Things that make you go "hmmmm?"

Nature is so cool.

Snowflakes.

This would be awesome to see in person

How does Dyson make water go uphill?

The Size Of Our World

The Size Of Our World

And this is hilarious

Star Wars Asciimation

Stumbled across this today

THEY'RE MADE OUT OF MEAT

by Terry Bisson

"They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"Meat. They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"There's no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."

"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?"

"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."

"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."

"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."

"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in that sector and they're made out of meat."

"Maybe they're like the orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage."

"Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take long. Do you have any idea what's the life span of meat?"

"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside."

"Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads, like the weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through."

"No brain?"

"Oh, there's a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat! That's what I've been trying to tell you."

"So ... what does the thinking?"

"You're not understanding, are you? You're refusing to deal with what I'm telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat."

"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"

"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you beginning to get the picture or do I have to start all over?"

"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat."

"Thank you. Finally. Yes. They are indeed made out of meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years."

"Omigod. So what does this meat have in mind?"

"First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the Universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual."

"We're supposed to talk to meat."

"That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there. Anybody home.' That sort of thing."

"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"
"Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat."

"I thought you just told me they used radio."

"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."

"Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?"

"Officially or unofficially?"

"Both."

"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe, without prejudice, fear or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."

"I was hoping you would say that."

"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?"

"I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say? 'Hello, meat. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?"

"Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they can only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."

"So we just pretend there's no one home in the Universe."

"That's it."

"Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you probed? You're sure they won't remember?"

"They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them."

"A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream."

"And we marked the entire sector unoccupied."

"Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?"

"Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again."

"They always come around."

"And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the Universe would be if one were all alone ..."

the end

Another day in the life of our family...

Tomorrow is a "big adventure day" as Justin is calling it. I hope he's not disappointed; we're just going for a little walk in some semi-woods. But, we'll hopefully end up at the top of a hill overlooking the city. He's bringing his camera, so that should be fun.

We went to the park yesterday - Kaden's first time! He was a little unsure about the sand the first time he fell down. And of course got some in his eyes... Wanted nothing to do with the swings, but enjoyed going down the little slide (first two times with me, the third time on his own - although I was holding his hands since I didn't know how fast it was). He got pretty overheated, judging by the red cheeks, but I wanted him in pants so he didn't scrape up his legs crawling around.

Today was fairly laid back. The boys and I went to the cell phone store to change my SC to a KS number. We sang the new number over and over in the car on the way back. I'll ask Justin tomorrow if he can remember it. I bet he will - he has a mind like a steel trap. Sam and her kids came over for awhile. Then we went to dinner at Applebees (where it took entirely too long for them to bring our food - don't they understand how hard it is to keep FIVE children happy and not screaming?!?), then came back here so Sam could help me decide where to hang my pictures on the walls. I need one or two largish posters/pictures/something for the big walls, but we have all the small walls basically finished.

Oh, we got to the cell phone place about 30 minutes before it opened, so we went to the nearby Target to waste some time. They had my favorite t-shirts on sale! Woo hoo! And some shorts I've been looking for, also on sale. Amazingly enough, I'm now a size 4. Boggles my mind. I still see myself as an 8/10, but hey, can't argue with the shorts if they fit. It's weird how our minds refuse to believe what they see in the mirror and on the tag. (Yes, I know - stores are adjusting the sizes so what is a 4 now used to be an 8 ten years ago, I get it...) I don't care, as long as I can find clothes that fit.

J and I are going to need a LOT of new clothes for this winter. He's grown probably four inches and I've lost three sizes. He's easy (except finding pants that are long enough in the leg, but small enough in the waist). I'm not. I'm so picky with my clothes. I tend to buy the same boring solid t-shirts and turtlenecks. I need that "What Not To Wear" experience. I'll gladly ditch all of my clothes for someone to break me out of my boring solid dark colors rut.

Happy birthday to me!

For my birthday present to myself this year, I'm getting in shape. I signed up for some personal training sessions on campus, got some new workout clothes, and bought an iPod shuffle. My first session is Tuesday - more of a pre-assessment, really. Then my first workout the next day.

I know I worked out for a bit after Justin was born. I was living with my mom in PA while Darrell was in Korea. My younger sister and I signed up at the Y. I went quite regularly for awhile. Not sure why I stopped. Then at some point when I was at K-State before, I had a few months where I was going to the Rec. Again, not sure why I stopped.

Now I'm having at it again. I'm done having babies, so there are no excuses any more. Before, I always had in the back of my head, "well, this'll be a moot point when I get pregnant again and am back at 180 pounds..." We're done. No more kiddos.

I've been VERY slowly losing weight, just by eating less (not always eating better, but definitely eating less) and am back to my RPI weight. Go me! But now I need to firm up what's left. That's my plan, and since I know I don't have the willpower to get back into a program by myself (and my best friend is student teaching this semester, so she has NO time), and since the personal training sessions on campus are a STEAL, happy birthday to me! :)

Long overdue update...

Wow, it's been too long since I've been in here.

1) The house is now SOLD. We had only a minor issue with the second closing. Literally two minutes before it was scheduled to start, I got an email from the paralegal stating that both Darrell and I had to call or email them before the closing to verify that we were alive and well. Obviously that wasn't a problem for me, but Darrell was in the middle of a training exercise and did not have his phone on him. Nor do I know his email password.

Are you kidding me? They clearly did not understand the situation we were dealing with.

My realtor just had them write something up for our attorney-in-fact saying that she had no reason to believe that we were incapacitated in any way (or some other legal yada yada...)

Had we known about this, we would have made sure Darrell had his phone on him. He could have taken 15 seconds out of his exercise to call. But giving us a ridiculous requirement TWO minutes before closing? What if he'd been in Iraq?

Anyway, it's over. Whew!

2) Justin has started school. He loves his teacher, the after school program, the playground (he gets THREE recesses!), and everything else involved. Most mornings, I drop him off at Sam's house up the road. He then walks to school with her kids once it's late enough to head out.

3) Kaden has adjusted well to his babysitter's house. She has two of her own young girls, plus another boy and two infant girls. Other than a little separation anxiety that kicked in about two months before we moved, he's doing great. In fact, she has him sleeping on a cot instead of in a crib or pack-n-play and he actually stays in it! Amazing.

4) Darrell has graduated from his course. He kicked butt, with a 99.5% grade. As usual. :)

5) I've started school as well. I'm taking a full load (12 credit hours) and teaching a little bit. Right now, it seems I have all kinds of time since I'm not on the clock any more and of course my classes don't take the entire day. I need to get in the swing of things with homework and studying before I get used to having time to myself. I have every intention of scheduling in some gym time, though. Personal trainers at the gym on campus are CHEAP and I'd be crazy to pass up this opportunity to get back into shape. I haven't run much more than a half-mile since soon after I got pregnant with Justin. No more excuses. *laugh*

There's more little stuff going on, but that's our major news. Speaking of homework, I need to get to it.

Brand new video of Kaden and Justin

Click on the "Our Videos" just to your right for a video taken yesterday of Kaden walking. Yes, he's walking now! Darrell missed it by three days. Bummer.

Anyway, it's been about two weeks and K's able to go from one side of the house to the other (and more if there was room) without touching a wall.