in a dry and waterless place

The whining, it has subsided. I gave it the one-two punch. One: I went home and made chocolate chip muffins. The ungrateful wretches with whom I work are currently gobbling them up, because they will eat anything you put in the break room, pretty much. Once upon a time, I used to be an... don't laugh... organic chemist. I used to spend my days following recipes, altering a variable, seeing the result. There was a time when I got great satisfaction from a gram of white powder. Oh, not that kind of powder, bitches... I'm not talking about the white lady, the wacky dust. I'm just talking about compounds. There is very little I miss about working in a lab. But one thing I do miss is the calm and the satisfaction that comes at the end of a long day's work to have something tangible to show for it. To say, I made this. So now I fidget in the kitchen. These chocolate chip muffins originated from a lemon muffin recipe. Tweak, tweak, tweak, next thing you know, there's very little of the original skeleton present. Why this calms me down, I have no idea. But I figure it's better than drinking myself into an oblivion, right?

Two: It's really hard to whine about anything to do with my life at all after listening to first-hand accounts on NPR this morning about two marines who were seriously injured in Iraq. If you can listen to Sgt. Brad Kasall talk about trying to tend to Lance Cpl. Alex Nicoll's completely shattered leg, then discovering a grenade has been thrown in the room, then jumping on top of Nicoll to shield him from the blast (!), and not lose your breath- well, your heart is made of stone. Nicoll lost his leg. Kasal took 40 pieces of shrapnel to his body. And this is considered a happy story, a story of heroism and hope.

So, yeah, I'm going to hold off whining for a bit, thanks.

But I will mention, this season, Bill Maher has really established himself as a full-blown idiot. Yes, he occasionally has his points politically and on religious matters, but he might well be retarded when it comes to science. Last week on his program, he said he didn't believe in vaccines. Dude! Kids in the Hall alumnus Dave Foley had the best retort (paraphrased): "Well, you know, that Polio vaccine kind of worked out though, didn't it?" Thank you Canada.