5/6: What I Accomplished Today

1. No puzzle day today. People were traveling.

2. Got Night Elf Druid to level 23; yes, that's three higher than she was yesterday. Apparently, there were lots of little dumb easy quests I thought she'd already done that she hadn't.

3. Reading. There's no mail today, so other than a little Paul, I didn't really read anything today. (Sometimes I just sit and read for hours, but I haven't felt like doing that for awhile, obviously.)

4. Television. Watched Bill Maher. Well, we don't really watch all of Bill Maher because the panel feels like homework; usually the celebrity isn't particularly well-informed and the wonks aren't going to say anything unexpected, so we usually skip that part. We always watch the monologue and New Rules; again, we don't always agree with him, but he's funny and thought-provoking.

Speaking of funny and thought-provoking, we also watched a Comedy Central show by Carlos Mencia from a few years ago. I'm not going to deny he's funny, because he is. I can't help but think he misses the point sometimes, though.

For instance, he had a part of the routine that went, "We're supposed to feel all sorry for people because their houses were hit by a tornado. They live in Tor-nay-do All-ey. I'm not going to feel sorry for them. Move! And that isn't hard for them because their houses have wheels."

Okay, I have two issues with that (and we laughed at it, don't get me wrong). I don't think we're supposed to feel all sorry for people. We're not "supposed" to do anything at all; if people see devastation and have a reaction, I think that's an admirable human trait, but I don't think it's assigned or mandatory. Many people will choose to empathize with other human beings. If he can't draw the distinction between "feeling sorry" and "empathy," that gives us important information about the man.

I have another problem with his rant. One reason we empathize is that it could be us. Maybe we don't live in Tornado Alley, but there is absolutely nowhere on Earth where nothing catastrophic can happen. If we mock people for not moving out of Tornado Alley or hurricane-ridden coastal areas or flood-prone land or blizzard territory or earthquake zones--well, where's left to live?

He also made a comment about those "stupid Middle-Easterners" who refuse to leave the desert. Now this was just dumb. You know what? I live in the desert. I won't live anywhere else. There are no tornadoes here. No hurricanes. No blizzards. It occasionally floods because the city isn't designed to get more than an inch of rain and if we do, there are no gutters to take it away; we seldom need them. It rains maybe ten days a year. Now that's kind of a problem because we're in a drought, but I like that I don't really own a coat. I don't really own an umbrella. For nostalgia's sake, I keep my ice scraper and snow brush in my car, and I've used both once in the ten years I've lived here, but I like that these things aren't my problem. It took me awhile to get used to the fact that it's not very green, but I actually now see green as sort of cheezy, even cheating. There's a beauty and dignity to the desert.

And making his desert comments specific to the Middle East--does he understand people who have lived in a place for generations, perhaps centuries?

And I know Mencia would respond, "Lady, one of the points of my act was that people shouldn't go all sensitive and get their feelings hurt all easily." And my feelings aren't hurt. I'm a big, brave girl, and people make pejorative comments about my residence all the time, most of which are funny. (Just for the record, fellas, prostitution is not legal in Clark County, for example. We laugh hysterically whenever some idiot makes it clear that he's vague on that concept.) But as I said before a few weeks ago, I get frustrated when people confuse "P.C." and "courtesy." Sometimes people shouldn't make certain statements because those statements would make people look like idiots.

We also watched The Riches and The Sopranos.

5. Finished the weekly Pogo badges and worked on my premium badges.

6. The BigFishGame is a tile-matching thing. That's not what I'm in the mood for.

7. I was ever so helpful today! I changed a role of toilet paper in the back bathroom, took out the trash and changed the bag, cut up lettuce for yet more Chinese Chicken Salad, and changed the water in the refrigerator.

8. Neither of us really woke up today.

9. We are now coming into Finals' Week.