Unfinished Drafts

Looking through possible entries to edit, I realize I start many and never finish. I apologize for all the great things you're missing out on. I mean, they could be really great. At least my whiteboard covered in "To Dont's" and crazy ideas would imply that they could be great.

I finished the third season of The Wire tonight with Os. The season seemed to lurch and halt at times, but I think it was a creative decision that followed McNulty's same path of reconciling the absoluteness of his quest to put one man behind bars and the eventual emptiness he feels when bullets take that away from him.

Those same thematic bullets keep me from finishing blog entries, to putting life shit in order, to picking up healthy hobbies now neglected. Actually I can't even say that, because I don't put eggs in any baskets, let alone all of them in one. A friend of mine once told me that I just let things fall in my lap. I guess that's true, and I guess that's why I feel just as empty as McNulty about it.

Why have I not seen this video sooner? This makes me want to be in quarantine with the other teachers who have the piggy flew. Actually, they're not on an island, but the other jerks who have a week-and-a-half off, probably are lounging and  listening to Debarge.

Jeff Probst's Doppleganger

Taking the name Ed Probst, I begin an endeavor into a home/work version of Survivor

Concept: An internet version of Survivor consisting of a Google group and a chain e-mail to 10 contestants. Every week a challenge will be put forth and the winner gets immunity from getting voted out of the Google group. These challenges may be electronic or physical or any random thing that pops into my head. The chain e-mail is for updates and for the contestants to trash talk each other while at work. Eventually contestants will begin to e-mail each other privately and form alliances and secret vendettas.

In practice: So far, so good. The first week's challenge was to create a visual creation of an ultimate survivor, including a chart listing attributes and skills. Inspired by the discovery of Darwinius massilae, a possible missing link in the fossil record. Other challenges may follow down a theme that is yet unknown to contestants, and in a beguiling manner, to myself.

One of the entries for the challenge:

True Evolution vs. Makin' Money

A guy with a Jesus Fish adornment on his car cut me off the other day. I always wondered about the Jesus Fish and what kind of "witnessing" the bearers of said mark are attempting to accomplish. Seeing a Jesus Fish on some jerks car is about as likely to get me to give my life to Christ as a Vote for Jimmy Buffet bumper sticker is going to coerce me into changing my decision at the polls.

This weekend began a family debate with no end concerning Honus Wagner's contribution to the sport of baseball. He is unequivocally considered to be the best short stop of all time, by baseball writers whose grandparents never even saw the guy play. His numbers are daunting and it is strange that no player has eclipsed his milestones for over 100 years.

The status of the man had me wondering about the state of evolution and where we as a species are headed. Psychoactive drugs have led New Agers to believe that 95% of children exhibit this aura. The credulous feelings I encounter when thinking about such a situation overwhelm my rationale. Are we pursuing science in an effort to gain insight to truth, or do we use what little we know to puff ourselves up as being greater than the random place we fill on our little planet?

Will science ever be as well understood among a majority of people as the religion and fiction with which we preoccupy most of our time?

George Takei: Hero

Kirk: Yes, at night the temperature drops to 120 degrees below zero.

Sulu: That's nippy.