I love that video Dreams with the Blue Angels) and Bon Jovi, and the Clash classic Rock the Casbah. That's pretty butch compared to my usual boybands/Cher/dance remixes/80's playlists.

Networks refuse religious ad

From Today's Washington Post...

I'm not sure what I think about this. I like that ABC (my current favorite of the big four networks, with Desperate Housewives and Lost) just has a blanket policy of no religious ads. What I find intriguing is that the ABC Family network will be showing the ad. I can't figure out that net; with 'Family' in the name it almost implies that it is going to show treacly fare like Touched By An Angel and such (and they may for all I know), but what i see on there is frequent showings of The Birdcage and other gay-themed movies, and in the mornings they show Digimon and incessant repeats of Power Rangers. Hardly what you'd expect. I wonder what demographic they are going for? And now they are accepting this ad. Maybe they just need the ad income.

Two Networks Bar Religious Commercial

CBS, NBC Turn Down United Church of Christ's Ad Touting Its Inclusiveness

By Alan Cooperman

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 2, 2004; Page A08

The CBS and NBC television networks have rejected an advertisement for the United Church of Christ that shows two beefy bouncers turning away a gay couple, a Latino woman and a disabled man outside a church.

Officials of the Cleveland-based denomination, which has nearly 6,000 congregations and 1.3 million members, said the 30-second ad is intended to emphasize its inclusiveness. "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we," the ad says.

In a written explanation to the church's ad agency, CBS linked the ad to the issue of same-sex marriage and said it does not accept advertising "on one side of a current controversial issue of public importance."

"Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups . . . and the fact that the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the Networks," it said.

NBC's rejection notice simply called the ad "too controversial," without elaboration.

The Rev. John H. Thomas, president and general minister of the United Church of Christ, said the ad has nothing to do with same-sex marriage and generated no complaints or controversy when it was test-marketed on NBC-affiliated stations in six regional markets in the spring.

Thomas said he believes that since the presidential election, the major broadcast networks "are nervous about an ascendant conservative movement."

"Rather than uphold a kind of freedom of the airwaves, they're deciding it's wiser to censor some perspectives than to court reaction from the right," he said.

The church announced the networks' decision and provided copies of their rejection notices as it kicked off a $30 million, four-year advertising campaign to boost its name recognition and attract new members.

Church officials said they did not attempt to buy time on the third major broadcast network, ABC, because it has a blanket policy against religious advertising. But they said the bouncer ad will air on numerous other networks and cable channels, including ABC Family, AMC, BET, Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, Travel, TBS and TNT.

The rejections mean "it's going to be a little more difficult to reach the percentage of the population and the age range that we want," said Ron Buford, the church official in charge of the campaign. "But we will get our message out."

CBS and NBC officials said the timing of the church's announcement suggest that it is milking the controversy for free publicity. Both networks said they had rejected the commercial nine months ago, though they had entertained appeals from the church until recently.

Both networks noted that they had approved a second commercial emphasizing the UCC's diversity. It shows a little girl playing the hand game of "Here's the church, here's the steeple; open the doors and see all the people."

"If the church wants to say they are inclusive and open, that's a very positive statement that we are very happy to have on the air," said Alan Wurtzel, NBC's head of broadcast standards. "These folks are giving the impression that NBC is anti-church, anti-religion, anti-gay. It has nothing to do with that."

The problem with the bouncer ad, Wurtzel said, is that it "throws down the gauntlet at a variety of unnamed other churches" that allegedly do not accept gays or minorities. "It violates a long-standing NBC policy, which is that we do not accept commercial advertising that deals with issues of public controversy," he said.

Lost

Just when you think it can't get weirder (okay the polar bear was pretty weird), we have Said stumbling into the camp saying he's seen the French woman, and that they are not alone on the island! (ominous music).

And then there is the freaky guy who wasn't on the plane. I knew something was up the minute we saw him.

And the whole baby weirdness.

And you know, I can't help thinking there is some significance to the stark opening, with the the black and white "LOST" floating towards us, coming into supersharp focus, then out of view.

Discuss!

It is Coming!

The special extendo-rama Return of the King DVD set is almost here! And if you go to the LOTR Site you can see a sneak preview! WOW!

Ow, ow, ow.

My quads are killing me. I haven't been happy with my results using the sitting quad and hamstring machines at the gym (and frankly, I've slacked off the last few weeks), so yesterday I tried the standing squat machine with moderate weight.

Ow.

But it's that good kind of pain.

More Michael Phelps

Was just at his web site. He apologizes right on the main page; good for him. Also some interesting letters, and some nice new pictures.

I was born a generation too early

I've been listening to the series on NPR : Morning Edition about Digital Kids (you have to scroll down, sorry), and I can so relate to the teenage boy who likes Instant Messaging much more than talking on the phone. I have always hated using the telephone and much prefer email or IM.

I'm surprised how few people from my generation seem to be very computer or internet savvy.

