False Idols

I had an experience with my family today that made me realize something not just about myself, but about the rest of America (and probably most of the developed world). I was with my family at the beach and my sister happened to notice that a couple from the bachelor was a couple of feet away from us on the beach (cool, if you're into that. I am not). So, my sister goes over and talks to them and I assume had a very nice conversation with them. Then she says that it was the best thing that had happened to her in a long time. These people were on the bachelor, they have no other celebrity or intrinsic value other than the fact that they were on probably one of the WORST reality shows put there, yet these people made my sisters day (good for her). My point is that we have stopped thinking people like this as people (which they are) and started thinking of them as godlike figures (which they are not). The people my sister met today have not bettered the world in any way; they have not defied the laws of physics, they have not cured cancer, they have not written a symphony, yet these people are worshipped by society. It has now become my quest to figure out why these people are treated with such high esteem. 

Hypothesis #1: they give people watching the bachelor a look into the glamorous love-lives of ordinary people which proves to them that love exists and is real (and in fact, can be captured for a live television audience!). The problem with this is that the majority of the contestants on the bachelor end up separating after the show ends, trust me, I looked.

Hypothesis #2: they are really, really, ridiculously good-looking (sort of). 

I think we can all take advice from this occurrence and remember that if we meet somebody that we admire, that they are just people (except for Sean Connery). I'm sure some celebrities feed off of their fame, so why should we be so inclined to give it to them?  These people deserve nothing but humility and a soft-spoken handshake or word of encouragement from the "regular" population, which they are just as much a part if as we are.

Listening for the night

Philip Glass' 6th and 8th Symphonies
Erik Truffaz
Some Marilyn Monroe movie
All enjoyed with a cup of keemun concerto from allegro tea
I hope that zero people that read this blog have a great night

Thoughts about food...

I haven't posted anything here in a while.  Probably doesn't really matter because it's not like anybody reads this blog.

Anyways, I've been thinking about food a lot lately and the implications that it has health-wise, as well as financially (food is expensive!).  After reading about the topic and watching numerous documentaries, as well as jumping on the bandwagon and seeing "Food Inc.", I've been able to improve my eating habits and my diet as a whole has improved and I basically feel pretty good all the time!  One thing that I was very interested in after seeing "Food Inc." was the fact that fresh produce and fresh foods in general are more expensive than processed foods in a lot of cases.  This basically infuriated me because I don't really feel like anybody is doing anything to lower the cost of fresh foods.  However, I still choose to buy as little processed food as possible and am eliminating things left and right and substituting them with whole foods (I'm still stuck on a cost effective way to get processed breakfast cereal out of my diet!).

I've changed my shopping habits over the past about six months and started shopping a grocer that sells fresh foods that were grown right here in the US, and recently I've started shopping at my local Greeley farmers market (where my landlord sells the most delicious cucumbers!) and I've noticed a pretty big cut in my produce bill just from that one change.  Today my purchase from Larry (my landlord) totaled $3.50, which included a bag literally overflowing with red leaf lettuce, five huge carrots, three cucumbers, and a red onion.  Suck on that McDonalds.  I also went with some local beef from locally owned slaughterhouse.  I got a big hunk of sirloin for $5.00 even.  Pretty good deal, the only problem being that the cows were still fed on corn rather than on their natural diet of grass.  In other words, great shopping trip!

I've started making some of my own food to, including bread to eat with my processed cereal in the morning :), and homemade granola with all-natural ingredients.  Now I only have to figure out to get refined grains out of my diet, and somehow start disliking the taste of soda to the point where I don't buy it (it's my guilty pleasure).  In honor of this post, I'm drinking a tall bottle of Powerade (finishing it from my pre-dinner run).

Inspirations provided by Stephen Hawking

I'm almost all the through with Stephen Hawking's monumental work of non-fiction, "A Brief History of Time" which analyzes the creation and structure and function of the universe according to physics making use of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.

