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Skepticism
I have always been a skeptical person. I don’t believe in ghosts or any supernatural beings. I believe in science, and critical thinking. I first discovered the skeptic community back in 2005 when I discovered the Skepticality podcast. Nowadays I read a lot of skeptic blogs, and listen to a lot of skeptic podcasts. I have learned so much in the last four years thanks to the skeptic community. The more that I learn to think critically, the more I learn to spot all the misinformation being spread about many topics; From the Moon hoaxers, to the 911 truthers, to the antivax crowd, and all the “alternative medicine” quacks. There is a lot of nonsense out there. Critically thinking needs to be taught more in high schools. Learning how to think really should be a top priority in schools.
One of my favorite person in the skeptical community is the Bad Astronomer Phil Plait. He has a great blog, is the President of the James Randi Educational Foundation, and an excellent speaker. I have watched many of his talks online and they all are incredible. This past summer he was a speaker at Chris Pirillo’s Gnomedex and did a great talk about skepticism. You can watch it below:
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Goodbye Grandma
So my Wife’s Grandma finally passed away last night. It’s sad, but it’s kind of a relief. She was in a lot of pain these last few weeks, and hardly slept. It was also taking a toll on my Wife’s Grandpa. He is in he 80s and doesn’t really need the stress. Her daughter from Arizona that was living with us, was also very stressed. She felt uncomfortable living with us, and really wanted to go back to Arizona and her job. Just a few days ago Grandma was looking pretty strong and we had no idea how much longer she was going to live. The one good thing is she passed before the holidays. My wife has a hard time during the holidays because her other two Grandmas passed right around Christmas.
The next few days are going to be busy with family and funeral plans, but we knew it was coming, so will be nice to get it over with. I am sure everybody agrees with me, but funerals suck.
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Justin Pierre On The Dinosaur Trail
via threadless.comJustin Pierre from my favorite band, Motion City Soundtrack is doing a little random tour with just him and his guitar. He stopped at Threadless and they made this awesome video.
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How To Eat a Chicken Wing
via lifehacker.comHoly crap! I have been eating chicken wings wrong my entire life. I can’t wait to try this way out.
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An inside look at H1N1 vaccine production
via news.cnet.comOne of my biggest pet peeves are all the antivax and alternative medicine nut jobs spreading nonsense. The Jenny McCarthy and Bill Maher’s of the world do a great job at spreading fear and nonsense about vaccines. Why anybody would take medical advise from a celebrity boggles my mind. Vaccines are about as safe as anything can possible be, and they save lives.
The above clip is from last nights 60 Minutes. It’s a great behind the scenes look at the vaccine making process. I knew they made them in eggs, but it was kind of amazing how many eggs they use.
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Periodic Table
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Moving
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No Raise For Me
So it’s that time of the year at work where we review our benefits and get everything setup for next year. I have been at my job for 12 years, and this will be the first time we don’t get a cost of living raise on the first of the year. Maybe the recession is finally hitting us a bit. The good thing is our health insurance isn’t going up for the first time in 12 years also. Usually our heath insurance goes up enough that you don’t even notice the cost of living raise. All of our deductibles our going up though, so the insurance companies are still getting more money. I have never used enough insurance to even get close to my deductible, so the increase doesn’t really affect me much. The shocking thing was that our life insurance actually went down a few dollars a month. I have never had any kind of insurance actually go down in price.
I shouldn’t complain though. I am lucky, and thankful that I have a good paying job, with no chance of losing it.
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Ben Folds
So last night we went as saw Ben Folds. It was a pretty awesome concert. Like most concerts at The Venue we got right up from. Sadly we were on the wrong side of the stage and none of our pictures turned out very good because of the lighting. I am subscribed to an RSS feed for a Fargo search on Flickr and found Flickr user erintheredmc. She we more in the center and has a nice set of pictures.
Opening for Ben Folds was Kate Miller-Heidke. She is apparently pretty big in Australia, and an amazing singer. It was just her and her guitar player. It was pretty intimate and awesome. At one point my wife’s phone rang and she actually answered it. I was elbowing her to try and let her know she was talking too loud. Kate heard her entire conversation on stage and even repeated some of it. It was pretty hilarious. Kate was selling her CDs after they were done. I so wanted to go talk to her and pick up a cd, but we didn’t want to lose our awesome spot in the crowd.
Ben Folds stared a little slow, but then got much better. He changed up his setlist to play a few song that people were yelling out. Some of them he hadn’t played in a while and actually forgot some of the lines. It was still pretty cool that he would change up his setlist like that. He even made up a song on the spot about Fargo. It was pretty funny. Kate came back on stage for “You Don’t know Me”. It was awesome, she is such an amazing singer. Then they goofed around doing a little photoshoot. It was pretty funny.
For the encore he played the cover of Dr. Dre’s “Bitches Ain’t Shit”, because a lot of people were shouting for it. He said he retired the song, but since he has never played it in Fargo he would. He invited a couple people up on stage to sing some of the verses, and they did a pretty damn good job.
I was kinda surprised that he didn’t play probably his biggest hit “Brick”, but it was still a great memorable concert.
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The End
I’m not sure if I blogged about my Wife’s Grandpa’s Wife on here or not. She isn’t technically my Wife’s Grandma, but she has been married to her Grandpa for more of my Wife’s life then her real Grandma was. Her Grandma died of cancer in the 80s. Now her second Grandma is dieing of cancer.
Early this year they were staying with us while she was going through treatment in town. They thought they got the cancer in her throat, but then found some in her hip. She has been in a nursing home for the past month because the treatment had made her bones so brittle a simple bump could break something. Two weeks ago they found cancer in her liver. She is so weak now treatment isn’t really an option. It’s only a matter of time now.
When my Wife visited her last night she wasn’t doing so well. She thanked my Wife for all the help we have given them, and she gave her the afghan that she made while in the nursing home.
This weekend her daughter from Arizona is coming up here and will be staying with us for who knows how long. So I guess we will have another house guest for a while. It will be a little bit inconvenient, but you got to do what you got to do to help your family out.
It will be sad when she goes, but it will also be the end of her suffering. She is 83 and lived the long and productive life we all hope for. The end is always sad, but we all have to face it.