And I wonder if I might have enjoyed architecture school more if I had been able to use CAD programs instead of tedious drawing with leaky pens. I sure love creating 3D renderings with Bryce.

On an unrelated Morning Edition point, their ongoing series of biographies of young soldiers killed in Iraq is just heartbreaking.

Sorry

If there are some temporary multiple postings (if you are moved to comment, please use the earliest one, and I'll delete the later ones) but Blogger seems to be having some posting issues.

Elf and Pixie News

Sad and strange news on the fantasy courier front.

Last week one of our larger clients called us, in a major tizzy, to say that our courier (that would be Elf -- tall, slim, pretty, mid-20's but looks younger, polite and soft-spoken) had blown a snot rocket right on the in the middle of their 10th-floor elevator lobby, in front of one of their clients. Kathy in customer service and I were both incredulous, and doubted the veracity of the (from what we heard) drama-queen temp recemptionist, who fingered Elf as the perpetrator by describing his courier bag and saying he was tall, slim and white. Elf denied it, though he admitted that he might have snivelled in the lobby (tsk, and I specifically gave that boy a box of Kleenex just the other day; he hasn't been feeling well).

So, despite the fact that it took us months to fire the previous courier (who was rude, smelled, and drank), poor Elf got the boot, mainly I suspect because the sales rep and branch manager had to go to the client, view the snot-spot, and personally grovel. He isn't fired, but he had to go back to the grind of being a generic courier-on-call, instead of spending most of the day in the nice warm office waiting to be sent on and errand once in awhile.

And who do we get from the service to replace him? Pixie!

I have to say, as much as I enjoyed Elf as eye candy, Pixie is more outgoing. We've already had a couple of chats. Pixie tells me he is building a puppet theater (for what exactly, I'm not sure).

I ran into Elf on the way back from the gym yesterday and he kind of shied away from me at first, until I made a point of saying hi to him and asking how he was, then he perked up and was all friendly. Poor thing must be embarassed or something.

I'm hoping to mention to his 'roomate' tomorrow that some of us feel badly about the way Elf was treated.

The Very Secret Diaries

Whenever you're feeling a bit down (and you're a Lord of the Rings fan who isn't afraid of a little joke at its expense), there's nothing like a reading or two from the Secret Diaries

Michael Phelps update

I still feel bad for Michael Phelps even if he is a hot Oylmpic stud millionaire. It is surprising that someone who is obviously so disciplined and otherwise mature managed to get himself into a situation where he was driving drunk. I put it down to youth and bad influence.

His court date is December 29th.

Recipe...

...to get over Elder Davis (at least temporarily)

1. Remove... Latter... Days... from.... DVD changer... (whew!).

2. Load up Star Trek: Voyager Season 3 Disc 7. (Have Season 4 close at hand).

3. Start popcorn.

4. Open bottle of merlot.

5. Cue up Scorpion, Part 1

6. Enjoy Janeway getting tough with the Borg! Damn that Harry Kim was a cutie. Love that cliffhanger shot of the Borg Cube towing Voyager out of danger as the other two cubes act as a shield.

7. Next up -- Kes goes non-corporeal, and... Seven of Nine!

Happy Birthday...

...Madeleine L'Engle. This is also C. S. Lewis' birthday. I found Narnia and the Perelandra sci-fi series to be heavy-handed allegory, but enjoyed them all the same.

Hi Kevin and Andrew

A new picture of the wonderful Atherton twins, who are featured in the Cirque show, Varekai.

"Your church doesn't like alcohol or homosexuals. Well, I'm definitely not joining. I can't imagine heaven wthout both."
Lila (Jacqueline Bisset), Latter Days.

Jeez how many times can I watch this --just ok-- flick (though every time I appreciate Sandvoss' acting; when you see him in the interviews, he is nothing like Davis, he transforms his whole face). But anyway, why do I keep watching this? Just cause it is in the DVD changer? Not entirely. There is something else there; and that I watch only after the fateful kiss and Davis' life falling apart. It needs more examination.

My lame Friday

Feeling blah, I've been lounging around the house all day. Caught a classic ep of the 60's show Green Hornet (Bruce Lee was SO hot as Kato) on some Starz action channel on the HD (I NEVER surf regular TV on the big tv with the 300 channels... dangerous) then switched to the bedroom TV, watched a Thanksgiving West Wing on Bravo, and now on my third ep of Crossing Jordan. Holy cow! Jerry O'Connell and Ivan Sergei in one show! Eye candy!

No Thanksgiving Fantasy Feast

Sadly, probably because Bob Edwards is no longer with NPR, they did not revisit an annual Morning Edition Thanksgiving tradition of the last ten years: Bob Edwards' Thanksgiving Fantasy Feast. This year would have been especially poignant since one of the chefs -- Julia Child -- died last year. But at least we can still listen, thanks to the magic of the web and NPR archives.

Elijah's Goods

Snicker

Washington Post runs racially-targeted antigay insert in Friday's paper

Holy Crap!

