I’ve come to realize that it’s now considered juvenile, lacking in class, or even un-Christ-like to make observations pertaining to the beauty of women in the public eye. This is unfortunate because non gratuitous admiration of beauty has its place- but experience has taught me that a young male makes such observations out loud at his own peril.
So I make the following observation with a certain amount of trepidation. I saw Meghan McCain being interviewed on Fox and Friends this morning about the release of her new children’s book My Dad, John McCain, and I have to say, I was smitten. Her intelligence, her wholesome, classy brand of beauty and charm, and her ability to combine a healthy liberal feminism with conservative femininity is refreshing. And not only that- she blogs!
Now of course Ms. McCain is no Amy Adams, but this is no put down- it will be difficult to replace Ms. Adams as the object my male admiration. That being said, were Meghan to, say, give me a call some time (859-967-9144), I’d probably do back flips.
Sorry if this makes you ladies cringe. What can I say? God made the eye to desire beauty just as the ear desires euphony.
I’ve been surprised by critical comments regarding my weight and body shape. It recently reached a ridiculous level when someone handed me a business card for a plastic surgeon and suggested I needed liposuction. I am proud of my curves and have always loved my fuller figure, as should every woman who is not a size “0″. I want to be a positive role model for my little sister and all of the other young women who read my blog and help perpetuate a more positive image for women, regardless of their body size. I feel empowered to tell everyone that it’s important to maintain a healthy weight that works for them - not everyone is going to be model thin, nor should they expect to be. To every young girl reading this blog, it is inner beauty and happiness that makes a person beautiful, not a number on a scale.
The way I decide whether or not to write a blog post about something is an enigma. I really have no idea what the impetus is exactly, but it is primarily based on an impulse that I can describe most accurately as an itch. There is a blogging itch that just hits me now and then. And so I scratch.
However, I haven’t had that itch for a good 2 or 3 weeks. This is odd. Now I will do what I usually do and commence introspection and self over-analyzation.
It happened again. This time it was at the Waffle House across the street. Last time it was in Walmart. The time before that it was a hardware store, and before that at Papa Johns.
Now, I need some opinions here- do I really honestly look like this guy or not? Apparently he’s some NASCAR driver. I don’t really give a rip about NASCAR- actually, I kind of think it sucks- but it’s really intriguing to me that people think I look like this guy (Matt Kenseth). I don’t see it at all.. except that we’re both male and white. I just think I mostly look like myself.
Anyway, I demand opinions:
For those of you who don’t know me, you’ll have to be left out of this one- unless you fire up your cyber sleuthing skills and search for some pictures of me on the interweb somewhere. There are plenty to be found. I just refuse to post pictures of myself on my blog.
Unfortunately my little blog here was sort of gone for about a week due to issues with the domain name. For those that don’t know, the domain name is the thing up in your window there that says “silentplanet.org”. My ownership had expired (my bad) but instead of holding it for a few days for me to renew it like they were supposed to, my host sold it to someone else (their bad).
But they were nice about it and fixed the problem, and here we are again. All taken care of. And nothing to say.
In case you were not already aware, I (and all my male brethren) am clueless. I fully admit it. And if you want proof, I have it.
(credit goes to Peter for pointing this gem out to me)
The ladies really have to put up with so much more than men do. Just another on the long list of reasons why I am thankful to be a male. I should really start writing them down.
-Random personal update since this is, you know, my blog. -
Just thought I would inform the world: I spent $900 to fix my car’s power steering today. And it snowed. And WFB died. And I have an impossibly difficult geography exam tomorrow.
Life is.. mediocre. And yet I dare to be happy. Being mopey is too easy.
Speaking as an aspiring engineer, this is a really lame list. I mean, some of these areas are admirable goals, but after reading the title of the Wired article, And the 14 Grand Engineering Challenges of the 21st Century Are…, I was disappointed. It seems like nothing more than an exercise in a bunch of guys trying to sound smart and not much else.
Would a 20th century list made circa 1900 have even been worth making? Would it have included the computer? internet? television? radio? interstate highway system? antibiotics? space shuttle? radar? A36 steel? plastic? polymers? artificial textiles? secondary water treatment? quantum mechanics? A foresighted one might have included the airplane.
I realize the intent isn’t to try to predict and instead to try to focus efforts, but that’s just my point. From a technological and engineering perspective, we are so clueless about what the coming decades hold that a bunch of ‘the smartest guys in the room’ trying to draw up an admittedly informal but still quasi-centralized focus on research efforts is silly at best, perhaps even arrogant, and at worst misguided.
Look, I’m not against planning, but we rarely are able to plan the future or even for future problems anyway; the only things we can plan are solutions for current problems. And that’s all this list is trying to do. If I was a gambling man, I’d say that at most 4 of these 14 things will be at all close to the top of the most important feats of the century we so recently embarked on.
My dad owns a couple properties around town- not anything overly large, about 30 units total. This past Friday, as is his wont, he is out collecting rent. He attempts to do so from one of his residents who does not have all of it, and the resident tries to explain why. It is pertinent to the humor of the exchange to inform you that the gentleman in question is a black guy. The explanation went something like this (not a direct quote):
I’m sorry I’m short again this week on the rent- they just won’t let me work! First there was Christmas, then New Year’s Day… how am I supposed to get money if they won’t let me go to work? And now this darn Martin Luther King Day on Monday… I swear, why couldn’t he just mind his own business??!
