Really movin' now!

I'll try to make a few notes before I go to bed. Interestingly, I noticed that this is my 31st post. That's a lot! I can just see my brother commenting on that last statement...... "Tell me about it."

I got up this morning, went through my usual routine and then at 8:00 went overy to the Y's house to help them with their moving. Mr. Y and I had planned that I should come over early and get some things done but pretty much all I did was untangle that mass of cords that was the computer corner and where the TV was. I can't recall my kite strings ever being that difficult......

Then we went and picked up the UHaul truck and brought it back. There really wasn't a whole lot to move and it went very smoothly and very quickly considering. There were a lot of people there to help and I thought at first that it might be too many (i.e. tripping all over eachother) but it worked out very well. Unloading went even easier it seemed and soon we were through with the bulk of it. It only took about 3 hours to move the main of their belongings and that was both loading, traveling and unloading. Not at all bad! Not in comparison to a trip I remember a certain family making while traveling to Oklahoma.....
The bulk of it had left the day before in a large truck but yeah, we felt like real Okies there.....

So now, not much interesting has happened since I finished helping the Y's move, all I've been doing is answering a few e-mails, looking for a couple of thing (in between Chemistry chapters) on Google and well... drinking and eating a few bites here and there. So I'll fill up the remainder with some ponderings on news articles I saw today.

"A study by S.G. Cowen & Co. says that Google users tend to be richer and have more Internet experience than users of the other search engines, including Yahoo!, AOL, and Microsoft's search, according to an article on Infoworld."

That's true! Except the wealthy part. I remember when I first was (timidly) trying the Internet and in a class I heard someone recommended Dogpile, another recommended Lycos I think, while another mentioned Ask.com. I preferred the last one for most things because I could ask good ol' Jeeves a question and he'd help me find what I wanted. Good ol' Jeeves! I vaguely remember wondering if there actually were a bunch of guys at computers answering questions all day......

Someone wrote to mention an ABC News article indicating that hampsters feel the same effects during the winter months as humans do. Known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.), winter-related depression affects up to 20 percent of Americans.

WHAT?! People get depressed during that lovely cool weather? I remember reading about how humans become depressed if they don't have enough light. I have a very hard time getting depressed though. So er... what did the study find? Personally I think that since Hamsters are nocturnal, they get up more when the days are shorter (more night time) so during the winter months they would be spending more time awake than asleep, giving a reason for drowsiness and depressed-like behaviour. I mean, how do you tell a hamster is depressed? I never bothered to ask mine. Americans become depressed so easily and I am positive it is the effect of a "life is meaningless" society. There was another article today that made me very, very sad, yes, even close to depressed for a few minutes there.

It was how a professor had resigned from a Kansas school because he strongly opposed Intelligent Design being taught and made some pretty harsh remarks about Christians etc. then apologized and resigned. Anyhow, the people who were discussing the article were making all sorts of remarks about how stupid Christians were, fighting against science and that THEY probably made bad remarks about the other side but do they resign? No!

One guy said he was listening to a couple of "Christians" discussing how evolution was bad and giving extremely poor analogies and defying their own logic every few seconds. This guy said that according to these Christians, this book here couldn't have come into existence on its own so poof! It must have been made by a magician. He missed the point of the analogy, it wasn't as to the means of creation but the creation itself, did the universe create itself or was it commanded to come into existence by Someone higher? The book doesn't pop into existence or evolve on its own, it had someone who put a lot of thought into it, an intelligent designer. The person went on to say that if there was a God, he must be a stupid God to create such dumb creatures as humans. Not only did he "zing" himself, he missed everything completely. He is SO intent on perceiving everything else as dumb and meaningless, that he has blinded himself. In the name of tolerance and "open-mindedness" he has shut himself off to everything he doesn't agree with. Huh. His e-mail address was listed, it had the words "satanicpuppy" in it. I was very, very sad.

Another person said rather smugly that the existential problem proves that Christianity is false, if there was a being that created everything, then He would have had to have a beginning as well etc.
Well, that misses the fact that according to his view, the universe has always been here in some form of energy. How did the energy get there and how has it always been here? It's impossible for the human mind to comprehend but no matter which view you take (and obviously the belief that there is a God is most logical), you're going to have to face the fact that something has ALWAYS been there. He said it so smugly, as though he had proven that there could be no God. Oh foolish man, how long will you drown yourself in your own abundance of "wisdom?"

There was also a couple of people who posted and said that they were "fundamentalist Christians" and don't bash them, they believe in evolution too, it's only those "radicals" who seem to reject all logic and reasoning and take the Bible at face value, and he laughed at those "ignorant" people. It seems in the rush to be acceptable to the world and to be respected as being smart and cultured, they have abandoned the Bible for what it is. It goes back to being God's Word, is it truly God's Word or not? He would probably say yes but then go into some lengthy discussion on why it wasn't actually. The whole discussion was full of poking fun at the dumb Christians who obviously don't know what they are talking about, just holding to some irrational belief because they think it will save them and they want to live forever.

I was extremely saddened by the discussion. I did not join in at all, it would have been a flame war I think. Most were making so many errors that it would have been no trouble to pick their "arguments" apart. Logical? I think they have blinded themselves. They just don't see and cannot see because they refuse. If they would just take a step back! I feel like Lucy in The Last Battle, who is trying to tell the dwarves "but just look, here, smell these lovely flowers!" and they jump back screaming "you just tried to shove a bunch of dirty straw in my face. I hate this damp, musty stable."

So much smugness, so much knowledge, so little willingness to listen. You know you've got a problem when the only reason someone is reading what you write, is so they can make fun of it, not to try to see the other view at all. The ones who claim to be open-minded are the least so, it would seem.

Well, let's close on a lighter note, I'm going to do a mock "Dear Shadow" e-mail where someone sent me a question and I answer it (like I've been doing for years in my make-believe "Dear Shadow" column).

Q: Dear Shadow,
Do you actually read the e-mails you receive thoroughly, or do you just skim and reply without finishing the entire sentence?

A: Yes.