Airlines Should Calculate Prices By the Pound

I meant to blog to this article (sorry, subscription) in the Washington Post the other day but only just got around to it. It will never fly (pun intended) but it makes total sense (assuming they also weigh all your luggage!). That plane has to get off the ground, and the heavier it is, the more fuel it requires. Already though people who are so obese that they take up 2 seats are suing airlines that try to make them pay for two seats.

Here's just the beginning of the article:

Airlines Should Calculate Prices By the Pound

By Marc Fisher

Thursday, November 18, 2004; Page B01

Two pounds of apples cost more than one. Mailing a big, fat envelope is more expensive than mailing a letter. Smokers pay more for life insurance than do non-smokers.

So why shouldn't you pay an airline according to how much you weigh and how much space you take up?

A report the other day from the National Center for Environmental Health tells us that our collective national belt-loosening is costing the airlines big money -- an extra $275 million in fuel costs in one year to account for the 10-pound average increase in Americans' weight over the past decade.

The airlines are desperately trying to cut fuel costs by cutting the weight they carry -- replacing metal utensils with plastic ones, scrapping heavy magazines. But the solution lies directly beneath the floor of the passenger cabin: Charge passengers by the pound, just as freight in the cargo hold is priced.

That would not only help the airlines, but more important, would create a social and financial disincentive for becoming or staying obese.

As things stand, the one-third of Americans who are not overweight subsidize the two-thirds who are. It's in everyone's interest to shift the balance back toward healthier, slimmer lives.

The Real Gilligan's Island

Ok, so I fell for the marketing ploy. In my last issue of Entertainment Weekly was a DVD promo for The Real Gilligan's Island. It was mainly just a music video of the theme by Bowling for Soup which was mildly amusing.

But I have to admit that it did seem like a funny premise. And the younger Gilligan is cute, and the younger Professor is apparently openly gay. So I set the Tivo...

Another good class... then a bad feeling

I don't usually look forward to teaching a spin class (still nervous after months?) but I often feel good afterwards. Some new people again today, a couple of whom came up after to tell me how much they enjoyed the class. Always a nice ego-builder, though I owe much of it to Vicki and Mitch.

Of course the high didn't last long. I got home and was listening to Studio 360 on NPR, an episode about death. One guy had a story abotu death in Disney movies and they had to play parts of Bambi and Old Yeller. (The latter is a movie from the 50's or early 60's about the faithful family dog somewhere in the old west who gets rabies and the boy has to shoot him.) I remember seeing it as a kid and I was traumatized. Their timing was impeccable: tomorrow will be three years since my Siberian Huskie Nanuk died.

You go, Tom!

Tom Shales, TV reviewer for the Washington Post, unloads with both barrels on FCC chair-ass Michael Powell. It's subscription, so here's some especially juicy bits:

Oops. They got rid of the wrong Powell. The father unfortunately is going, but the son, even more unfortunately, remains behind.

Colin Powell, as most Americans know, has "resigned" his position as secretary of state, though few in the inner circle of the coldhearted Bush administration will likely be shedding tears at his departure. Staying in office, however, and capable of wreaking havoc in American broadcasting until 2007, is Colin's son Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and definitely not a force for good in America.

His father is stepping down as secretary of state, but Michael Powell could remain in power until 2007.

Pompous and imperious, an ideologue who believes unfailingly in his own philosophy of how TV and radio should work (the FCC also has domain over telephone and emerging broadband technologies), Powell ignores or condemns anyone who opposes him. Though FCC chairmen have labored mostly in obscurity, Powell has managed to make himself famous; he's the Torquemada of the insane campaign now being waged against "obscenity" on the airwaves.

And the networks are hardly just angelic victims. In this increasingly hysterical climate, ABC was spectacularly stupid in beginning last Monday's NFL telecast with a raunchy scene set in a locker room and featuring a fully dressed player being seduced by a woman in a towel. She dropped the towel and jumped naked into his arms. Powell then jumped into the spotlight and by Wednesday was pontificating about the episode on CNBC: "I wonder if Walt Disney would be proud." ABC is a Disney-owned company.

Naturally, an FCC spokesman said complaints were pouring in. Complaints pour in now about everything. Any day now, somebody will complain that the Energizer bunny is naked. And yet for all this alleged public distress over naughtiness on the airwaves, the most popular new series of the year is also the raciest: "Desperate Housewives" on ABC.

In large measure, the usual suspects are in the driver's seat -- fanatical right-wing groups that include words like "family" or "decency" in their names and view increased permissiveness on TV as part of a left-wing plot to undermine moral values. They have mastered the art of making minor protests look like huge movements by manipulating the Internet (thousands of "protest" votes at the click of a mouse) or simply manning the mimeograph machine. People can sign form letters even if they never saw the program in question.

