From 1 – 3 today at my work is a Halloween carnival, with refreshments and games like popping balloons and a bean bag toss plus a costume contest. What a coincidence that the chaplain service is having an open house the exact same time, bringing people in with free cake. Me thinks someone in that area isn’t a Halloween fan.

In other Halloween news, today is my 5th wedding anniversary. Yes, we got married on Halloween, dressed in all black! The funny part was that the lady who did the ceremony looked very much like the short psychic lady in Poltergeist. I promise we had no idea what she looked like before booking her to do the ceremony. “This wedding…is clean.”

I hate housework. I’m not someone who likes to clean, or has to have everything in their house just so. Don’t get me wrong, of course I still do it. The one thing I insist on is cleaning up after cooking and eating. No food is left out so as to avoid getting bugs. But leave junk mail to pile up on the kitchen table for a couple of weeks? Pffft. Normal clutter.

I’ve heard about the house vacuuming robots from iRobot for a couple of years or so, but besides thinking “Hmmm…bet they’re expensive though. I can do that, it’s only 30 min for the whole house.” Yeah, well…along came Baby Grrl and vacuuming is one thing that can fall behind quickly. So the other day I took a look at the iRobot site just to see how expensive they were.

Now I’m very seriously considering getting one. Amazon even has a deal that saves you $50 and shipping charges if you get the Roomba and Scooba (the hard floor cleaning model) together. I envision setting the schedule and it goes off, cleaning my floors while I’m at work. Then the floors would be so much cleaner, and I’d save the time and energy to spend with Hubby and Baby Grrl.

If they made a bathroom cleaning model, I’d get that in a second. That’s my least favorite chore of them all.

The one creepy thing I found on the iRobt site was something in development for pilot later this year. Called ConnectR, it’s billed as a Virtual Visiting robot:

Participate in family moments even though you’re working late

On a business trip? Read your kids a story and see their faces light up

Join the fun from near or far

Throw a party from a thousand miles away

Tell Fido he’s a “good boy” even while you’re on vacation

So…you get a mobile web cam with speakers so you don’t have to be bothered visiting people in person. And to freak out your dog. Hell, I’d get freaked out and be insulted if someone just sent a robot to do their visiting.

As my good friend David says over at his blog, this is just the beginnings of robots coming into our homes to get us ready for Roboapocolypse.

It was time for the annual Combined Federal Campaign at work, and since I’m making a bit more money, I decided to see if there was an organization I wanted to donate some money to. It would be easier, since they’d take it right from my paycheck and send it to them. If I never have it in my pocket, I won’t really miss $10 each paycheck.

I looked through the book to see what they had. The usual ones were there, like Catholic Charities, military and veterans assistance programs, and various mental health and homeless organizations. I was pleasantly surprised to see NARAL! But I knew I had to give when I saw Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma. I receive PP emails, and want to help keep their services available to women. Bonus that my money will stay in my own state.

I looked through the book a little more, and was not thrilled when I saw that Answers in Genesis was an option. Yep, the same people who opened the Creation Museum can get donations from federal government employees through payroll deductions. The people who want to donate do it voluntarily and have to write in the code for whatever organization they want, but having an organization with such extreme views (even among Christians) listed as an option makes me question who approved their application. Because a charity has to apply, and be approved, to be in the CFC program. From the AiG CFC description:

Equips Christians to uphold the authority of the Bible from the very first verse, through seminars, publications, daily radio program, the Creation Museum, and website.

Authority of the Bible? That’s what really bugs me. There is no authority!

After seeing that, I tried to find some kind of skeptical or science organization to donate some money. I didn’t find very many, especially compared to the amount of faith and religion based organizations. I settled on Science Olympiad:

Encourages all students (especially female and minority students) to participate in academic events at tournaments designed to promote career interest in science, mathematics, and technology.

If anyone knows of a good science or skeptical organization in need of support, tell them to get into CFC. I know there are others like me who would give. Or if you know of one I missed in my search, give me a heads up for next year.

