Category Archives: Loose Pollen

By CtH

Click graphic to embiggen for easier reading.

Cross-shaped proteins LITERALLY hold our cells together!

CSB @ http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2034464910056011884Dxzrkb

By CtH

The old saying about the road to hell used to really bother me, because I thought that surely God would know what’s in my heart when I do something with good intentions that goes horribly wrong. Even our flawed justice system considers a person’s motives before sentencing, you know?

Then I got to know people who have raised procrastination to an art form and I finally realized the saying was about something else entirely.

The number of times I had one of these people promise me with all sincerity that they’d do something, then never get a Round Tuit. Yet when I would ask again, they’d get all prickly about me being disappointed that they had not done whatever it was.

Usually it was “I’ve been so busy!”  (Subtext: Doing stuff that is Much More Important than you.)

I can understand if, once in a while, something truly unexpected derails ones plans. But these people were chronic about it. So I got to thinking, “Hey, if you’re really so busy, you shouldn’t commit to stuff you can’t fit into your schedule. Tell me NO and let me find someone else. Cuz when you promise, you just leave me hanging with the job unassigned and undone. And real people get hurt.”

Another fave excuse was “I forgot.” This one inspired me to attempt gentle reminders, which only brought on temper tantrums on the order of, “I SAID I WAS GOING TO DO IT! DON’T NAG ME!” (Direct quote from a certain individual who I had reminded ONCE after 6 weeks of waiting. This is “nagging”? I don’t think so.)

Eventually, I began to understand what was really going on with these people. They like to think of themselves as GOOD people. And they present this image to others; why else would I ask them for favors or expect them to keep their word? I don’t bother ASKING the jerks and liars, you know what I mean?

But underneath the façade, these people are not deeply and truly committed to goodness. Saying YES makes them feel good; saying NO makes them feel bad. And that’s as far as it goes. They “talk the talk” but don’t “walk the walk.”

As for that part where I get yelled at for reminding them of their failed promises?  I could really lose that, especially coming from people I can’t just drop from my social calendar. It’s so darned HARD to love the sinner who just keeps on sinning against you personally. Sigh.

CSB @ http://family.webshots.com/photo/1473114221056011884LnlsIw

By CtH

Atlanta Botanical Gardens glass sculpture – photo by Mama Buzz

CSB @ http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2487935200056011884ZfQhSz

[Just an extra note … the surgery photo circulated the net with text about how the baby “reached out and grabbed the doctor’s finger as if to say thank you.” This was poetic, but false. The mother and baby were both anesthetized. ]

By CtH

Did you know that the Big Bang produced only the lightest elements – hydrogen and helium? And that the rest of the material needed to create us and our beautiful world — e.g., carbon and iron — had to be literally cooked up inside of stars?

These stars had to completely use themselves up and supernova so that all these materials could be blasted into space and coalesce into our sun and solar system.

Since every cell, every molecule, every atom in your body is made from material that’s been on planet Earth since it first formed, every bit of you was once inside a star. In other words, you are literally made from stardust!

And that stardust body of yours was assembled and is maintained by the massive amounts of information encoded in your DNA.

CSB posting @ http://family.webshots.com/photo/2508523390056011884MFsUdx

Posted by CtH

Here’s a little quiz.

A man says he hates you. He says it often, publishes it in the paper, carries signs about it up and down in front of your house and work place. He spits at you and throws things at your property. He volunteers at your kids’ school so he can tell them all the ways you are a horrible, evil human being.

One day, this man comes up to you and says, “I want to burn your house down, but I don’t have enough money for kerosene and matches. Give me some money.”

You respond by:

a)       calling the cops

b)       handing him $50

If you answered a, you might be a Republican.

But if you answered b, you probably are a Democrat.

CSB @ http://news.webshots.com/photo/2101930910056011884eARwDx

By CtH

This one’s for you, Pete!

CSB @ http://news.webshots.com/photo/2470307720056011884QjvmKw

Photo by CtH

May 2005: My viquarium close up

CSB posting @ http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2823873000056011884duGNHy

News source @ http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2082429.ece

By CtH