Jeff Jarvis, TV Guide's last good TV critic and now prominent in the blogger universe, uncovered a stupefying example of how the process works and how unfair the FCC's actions are. He filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see the 159 complaints supposedly received at the FCC because of an April 2003 Fox special, "Married by America." Now 159 seems like an insignificant enough number, but when Jarvis checked further into the case, he found that most of the letters were identical, produced by an "automated complaint factory," and that the number of authentic, actual, original letters of complaint was not 159 but . . . three. Yes, three.

Another Decent Enterprise

The first part of the 3-part Vulcan plot arc was, IMHO, not bad. Robert Foxworth is -- fortunately --almost unrecognizable as the top Vulcan official, and that Vulcan investigator is hawt.

But seriously, pulling together all the bits of Vulcan history is kind of cool, and the reference to the teachings of Surak being 'interpreted' (and misused for certain groups' own agendas, like the bible) was amusing. We'll see how this develops.

When the evening falls and the daylight is fading,
from within me calls - could it be I am sleeping?
For a moment I stray, then it holds me completely.
close to home - I cannot say.

close to home feeling so far away.
As I walk there before me a shadow
from another world, where no other can follow.
carry me to my own, to where I can cross over...
close to home - I cannot say.
close to home feeling so far away.

Forever searching; never right,
I am lost in oceans of night.
Forever hoping I can find memories.
those memories I left behind.
Even though I leave will I go on believing
that this time is real - am I lost in this feeling?

Like a child passing through, never knowing the reason.
I am home - I know the way.
I am home - feeling oh, so far away.

Enya, Evening Falls

Report: Election took mental toll on gays

Well,
Duh.

Datalounge on Latter Days

Another in (apparently) a series of Datalounge threads about Latter Days.

It's always interesting to see how long it takes for a DL thread to deteriorate into evil queens going off-topic and sniping at each other. Usually not often.

I thought the acting was fine (at no point was I pulled out of the story to think 'ugh, that was bad,' unlike sometimes on TV) and the production was surprising good. And Steve was hot. So there. Though maybe Matt Long's crying scene in Jack & Bobby was more understated, some guys just don't cry gracefully and that's the way it is. Steve's awful ugly sobbing was almost more affecting in its way.

What's with the Suicides?

Yeah I know, I was setting myself up for more angst, but when I saw the preview for the gay-themed episode of Jack & Bobby, I TiVo'd it, though I haven't watched it since the pilot. And besides, Matt Long is so cute. I couldn't blame his friend for falling in love with him. The last scene was well done I thought. The thing with Grace's gay brother is a bit over the top though.

And I'm still not sure about the whole future-president thing. Granted the writers couldn't keep it a secret for long, but though it's an interesting device to show how a future president's personality is shaped it's a little morbid not only knowing which one becomes president, but that the other brother apparently dies tragically young.

Security

Note to self: book flights in the mornings.

Sunday morning at 9 or so at National, it took me maybe 10 minutes to get through security. The line was 30 feet long or so from the metal detectors. At Ft. Lauderdale by 12:30, there was a huge security line to the gates (but since I was leaving, no line of course)

Departing Ft. Lauderdale Wednesday at 10:00 there was literally no line at security. When I arrived at National at 2:30, there was a huge line... 200 feet long I would say, stretching way far along the terminal. Glad I missed that mess.

I'm back.

And it's like I never left. Elf is looking a little pale but gave me a smile and hello. I think he looks even more Elf-like because of the little slipper-like sneakers he wears and his pants cut off just below the knee.

Hey doesn't RotK come out in exactly one month!? Yippee!!! FINALLY we get to see Gandalf confront Saruman at the steps of Orthanc! (jeez am I a nerd or what?)

At the B&N on the iBook...

(posting some entries I've accumulated and taking a break from the sun)

Sunday Morning: Airport Insecurity

So I'm at the gate, and it's a sunny chilly morning here in DC. I can see the Washington Monument through the window.

Security was relatively painless, considering my airport of choice is National, the place that they almost didn't reopen because it is right across the river from the White House, Capitol, etc. I'd say it took less than ten minutes to go though, and everyone was reasonably polite. That always helps. I had to take my shoes and belt off (but they have a little area after security where you can put your shoes back on). My iBook seems to have survived another trip through the x-ray machine as well.

Sunday Evening

The room's not bad, overlooking the upper of two pools. on the nicely landscaped grounds. I found my way to the Whole Foods just a few miles away (boy, driving an automatic sure is a piece of cake, except that whole annoying auto-shift thing, but it is just a Nyaundai Sonata, so not exactly a powerhouse under the hood) and picked up a few things, since of course I'm not going to be eating out every meal the next three days.

While the place is ok (and lots of places outside to relax) the weather is a bit yucky. I has been mostly cloudy all afternoon, with random splatters of rain. The forecast for the next few days is better, however: just partly cloudy with a small chance of showers. Oh and it's windy! Palm trees tossing back and forth. I'm just a couple blocks from the beach, weird to see all these monstrous tankers lurking out there; I'm not sure why they just sit offshore like that.

