A Lighter Note...

It seems most of my blog entries are kinda sad... After reading these you may think my outlook is grim, and I guess it is, but the thing about me is that I'm not really too worried about the future. Every now and then I get excited about it and start getting mad at myself and at the world, but I'm not really that hyped up about it most of the time, and even when I am, I'm not really angry, more... tense. I'm secretly worried about it, somewhere deep in my soul. By it I mean everything, the future, the 21st century challenges that we are all here to face. We're almost a decade through this new generation and I still feel mostly like I did in the nineties. I am certainly a lot happier than I appear here, and I think now is time for a post that shows that.

The 21st century is certainly not all doom and gloom. We tend to focus on that, or at least I do, but there is a lot more than all that as well. The advancement of technology will lead to changes in our society both for the better and worse, and as we realize that we are having effects on the environment we will start to change the way we create things. I am optimistic, really, and I think the future will hold good things. The fact that this class exists is reason enough for me to be excited about the future, and sure that we have finally started to care about the world.


Plus:

This is why I'm happy now.
This cat has absorbed all my sadness.

Blogging!

This, I have to admit, is more difficult than it looks. Blogging, that is. At first I thought it would be very easy to blog once a week, but as I mark the weeks off my calendar (metaphorically--I don't actually keep a calendar, either) I realize it's a lot more difficult. I don't think it's because I don't have any ideas that I want to get out there. I have plenty of ideas. I think it may be because it feels kindof futile, like blowing into a tornado or trying to get the water out of a cruise ship with a thimble. Are my ideas actually being read? listened to? Somehow I doubt it. But, I persist (sort of). Wish me luck in future attempts.

DNA, RNA, IDK

Excuse the use of internet lingo above, but I think it had to be done. I am a person who accepts science, enjoys its existence greatly and respects it's power. I am not, however, a scientist. Still, I have to admit that working with plants and figuring out whether or not they are genetically modified was extraordinarily fun. I'm not saying that I have a career of doing this sort of thing in my future, but I think these types of labs and experiments are things that everyone should try at some point in their life.

It certainly opens my eyes to some stuff... stuff that I really already knew, but never really thought about. Like how corn is genetically modified most of the time, and how most of what we eat and drink has corn in it. It isn't exactly a bad thing either, as some people might think, but it certainly is a thing, and it's a thing that should be thought about.

Water, Water, Water.

So I assume that most people already understand how important water is to everyday life. I have heard this for as long as I've been able to recognize words, and I think everyone else has, as well. I'm not going to ramble on about how important water is, because we know this already. What I'm going to ramble on about (because I have to ramble on about something) is doing something about it. That seems to be what I say about a lot of things, I think. Whether it is with water or recycling or really just about anything, my opinion always lies with the flaws of humanity and how we are able to see this problem, and yet we are not able to do anything about it. It's because people are comfortable, now, and there is nothing more dangerous in the world that roughly 6 billion comfortable people. We are so hesitant to give up our free running water (and yes, I know that not all 6 billion of those people are comfortable, but bare with me) and our lights and power and everything. As standard of living rises, so does the cost of maintaining it, and it is a cost that is far more important than money.

As far as importance goes, I think there is nothing more important. Everything stems from here, in a way. We cool our factories with water, our power plants. We maintain life. It's the most important thing on the planet. We take it for granted, though, and some of us think it'll always be there. And you know maybe it will be there long after all of us have died, but maybe it won't. Just something to think about, I think.