Isn’t it ironic

This article from The Onion is so full of win, not in the least because the sentiments its characters espouse are true to the Catholic Church, even if the events depicted are fabricated.

Conflicted

I read this article about military wives supplementing their families’ incomes by becoming surrogate mothers. At first read I thought, “What a beautiful thing to do for somebody else.” The main person chronicled in this article, Angel Howard, is a 32-year-old mother of 6 whose husband is in Iraq. When her husband was home, she was able to take part-time jobs, but now that he’s back in Iraq, she’s at home full time. That means that she needs to stretch $56,000 to cover all of her family’s needs. To put it another way, this family of eight have less to live on than I bring in by myself.

After two failures, Howard was able to conceive, and is currently carrying twins for Esteban and Jean-Michel (okay, how cute are those names? I bet they’re adorable together), a gay French couple. The part that I feel conflicted about is that Angel is using her military health insurance to pay for the pregnancy, even though the insurer states that pregnant surrogates should cover their own costs. Angel is going to get about $25,000 from the couple for carrying the babies to term, plus a bonus for not needing the prospective parents to pay for her healthcare during the pregnancy.

What about the thousands or millions of uninsured pregnant American women who are not able to get reliable, necessary healthcare for themselves and their unborn children? For whom there will not be further financial benefit at the end of their pregnancies? While the best solution is a fairer system all around, I am bothered by what seems to me to be an abuse of the current military healthcare system.

Also, and this is something else entirely, I’ve wondered what happens when people allow newspapers, tv shows, blogs, and magazines to profile them admitting to behaviors that could have detrimental effects on their lives. What if Ms. Howard’s insurer insists that she reimburse them for the costs of her current pregnancy, or refuse to cover any subsequent pregnancies? I mean, seriously people. Isn’t shutting your mouth and supporting your family worth more than giving the Army the finger in print?

Please stop laughing

Sadly enough, this article is real, and not something thought up by the good folks over at The Onion. That’s right, folks: more Liberty University/evolution class silliness, this time brought to you by the Washington Post. Because it wasn’t embarrassing enough when the local Lynchburg paper was doing the reporting. Professor DeWitt, from the earlier article, takes his Advanced Creation Studies class to the Smithsonian, and complains how only one side is presented. Please explain to me how advanced any theory can be that essentially boils down to “A wizard did it.” If I went to Liberty, though, I would definitely take that series of classes. Sounds like an easy A for sure, as long as the words creator, infinite wisdowm, and divine plan figure prominently in all responses to essay questions. The Washington Post article’s subtitle makes me so sad: Creationist Students Take Field Trip to Hotbed of Evolution: The Smithsonian. When your real life would make a suitably humorous Onion headline, it might be time to reevaluate the road that led you to that point.

Read all instructions before writing anything

Did you ever take that test in school, where the teacher told you to read every instruction before writing anything? My eighth grade social studies teacher gave that one to us, and I was reading the whole thing and getting nervous, because while I was fretting about coming back to the seemingly-difficult math question at the top, I noticed that people in the class were already writing. And then, when I got to the end of the 20 questions, I read: “Write only your name at the top of the paper. Do not answer any other question.” I felt much better, and was silently laughing all all the yahoos who’d started to answer the hard questions above without ever reading that they need only write their name to complete the test.

Well, today I’m that yahoo. I received an email from a coworker. I usually ignore everything that she sends me, because they’re usually about jobs, and I already have one (I get creeped out by somebody I work with constantly trying to push me to get another job, although she seems to think I’m really smart and swears that she just thinks I could do better), but this one I actually read. It was about the Corporate Fellowship at Wake Forest U’s Babcock School, in which minority students can receive an MBA free (plus expenses are paid). It sounded good, so I read the brochure attached in the email, thought it still seemed pretty sweet, and then started my application.

I rounded up my GRE scores (kept in the same box as a bunch of casserole recipes and a Great Adventure ticket good for the entire 2007 season), spent most of today sprucing up my resume, and then prepared to write the essays required. I didn’t get to them yet, but went back to the Babcock School web site to get inspiration. I decided to read more about the Fellowship, and that’s when I read that it is open only to those who have graduated from college within the last 12 months. I finished undergrad in 2003, and finished my master’s in 2006, so I definitely don’t qualify in that respect.

I emailed one of the program directors to see if the lack of applicants would allow them to overlook my extreme oldness, and consider my application anyway, since I meet every other qualification. I am still waiting to hear back from her, but I’m not hopeful. If I’d only thought to read that page before I started my application, I never would have gone further, and wouldn’t have cared. Well, at least my resume looks pretty great now.

Two peas in a peacock-shaped pod

This is not the first time that I mentioned Chuck and Life in the same post. On the surface, though, Chuck Bartowski and Charlie Crews couldn’t be more different. Chuck is a 20-something wasting his life at a Geek Squad/Best Buy clone (I can’t believe that BB didn’t think of the name Nerd Herd first) and providing the US government with information that has been encoded into his brain. Charlie is a Los Angeles Police Department detective who was imprisoned for 12 years after being unjustly convicted of the murder of a friend, a fellow police officer, and that man’s wife and son. So how are these two men similar?