For some reason AOL won't give me local access numbers in the 954 area code, as if it didn't exist when the last verson of AOL for Mac came out (entirely possible) and I can't even seem to dial up an access number in the Miami (305) area code. Maybe it's just as well. I'm supposed to be getting work done.

Monday

Started out iffy, with more wind and rain splatters while the sun peeked between clouds. But as of late morning the clouds have pretty much given way. The upper pool deck by my room is pretty much crowded with a mix of men, none of them particularly attractive to me (exept the tall, slim young blond twink who appears to be with a man at least as old as me. I wonder how Elf is doing).

I'm enjoying The Fall of Kings, sequel to one of my favorite books, Swordspoint, by Ellen Kushner. This is co-written by Kushner and another woman, but it definitely bears her stamp so far. For lunch I went inside, enjoying a salad from Whole Foods and a glass of chardonnay (hey, I'm on vacation!) after a couple hours outside. Most of it was in the shade, and I did put on some sunscreen, but I'd like to get some color (to hell with the dermatologist's dire warnings!) but I thought I should take a little break. I'll put so SPF 15 on my face before going back out.

Back to work! More later.

Coming Out for One of Their Own

There's a sweet article in the Post today, a followup from the series about cute gay teen Michael Shackelford and how his town deals with the arrival of the unspeakably evil, hateful Fred Phelps.

Meanwhile I'm slurping coffee and running around doing final packing.

Oog

Maybe it's because I haven't been on a real vacation in almost 2 years that I am all fretty. And this doesn't even count (though the airplane part helps) as a real vacation. The cruise in Feb counts.

But nothing like a viewing of tLotR:FotR (disk 2) to calm the nerves. Legolas walks on snow, Galadriel is one powerful kickass telepathic (you noticed that they picked up on the Elven telepathy, right?) queen, and the Argonath just plain rocks (pun intended). All is right in Middle-earth, with the (fabu 40-minutes of new material, almost like a whole new movie) RotK extended edition coming up in barely a month. And then I can rest, a personal oath of almost 4 years ago fulfilled.

Then we'll see. I have to say that Elder Davis and his X-acto gave me some unhappy Conrad Jarrett flashbacks.

Waiting to fly

I love flying. Even in coach on a short trip (though 1st class is fun) I love the thrill of coming off the ground and being airborne. There's something magical about it for me. I live near National Airport and as I walk to the Rosslyn Metro every day I see the planes fly overhead. Hardly a day passes when I don't think to myself "I wish I was on that plane."

So tomorrow I will be, and that is half the fun. Even if I am not allowed to use the bathroom for the first or last half hour of the flight.

Right now I'm watching Elizabeth (1998) starring the fantabulous Cate Blanchett (aka Galadriel.. sigh).

And ca n I just say that Joseph Fiennes is HAWT! he's like a more mature Freddie Prinze Jr. (who is also way hot, btw).

Packing

I'm wandering around the place in my usual pre-trip craziness, wondering what to take, what not to take... jeez it's only 4 days; not like a two-week trip like in February.

I watched the latest ep. of Lost and while it continues to be interesting, I wonder where it's going. I thought I read somewhere that the producers swore that there was nothing supernatural happening, but the only explanation I can find is that they are in some kind of purgatory. Either that or a rehash of the ST:TOS episode where they stumble on a planet that has a machine that creates their fantasies (and fears) without really understanding the repercussions.

I will not watch Latter Days again... I will not watch Latter Days again...

And I won't pack it along with my DVDs... I'm not obsessed with Elder Davis. Really. Hah.

Saturday morning

And I'm trying to decide which mix to play for my Saturday crew. An interesting phenomenon developing over the last couple of weeks that I haven't witnessed before, and is worst at the Capitol Hill club: people wandering in late. Last Saturday I had three people come in late, one person 10 minutes or so. This is unheard-of (and my old teacher, Vicki, would lock the door and not let people in). I'm not going to get that militant about it, but people should get there on time as a matter of courtesy -- not to mention that you really should warm up before getting into heavy climbing.

I'm also starting to gather things for my little trip to Ft Lauderdale. The weather report is spotty, though maybe to be expected this time of year. I'm glad I'm getting a car (and at $60, it's not much more than 2 cab rides) so I won't feel stuck in the hotel. I'm trying to bring plenty of reading material -- and of course I'm hoping to get lots of writing done. I have a new small suitcase that is carry-on approved; I'm considering trying to just carry-on that bag and my backpack so I don't have to deal with baggage claim.

Another Classic...

...Richard's Poor Almanac

N.B.: For those not familiar with D.C., there is no "J" Street. ;-)

Sigh

Here's a much better picture of Elder Davis from Latter Days, from a fan page of the actor, Steve Sandvoss. Hmm, I have a feeling that Steve and innocent Mormon boy Aaron have very little in common...

Courier drama, part V

Actually no drama. Elf seems to be all better, and has been here every day. Poor thing has to ride in the rain again today though. Yesterday Pixie came over to visit with Elf on his lunch break. Very cute.

