It's not a sin to believe in aliens

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican's chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.

Vatican says it's ok to believe in aliens

Good to know.

Then again, if I believed in most of the things that the Vatican says I should believe in, are aliens really that big of a stretch?

Unexpected stimulation

No, this is not an adult posting.

When the Feds announced the 'economic stimulus' package I was appalled. Here we are, BILLIONS of dollars in debt with a devalued dollar and an economy in the hospice. So, what could the government do to turn things around? Tax oil companies that are making record profits? Raise cigarette taxes? ... um, start bringing troops home from the Middle East?

No, no, no. Let's think like the typical American consumer; lets call her Georgina. Georgina has an expensive hobby. She doesn't treat it like a hobby, though. See Georgina has OCD, so she thinks her hobby is more important than feeding her kids and paying the light bill. However, Georgina isn't making a lot of money right now. She's just an lowly employee at a financial institution (UTU - nited Treason Unlimited, Knoxville, Kansas).

Georgina is addicted to a virtual reality game called "Let's Spread Democracy". She somehow managed to spend more than she made last year on her hobby, mostly by maxing out her credit cards and convincing her relatives that, once she wins the game, she'll get a slew of Frequent Gaming Points which can be exchanged for discounted gasoline and a Nobel Peace Prize.

Georgina's children are complaining that their allowances just aren't going as far as they used to. Since Georgina has maxed our her credit cards, she decides to use her position at UTU to get herself a platinum card. She then takes a cash advance on the new platinum card to give all her children a special bonus allowance. Unfortunately, now Georgina has even more debt, and no one (and I mean NO ONE) will lend Georgina a plug nickel.

OK. I realize that it may be a hokey analogy. However, I do not think that the best way to 'stimulate' our economy is to allow our government to go deeper in debt so that some people will buy more useless crap that they don't really need. The rest of us will either pay down some of our own obnoxious credit card debt, or will sock the money away for a rainy day.

As for the 'unexpected' aspect of this post's title: We just got our letter in the mail telling us that we were getting a four digit check back. By my calculations, we made too much last year to qualify. However, I'm not fool. I will not be sending it back. With gas prices rising the way that they are, I plan on ignoring that electronic deposit for now. (Though we may buy some small bit of useless crap that we really don't need ... all in the spirit of economic stimulus ... using no more than 25% of this ill-gotten windfall.)

Mothers Day

One would think that Mothers Day would be the day for children to show their appreciation for their mothers. I really don't think it works out that way for most of the lives of the children. When children are little, fathers are the ones who make the effort on their behalf. When children are teens, fathers again pick up the slack, since teenagers aren't sure what to appreciate, how to show it, or where to come up with the resources to execute an appreciative plan (should one actually occur to them).

There may be a spell when children are in their early twenties when they might actually consider showing their mothers that they appreciate them. This phase continues until said children procreate and have children of their own. Then, appreciating their mothers becomes kind of an after thought. In the meanwhile, fathers try to make mothers feel appreciated.

So, let's not delude ourselves here ladies. Mothers Day is the day that our mates shows us that someone in our lives appreciates what we do for those children we raised.

(Can't you just tell that I'm have another one of those days where I'm sorely reminded that I'm the parent of a teenager?)

Burial at sea

According to USAID "Multiple human activities—including poorly planned or sited coastal development, destructive fishing, overharvesting, and the runoff of sediments and nutrients—have caused the loss of over 25 percent of the world’s coral reefs, and severely threaten close to 60 percent of the remaining reefs." Some of the benefits of reefs include:

• home and nursery for almost a million fish and other species, many that we rely on for food;


• some of the earth's most diverse living ecosystems;


• important protection for coastal communities from storms, wave damage and erosion;


• full of new and undiscovered biomedical resources that we've only just begun to explore.

(The above was borrowed from http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/courses/geog100/CoralReef.htm)

If you are an ocean lover, and weren't wedded to burial in a traditional cemetery, you may be interested in The Neptune Memorial Reef. Located in open waters 3 1/4 miles off the coast of Key Biscayne and 45 feet beneath the ocean surface, this man made reef could eventually span sixteen acres and be home to 125,000 remains.

According to the AP article I read on Yahoo, "The ashes [of the deceased] are mixed with cement designed for underwater use and fitted into a mold, which a diver then places and secures into the reef. A copper and bronze plaque is installed with the person's name, date of birth and death. There is also a line for a message." The materials used are environmentally neutral and could actually improve the surrounding ocean by providing a home to plants and animals.

The reef is laid out like an underwater park of sorts, with gates, pathways, plaques, benches and statuary. It is ironic that the project was initially named Atlantis. From the pictures of the site, one could well imagine future underwater enthusiasts stumbling on the site and wondering if it were the remains of a lost civilization.

I doubt that I will sign up, but I still think its a pretty interesting concept.

Day by Day

By most people's definitions, I am an Atheist. On a charitable day, some may classify me as an Agnostic. However, I really like the song "Day by Day" from Godspell. I also REALLY love church architecture. Go figure.

One of the first tasks I set myself today at work was to review the job postings. I saw a couple that I could probably qualify for. However, I am not so desperate to escape The Project from Hell to jump at anything, just yet. I actually have another group in mind, and I'm just waiting for the right position to open up over there.

My current unit team lead is a great woman. Personally, I really like her. Sadly, she has no spine, lacks skill in succinct communication, is habitually late, and is very disorganized. In my line of work, a lot of that is HIGHLY undesirable. Since she seems willing to live with me being imprisoned in this Project for however long it takes, I've decided that she is not the best manager for me. I need someone who is going to look out for the interests of her organizational unit and the overall benefit of her people as individuals. Having me continuing to lead The Project From Hell serves neither of those defined goods. Therefore, I think I need to find another manager to work for sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, I think I need to take my work life: "Day by Day"

Today didn't suck. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was, at best, a 6; at worse, it was a 5. I guess most days have to fall in the 4 to 7 range.

Here's looking towards tomorrow!