Just finished watching the movie Contact again. I think I watch it about once a year. Each time I can’t help but think about how people from all over the world from every background put up so many artificial boundaries that seperate us. We’re from different famies, countries, cultures… But we all share a uniquely human experience. Just imagine how this world would be so different if we all realized that and acted on that feeling.

I just love late night infomercials. This one for Focus Factor, a memory supplement, claims that they will send you a free bottle and that results are guaranteed or your money back. Maybe they forgot that it was free.

Today I needed to go to the local garden center just for a few quick things.  I needed some more topsoil and a few little plants.  Dinner was going to be ready in about 20 minutes, so I had just enough time to run there and back.  (It’s right down the street which is handy!)  As I pull in I see that there are no other customers there - no cars in the parking lot.  So I figured I would just back up to where the topsoil is so I could go in, pay, and then quickly and easily load the bags into the hatch.  I left about a car’s width between my car and the topsoil.

So as I’m about to get out of my car, an older gentleman drives into the parking lot in his Jeep.  Do you know where he choose to park?  Right freakin’ between my car and the topsoil.  Mind you, there had to be at least 20 other places he could have parked.  I couldn’t help myself as I watched in disbelief and yelled in my car, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?”

Ok, whatever.  Move on with life.  I go in, pay, and come out to load up the car (walking around the Jeep in the process).  Meanwhile, another Jeep pulls in and which spot does this one choose?  The one that blocks my car in!  I couldn’t speak this time - I just stared in disbelief.  Once I had everything loaded I thought, well, I could wait for this woman to move her car or I could go back and forth out until I could just get between her car and the other Jeep.  I decided on the latter, and made quite a juvenile racket as I revved the engine before getting into each gear.  At least the lady noticed what she had done at that point…

I thought driving on the East Coast was bad.  Parking in the Mid-West is ridiculous!

I enjoy NPR.  I’ve even been a member of a local NPR station because I enjoy much of what they produce.  The fact that I can now get podcasts of some of my favorite shows is really a bonus.  But what is with this week’s podcasts?  Are we 13?

Is sperm a bad word?  Why is it all ****ed out like they’re writing about shit whales.  It’s not like they’ve entitled it “This is how whales f***.”  That would be crass anyway, and below NPR’s classiness.  But a simple word like sperm?  God forbid they have to censor themselves during easter.  “Here’s how to color an Easter E**”

Apparently the Obama administration is arguing against repealing DOMA, the federal law that bans gay marriage recognition by the federal government.  This pisses me off for a number of reasons.  First and foremost, didn’t he court LGBT voters with his elequent speech about equality and that “he said that he believed that DOMA should be repealed” (Lamda Legal).  This would appear to be a stab in the back.  Am I surprised that a politician would do this?  No.  Am I dissapointed that Obama did.  Yes.

An excerpt from the joint press release from several LGBT organizations:

We disagree with many of the administration’s arguments, for example that DOMA is a valid exercise of Congress’s power, is consistent with Equal Protection or Due Process principles, and does not impinge upon rights that are recognized as fundamental.

We are also extremely disturbed by a new and nonsensical argument the administration has advanced suggesting that the federal government needs to be “neutral” with regard to its treatment of married same-sex couples in order to ensure that federal tax money collected from across the country not be used to assist same-sex couples duly married by their home states.

Read the whole thing here.

A few folks from our families are going to our wedding in Massacheusetts next week, and I thought it would be good if the whole affair was environmentally friendly.  So now it is because I got us enough carbon offsets to balance out all the driving…

I think we have many more birds in our backyard this year now that we expanded the pond.  We’ve even had a visit from a blue heron!  But this video that I took today shows what most birds are doing, besides poopin’ all over…

I watched part of Obama’s speech from Cairo today.  I was getting ready to run out the door so I only saw about 15 minutes worth of highlights, but I was impressed.  I guess part of it is that I’m still amazed and gratified to have a President who can articulate an intelligent thought, but I was impressed at the content as well.  I thought it was interesting that it seemed the speech was as much for the American people as much as it was for the MIddle East.  I’m glad that he’s already trying to start a dialogue - that’s got to be the place that we all start.

I was talking with someone about this afterwards, and I think there’s something to it.  I think that sometimes governments and politics gets in the way of people.  It’s like a blockage between the simple connection between human beings.  You know, if I meet someone who is from the Middle East, I would do what I do with anyone else and try to find a connection.  We’re all just people, trying to live our lives the best that we can, and if we’re lucky we get to make a difference in the world that we live in.  At  some basic level, there is a common human experience, and we all have the capacity to connect.

You know I think it’s a bad thing when we get so busy that we have to prioritze between things like sleep, eating, and hygiene.  (I’m still accomplishing most of those…)

I don’t usually post YouTube links, but I thought this was so well done.  Saw it first on Joe.My.God.