That's Life

I'm happy to say Sam is back out of the hospital again. He's had to be admitted three times in the past eight weeks, things are not going to well with his lungs.

On a happier note Stephanie once again made the deans list at Occidental College and Adam did outstanding on the PSAT and PreACT tests--he's more than ready to tackle the official ones. Andrew got his best report card ever this semester and baseball started back up today.

I've been so busy taking care of Sam and domestic things that I haven't done as much as I had hoped regarding finding another job, but I'll get there. It's official now that Trek Nation has made the announcement, I'm no longer the Book Padd reporter for the site.

I'm going to miss it but that's life sometimes.

Klingons or Ferengi?

From TrekToday.com:

"Oregon Democrat David Wu put Klingons in the news this week when he compared the Bush Administration to the Star Trek villains.

"There are Klingons in the White House [but] unlike the real Klingons from Star Trek, these Klingons have never fought a battle of their own," Wu told Congress. Wonkette has a video clip from YouTube of Wu's speech, in which he condemns President George Bush for failing to listen to the American people or to Congress when it comes to the war in Iraq. "Don't let faux Klingons send real Americans to war," Wu said.

The Chicago Sun-Times added that Wu had said the President of the United States listened to "the so-called Vulcans in the White House", but his advisors made decisions based on ideology rather than logic. The Bush Administration's "Vulcans" as discussed in the book The Rise of the Vulcans were named not after Star Trek's aliens, but the ancient god of the forge.
Los Angeles' KOIN News 6 reported that conservative pundits like Rush Limbaugh had objected to Wu's speech. Wu himself said that he is a longtime Star Trek fan used the comparison to express frustration with the situation in Iraq.

Oregon Live has an interview with Wu, joking that he may have a second career as a speaker at Star Trek conventions and noting that he claims to like all of the sequel series, though some of his detractors have called his remarks juvenile. The paper also interviewed Judith Barad, a philosophy professor at Indiana State University who wrote The Ethics of Star Trek.

"It might sound silly to people who loathe Star Trek or are indifferent to it, but I do think science fiction is a good way for society to get a better perspective and to learn what to do in a moral predicament," Barad said. "We could see the role of leaders reflected in Star Trek characters." "

Personally I disagree with Mr. Wu. The Klingons have both honor and courage, Bush has neither. If was going to compare the Bush administration to anyone in the Star Trek mythos it would be the deceitful, greedy Ferengi.

A Bit more on Colorado

We got fairly lucky with our trip to Colorado, managing to get and out between storms without delays. Got back to LA on time but had to spend almost two hours searching down our luggage. For some reason it was split up and sent on 3 different flights so we had to go from luggage carosel to carosel to find all three cases.

It was tough to leave my folks. Mom is in really bad shape, unable do much of anything for herself. Sometimes she's pretty confused which really worries me because she is on something like 12 different medications for her heart, diabetis and her other conditions. Sometimes she can't remember what she's taken and what she hasn't. She keeps saying she's fine but a few minutes in her company tells the real tale.

Dad admits he's not the most patient caregiver. He's just not cut out for it. He does his best to keep the house in decent order and does all the shopping etc. but I think he was happy to have a few home cooked meals. Dad doesn't cook so they've gotten in the habit of having take out or something frozen, which isn't ideal for either of them. Mom barely eats at all.

I did suggest that Daddy consider bring Mom out to stay with us for a while, between Sam and his grandmother I've gotten so used to taking care of someone that it has become second nature but although he was grateful for the offer he said I had enough on my plate so thank you, but no.

Going out on New Years Eve has always been a highlight for my parents something they really look forward to so on New Years Eve Ann and I did Mom's hair and make-up and got her dressed up for the annual party at the club, the REA(Retired Enlisted Association). The kids stayed at Mom and Dads watching movies and I went with Ann and Shawn to their friends Debbie and Roger's game party. We played Balderdash, which was new for me.