Final Family Christmas

Given that I'm going to be moving next month, this was the last year I had to spend Christmas with the family. It was... underwhelming for the most part. The gifts I gave went over reasonably well. I received the usual array of miscellanea that made it obvious they had no idea what to get me. Then the grandparents came over and things started going downhill. To summarize: between the offensive things they said in front of me and repulsive things they said loudly while I was in the next room, I'm quite glad this is the last time I'm going to see them.

There are many things that one can discuss at a family dinner. Politics shouldn't be one of them. Even that basic courtesy went out the window though, as within five minutes of the grandparents arrival they and my father were loudly talking about how the country was going to hell, how everything that's happened in Washington since Obama's inauguration has been horrible, and ... well, I'm sure you get the idea. I was trying to ignore it but every time I tried turning the volume up on the TV in the next room, it seemed like their conversation got even louder to match. I eventually gave up, said a brief hello, and locked myself in the guest bedroom with my ear plugs in to tune out everything else.

Then dinner came along and the conversation once again took a distasteful turn. Politics were set aside, but religion came up, as did the topic of unsavory clients at a tax preparation firm. Apparently, at least to my grandparents, someone who is an exotic dancer is automatically a hooker and queers are definitely people to be ashamed to know. I bit my tongue so hard I'm surprised it didn't start bleeding. If I hadn't made a conscious decision to be civil toward everyone and avoid burning bridges I'd probably have gotten up, packed, and left immediately.

Once dinner was over, another round of gifts were exchanged, during which yet another political discussion came up. I just sat around taking pictures of everyone and everything as a distraction; I'll probably delete the damn things after I move. I returned to the bedroom as quickly as I could without appearing like a complete ass and - even with the door closed - could still clearly hear the conversation take an even more vitriolic tone. Had anyone in that conversation said outright that they hoped Obama is assassinated I wouldn't have been surprised, as they said almost everything else under the sun. Conversely, any time I even implied Bush wasn't the best thing to ever happen to America, they swiftly countered that I should support him solely because he's the President. Logic clearly doesn't mean anything to far right Republicans, nor does the concept of being decent toward other people.

The grandparents left around 7:30 and I returned to the bedroom after that. I wish I could say I was sorry to see them go, but after hearing what came out of everyone's mouth, I don't think they could have gone fast enough. If anything, I'm relieved to know that I'm not actually related to any of them. But still, it's a rather jarring reinforcement that I don't really have a family after all. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing right now.

Itinerary for January

Between Further Confusion, moving, and all the other things going on, here's a short rundown of things that I have going on next month.

1st through 16th - Working

17th through 30th - Paid vacation

17th through 20th - Relaxing in Indy, prospecting for real estate

20th - I turn twenty-four years old

21st through 25th - Further Confusion!

26th - In Pensacola, saying goodbyes

27th - Driving to Indy

28th - Unpacking, turning in the U-Haul

29th - More real estate hunting, address changes, etc.

31st through ?? - Unpaid time off, three to five days, for more errands in Indy

I'll post the flight info for FC and more specific information about the move as those dates approach. I just wanted to get something quick up now while I still have the computer up.

Further Confusion and the rest of January

With Further Confusion just a short month away, I want to start planning things out. I've already booked the hotel room and plan on getting pre-reg done sometime this week. However, the plane tickets remain unpurchased as I'm trying to finalize plans, arrange rides, and so on. But while I'm already going to be out on the west coast, is there anyone in that area that would want me to stick around for an extra day? I'm currently planning on taking off Monday afternoon or evening but could easily extend that to Tuesday or even Wednesday given a good reason. ;)

After the con, I'm planning on flying to Pensacola for one last time, to pack things up and make a long overdue move. While the final details are still slightly sketchy, there's a 95% chance I'll have that taken care of and be more or less settled in up there by the end of January. I'll use whatever time is left on my vacation after that to start scouting out houses and the like. I'm still tentatively optimistic about having something worked out in time to qualify for the tax credit expiring at the end of April. If not, then I'm not sure what I'll end up doing, but I'm sure it'll all come out well in the end.

Why do weekends off tend to be exhausting?

Somehow I end up having the last two days off in Pensacola, and yet I don't feel any more rested now than I did when I got into town Saturday morning. I was up late last night with a friend (he left around 1 AM), then tonight I hung out with someone else, but now I'm so tired that I'm not sure I'll even be fully functioning during work tomorrow. I'm hoping I can somehow get one more day off and get to sleep at a reasonable hour for a change, but neither of those are sure things. It was a pretty good weekend overall, though; I saw a couple people that I was surprised to see, spent relatively little time putting up with my parents, and saw The Fantastic Mr. Fox which turned out to be an even better movie than I'd expected. I just wish that I weren't feeling so incredibly tired that I'm going to be struggling to keep up for the rest of the week... @_@

A few thoughts on climate change

After a few arguments with some acquaintances recently, I feel the need to clarify a few things about the science involved here. For one, the people denying that the changes are occurring clearly haven't even done their own research; I've yet to have someone provide even a single reputable source for any claims being made. By reputable, I mean a recent peer-reviewed scientific article, not coverage in the mainstream media by journalists whose coverage isn't worth calling news. At the very least, an article out of an established, reputable scientific magazine would suffice, but the only "facts" I've been presented are articles on Fox that are usually self-contradictory and easily debunked with about thirty seconds of searching on Google. If there were, in fact, a significant controversy over whether or not made-made global warming is a considerable threat to our future, why haven't there been serious studies by independent scientists that have found issues with the current consensus?

Even if you want to discount the data from the UK climate scientist over those hacked e-mails - the contents of which have been taken wildly out of context and overblown - that eliminates just one data set out of thousands out there, all of which point to a significant warming trend in the last few decades. In addition to things merely being taken out of context, there are terms being used that are perfectly understood by the audience (fellow researchers) even though their meanings are very different than would be used by the population at large. The obvious example is the remark about hiding the decline. The "decline" being referred to is a decline in temperatures as reported by the tree ring record, which is contradicted by the actual temperature measurements being taken at the time. Those who are complaining about this are, in effect, arguing that tree records are more reliable than thermometers.

Of those other data sets, NASA's data from weather stations puts the last significant trough at 1966. I've chosen that particular graph to eliminate even the complaint that the models are skewed; the data in that graph are taken from direct measurements, not extrapolations. The land-ocean graph looks roughly the same. The same graph also calls into question the allegations of a natural 30-year cycle, as there is a huge spike between the mid-60s and about 2000, followed by a period of relative stability; if there were a cyclical variation we would be experiencing a corresponding downturn in global temperatures. While the temperatures in the US this year have been exceptionally cool, they've been more than offset by sweltering heat in other parts of the world, particularly in Asia and the Arctic.

So why haven't temperatures risen much in the last decade? A fair question. Perhaps it has something to do with the sun being in one of its longest and deepest solar minima on record. Perhaps it's that the north pole ice is absorbing a lot of that heat energy, as evidenced by the drastic drops in arctic sea ice with the lowest level ever occurring in 2007 and the third-lowest in 2009. Perhaps it really is just a natural variability that's offsetting the human influence on the climate. I've no doubt that there will be plenty of research into it and answers in the coming years.

Tackling the issues facing the world won't be cheap. The plan itself isn't easy to outline and it'll be different in the various parts of the world. But the time to act is now, not in decades to come. The longer we wait, the more difficult it will be to turn things around and the greater the risk of reaching a point of no return.