Speaking of giving to promote science, don’t forget to head over to Science Blogs and give a few bucks!

I found out about this story via an email from a coworker, who either read it on a blog or got it from someone who read the blog. It’s a conservative one for sure. He sent it to all of us, not knowing how liberal I am.

It came from an OpEd piece at Boston Herald about a guy whose 13 year old daughter was questioned by her pediatrician. Not about her health, but about her parent’s habits. Drinking, smoking, gun ownership, and if her daddy made her “feel uncomfortable”. All of those questions were asked without a parent present, or without their consent.

The conservative argument against this is two fold. They argue that the doctor is undermining the parent’s authority, while trying to split up the family. When it’s something the conservatives don’t like, it’s never ok to do this. (If mom and dad are atheists, then it would be ok for someone to teach the kid about Jesus. I have seen that said before.) The other one is related to the guns angle. You can imagine that the conservatives are up in arms over the invasion of privacy on their 2nd Amendment rights. (See that pun I did there? Ha.) Several of the comments to the story at the site have said that’s what we’ll get with Universal Health Care and if we elect “Hitlary” to the White House. The original post in the email my coworker sent me says:

I thought liberals got excited when the state sticks its nose into the bedroom. But if it turns out that Mom and Dad have their gun safe there, apparently liberals are okay with it.

The best one is this though, from the article’s comments:

i think we should give bush a 3rd term just to ensure a liberal morons doesn’t get into the white house

Wow. If only they would have spelled morons like “moran”, it would be an even better quote.

Despite my pacifism and pro-gun control, I do not want that type of questioning by the doctor to be routine. I do not want a gun personally, but I do want the option. Like a friend said the other day:

I want all the weapons and the most lethal ammunition I can stockpile. How the hell am I going to fight Nazi-types when they come to take me to the camps? […] Isn’t this why the Founding Fathers wanted the populace to have guns? So they could form militias to fight off enemies and stage revolutions if anti-democratic factions took over the govt.?

Yep, that’s what I think. (As The Clash’s song ‘The Guns of Brixton’ runs through my head. When they kick at your front door…How you gonna come?…With your hands on your head…Or on the trigger of your gun)

Overall though, that type of questioning was totally outside what the doctor should be doing as a routine. Now, if the child showed signs of some kind of abuse, neglect, or emotional problems, then the doctor has a duty to find out more information or to notify the proper authorities. But to just find out if a parent drinks, does drugs, or owns guns in order to Think of the Children (TM)? Would a typical Saturday game day in Oklahoma watching the Sooners, while drinking beer, be ok? Who decides what is right or wrong for the parents to be doing? That’s a Nanny State I do not want.

Huh…I just agreed with the right on an issue. Is it getting cold in hell?

Meet a blogger named ginmar, who came back from Iraq in 2005. Her story of how she has been treated by the VA is heartwrenching, and I’m sure not at all unique. (She wasn’t even seen at the much publicized Walter Reed Medical Center, she’s states away.)

I had been against invading Iraq from the beginning, and have never supported the war. But no matter how I feel about that, stories like hers give me despair and make me angry.

How can those who claim to support the war and what soldiers like her have and are doing in Iraq, treat them so badly when they return home? Why don’t those same supporters want to bring the troops home, to keep them from going through what she went through?

Read her story. It’s long, but a well needed read.

(Maybe it also hit me hard because I just read The Onion’s AV Club list of great movies too painful to watch twice. Damn you Requiem For A Dream!)

It’s sad that teachers have to go ask for help getting things they need for their classrooms. But with a little help, we can help teachers provide books, equipment, and field trips to inspire the next generation of scientists.

Over at ScienceBlogs, they have set up a Bloggers Challange through DonorsChoose.org, where people can contribute to worthy and needy science programs in schools throughout the country. I’ll be giving to one or more of Mike the Mad Biologist’s list of programs, since I read his more than others there.

If you can spare some cash, give a little! It’s tax deductible! Plus you can help show kids that science is cool and fun, and maybe even influence some to enter a science field as a career.

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