Weather Wuss

I like to drive. I do it a lot.

Last night I was driving home, and drove through a downpour. No problem, I can drive in those, I just need to be a little more careful and slow down a bit.

Then the heat lightning started.

So I was like: OK, no problem, I can still see the reflectors in the median... I know where I am on the road. *Titanic blast of lightning* OK, now my night vision is shot and I can't see doodly. About the time my vision re-acclimated, you guessed it, Ka-Boom!

For the first time ever, I actually pulled over to the side of the road and let the storm pass...

Not a Solution

Seeing as I'm surrounded by corn, I can't help but notice the controversy cropping up (no pun intended) concerning corn-based ethanol as a fuel source.

After having done a couple hours research on the internet, it seems clear that no one can agree on the methodology of determining whether the production of ethanol is an energy net profit or loss. There is much debate over exactly what factors should and should not be allowed in the calculations. According to the variety of sources I saw, the process may yield anywhere from a 50% energy gain to about a 50% energy loss, depending on your method of accounting.

There's one thing that *isnt* a matter of debate though:

If every car in the US suddenly began using ethanol instead of gasoline, we would need to use 97% of the surface area of the United States to grow enough corn for it to be a "sustainable resource".

I don't think that'd leave enough room left over for the roads, y'know?

Pointed Recommendation

If you've not seen it, I highly reccomend the recent Woody Allen movie "Match Point".

While it was definitely written and directed by Mr. Allen, it is *not* a... well... "Woody Allen Movie".

I only laughed once, at the very end, when I "got it." I don't want to say too much, but one of the characters warns another about the consequences of his decisions; you see the consequences taking shape, but then it turns around, and what you thought were going to be the consequences aren't, but that doesn't mean there are none at all... Even victory is a consequence...

Insidious

Had to read this one twice:

Mad Bomber

I mean, seriously... Who is training these guys, Monty Python ?

Expensive at half the price

They say that you can't put a price tag on freedom.

Apparently, they are wrong... Congress just approved another 50 billion dollars for the overseas military efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the total price tag is expected to be half a trillion dollars by year's end.

Sure hope it was a bargain...

Release Papers

I got a letter yesterday from my last girlfriend. Bit of a surprise, as she'd made it clear years ago that she had no desire to have any contact with me whatsoever .

I finally got all the answers that I needed, and I realize now that I’d been harboring a fair amount of resentment myself, mostly due to the fact that I didn’t really know what was going on towards the end.

Now I know what was really going on, unconditional absolution has been granted to all involved parties, and I feel like a mighty weight that I didn’t even know existed has been lifted from my heart.

Woo Hoo !

Vendetta

Saw V for Vendetta last night, and I recommend it heartily.

Having read the graphic novel, I was curious as to whether the film would do well or not in this era, because the protagonist is a classical terrorist.

However, the Wachowski Brothers managed to invoke what I like to call the “Indiana Jones Rule”:

It’s OK to be a terrorist if you’re surrounded by Nazis.

I also think that it’s curious indeed that, despite the graphic novel having been written twenty years ago, that the themes expressed therein are ones facing us today in our American society. Some are exaggerated, and some are not.

I don’t want to say too much about the film, but after seeing it, I couldn’t help but recall one of my favorite poems by the rabble-rousing poet Yehuda Amichai:

We are all children of Abraham.
But also the grandchildren of Terah, Abraham's father.
And maybe it's high time the grandchildren
Did unto their father as he did unto his
When he shattered his idols and images, his religion, his faith.
That too would be the beginning of a new religion.