• They’re both on NBC, and the future of both shows are unclear. Chuck probably is in a less precarious position, but could still conceivably be ended after this season.
• They’re both named Charles. The fact that they both go by comparatively juvenile nicknames is not an accident.
• Both men had their lives derailed by false accusations; Chuck was kicked out of Stanford for cheating and Charlie spent a long long time in prison.
• They’re (mostly) kept in check by women who are better at focusing on the big picture and playing straightmen (as it were) the the guys’ sometimes excessively youthful behavior.
• Their lives are being manipulated by governmental forces that they don’t understand and can’t really control.
• They’re both in love with women who, for whatever reason, they cannot be with. Chuck’s in love with Sarah, his FBI handler, and Charlie is in love with his ex-wife, who divorced him while he was in prison. Awkward.
• They both accidentally shot people in the leg this year. Chuck shot the guy who made the Intersect that’s in his head (…maybe), and Charlie shot his dad. Well, the dad did refuse to identify himself when Charlie called out in the dark. Bygones?
• They both keep awesomely detailed charts of the players in their particular dramas. Chuck keeps his on the back of his Tron poster (loved that detail), and Charlie has a “secret” room in his house where he keeps his. That room has been broken into so many times at this point that I wish Charlie would use the walls to keep his grocery list or something.

Of course, the two men aren’t twins or anything. Charlie has a distant father and a dead mother, whereas Chuck as a sweet, well-meaning, but ultimately clueless older sister who loves him. Charlie’s friends all turned their backs on him when he was convicted of murder, while Chuck’s friends all stuck by him after his expulsion. Charlie’s stint as a guest of the state netted him millions of dollars, while Chuck is super poor and still lives with his sister and her awesome fiance. Chuck is a total baby about pain and Charlie got shot a while back. Charlie can hardly figure out how to use his cell phone, and Chuck is pretty much a tech genius. Lastly, the music on Life is out of this world good, and Chuck’s scoring is okay, but nowhere near as brilliant.

The other thing that these two shows have in common is how much I love them. These are the only two shows that I came into the season liking that I actually like better now. I really hope that both of them are renewed for season three, because I feel like they’re really starting to hit their strides.

I’m bummed that I won’t see Chuck again for two more weeks, but the previews look really exciting and I cannot wait!

And now for something completely different

I got an email today asking me what it was like to be a librarian. I like talking about my job, so that was no bother. Earlier today, though, I got another email about a possible opportunity in an entire different field from librarianship. It was one that I had briefly considered and then stopped thinking about entirely a while back, so this email was welcome and piqued my interest. I’m pursing that possibility, and I’ll see where this all leads.

So so awesome

I’m on a bus! Using wifi! On a bus!!! What bus is this? It’s the Megabus that goes from New York to Baltimore/DC. I’m on the top level of this double decker bus (with skylights). I’m headed down to Maryland to go to a surprise party for my friend’s husband and two of his best friends, and so far the day has been great. I’m using my pretty new luggage, which I’ve already been complimented on several times. It’s so warm that it truly is ridiculous, and since I’m headed south, it’s only going to be warmer in Maryland (I didn’t take a coat, which my mother commented on). My hair is mostly cooperating, and it usually improves throughout the day (let’s see what happens if I end up falling asleep on the bus). I get to see my cousin in Baltimore, who’s going to get me over to Annapolis for the party. I’m going to get to wear a dress that is new in the sense that I’ve never worn it, but which I’ve actually had for a couple of months now. So many good things!

Here’s the bus, inside and out. Pictures were taken on my Nokia n85.

Glasses are your friend

Skimming the section of my blog that gives the title of my last five posts, I saw one enitled “This is why I have three brothers?” And I was like, I do??? because, of course, I have only one brother. I knew that (this is not the type of thing that people usually forget), but I couldn’t figure out why I would have lied about something so basic. Looking more closely, I realized that it said, “This is why I have three broswers.” That made much more sense. I see now that I should not try to make my way around the internet if I am not wearing my glasses, as bad things will happen.

Much better

Just days after switching to Firefox 3.1 beta 2 and losing the functionality of some of my add-ons, 3.0.7, and official update, was released. Out of curiosity, I switched to it. I think it may be a little slower, but all of my extensions work again. As that chick on the OC said, God doesn’t give with both hands, right?

Initial impressions

Safari 4 beta is super fast when compared to Safari 3, but is not appreciably faster than Firefox 3.1 beta 2. I’m glad I upgraded both of them, though. This version of Firefox is able to load sites that I used to have to turn to Safari or Opera to see. I don’t know why. Maybe the problem had to do with my add-ons, as several of those did not make the transition to the newer version. The only one I really miss is Tab Mix Plus. I found it invaluable, and can’t wait until it is updated to work with this beta.

I am updating this post to add that neither the newer of the newer versions of Firefox and Safari could handle searching my hotmail account, and Opera handled it without any problems at all. So I guess I really do still need the three.