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It was cloudy today. No rain, but no sun either. A little dreary, but I didn't look out the window much. I did get to go outside to throw the disk around a bit. Been itching to do it for the entire week. Even got Gabi to come out and join us. She has an impressively powerful through, even though her accuracy was a little off at the beginning. I burned of my lunch trying to catch those early throws..
Picked up the article I was complaining about yesterday. Read through the article and found out that it didn't specify any single value for the dissociation energy. Gah! I let the value go free, and as long as it works, I'm not complaining.
The little comment that I wanted to make at the beginning of the week is still burning in my mind, and probably will so unless there's a sudden shift in policy. This would be about the commercials and ads that have been coming out recently. I was rather amazed about the amount of flesh that's being exposed on the television screens and waxed paper. I won't point to anyone in particular (the rest of you probably see it all the time as well) but it's pretty safe to say that it's becoming more main stream.
I don't know where all of this is heading, or where the heck we'll all end up, but I remember clearly from one Simpson's episode, where Marge and Lisa are watching television together, that ad for the Christian church. It was pretty funny, but they were making a point. I don't know what other people think. I haven't heard any complaints yet, and the only reason why they're going in this direction is because it works. Grab our attention, and then try to sell the purple flamingos, or egg grinder.
But as with all ad gimmicks, people will eventually tune out, and it won't be as eye-catching anymore. Then what?
There's always humour.
While I was making.. well, preparing.. okay okay, reheating leftovers in the microwave, I thought about that appliance that we all take for granted now: the microwave. I consider myself as an 80's-90's child, and can't really remember a time when microwaves weren't an integral part of our kitchen. Okay, well I do remember, but I didn't really start cooking for myself until microwaves had already permeated our cooking lifestyle. I mean, in the old days, if you wanted to heat up that pizza slice, you'd have to use the oven, or the stove top to heat up, and the wait must have been unbearable (hey, it's bad enough waiting two minutes for my stew to warm up). These days, if it's not ready in a few minutes, you'd have starved to death.
Although the introduction of microwaves didn't help those people who routinely cooked something new every day, people who tend to buy those TV dinners, or frozen meals, or make huge amounts of leftovers probably think that the microwave is a godsend. In other words, students. Microwaves must have been designed with students in mind since the average student doesn't cook that often, and would rather nuke something and eat in a couple of minutes rather than bother spending the hour to make something interesting. I am making a generalization here, but the college/university student environment tends to push people in that direction. You want to make food fast so that you have time to study, or work, or more often, to play games. Even when you do make food, you try to make enough leftovers to survive the week, since you won't have time to make more until the next weekend arrives.
There's also this thing about not being able to cook. Most first year (freshmen/freshwomen) students have just left their nest, and their supply of food, also known as "mom's diner". Cooking is a skill that takes time and a lot of practice to perfect, and you don't have any time in school (or so we say to our parents). So when you do finally try cooking, it comes out horrible. Okay, maybe for me it does, but there have to be others as bad as me.
Don't get me wrong, I like to cook. It's an interesting experience, and the more I (try to) cook, the more I begin to appreciate my mom and all of those chefs in the world. But that microwave.. is so tempting. The push button lifestyle that we are so used to these days.. it's such an enticing force. I hate being lazy, and microwaves don't help.
There was a point last year, when I was living at WCRI with Shawn, when the microwave (mine in fact) broke. It didn't heat anything. The sudden loss of this cooking appliance was terrible. When I was living with MJO and Zippy the year before (at WCRI funny enough), we thought the oven was broken, but we didn't care, it didn't affect our daily routine. (We found out later that it wasn't broken, we just didn't know how to turn the thing on.)
The microwave.. be wary of them. They'll suck you in and you won't be able to live without one!
It's funny that I've made this entry way to long for my own tastes. Even more interesting that it has nothing to do with what's going on in my life. I wonder if people find it interesting? I mean, why the heck to people come here? Yes, most of them actually know me and are curious as to the goings on in my life. But why are we so curious? We have our own lives do we not? Are we checking on others to compare notes? Long ago, in high school (which is long ago for me), I used to keep a journal of sorts in grade 10 and 11. When people heard about it, they were interested in what the heck I was writing about. A couple of girls actually came up and asked if they could read it. Why? Don't ask me! I'm asking you! The moment I did let someone read my notes, my writing method changed. Things I didn't mind people reading, I would stick in that book, while other thoughts (that would probably get me arrested), were put in a much safer place. Perhaps the same is going on here.
No.. I know the same thing is going on here.
We each have a thin line which divides what we want to say to people, and what we want to keep for ourselves. Then, there is that gray area where you're willing to tell a stranger some things, but will save some juicy bits for your best friend. We all have these lines and limits, and everybody's different. I have crossed the line a number of times, here for example, where things which I thought were insignificant, was actually very important to someone else. It's hard to judge sometimes.
Well, that was a little tangential, and it's made me somewhat hungry! I guess it's time for me to go home and nuke dinner.
