But February made me shiver...
Feb. 24th, 2010 11:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyesHearing a lot of annoying things in politics today -- like the NPR story on the Texas Primary, about the candidate who is 'pro-life, no exceptions'. When yesterday I read about a woman in Nicaragua who is being denied life-saving cancer treatment because she's pregnant and it will kill the baby -- abortion is a death-penalty offense in Nicaragua, no exceptions. (Never mind that the cancer is doing a pretty good job of killing the mother, which will kill the baby. Did I mention she has a ten year old at home?) Earlier today, I read an article on animal-rights activists stalking scientists to the point of rapping on their home windows periodically and passing out fliers at their children's schools telling them that little Johnny/Janey's daddy kills puppies. And a friend linked an article about how more and more it seems like people treat even facts like where the president was born as subjective facts subject to their own biases. If you show them the sources, they just either deny the authenticity or move the goalposts.
More and more I get the impression that people don't think, especially outside their little bubbles. It's depressing and I want to curl up into a ball until people get smarter. (The freezing rain doesn't help. It's easier to feel good about the world when it's sunny out.)
On happier news, one of the designers of D&D 4th edition (James Wyatt) will be at the local hobby shop today, and Temple Grandin, a famous animal behaviorist and autism activist, is on campus today and tomorrow. She's speaking tonight, and will be present at a documentary screening of her life tomorrow (after the movie, there's a Q&A). I want to go to some of these events -- I can probably make it to the D&D thing, then catch dinner downtown and head back to campus for Dr. Grandin's talk, but she is supposed to finish at 9:30, and the only remaining bus home leaves campus at 10:40*. So I might go to the movie instead, tomorrow, since that starts at 7 PM and lasts less than two hours -- I can take the 9:10 or 9:25 bus back to my apartment. It also might be more relevant to my interest in Dr. Grandin as an adult with autism, rather than animal behavior (which is interesting, but I probably wouldn't have noticed the talk otherwise). Downside to this is that means I'm spending two more nights out late, which is draining. Four if I go out with friends on Friday for my brithday, and anime club on Saturday.
* For those of you who note that this is the reason I should drive, I am going to point to Cornell's parking nightmare and the freezing rain outside. I trust the bus drivers a lot more than I trust myself.
Also, my birthday is on Saturday. Happy birthday to me -- I turn 26.
More and more I get the impression that people don't think, especially outside their little bubbles. It's depressing and I want to curl up into a ball until people get smarter. (The freezing rain doesn't help. It's easier to feel good about the world when it's sunny out.)
On happier news, one of the designers of D&D 4th edition (James Wyatt) will be at the local hobby shop today, and Temple Grandin, a famous animal behaviorist and autism activist, is on campus today and tomorrow. She's speaking tonight, and will be present at a documentary screening of her life tomorrow (after the movie, there's a Q&A). I want to go to some of these events -- I can probably make it to the D&D thing, then catch dinner downtown and head back to campus for Dr. Grandin's talk, but she is supposed to finish at 9:30, and the only remaining bus home leaves campus at 10:40*. So I might go to the movie instead, tomorrow, since that starts at 7 PM and lasts less than two hours -- I can take the 9:10 or 9:25 bus back to my apartment. It also might be more relevant to my interest in Dr. Grandin as an adult with autism, rather than animal behavior (which is interesting, but I probably wouldn't have noticed the talk otherwise). Downside to this is that means I'm spending two more nights out late, which is draining. Four if I go out with friends on Friday for my brithday, and anime club on Saturday.
* For those of you who note that this is the reason I should drive, I am going to point to Cornell's parking nightmare and the freezing rain outside. I trust the bus drivers a lot more than I trust myself.
Also, my birthday is on Saturday. Happy birthday to me -- I turn 26.
