Oh God....not again.
The holiday are upon us and more than the tragedy that is the Black Friday shopping mess the thing that I hate the most is the family and friend juggling. It's not that I hate any of my friends or family, quite the opposite, I love seeing them all. The problem is getting to see them all in some sort of organized fashion that doesn't make me go mad.
If life was like a fancy car commercial, it would be as simple as a single quiet evening with the friends one day where we drink by a fire and laugh about being rich; followed by a picturesque family meal the next where we all meet in the driveway and admire each others newly leased luxury cars. Boom, two days and done. Life however is not a commercial and I drive a sensible vehicle simply designed but not made by Germans.
In real life it's never that simple. Are all my friends going to be in town on the same days and all have the same night free? No. Are they all going to want to sit by the fire drinking wine? No. Hell, I don't want to sit by the fire drinking wine. Wine gives me a headache. I'm getting too old for the huge meeting of everyone at the bar like we used to. It's too loud and chaotic to have any real conversation with anyone. Plus for my non-drinking friends it's just rude to them. Then there's the problem that they're all juggling multiple family visits as well and with only a few days in town time get's thin. So you end up seeing who you can when you can and miss a few visits. The reality is that's just what happens when you start getting older.
The next problem is juggling the families. Being married with two sets of family in town and with siblings living in somewhat close driving distance it adds to the visitation options. The sad thing is that there's never going to be enough time to visit everyone. Then you're picking and choosing who to see and that's a little sad.
Then there's the worst problem that makes all the other problems possible. Work. Time off for the holidays gets less and less each year. If the world was like a Norman Rockwell painting we'd all put the closed signs in the window for a few days and have all the time in the world to enjoy our holidays. These days, most Americans are at the mercy of their corporate overlords that want to squeeze every holiday dollar possible. Stores stay open as late as possible for the 'last minute' shoppers and then open back up as early as possible for super-sales to get rid of the crap that didn't sell. So the amount of time off to spend with friends continues to shrink.
I like the holidays, it makes the onset of winter easier and gives you excuses to have a little more fun than usual. It would be nice however if there was just a little more time to enjoy them. Quiet time with those important to you is being replaced by shopping sprees or working those shopping sprees. Everyone's losing out, shopper and worker alike. I hate having to ration time like it's water and I'm stuck in the desert. Maybe I'll start a 'secret' holiday in May, when the weather's nicer and it's easier to get time off. No big meals requiring grocery store trips, no presents and no stress. Relaxmas. I like it.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Aliens!
I watched an interesting little movie this weekend that debunked the claims made by the History channel's show, Ancient Aliens. I recommend it. It's called Ancient Aliens Debunked and you can find it on YouTube.
One thing about the Ancient Aliens theory that really bugs me is the insistence that it was impossible to build things like pyramids with the knowledge mankind had at the time. It really does a disservice to human ingenuity and creativity when they make those kinds of claims. They even become silly when you find out archaeologists have found tools and even instruction guides for some of the 'alien' built structures. These impossible tasks that the Ancient Aliens claim are continually proven to be much simpler than originally thought.
I just watched a documentary about how the statues at Easter Island were moved. The ancient story told by people in the area says they 'walked' into place. Ancient aliens people claim that means they were levitated into place but a documentary I just saw showed a much simpler explanation. They figured out that by attaching ropes to the sides and back of the head, the stone statues could be rocked back and forth or 'walked' quite easily. It wasn't that they just made this technique up either, it was developed based on the positions of statues that fell during transport. All the statues going uphill were on their backs and all the statues going downhill were on their faces. Plus they found that all the statues that didn't make it to the final areas had handy-dandy rope notches on their heads right where it would be most advantageous to have them for the 'walking' technique. It matched the original story, it explained why all the statues fell the way they did and why they were cut the way they did. It was also found to be a very quick way to move the giant stone statues as well.
This is why I hate the Ancient Aliens theory. It's fun to talk about, sure, I'm not going to say it isn't. It's always fun to wonder: What if? However if you say there is no possible way a person didn't come up with some clever way to do it then you're just showing you're not that clever yourself. Plus it shows a complete lack of understanding on how things worked in ancient times. If a living god told you to build something you'd probably figure out a way to do it. Do you really want to make a living god angry? I wouldn't.