Spintabulous?

I think I had my first gay couple in my spin class last night. Surprising since it was the Clarendon club (in Arlington near my house), which is usually populated by uber-butch (and handsome) 20-something str8-seeming guys. Why did I thik they were gay? When we got to the locker room, turns out they were sharing a locker, and the same gym bag. That seems kinda gay.

Anyway, had quite a few new people, probably because of the holiday.

How lame am I?

Tonight I watched Latter Days again after watching it last night. This time I just cried at the end.

(as a note, the pictures in the link do not flatter either star; both are much better looking but in very different ways).

Anyway, what a sweet little movie. Sure it was a bit much at times and a little unrealistic, but it was still cute, and there were some very moving scenes.

Sigh. Will I ever find my own Elder Davis? What a sweetheart.

Stupid Quiz

Courtesy of Enviroboi


1. What time did you get up today? 7:00 am (late for me)
2. If you could eat lunch with one person, who would it be? Hard to pick one. Bill Clinton.
3. Gold or silver? Silver I guess
4. What was the last film you saw at the Cinema? Sky Captain.
5. What is/are your favorite TV show(s)? Lost, Stargate.
6. What did you have for breakfast? Coffe, OJ, a protein bar.
7. Who would you hate to be stuck in a room with? George Bush or a smoker.
8. Who inspires you? Mitch
9. What is your middle name? Kevin
10. Beach, City or Country? Country (with internet access)
11. Favorite ice cream? Real vanilla
12. Butter or Plain popcorn? Butter
13. Favorite color? Dark blue
14. Favorite sandwich? Tuna with tomato and lettuce
15. What characteristics do you despise? Arrogance, shallowness.
16. Favorite flower? Daffodil
17. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation where would you go? Florence
18. What color is your bathroom? green
19. Where would you like to retire? Charlottesville
20. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
21. What did you do for your last birthday? Tried to ignore it.
22. Where were you born? Chicago, IL
23. Favorite sport to watch? Used to love college basketball, now nothing.
(Enviro deleted 24&25)
26. What fabric detergent do you use? Um, Wisk I think. Or Tide?
27. Coke or Pepsi? Coke (though rarely)
28. Are you a morning person or a night owl? morning person
29. Do you have any pets? Used to have a wonderful Siberian Huskie

2ND PART
1. What time is it? 10:39 am
2. Name as it appears on birth certificate: Terry Kevin -------
3. Nicknames: Mies, Terbob, Terrence (not my real name, see above)
4. Piercing: Left ear twice
5. Eye color: grey-blue
6. Favorite food: Anything but Indian
7. Ever been to Africa? No
8. Ever been toilet papering? No
9. Love someone so much it made you cry? Yes, unrequited.
10. Been in a car accident? Yes
11. Croutons or bacon bits? croutons
12. Favorite Restaurant: Cafe Asia
13. Favorite alcoholic drink: Wine
14. Disney or Warner Bros.? Disney
15. Favorite fast food restaurant: Wendy's
16. Color is your bedroom carpet? Alabaster
17. How many times did you fail your driver's test? Never, nor my Motorcycle test!
18. Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail? Eric
19. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Amazon.com
20. What you do most often when you are bored? Sleep or Surf the net
21. Bedtime? 9 -10
22. Least Favorite TV show: Dunno
23. Last person to have dinner with: Steven
24. Ford or Chevy? An American car? You must be kidding. Honda
25. What are you listening to right now? A CD of Handel
26. How many tattoos do you have? none
27. Time you finished this e-mail ? 10:43am
28. Have you ever run out of gas? no

I wonder...

...if just once, when he got up in the morning, Yasser Arafat pushed aside his hideous-yet-symbolic checkered towel and olive drab ensemble and put on a pair of bermuda shorts, a hawaiian shirt and a brightly colored bucked hat, and pranced around his quarters where no one could see.

Just once.

Date set for solar sail spacecraft launch

Oooh! Deploy the solar sail!

BTW, I belong to the Planetary Society.

T.rex fancied ribs

So T.rex lived, what? Five thousand years ago? So the Egyptians must have run into them, right? Or maybe the Go'aould (Stargate Egyptian gods) wiped out the Dinosaurs with their giant pyramid motherships. That makes about as much sense as anything.

And the Stargate universe is much more fun than anything in the silly old bible. We know Ra partied with all those big beefy guards and half-naked bois he carried around with him on his ship!

This is where I work

Just to the right of the building with the dish antennas on top (which is the ABC News DC bureau). A bit to the right (across 17th St.) is the National Geographic building.

My house

By satellite!

More election conspiracy theories...

And reasons not to go to Canada!

Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked

The Spiritual Test

This test was in a recent issue of TIME with the cover story asking if we had a gene that compelled us to seek a higher power.

