My lava lamp is talking to me, and he's quite knowledgeable.

I don't think I've ever linked to another blog post before. If I have, I simply don't recall doing so, but this one felt necessary to me. It's arguably a little past the freshness date, but recent enough to warrant sharing.

The Atheist Missionary is one of the handful of atheist bloggers I follow (cyber-lurking or -stalking might be more accurate), and he linked an interview with one of those infuriating brands of Kooky Kristians™ who starts off with strained pleasantries and quickly moves into the inevitable and insincere "WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING ME AND NOT LETTING ME SPEAK!?!???!!???" mode of debate. It was so disturbing that I felt the need not only to blog about it, but to comment on his blog as well. I was so passionate that I missed a typo before posting. The horror!

There's a very good chance I'm outing myself to a few people here, and that's assuming there are people who visit this blog outside of the small handful I'm already aware of, but yes sir, I am an Atheist. Boogety-boo. Then again, when asked by my parents a couple years ago what I wanted for Christmas (yes, atheists do use that word), I replied earnestly that I wanted The God Delusion--and got it in hardcover. Yeah, I'm fairly certain most people I know are aware that I'm not too hip on the Gee Oh Dee tip.

Ok, that's a clear sign I need to be done with this post.

His hat said "Show Me Your Tits." It was for special occassions.

I may have mentioned before that I fancy myself a writer. I am sometimes asked, as I'm sure many writers are, where ideas for stories come from. The reality is that they come from everywhere, but the most recent incident is from a story I was just reading earlier this evening.

I was reading a story in which one of the main characters was upset with the other, and due to the situation he couldn't do anything to react outwardly, so he went into the bathroom and bit his own arm, drawing blood. See, that's one of those strange scenes/occurrences that hit me weird and then my train of thought goes off the tracks.

• I start to think about what kind of person would bite their own arm when left with nothing else to do.
  
• I start to wonder what else someone could do in lashing out that would be relatively equal to biting yourself.
  
• I try to imagine what would happen if the character had stayed in the room and bitten the other person's arm instead.
  
• I think about how much it would hurt to bite your own arm until you draw blood.
  
• I wonder if I could bite my own arm that hard.
  
• I consider biting my own arm--then decide against it.
  
• I wonder how much harder you would have to bite to just take out a chunk of your own skin.
  
• I start to think about the zombie movie I watched the other night when the damage ranged from a single bite to people being torn apart screaming.
  
• I wonder why I don't take more notice of the people who receive a single bite and scream at first, but then are ridiculously fine and shooting at the zombie horde with the rest of the survivors--that is, until they either sacrifice themselves or the infected bite turns them into a zombie.
  
• I try to think of ways someone could take a bite out of themselves or someone else without there having to be zombies involved, like in the story I mentioned earlier (mostly because zombies seem to be fighting vampires for the rank of trendiest monster, and I don't want to be a bandwagoner).
  
• I decide that it could probably be done (obviously), but since it hasn't come to me right away, I'll put it on a shelf and if it comes to me eventually, then it comes to me. If the initial image is good enough, it'll come to me.
  

So that's a short glimpse into what goes on. Nothing too glamorous, I'm sure. Maybe even a bit disappointing. But if you're ever hanging out with a writer and their eyes suddenly sort of go out of focus on you, snap back, and then they act impatient for no apparent reason, they'll probably appreciate it if you'd wrap it up or allow them a gracious retreat, because they're either going to go write or to the toilet. Either way, there's a massive dump about to happen.

Super-size my science; hold the patriotism.

Posting this video in response to a request about emphasizing climate as opposed to weather.



And by saying "hold the patriotism," I don't mean stop being a patriot, you nutty-nuts who will surely try to label me a gay communist for uttering such a thing (although I'd be willing to bet most people know at least one gay communist without even realizing it). I mean that I don't necessarily see the need for politicizing (accusations of being unpatriotic) during a report about science (climate change). I'd like to think that no matter where you fall in the political spectrum, you can at least acknowledge that the collection of unbiased research on climate change is in everyone's best interests. Let's all take The Science Guy's advice and consult with actual scientists--preferably many of them, as long as they're reputable.

Oh, and please stop laughing triumphantly every time it snows in winter, claiming that the weather (not climate) has proven you know more about climate change than anyone else, ever. Having lived in Iowa all my life, I've seen my share of snow, and I tend to be more annoyed by the extreme cold snaps than the snow--unless we get the sheer amounts that have dropped recently. One thing I did happen to notice during our storm is that the temps didn't drop to anywhere near what they were earlier this season. That prompted me to check some numbers for the nation's capital, where the politics are piling up as high as the snow. Here's what I found:

Feb.6th - Low 25.9 - Mean 29.5 - High 32.2
Feb.7th - Low 18.3 - Mean 24.7 - High 32.5
Feb.8th - Low 21.6 - Mean 27.0 - High 34.5
Feb.9th - Low 24.8 - Mean 29.5 - High 36.9
Average - Low 22.6 - Mean 27.7 - High 34.0

I didn't take the time to factor in wind chill or the "feels like" temps, but that's where it stands. I'm sorry, but even when you average the average, it's not that cold. I even searched around for news reports on the so-called "snowpocalypse," or whatever other buzzwords have been flung about, but I don't recall seeing mention of record low temps mixed in anywhere with the reports of record snowfall. I'm willing to concede that someone who knows a thing or three about meteorology could very well school me here and explain how wrong I am, but I would much rather take their word than, as Rahm Emanuel would say, some fucking retard who's pushing a political agenda. Those people should just grab their shiny red sleds and go tire themselves out on the nearest sledding hill, then warm up with a nice cup of shut the hell up.