On Being a Dork in Love

Nerd2
Nerdy Dirty
Love illustrations for the geek in all of us - by Nicole Martinez 

I have this article in my head just waiting to be written. It's all about the complex social dynamics of calling someone a nerd. See, being a nerd, or calling oneself a nerd, has become a point of pride in the last decade. Perhaps that's because so much of mankind's daily busyness, it's toing and froing so to speak, now occurs online. Whatever the reason, it doesn't change the fact that the act of calling somebody else a nerd still retains it's ability to sting.

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Tagged Illustration Love Science

Sex with Teenagers

Teenage_love

Some phrases just have zing, don't they?

Admit it, you're looking at this article because the title drew you in.  It's nothing to be ashamed of.  Whether or not you had any pre-existing interest in sex with teenagers yourself, there wasn't a force on earth that could have prevented you from clicking that link.  Certain ideas are so attention grabbing that any previous notions floating around in your head are immediately dispelled.  If three seconds before he was about to devise the theory of relativity someone had approached Albert Einstein and shouted "Look, kissing girls!", mankind would never have heard of E=mc².

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Tagged Aging Beautiful Beautiful Women Beauty Children Comedy Emotions Funny Love Men Mind Old Passion Sex Teens Teri Hatcher Viagra Women

Death is Awesome

By Not Living Long, We Prosper

Spock
Allow me to tell you a story, one in which you never die.  Sounds fun, right?

There you are, happily getting your forever on. Yes, you're forced to witness all your friends die, but you have all kinds of time available in which to make new friends.  You never get sick, never feel pain, and get senior's discounts for the duration of the planet's existence. 

But what happens when the planet no longer exists, at least in any habitable way?  What do you have planned for a few billion years from now when the earth is burned to a cinder?  

Say you escape our barbecued planet on a spacecraft of some sort.  Well, if we're talking about an infinite amount of time here, then that spacecraft will eventually, MUST eventually, collide with an asteroid. What is there to look forward to after that?  Well, you'd then experience an eternity of drifting through the cosmos with nothing but a spacesuit surrounding you - lonely, cold, and incapable of ending it all. 

Alone
Yeah, I think I'll take death. 

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Tagged Birth Brain Death Evolution Genes Heredity Humanist Immortality Intelligence Life Lifespan Love Mind Mortality RNA

Letters from Vomitslovakia

Jt

What a weekend.

On Wednesday night my oldest boy was stricken with a terrible stomach flu, one that caused every manner of excretion to come forth.  I literally spent the entire day on Thursday lying beside him in bed, bucket in hand, ready to deal with whatever erupted from the depths of this poor child.  I'll spare you any more grisly details, not least of which because I don't want to relive it.
 
Not that I was put off by the 'texture' of the situation, but rather that there's few ways to frighten any parent more than to see his or her own child become ill.  While my logical mind told me that it was almost certainly a standard bug, the amount to which he was weakened was truly scary.  While I can only hope that the worst is past, my poor little guy ate nothing for days, was subject to a hospital waiting room, and looks like he shed a number of pounds in that brief time.  The killer was the moment he turned to me, mid-fever, drifting in-and-out of sleep, and whispered sweetly "I'm a sick monkey".  He's still quite weak and has little appetite, and Daddy's worry-wart is throbbing painfully.
 
In that same time our family picked up our new car, I made peace with a friend I hadn't spoken to in some time, worked my tail off day and night, and had my little business see some disappointments and successes.  Many of these are things I'd normally report to you, my imagined audience, but none of them felt relevant in light of the shape my boy was in.

Meandjt

It reminded me of the slight sadness I felt, although largely out-shadowed by outright joy, on the day of his birth.  While I was jubilant, exhilarated, and endlessly happy about the arrival of my new little guy, for the first time I felt in some way... mortal.

While I, like many other people, can handle the idea of anything bad happening to myself, the degree to which one feels anguish over even the possibility of harm coming upon their kid is staggering.  I realized once he came into the world that there was now a chink in my armour, one that could never be sealed.  My happiness or lack thereof would be forever be tied to the fortunes of these little people.
 
Upon today's visit to the doctor I learned that it was probably Rotavirus, a very common but potent cause of stomach flu.  He seems now to be making the turn, although I ask each reader to knock on whatever substance they feel brings good fortune.  He still won't eat much, but there are smiles to be had on that precious little face.

