jewel January 16th, 2010
Honestly, I don’t get it. Here we are, in the 21st century and there are still people talking about pacts with the devil to explain completely natural events!
Here’s Pat Robertson, of the 700 Club talking about the earthquake in Haiti:
The Haitians “were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever,” Robertson said on his broadcast Wednesday. “And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.’ True story. And so, the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ “
Seriously? He believes that? Aside from the complete and utter heartlessness of his “explanation”, it doesn’t really sound like his god is all that loving or big on forgiveness. Mr Robertson seems to be light on the compassion as well. Not that this really surprises me, mind you, since he and Jerry Falwell blamed 9/11 on”the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists…” rather than squarely where the blame really was, which was religion and politics.
jewel January 1st, 2010
Wow, so here we are in 2010 already! Seems like yesterday we were still in the 1990’s watching people freak out about Y2K and yet here we are 10 years later. Still here, still going about our daily lives, still watching people freak out about nothing in particular.
Looking back on 2009, it was pretty quiet for the most part. We didn’t get to travel all that much, which is one of my favorite things ever to do and the year just kind of sped by. It was actually a pretty good year in its quietness and I’m happy to have traveled it.
Some highlights for me include:
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jewel December 24th, 2009
Yeah, I used this graphic last year, but it still makes me laugh.
I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday filled with people and things you enjoy and nothing you don’t!
jewel December 20th, 2009
Cancun was a lot of fun! We spent a week completely unplugged. No phone, no email, no weather channel, no news. The rest of the world could have been blown to bits and we wouldn’t have known (well, I’m sure someone would have told us if it had). Every now and again it really is nice to just let the rest of the world fade away. Now we’re back to our normal life and I figured I would write about my trip.
Interestingly, nearly every time I mentioned to someone that we were vacationing in Cancun the first thing they asked is “is it safe there?”. Although Mexico has seen a lot of drug related violence, most of that violence is in the border cities far away from Cancun. Mexico is a large country with quite the range in safety and violence. One of my coworkers also vacationed in Cancun a few weeks ago and he said he had been warned against leaving the resort, so they didn’t. I find that sad, because all the warnings I could find really dealt with other parts of Mexico. Cancun and it’s surrounding areas really have so much to offer. To not see any of it really is tragic. I’ve been to Cancun and the surrounding areas twice now and haven’t felt the slightest bit unsafe. We haven’t gone exploring completely on our own because neither of us speaks much Spanish. Tourist Spanish really only goes so far. So we book tours to places we want to see. And even when we have had free time to explore the areas we have visited we have not felt unsafe at all.
Ok, on to the fun parts.. Continue Reading »
jewel December 19th, 2009
We just got back from vacation last night. We spent 8 days in sunny, warm Cancun, Mexico. It was fantastic! I’ll blog about it and post some pictures once I settle in here at home for a bit and have a chance to go through my pictures. But, I wanted to show the contrast of the weather between Cancun and where I live, in Northern Virginia.
Yesterday morning, we enjoyed our last few hours in the warm sunshine, wearing shorts, tshirts and sandals and then we came home to a blizzard:
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jewel November 19th, 2009
see more Political Pictures
jewel November 9th, 2009
Today is Carl Sagan’s 75th birthday. I wish he were still around so that I could tell him just how important his life was to me and many others like me. You see, it was reading his books that got me interested in science and skepticism and critical thinking. His books that made me see the real wonder of the universe. I would not be the person I am today if it weren’t for Dr. Sagan.
I never got to meet him, never got to thank him for everything he did for his fellow humans. Everything he did for me.
If you’ve never read any of his books, I recommend them all, but particularly The Demon Haunted World. If you’ve never seen Cosmos, it’s on Hulu, you should check it out.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~~ Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark
jewel November 1st, 2009
W00t! Our weekend is 1 hour longer this weekend! I’m so happy that Daylight Saving Time is over. Not a fan. Now if only they would do away with it altogether.
Anyway, my clocks are all reset (most do so automagicly, thank goodness) and I am contemplating what to do for my extra hour of awakeness today. Hmmm…. Continue Reading »
jewel October 31st, 2009
Unfortunately, the fun pics of the Big Bad Wolf making scary gestures toward Little Red Riding Hood are on someone else’s camera, for now, so you’re stuck with this one. Still, it was fun!
Happy Halloween Everyone!
