The thing that sucks the most about going through adolescence at a later age is the fact that it is obvious to people around me. I do high quality work in nearly everything I do, and have built a reputation as such, but I haven't been offered leadership positions as much as I could have I think in part because of how often my childishness shows through. One friend has often exorted me to develop a better "poker face", but I think I will always have easy to read emotions. That's just me.
Quote:
I can tell though that you do not need "cheerleading." I just wanted to give extra encouragement that you are on the right track and it is noticeable.
Well I'm definitely going through a doldrums now and it is hard. I have 3 options which often pop up, none of which are particularly palatable (a) grin and bear it, be happy no matter what (b) allow my anger/sadness/fear to be visible (c) withdraw. The 4th option, and the one I should be taking, is be myself, point out the bad stuff no matter how many times it takes, and revel in the good stuff whenever it happens. The problem is that pointing out the bad stuff conflicts with my intent to allow her to withdraw temporarily if she feels the need, and reveling in the good stuff is hard because she often stomps hard on my excitement.
Of course, the best thing to do is to be as non-reactive as possible and chart my own path, but that is hard given the responsibilities of young children and the constant boundary testing from the ILs.
Quote:
Creation/evolution debate is easy for me. It's the same as the Earth as the center of the universe issue. Back then the church was just as certain that the belief in God and religion would collapse if the Earth was NOT the center of the universe. Somehow religion has moved along just fine without the earth as the center of the universe.
Oh I wish it were that simple, but remember that there was a long period where religious dissent was persecuted heavily, even on the heliocentrism topic. Although the response from the fundamentalist community is not as dramatic now as it was back then, it is still very serious and hits close to home. My SIL has decided to home-school her child because in large part she is angry at the thought that some science teachers will "force feed" her child evolution, which she says conflicts with her beliefs.
Quote:
Also amusing are the people who believe "Intelligent Design" since that "theory" also allows for aliens as well as God to be a potential Designer.
Glad to see you put theory in quotes there as the ID folks don't have a theory, just "holes" (as they see it) in current knowledge.
Quote:
The bigger issue to me is that a lot people on either side of the argument do not really understand evolution. Stephen Jay Gould's "Full House: The spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin" was very good for a better understanding.
True. Unfortunately many scientists in disciplines that do not deal with "deep time" have been seduced by the ID arguments (e.g. physicists, mathematicians, chemists, engineers, doctors). Mathematicians for example do not understand that statistical arguments are not proof. It doesn't matter if there was a 1 in 10^4000 chance of something occuring. If it did, it did. Physicists and Chemists often get too hung up on the scientific method (which has a broader context than the narrow model most of them use ... e.g. must be PREdictive). And engineers and doctors I think for the most part do not appreciate the deep time sciences because they often do not have obvious practical applications.
Quote:
Oh and I've been looking through Chet Raymo's book "An Intimate Look at the Night Sky." Great book. What do you think of him?
I have heard good things about it, but never read it myself. A great (if outdated) series of books is Burnham's Celestial Handbook. That is what I first learned astronomy from and I think the mixture of science and history is still unparalleled. I wish they would do an update, but the original author is deceased. Actually the story behind that book is interesting too.
Quote:
Light pollution is such a horrible problem. So much could be helped by such simple methods. If you think about it, the light that is not directed at the ground is really a waste of energy.
YES! Light pollution is the one form of pollution that gets sneered at, because the adverse physical effects are minimal and/or hard to understand. But I think psychologically it is damaging to the human race. Of course, I'm biased. And you are right, there is no need to shine light upward.
Chrome
"Recollect me darlin, raise me to your lips, two undernourished egos, four rotating hips"