Rotavirus

My heart goes out to any parent who's dealt with far worse, and I know a few.  This is why I can no longer tolerate hearing about any sort of violence towards children, either in fiction or fact.  The instinct that was flipped on when that little guy was born is perhaps the strongest that DNA provided me with, as I'm sure is the case for nearly everyone.
 
That's pretty much my whole story on the subject.  There's no nugget of previously undiscovered perspective to be had here.  What I'm describing is the most basic and universal of human traits.  Sick or healthy, there's nothing more important than one's own children.
 
I'm happy to hold that bucket, because I love those little pukes. 
 
 
 

 

Tagged Children Concern Family Illness Love Parenthood Rotavirus Worry

Date Night from the Outside

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I admit it. I'm a compulsive eaves-dropper.

When I go somewhere to design, a bar or a coffee shop for example, I obviously do so alone. For me it's an immensely fruitful exercise, surrounding myself with the people of the world while I make pitchers on my 'puter. I point my eyes at the laptop and my ears at the conversations around me, and somehow the creative process is aided. I can't make any further effort to explain it other than to say that the surrounding discourse somehow provides content from which to draw.

What can I say? The creative process is not universally formalized. It pulls from different sources for different people, and for me there's nothing like listening to folks jabber on.

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Tagged Dating Eavesdropping Love Relationships

Reason is No Reason

Banner

Many of my blog posts so far, while mostly rambling and nonsensical, have focused on issues pertaining to science and reason.  While I doubt that a single one of them has been read end-to-end, and that most have been disregarded entirely, I've at least attempted to chronicle my thoughts on these ideas, for better or worse.

Why do so, beyond an overt attempt to bore some and ostracize others, you might ask?  I've picked up hints that some people, made up at least partly by those who disagree with the conclusions I've drawn, would consider me at best long-in-the-tooth, and at worst a pompous ass.  Since both of these assertions are largely accurate, I won't attempt to dispel them.  

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Tagged Faith Logic Love Magic Passion Rationalism Reason Science Skepticism

Getting Ready for Goodbye

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via scootercommunity.com.au

Evangeline Lilly is going to leave me soon, and I won't be able to follow.

It used to be that I had a new celebrity girlfriend every month, mostly blue eyed brunettes (just like my lovely bride) with girl-next-door looks. Always closer to the 'pretty' side of beautiful than the 'sultry' side.

However, I'm (much) older now, and with the passing of years comes a dwindling of the passions. At least, it becomes less engaging to allow the mind to wander into fantasy land.

Where once, if I saw a Porsche 911 drive by my mind wandered and put my imaginary self smack-dab in the driver's seat, now I can barely trouble myself to muster a longing look.

And fantasy starlets are much the same. Sure, I recognize that they're beautiful, but I just don't get overly excited about it. I also don't watch television in general, so I rarely know who most of these people are.

Evangeline Lilly, star of ABC's 'Lost', was somehow different. I remember, shortly after starting to watch the series a couple of years ago, that I actually changed my iPhone screensaver from a picture of my kids to a snapshot of her. Something about that struck me as a betrayal at the time, and I recognized also that it was me acting extremely out of character, but I did it regardless.

I suppose it's two things: One - The girl is pretty fantastic looking. I could go into detail but there's no point. I'm assuming if you're reading this you have eyeballs.

Two - 'Kate', Evangeline's character on Lost, was the first character in a show or movie that I fell for in a really long time. (except Scarlett Johansson's character in 'Lost in Translation')

After years of shutting any dramatic television out of my life, I decided to download the first three season of Lost to see if the things I had heard were true. While it's certainly not for everybody, MAN was it ever for me. Again, I'll spare the details of why I enjoyed it so much in an effort to stay on topic.

In the process of getting completely invested in that show, I got a crush on. And believe me, if you're thinking at this point how incredibly weird it is to hear a grown man utter such trivial nonsense then take comfort in the fact that hearing it from my own lips is making me shake my own head in disbelief.

But whatever, it's true. I got a thing for Kate on Lost and now Lost is coming to an end.

But why must I say goodbye, you ask? Can't I just follow Lilly's career and enjoy her in other things and fall in love all over again?

Well it's possible, but very unlikely. The chances of me opening up to another TV series in my entire lifetime aren't great, and the odds of that show having both a starring role for Evangeline and a story worth dragging me away from the computer for an hour each week are almost astronomical.

Plus, the actress is almost incidental. It's Kate who I'm sweet on, not the person who reads her lines.

So, Goodbye my iPhone cutie, my Tuesday night rendezvous. It's back to reality for me.

Tagged Brunette Celebrity Crush Evangeline Kate Lilly Lost Love Television
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