Quiz: How Spiritual Are You?
To find out, take this test, which is adapted from a personality inventory devised by Washington University psychiatrist Robert Cloninger, author of Feeling Good: The Science of Well-Being

Oct. 25, 2004

1. I often feel so connected to the people around me that it is like there is no separation between us. True    False
2. I often do things to help protect animals and plants from extinction. True    False
3. I am fascinated by the many things in life that cannot be scientifically explained. True    False
4. Often I have unexpected flashes of insight or understanding while relaxing. True    False
5. I sometimes feel so connected to nature that everything seems to be part of one living organism. True    False
6. I seem to have a "sixth sense" that sometimes allows me to know what is going to happen. True    False
7. Sometimes I have felt like I was part of something with no limits or boundaries in time and space. True    False
8. I am often called "absent-minded" because I get so wrapped up in what I am doing that I lose track of everything else. True    False
9. I often feel a strong sense of unity with all the things around me. True    False
10. Even after thinking about something a long time, I have learned to trust my feelings more than my logical reasons. True    False
11. I often feel a strong spiritual or emotional connection with all the people around me. True    False
12. Often when I am concentrating on something, I lose awareness of the passage of time. True    False
13. I have made real personal sacrifices in order to make the world a better place, like trying to prevent war, poverty and injustice. True    False
14. I have had experiences that made my role in life so clear to me that I felt very happy and excited. True    False
15. I believe that I have experienced extrasensory perception. True    False
16. I have had moments of great joy in which I suddenly had a clear, deep feeling of oneness with all that exists. True    False
17. Often when I look at an ordinary thing, something wonderful happens. I get the feeling that I am seeing it fresh for the first time. True    False
18. I love the blooming of flowers in the spring as much as seeing an old friend again. True    False
19. It often seems to other people like I am in another world because I am so completely unaware of things going on around me. True    False
20. I believe that miracles happen. True    False
SCORING: Give yourself one point for each TRUE answer and 0 points for each FALSE answer. 14 and above = highly spiritual, a real mystic; 12-13 = spiritually aware, easily lost in the moment; 8-11 = spiritually average; could develop more spiritual life if desired; 6-7 = a practical empiricist lacking self-transcendence; 1-5 = highly skeptical, resistant to developing spiritual awareness

I rated 'spiritually average,' which I find kind of strange. Maybe it's the way they use the term 'Spiritual,' which I think implies believing in a non-corporeal spirit (which I certainly do not). However, I can appreciate the beauty of a sunrise, and I believe in what people call insight or intuition (though I think in fact those things are a combination of perception and deduction on a subconscious level). Now, how does this relate to me being an INFJ?

And on the 7th Day...

Okay, this is going to sound really arrogant... but I think the real arrogance comes from people who demand that their beliefs be taught in public school when they have absolutely no basis in fact. These are the same people who want students not only to pray, but pray their way.

Yesterday on CNN I saw this woman who said she believed that the earth was literally created in six days, about six thousand years ago. (This was in relation to the current 'stickers on biology books' case.) So she just dismisses all the fossils we have uncovered, all the dinosaurs, all the earlier men. All that actual evidence is irrelevant in the face of what one book and her completely baseless faith says. I can't think of many things more ridiculous than the creation of the earth in six days. What about the rest of the universe? Did god whip that up Saturday night?

Then there was a man who said something like 'all you have to do is look at DNA to know that there must be some creative guidance.'

It seems to me that these people are just not able to grasp the huge spans of time involved. All the false starts, all the dead-ends evolution must have taken before it got to us. Dinosaurs along lived for millions of years; they were incredibly successful until they got their butts kicked by a climate catastrophe. Granted, I can't really fully grasp millions of years, much less 4.5 billion. (It took me a while to fully get the whole 'relativity' thing, and the speed of light as an absolute constant.) But let's just say that life began on earth 2 billion years ago. If my math is right, the period between the birth of Jesus and now would have cycled a (insert pinky to corner of lips) million times! I think all kinds of things could have combined and recombined in a vast period like that.

I suppose these people also assume that our current configuration is the be-all and end-all of creation. Now that's arrogant.

Speaking of Death...

I fear that my Original iPod is on its last legs. The main problem is the battery: it can't hold a charge even asleep for more than a day or so. Also the flyweel is a bit sticky and has developed a little skip where the volume suddenly jumps up. Well the poor thing is almost three years old and I've carried it to work almost every day. It's also just a 5GB model, and it's been sitting almost on 'full' for some time; I even had to delete several CD's I'd burned to make room for downloaded songs from iTunes.

It's a good time though; Apple finally came out with a model I really like. I wasn't fond of the one with four buttons across the top (not as intuitive as my old one!) and the Mini just didn't hold enough to be worth the expense. The new one (not the picture one; I'd consider that only if it had a camera). with the unified clickwheel looks good though.

Looks like a trip to the Apple store is in the near future. I also need to by a DVD burner to archive some files that are just too massive to put on regular CD-ROMs.

