Meaty Post (Hmm. Interesting Visual.)

Do you ever see or read something that affects you so much you feel like you've been punched in the gut? I was surfing random blogs yesterday (it's lots of fun--just click the button on the top right of the screen) and I came across this guy's blog. Mostly his stuff's funny, but then, unexpectedly, I read another entry and I'm all weepy. I think funny people have a better than average ability to make people cry. Why is that? Is there a sense of pain, like there is a sense of humor? Do funny people get it naturally? My new theory is that reading an average person's attempt at "deep" writing, it's too easy to blow off what they say as cheesy. But when you know the person recognizes the potential cheesiness of it and they go there anyway, it makes it all the more striking. Read this, and then read this, and you'll see what I mean.

Okay, but I do have other things to say today! It's rocky territory --gonna try to not be boring--you be the judge if I've succeeded....

I was watching documentaries last night (If I got cable I know I would spend all my time watching Comedy Central, Friends reruns, and movies, and sometimes I think for my own good I shouldn't get it).... and the first one was about searching for life on other planets; the second a GlobeTrekker episode (I love that show! And may I also say I am so jealous of the people whose job it is to host that show--just look at how adventurey they look!) about Belize, Guatemala and the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. So many things! So many many things I learned! I will try to condense into the most interesting, non-boring items.

First, Belize. It goes Mexico, Guatemala, then Belize. So it's in Central America. They speak English there! I didn't know that. And also, in what I thought was the coolest part of the story, there is this whole segment of the population made up of the descendants of 2,000 would-be slaves whose slave ships crashed in the Caribbean in the 1600s. Imagine, you've been captured by the Spanish and are being shipped off to a future of misery and despair, you're wracked with grief from the knowledge of what's going to happen to you, your family, your children, and your children's children for generations to come, and then, BAM! You're shipwrecked on an island instead! ROCK ON!!!!! Aw, they must've been so excited. That would be the best time to get shipwrecked, I think. (There's obviously more to the story, so click on this link if you want to know more.)

Second, the quest for life on other planets. The first half of the show was about whether there is or ever was life on other planets. The second half was about creating habitable places for humans on other planets by terraforming them. The scientists they interviewed were all for terraforming Mars so humans could live there. And they spoke of it as if it was something we were going to do eventually--it was just a matter of time.

Whoaaa, back the truck up.

To me, terraforming is only something they do in science fiction novels. Mess with the atmosphere and makeup of the planet so hard core, for such a long time, that you change the entire climate of the planet, change it from cold barren rocks, dust, no atmosphere/die from sun's radiation... change that into a lush green paradise with oyxygen to breathe? Uhhhh..... does no one else think this has a major disastrous potential? Considering that our government can't even work out social security, is it really wise to let it (or anyone else's government, for that matter--I wouldn't trust them either) mess with a whole planet? Do we feel confident that this won't go horribly, horribly wrong?

What if the planet superheats and explodes? What if we accidentally alter its orbit and it crashes into Earth? What if, in our quest to nurture fledgling life forms, a super race of organisms develops that flies across the subspace and eats us ALL!?!?!?!

Calamity. Death. Dooooooooom.

And two things related to that. I'll be quick!

First, money. That would cost a lot lot of money. Should we really spend it doing that instead of fixing our own planet first? Ending war, poverty, etc.?

Second, Detroit. (Or pick your personal favorite run-down city. I pick Detroit, because I've asked people from there and they've said, "Believe the hype--Detroit really is a %*&!hole.") If we set up Mars (or any other planet) as a new place for humans to live--and if we did it well (a big if)--eventually Earth would be one big Detroit, as in the only people that live there are the people who can't afford to get out. It's like outside of Chicago, they're constantly turning farmland into houses, because everyone wants to live in a brand new place that doesn't have any problems yet. But the old problems don't just go away just because you're not there. You leave them alone, they get bigger. So instead of having mass white flight of cities, you'll be abandoning an entire planet to poverty and ruin. All the people who can afford to leave will go, and the place they left behind will get crappier and crappier, and the people who are left there will be stuck with no way out.

But I'm not down on cities as a whole--just yesterday I decided I love living in Chicago. They were filming a TV show pilot under the el tracks yesterday. I went over to the little catering tent and was chatting with an assistant to the producer. Gave me the scoop, says it's called "Enemies" and stars Peter Faccinelli. There's always something cool like that going on. If I didn't already live in the city, I would be jealous of myself.

It's late. I'm gonna go eat me some cake and dinner now. (Yes, first cake. I'm a big girl now and that's what I wanna do, so I'm gonna.)

Oh yeah--leave me comments! I have given you many many trinkets of knowledge in a (hopefully) non-boring fashion. Now entertain me!