Despite all of the crap I have to do in the lab, I'm taking a somewhat relaxed approach to work today.
I haven't updated in a while, and I don't really have any good reason for it other than I've been kind of zoning out and not thinking about a whole lot these past few days. So I figured I would avoid a journal entry about nothing at all if possible, and I absolutely fucking refuse to post just song lyrics in my journal (those of you perpetuating this horrid practice will notice that I never leave a comment in a journal that only has lyrics. Get over it people, we're not in high school any more making mix tapes for each other.)
Saturday I went to Pennsylvania to visit my grandparents, who I haven't seen in a couple of months. They're getting on in years, my grandfather is 90 and my grandmother is turning 88 in a few weeks, but they're surprisingly vibrant considering. Last year my grandfather had a stroke and he's recovered fairly well (although he definitely doesn't get around the way he used to) but I think that definitely clued him in on his own mortality in a way that he hadn't really been experiencing before (he's had remarkably good health up until then) so now when I don't see them for a little while they get antsy, and when I do see them I get the unfortunate impression that they're wondering if it will be the last time they will. I sincerely hope not - I saw my grandparents a lot when I was growing up, my mother was pretty devoted to her career so she only took off about three weeks after I was born then it was back to work. I ended up with the grandparents, and saw them at least once a week and usually more often up until late in high school.
They're great - very simple, old fashioned kind of people. Nothing fancy for them - ever. About five years ago we bought them their first microwave - it's never been used, they just store stuff inside it. And they have what I believe to be the last working rotary dial phone in North America. Interestingly enough their ideas about politics (a favorite topic for family discussion) have changed a bit over the years. My uncle who is a good bit older than my mother is the a Rush Limbaugh Republican, always complaining about 'the blacks' and 'Hillary Clinton' and 'France' and whatever idiotic weekly cause he can think of. I put up with his racism only because he's family - and that hasn't stopped me and my sister from getting in some pretty serious arguments (shouting matches?) with him, usually at holidays. For the longest time he had a pretty strong influence on my grandparents and they just parroted whatever he was saying, which was really frustrating. But I've noticed over the past couple of years that my grandfather especially has started to change.
It all started with 9/11, I suppose. My grandparents were appalled, as I guess pretty much everyone else was, about the whole thing. But when my uncle started using it as an opportunity to bash Arabs and Middle Easterners and pretty much everyone else he felt like, I noticed that my grandfather wasn't joining in like he used to. About a year later when this whole Iraq thing started to heat up he actually (god forbid) began saying that he thought Bush was wrong, that there was no reason to invade, and he didn't like the direction things were going. These days he's apt to say things like "Bush is the worst thing to happen to this country since Eisenhower." This from a man who's voted Republican since the second world war. I'm encouraged by this, and not just because his political leanings are getting closer to my own, but by the simple fact that even for someone at his advanced age, he's willing to put aside his long-held beliefs and objectively analyze a situation, then eventually change his mind (I'm guessing the RNC would call him a 'flip-flopper.') I think that bodes well for everyone.
As an aside... it's been a long time since I've posted anything interesting that biology related. Any requests for topics?
I haven't updated in a while, and I don't really have any good reason for it other than I've been kind of zoning out and not thinking about a whole lot these past few days. So I figured I would avoid a journal entry about nothing at all if possible, and I absolutely fucking refuse to post just song lyrics in my journal (those of you perpetuating this horrid practice will notice that I never leave a comment in a journal that only has lyrics. Get over it people, we're not in high school any more making mix tapes for each other.)
Saturday I went to Pennsylvania to visit my grandparents, who I haven't seen in a couple of months. They're getting on in years, my grandfather is 90 and my grandmother is turning 88 in a few weeks, but they're surprisingly vibrant considering. Last year my grandfather had a stroke and he's recovered fairly well (although he definitely doesn't get around the way he used to) but I think that definitely clued him in on his own mortality in a way that he hadn't really been experiencing before (he's had remarkably good health up until then) so now when I don't see them for a little while they get antsy, and when I do see them I get the unfortunate impression that they're wondering if it will be the last time they will. I sincerely hope not - I saw my grandparents a lot when I was growing up, my mother was pretty devoted to her career so she only took off about three weeks after I was born then it was back to work. I ended up with the grandparents, and saw them at least once a week and usually more often up until late in high school.
They're great - very simple, old fashioned kind of people. Nothing fancy for them - ever. About five years ago we bought them their first microwave - it's never been used, they just store stuff inside it. And they have what I believe to be the last working rotary dial phone in North America. Interestingly enough their ideas about politics (a favorite topic for family discussion) have changed a bit over the years. My uncle who is a good bit older than my mother is the a Rush Limbaugh Republican, always complaining about 'the blacks' and 'Hillary Clinton' and 'France' and whatever idiotic weekly cause he can think of. I put up with his racism only because he's family - and that hasn't stopped me and my sister from getting in some pretty serious arguments (shouting matches?) with him, usually at holidays. For the longest time he had a pretty strong influence on my grandparents and they just parroted whatever he was saying, which was really frustrating. But I've noticed over the past couple of years that my grandfather especially has started to change.
It all started with 9/11, I suppose. My grandparents were appalled, as I guess pretty much everyone else was, about the whole thing. But when my uncle started using it as an opportunity to bash Arabs and Middle Easterners and pretty much everyone else he felt like, I noticed that my grandfather wasn't joining in like he used to. About a year later when this whole Iraq thing started to heat up he actually (god forbid) began saying that he thought Bush was wrong, that there was no reason to invade, and he didn't like the direction things were going. These days he's apt to say things like "Bush is the worst thing to happen to this country since Eisenhower." This from a man who's voted Republican since the second world war. I'm encouraged by this, and not just because his political leanings are getting closer to my own, but by the simple fact that even for someone at his advanced age, he's willing to put aside his long-held beliefs and objectively analyze a situation, then eventually change his mind (I'm guessing the RNC would call him a 'flip-flopper.') I think that bodes well for everyone.
As an aside... it's been a long time since I've posted anything interesting that biology related. Any requests for topics?
VIEW 26 of 26 COMMENTS
beledi:
talk to me about octopi(?)'s propensity for changing colours to blend into their environment. 
linz:
my dogs farts smell like boiled eggs. explain.