Ponderings of a Scientist

Check out Tizzom’s post!  I very much agree, but don’t have enough time to do justice to the issues as Tizzom has.

Commuting sucks and I’m getting really sick of it! Commuting makes you truly evaluate how much you like your job. I like my job and I love the company I work for, too bad I don’t live an hour closer and get paid more. Trouble is, while Southern NH is a great place to live, there is a derth of career opportunities. I can’t, however, move to Portland, as Zipy has a job in NH and one of us has to be close to home, especially given the impending baby. I don’t even want to think about adding daycare pick-ups and drop-offs to my commuting schedule. As it stands: I leave the house at 6:55 am to get to work by 8:00 am. Then I work with crazy 5th graders all day, get back in the car between 4 and 5 pm and drive an hour to get home. The morning commute isn’t bad, because I’m half a sleep, but getting up so early is a bummer. The evening commute sucks! An hour of thinking how hungry I am and how much I have to do before making dinner when I get home. Monday’s are the worst because Monday’s are meeting day and invariably some meeting leaves a bad taste in my mouth, or is otherwise depressing, (remembing that I work for a non-profit with limited cash flow, too many good ideas and not enough people) such that I get to obsess over said meeting the whole way home. This month is also hard because NPR is covering Politics, Politics, and Iraq; I can’t take one more Republican crazy tell me he is going to beat the liberals because Americans don’t want taxes and are terrorized by the Iraqi people.

On a complete different note - why do towns designate Trick or Treat nights other than on Halloween. I almost hit a few batmen, princesses, and firemen (all dress in dark colors with no lights of course, running amok in the streets) on the way home. These kids were way too old to Trick or Treat so early in the evening… do designated nights also come with designated hours? Halloween isn’t nearly as cool if you don’t get to stay up after your bedtime!

Any thought on what the Republican scandal of the week will be?  So close to the election I’m sure some begrudged person will let something leak!  Oh boy I can’t wait to see how the GOP turns this one around to blame the leftists….

To all my readers if you think “mainstream conservative” is an oxymoron, please vote in November.  I don’t care if you call yourself a; liberal, democrat, republican, or monkey - most American’s do not find today’s “conservates” (think money loving, financially irresponsible, greedy, war mongering, etc.) mainstream at all.

And… if I hear one more republican try to blame the democrats for their recent demise I think I’m going to drive my car off the road (and since I’m now responsible for two lives, that wouldn’t be good!).  I swear NPR is broadcasting so many Republican interviews just to make us non-mainstreamers angry enough to vote, but I can’t take it anymore!  Yesterday, I heard Carl Rove’s interview on all things considered and according to him; “You (Robert Siegel) are entitled to your math, however the math says the Republicans will win both houses of Congress.”  and he went on in this pompous tone for God-knows how long, I shut off the radio!

I hate our current group of politicians!  I hate that this country is divided down partisan lines, thanks to the antics of politicians and the media!  I’m not even that much of a fan of our electorial options in November, but I think new has to be better than old.  So I will be voting against the incumbents this year and will hope dearly that we get some campaign finance reform before the next election (yeah right!) so we have a chance of seeing some quality candidates!

Who knew a baby could inspire so much commentary on my blog.  My previous two posts have received my highest level of commentary ever!  However, don’t get your hopes up that this blog will become a brag about my baby site.  Rather I plan to continue discussing issues of politics, the environment and science.  Stay tuned for a discussion on the Ocean Treaty and why the U.S. should ratify, but for now I’m at work so further posting will have to wait until tonight.

This week’s organism is the infamous Homo sapien.  This particular H. sapien is 28 weeks from birth, but amazingly at a wee 2 inches, already has all the necessary H. sapien organs and a personality to boot!  Thanks to being genetically disposed to stubborness my organism of the week refused to be heard by the doctors.  So instead we got an early view of him or her.  Enjoy! A new Monkey Scientist will be with us on or around May 3rd.

     

Apparently I’ve forgotten how to blog.  But that’s okay because I haven’t seen much from my fellow bloggers of late.  We are either busy or lazy.  I’m going with busy on my front with just a little bit of lazy.  I promise to blog something of more importance this weekend!  Back to work!

Yeah! Finally all the major household projects are done. Since we’ve moved in, in late August we have:

• Stained a bunch of funiture
• Painted three rooms and a stairwell (after removing wallpaper)
• Re-painted, touched up and applied crown molding to said areas
• Insulated the heating system
• Printed photographs, framed them and hung on the walls
• Fixed and refixed and tweaked our sump pump
• Rewired and moved a chandelier
• (other small things I know I’m forgetting)

Yeah!! Now we can have some free time or (more likely) do some fun projects like replace an ugly ceiling fan and build a built in bookcase.

The Good:  The state of New Hampshire just this week replaced all the lightbulbs in the State House with energy efficient bulbs.  This will save the state $750 a month!  The neatest part is that the bulbs were donated so the savings will begin immediately.

The Bad and Ugly:  I heard this on NPR the other day.  During the afternoon news program Melissa Bloc was interviewing some politician/former politician (didn’t catch the name) about the Foley scandal and the is the conversation:

Politician - ” We all knew for years Foley was gay and everyone knows gay people are sex addicts, so we should have seen this coming..”

Host -” I think many people would take offense to your comment”

Politician - ” We’ll I don’t care what people think, its the truth!”

Host - ” You mean its your opinion”

Politician - ” No fact, everyone believes that including physcologists, etc….”

Is this guy for real?  I need to find out who it was and vote against him if I have the chance.  What an ignorant jerk!