Religion and Me

Warning: this is basically an anti-religion diatribe, so if you think you might find it offensive, please feel free to skip this entry, but visit again soon! My intention is not to offend, but to try to explain my frustration and incomprehension (is that a word?) with, and -- frankly -- fear of the intolerance of some religious people.

First, two quotes from one of my favorite movies, Contact, based on the book by Carl Sagan. Ellie Arroway, played by Jodie Foster, discovers the signal from outer space. Using instructions from the aliens, we build a great machine that can create a wormhole and send one person on a journey. Of course there is a committee to choose that person, and on that committee happens to be theologian Palmer Joss (played by Matthew McConaughey), her one-time lover. During the hearings, the question of God comes up...

Ellie Arroway (to Palmer after she is not chosen to go): So what's more likely? That an all-powerful, mysterious God created the Universe, and decided not to give any proof of his existence? Or, that He simply doesn't exist at all, and that we created Him, so that we wouldn't have to feel so small and alone?

And when she finds out that Palmer voted against her:

Ellie Arroway : Why did you do it?
Palmer Joss : Our job was to select someone to speak for everybody. And I just couldn't in good conscience vote for a person who doesn't believe in God. Someone who honestly thinks the other ninety five percent of us suffer from some form of mass delusion.
Ellie Arroway : I told the truth up there. And Drumlin told you exactly what you wanted to hear.

Bush's election, and the recent court cases where people are demanding that the contradiction in terms that is 'creation science' be taught alongside evolution (claiming that evolition is still just a theory!), and the ones about putting the ten commandments in courthouses, all have me very worried. Though even hearing promos for the NPR show Speaking of Faith gives me the willies. Maybe that's just Christa Tippet's melodramatic voice...

I'm not sure why talk of religion makes me so uncomfortable. I was raised nominally Presbyterian, and in high school I was very active in church -- though in fairly non-religious activities like bell choir. Back then I kind of prayed along, but I was already thinking on some level that this whole 'god' thing seemed like some massive, extremely clever con.

I'm not a religious expert, but it seems to me like monotheism has evolved from polytheistic, animist religions where gods were anthropomorphorizations (is that a word too?) of natural elements or emotions. Greek and Roman gods evolved from a collection of other spirits, the Romans adopted them, then the Christians co-opted Roman holidays like the Solstices with their own Christian events. Even most symbols of Christmas have pagan origins. Where was god then?

It all looks to me like, as civilization advances and (for instance) people realize that lighting is not Zeus throwing thunderbolts, religious leaders refine their message so they can stay ahead of the game.

A show on the History Channel I saw on Christmas a few years ago had experts saying that Jesus was just one of a number of prohets who appeared around that time, and over the next few hundred years a number of 'Christ Cults' sprang up around various religious leaders. It was pure chance that his following endured. And later, the Roman Catholic Church, with so much control over all literature and knowledge, was in the perfect position to tell people 'god's truth.'

And what does that bring us to now? A myriad of religions, almost all contradicting each other in very basic ways. So Joss may say that 95% of the world believes in god, but that's hundreds of different forms, all because human religions have evolved in different ways (did I say 'evolvled? That's just a theory). The bible is not some magic absolute truth. People interpret it and translate it in ways to suit themselves. I've read that some people say that the very few references condemning homosexuality in the bible could be translated in other ways that were much less 'damning.'

(BTW, did you know that the pope of the time put a price on queen Elizabeth I's head because she was a heretic? What happened to 'thou shalt not kill'?)

People pray to god, but to what purpose? If a plane crashes or some mother's son is shot and killed in Iraq, people say it was "god's will." So what's the point of praying for peoples' safety if some god, moving in his mysterious ways, is goign to take your loved one away from you anyway. If someone walks away from an accident, people call it a "miracle." I find that to be incredibly naive.

And in the most appaling, cynical examples, people pray for selfish things. For instance, I hear that the priests of Notre Dame pray for their athletic team to win. What's up with that? Are they better christians or something?

That's what it's all about: our religion is better that your religion. We're going to heaven and you're going to burn in hell, and in the meantime we are going to try to save you or vaporize you, whichever comes first. Spaniards invading central America, the Crusades, you name it. More wars seem to have been fought because of the intangibles of religion (or at least in its name) than for power or territory.

I think it's also about humans' fear of death. People can't wrap their minds around the fact that when the body fails, the synapses stop firing, and that's it: you're dead. All that you were is gone except the things you leave behind, and the memories of others. There is no magical immortal spirit that wafts away to go to some higher plane of existence. So people pray and go to church (or whatever) and supposedly try to do god's will -- though I know of some pretty hateful and spiteful evangelicals -- in the hopes of a happier afterlife. I guess it's not enough to ask people to treat each other with kindness and respect just because it's a good thing to do. There has to be a reward/punishment system involved -- as ridiculous as it sounds.

Carl Sagan comforted himself by saying that we are recycled atoms of stars, and we will eventually be recycled again. That's good enough for me.