How Cool Would THIS Be?!

National Air and Space Summer Internship Program.

Ah, if only I were twenty years old again, unimpeded by financial concerns and not tied to a place. If only I were twenty years old again, riddled by self doubt and insecurity, obsessing over a doomed relationship, wandering through an ideological maze of stupidity; inexperienced, emotional, loud, and embarrassing.

On second thought...

The internship would be cool, though.

Ethical Chili

I just returned from my workplace's "13th Annual Chili-off." I came, I tasted, I voted. It was hard to choose and surprising how quickly one can fill up on what one thought was a small amount of food. Turns out, when you take that spoonful or two and multiply by 25, you get a couple of bowls of chili. Math, applied in daily life.

I didn't enter a chili, though a coworker and my husband thought I should. My reason? I don't really have a chili recipe that I made up all by myself and would feel free to enter into a contest and thereby possibly gain rewards and benefits through no ingenuity of my own. Reading a list, assembling ingredients, and applying heat does not equal "my chili."

During the competition, I asked one person which chili they voted for, and she responded "Well, I entered one, so I voted for mine." Which brought up another interesting character quirk of mine: had I indeed concocted my own chili recipe and entered the brew into the competition, would I have voted for myself? Most likely, no. I am in no doubt that I would have come across a chili I liked better, or differently, and I would have voted for it. Had I not come across a better chili, I still would have chosen what I felt was the best, barring my own.

I think about crap like this way too much.

Congratulations!

"Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's first lap on the national fund raising circuit drew nearly $1.3 million in contributions, giving his new political action committee a healthy stockpile to spread around in this year's elections."

Great! Now he only needs to raise $1,198,700,000 to plug the state budget hole he facilitated with his excellent leadership skills.

I've been sitting on this one for a long time

Do what you want. Have a million babies. But don't parade your premature daughter on the cover of people alongside Heidi Montag's freakish face. And don't expect not to be judged for your 19 children on some level, be it resource consumption, arrogance, or flaunting your fertility in the face of millions of reproductively challenged people.

They pushed me over the edge with this. I don't want to risk having another child because my first and only was a preemie, I'm almost 40, and those two things together elevate my risk of having another preemie. I feel that foreknowledge of that possibility makes it an ethical choice: I refuse to subject my family, my child, and the system to another premature baby. I love the one I have; I don't want to do it again.

Heck, I don't have 19 friends that I could call close. How well can you even know your own children at this point?

But that's just snark, isn't it...

My Amurican Name

Mr. Beck, I was just wondering what you were thinking when you said that President Obama chose his name to identify with his heritage.

Isn't Glenn a gaelic name?

Maybe you should change your name to "Chetan" which comes from a Sioux word meaning "hawk."