PERSONAL Sarge In Charge
Friday, after telling me that he both was going to be here last weekend AND that he was going to be headed to Mississippi instead of Chicago, SS Kenny Hoots arrived in Chicago. After deciding to meet in what amounted to a restaurant (Dave and Busters), Ken wanted to walk downtown to Lou Malnati's instead. *shakes head* Stupid Ken. We (Ken, MC, and I) had a lovely pizza and then headed back to my place. We were able to spend some time at my place, ordering flowers and making fun of Ken, before I had to wonderfully drive to Midway at 1 in the morning on a Friday night. If you're ever in the same situation, watch out for the madly swerving cars. And then have a nice night.
PERSONAL Apartment Shopping; Rounds 1 AND 2
This Friday and Saturday were round 1 and 2 of Chelsey's apartment hunt. I am pleased to say that after looking at about ten apartments all over Roscoe Village, Lakeview, and Ravenswood... we found a wonderfully large (and a little more expensive than we wanted to) place up in the Ravenswood area. It's beautifully residential... and I have no worries for her safety in the area. It will be a much longer commute than she wanted, I think... but the place is great and huge, and I think she'll find that it's worth the price and the commute. So give Chelsey a big congratulations if you talk to her... and give her some support, as her move is coming this week.
PERSONAL 9/11 = Level 3 Show
September eleventh marked my first level 3 Conservatory show. As part of the show, we started with a clam destroying the world scene that we had done a couple of weeks ago. In it, I was able to do an impression of our president, which I tried to keep as free from idiotic remarks as possible. I had a couple people say that it was a pretty good impression... and Tim said it was the best part of the scene. Then we did other scenes, and the musical improv section was so short that I was unable to sing. This upset Chelsey, who was looking forward to seeing me do my musical improv thing. I then sang randomly in my apartment about various things like breakfast or the virtues of warm towels. That's improv, you can use that.
SCIENCE Tooth Friendly Gummi Bears... Rhea's Revolution Is Finally At Hand!
Here's an awesome story I found about a new kind of gummi bear. It seems as though the University of Washington is experimenting with gummi bears made with xylitol. Xylitol is a "naturally occurring sugar" (whatever that means) and is the same loot found in sugarless gums. They say that xylitol can help reduce tooth decay because it attacks the bacteria in your mouth that causes tooth decay, making that bacteria less likely to stick to your teeth. The head scientist in charge of this study points to Japanese sugarfree gum with xylitol, which has a gum monopoly. Could a gummi bear, good for one's teeth, soon have a monopoly over gummi bears worldwide? Stay tuned...
NATIONAL NEWS Something To Incite The Rage Of Texans Everywhere
Not really... but I thought I'd get your attention. But, here is a very slanted top 25 list of the stupidest quotes from Katrina and the aftermath. I include it for 1) the simple fact that it will make liberals laugh and Texans cringe; and 2) I wanted to talk about a couple of the quotes. First of all, let's look at number three on the list: "It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that's seven feet under sea level....It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed." House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). As stupid as it is to talk about bulldozing buildings, my father has actually ask the question about re-building under sea level. Particularly since New Orleans is on the Golf Coast--and the Golf Coast seems to attract hurricanes--is it even wise to rebuild New Orleans? I told my dad that it is a testament to the human spirit and human ingenuity that we continue to "reclaim" the land from the sea. I pointed to Holland... and he even talked a little about Boston (check out the animation to see Boston's Harbor FILL), but it got me thinking: what is the point of rebuilding New Orleans? So we can have our cultural center back again? Food and music are, sorry to say, very mobile... Baton Rouge could be that cultural landmark. Is it that we, as a country, are too stubborn to even entertain the idea that we NOT rebuild? I actually think that might be it. I see this as roughly similar to rebuilding the towers in NY... as my father didn't want to rebuild them either, and I was all for it. We are rebuilding in New York to be defiant... and we must ask ourselves, as we rebuild New Orleans, are we trying to be similarly defiant? Because, if we are, Nature isn't going to be intimidated by our can-do spirit.
The second quote: "I mean, you have people who don't heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving." Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA). Okay... maybe this quote is insensitive, but we're all thinking it! "Why are they staying?" we ask the TV, sometimes yelling because we just can't understand why people would stay in a toxic environment. While the freedom to put oneself in harm is one of the inalienable rights that we, as Americans, have... isn't there something to be said about a government protecting us from harm... even if we're putting ourselves in that danger? Personally, I'm all for people being able to kill themselves (either actively or passively) as it just means more for me... but let's pretend I care, just for a second. If I were to care about people, would it be alright for the military to forcibly remove people from disaster areas during states of emergency? I say yes. I say it's one of the staples of government to protect its citizens... even from themselves. This is the cornerstone of all mental health institutions in this country, is it not? As such, this concept is not foreign to us... and we should be willing to accept military "assistance" in these kind of situations as an unfortunate inevitability. I don't know, kids... what do you think? Should we force people from their homes if they're in danger, or should we let them make their own decisions, live or die?