The pyramids are a great example of the dedication a people can have to accomplishing an enormous task. Unlike the common misconception that the pyramids were built with slave labor, there is evidence that shows they were actually built by the common people. (http://news.discovery.com/history/ancient-egypt/pyramids-tombs-giza-egypt.htm) Farmers and workers had a few months off each year during the break in the growing season and instead of enjoying the time off they went to build the God Pharaohs resting place. It's tough to imagine volunteering to do months of back-breaking labor for some rich dude but it wasn't back then. That rich dude was talking to the gods for you so your farms would produce enough food to feed your family. Why wouldn't you do everything you could for that guy? Plus when you were on the job site they had free beer! Free beer! I've done jobs for free beer.
In the end I think it's more fun to think of how amazing it is that people in ancient times came up with ways to build these incredible structures. The inventions and techniques they came up with to move stones and shape them are awesome. Who came up with the idea to use a copper tube and sand to cut round holes in stone? That's brilliant! Saying aliens did it is a horrible thing to say and I think it can be harmful. We should be promoting that there have been brilliant, inventive people throughout history and in primitive times there was that spark of creativity that makes us unique. Why would we want to claim that the seemingly impossible was only done with alien help when we can rightfully claim that it was the work of our ancestors?
I
One thing about the Ancient Aliens theory that really bugs me is the insistence that it was impossible to build things like pyramids with the knowledge mankind had at the time. It really does a disservice to human ingenuity and creativity when they make those kinds of claims. They even become silly when you find out archaeologists have found tools and even instruction guides for some of the 'alien' built structures. These impossible tasks that the Ancient Aliens claim are continually proven to be much simpler than originally thought.
I just watched a documentary about how the statues at Easter Island were moved. The ancient story told by people in the area says they 'walked' into place. Ancient aliens people claim that means they were levitated into place but a documentary I just saw showed a much simpler explanation. They figured out that by attaching ropes to the sides and back of the head, the stone statues could be rocked back and forth or 'walked' quite easily. It wasn't that they just made this technique up either, it was developed based on the positions of statues that fell during transport. All the statues going uphill were on their backs and all the statues going downhill were on their faces. Plus they found that all the statues that didn't make it to the final areas had handy-dandy rope notches on their heads right where it would be most advantageous to have them for the 'walking' technique. It matched the original story, it explained why all the statues fell the way they did and why they were cut the way they did. It was also found to be a very quick way to move the giant stone statues as well.
This is why I hate the Ancient Aliens theory. It's fun to talk about, sure, I'm not going to say it isn't. It's always fun to wonder: What if? However if you say there is no possible way a person didn't come up with some clever way to do it then you're just showing you're not that clever yourself. Plus it shows a complete lack of understanding on how things worked in ancient times. If a living god told you to build something you'd probably figure out a way to do it. Do you really want to make a living god angry? I wouldn't.
The pyramids are a great example of the dedication a people can have to accomplishing an enormous task. Unlike the common misconception that the pyramids were built with slave labor, there is evidence that shows they were actually built by the common people. (http://news.discovery.com/history/ancient-egypt/pyramids-tombs-giza-egypt.htm) Farmers and workers had a few months off each year during the break in the growing season and instead of enjoying the time off they went to build the God Pharaohs resting place. It's tough to imagine volunteering to do months of back-breaking labor for some rich dude but it wasn't back then. That rich dude was talking to the gods for you so your farms would produce enough food to feed your family. Why wouldn't you do everything you could for that guy? Plus when you were on the job site they had free beer! Free beer! I've done jobs for free beer.
In the end I think it's more fun to think of how amazing it is that people in ancient times came up with ways to build these incredible structures. The inventions and techniques they came up with to move stones and shape them are awesome. Who came up with the idea to use a copper tube and sand to cut round holes in stone? That's brilliant! Saying aliens did it is a horrible thing to say and I think it can be harmful. We should be promoting that there have been brilliant, inventive people throughout history and in primitive times there was that spark of creativity that makes us unique. Why would we want to claim that the seemingly impossible was only done with alien help when we can rightfully claim that it was the work of our ancestors?
I
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