December 5, 2007

story of a girl

nothing specific to write about today...so random thoughts it is!

ran on the treadmill last night, pretty tough work-out. even the trainer at the Y must have noticed, he handed me a towel (guess I was too sweaty). in true geriatric form, my hip hurt later and i spent the rest of the night on the couch. (LAZY)

i have wanted to go to a movie (or even rent one) for the past couple of weeks, but it just hasn't worked out. i haven't been to a movie since this summer, and there is so much i want to see: dan in real life, super bad, american gangster, ratatouille, and some others, titles i cant recall at the moment.

has anyone seen any good movies lately? i have heard superb things about Super Bad, but that's about it.

holiday shopping: almost done. i dropped off my 2 toys for tots gifts this morning, and have just a few other things to finish up.

the snow slowed the drive down quite a bit yesterday...and this morning (although that was largely in part to an accident)

all of this snow reminds me of yesteryear... a simipler time when i spent my days in snow pants sledding off the jumps the neighbor boys built. weather is very cyclical and i think we are venturing back into a time of very cold winters and lots of snow...the winters that minnesota is known for.

i do think that humans send many harmful toxins/gases/etc into the atmosphere...our cars, airplanes, boats, household products...all of which have a negative impact on earth. but i don't know if i really believe in global warming the way science and the media portrays it. i'm not a scientist. but i do know that millions of years ago this whole planet was covered in ice. i do know that one time the earth was ruled by dinosaurs. i do know that all the continents were once connected. and i do know that over time things change. i'm not saying that humans don't have a responsibility to protect mother earth (because we do)...what i'm saying is that maybe some of the so-called global warming signs might just be the nature of the earth. throughout history very great ecological and physical changes have occured naturally. maybe the earth is just progressing into its next stage of life.

sometimes i'm mom jeans...ok, very often i'm mom jeans. like when i call to remind my friends that x is happening, or tell them to drive carefully, or i play sober cab, or when i pre-plan things weeks in advance...or, or, or... (things like this explain the nickname clipboard)

when i was little i was a total tom boy, i always played with the boys next door...and usually (surprise) they wanted to do "boy" things. we'd build stuff out of wood, play golf around the house, touch football, catch, mud pies...you name it, we did it. ad i grew into my adolescence i was still very much an athlete, but one who wore skirts and make-up. some days i struggle with this seemingly conflict of personalities. am i a tom-boy sports lover? or am i a girlie-girl? i guess i'm both. some days i'm a jeans and t-shirt girl...and some days i'm more high-maitenance than that.

for having had nothing specific to write about, i've said more than enough. sorry about all the snow and random talk. haha...wow, that was sporadic!

3 comments:

Stacy said...

I saw the Bourne Ultimatum in the Cheap Theater...Definitly a good movie to see on the big screen, especially for $2!

Tim said...

Superbad was hilarious and I heard Bourne was good too (both in the ol' Netflix queue). I heard Dan in Real Life was b-a-d, but I haven't seen it or anything else on your list.

I hear ya on the global warming. I've never fully bought into it because the earth wasn't born yesterday and you can find or manipulate statistics to prove anything. While other people figure it out, I'll recycle and drive a car that gets good mileage. :)

Ben said...

Hey Angie,

Sorry I don't have any movie recommendations for you...

I did want to respond about global warming, though. As a scientist (who is NOT an expert in global climate change), I feel it's important to defend good science when it needs defending. As I said, I'm not an expert. But I've read some papers and recently attended a conference on energy issues and heard talks from several leading experts. It is my understanding that global warming is occurring and that the link to human causes is undeniable. The global mean temperature has been rising for the last 100-150 years and it is because of our presence on earth. (Yes, the earth has had many other warming/cooling periods throughout its history, but the present one can be distinguished from those other swings.) If left unchecked, these changes will continue and will alter the planet in significant and irreversible ways. How soon? How significant? No one knows for sure, and there are a variety of models, or forecasts, if you will, that predict results from 'mild annoyance' to 'catastrophe.' Independent of the model, however, it's clear that the sooner we begin to make changes (reduce CO2 emissions, eg), the less severe the effects will be.

Unfortunately, global warming is a controversial topic for many people. Both the problem and any potential solutions have social, moral, political, and economic sides to them which many people disagree on. But as far as I can tell, the science is not up for debate. There is overwhelming consensus among the scientific community that this is a problem we must deal with. Exactly how we do that, I'm not sure.

I'm not sure how convincing this was. After all, I didn't actually present any scientific evidence. But I still wanted to weigh in on the issue for you and your loyal readers. Keep up the good blogging--even when you steal my post ideas. :)

Ben