Anyways something got me thinking.  It is a possibility that the universe was created with the "Big Bang" (a singularity about ten thousand million years ago that caused the universe to literally explode into existence) and it is a known fact that the universe has been expanding since then.  But because of gravity and the gravitational effects between planets and stars, the universe might reach a point where it can no longer expand, and will instead recollapse into a singularity similar to how the universe began.  Now something interesting about the recollapse of the universe is that the laws of physics and life as we know it would be reversed.  For example, rather than watching a movie forwards, we would be watching a movie backwards.  The past and the future would switch places.

What we don't know is what caused the Big Bang.  So feasibly the universe could recollapse into an infinitely dense, infinitely hot, singularity.  Therefore, something could cause it to explode again.  Maybe our universe has been constantly expanding and contracting for an infinite amount of time with life evolving differently every time.  Maybe that's what our omnipotent creator is doing with us.  He's watching to see how things turn out each time when he blows up the universe.  Anyways, it just got met thinking.

Summary of DC Vacation

So, I have now returned from my vacation in our nations capitol, Washington DC, and it was quite a fantastic trip!  There was a lot of really great stuff to see and the city of Washington is a pretty cool place and a great setting for the National Mall and everything associated with the federal government.  We didn't really have to drive anywhere because the metro system is so great, which was really nice because it would have been hell to park anywhere.  The only problem is that my family and I were in DC for a week and half and I still didn't get to see everything (there is soooooo much to see!).  I spent a lot of time in the different Smithsonians and checking out all of the national monuments and war memorials and touring different federal buildings, and we even got a chance to go out to the Atlantic Ocean!  So here is a summary of everything I got to see:

National Mall:

• Lincoln Memorial/Reflecting Pool
• Washington Monument
• Capitol Building
• White House (from the outside)
• Korean War Memorial
• WWII Memorial
• WWI Memorial
• Jefferson Memorial (from afar)
• Vietnam Memorial

Smithsonian Institute:

• Museum of Natural History
• Air and Space Museum
• National Museum of Art
• Hircshorn Contempory Art Museum and Sculpture Garden
• Museum of American History
• Smithsonian Castle
• National Portrait Gallery
• National Zoo

Other:

• International Spy Museum
• Mt. Vernon (George Washington's House)
• Annapolis Naval Academy
• Rehoboth Beach (on the Atlantic)
• Gettysburg
• Supreme Court
• Library of Congress

I think that's just about everything.  Great trip!  But I'm definitely museumed out for a while.

American Ignorance (Part 3)

Round two of complaining about worthless things in the Smithsonian. So fat I've seen a lot of people who work in the smithsonian museums, including security guards and ticket takers and things like that. Basically every single one of these people I've seen looks like they hate their jobs and they hate everybody around them. I hate it when locals don't take kindly to tourists visiting because tourists are the people who are making your very existence possible and in a lot of cases it makes the very place that you live in what it is. If I were you I would be embracing every single tourist that I came into contact with the utmost respect and kindness. I say this because a lot of the employees around DC and around the Smithsonian institute were less than welcoming and pretty rude a lot of the time. Anyways, I thought I'd just rant a little bit and find something to complain about while experiencing this amazing city.

American Ignorance (part 2)

This week I have the opportunity of seeing the great collection of Smithsonian museums in Washington DC. Today I checked out the relatively famous Museum of Natural History. For this of you who don't know that's the one with the fully assembles dinosaur skeletons. It would be an understatement to say that the collection of this museum is big (it's basically unparalleled anywhere in the world), and it would be an understatement to say I enjoyed it. There is such as vast amount of information on all topics relating to natural history and it's not just geared towards a younger audience. However, most of the people where completely passing by this plethora of information and solely relying on the models and pictures as their source of learning and self-enlightenment. Leave it to the American people to not realize what they have and merely pass these exhibits off as just another museum full of old stuff. I'm pretty sure the French people I saw (or heard, and there were plenty of them) were getting more out of the English text than cousin Billy next to me with his wife/sister. Thank you very I'm moving to France. By the way I'm not drinking anything right, but am rather having a pleasant bowel movement!