Skipping past work on a snowy evening

My deepest apologies to Robert Frost.

We're expected to get 5 to 8 inches of snow tonight, so I decided to beat the worst of the accumulation by taking off work early. That plus my flex day off tomorrow will allow me to hide from the white stuff until Sunday.

It is my purest intention to do some quality blogging in the next few days. But tonight, the world must cease its revolutions until the shock waves from the fourth season premiere of Lost have subsided.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Nothing to see here ... not for a while, anyway

So I'm reading MSNBC.com's Cosmic Log today when I come across this bit of news:

A colossal cloud of gas is racing toward a collision with our galaxy, and when it hits, the crash could trigger an intense burst of star formation.

Now, this is really cool. Obviously, it's not going to happen anytime soon, or else the world would be in chaos. But I am interested to hear when exactly the galactic shit is due to hit the fan, so I read on:

The collision and stellar light show will occur in 20 million to 40 million years, an astronomer announced today at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

What?!? 20 to 40 million years? That's just too much to wrap my brain around. Why are astronomers even telling us this stuff? I have trouble getting worked up over climate change that could doom us by 2050, much less devastation that isn't due for 20 to 40 million years!

Turns out there's not even going to be any devastation then.

See that? The gas clous is headed for the other side of our galaxy! So the most that's going to happen is a little bit of a fireworks show. But don't get excited, humanity, because it's not even happening for another 20 to 40 million years!

Talk about a slow news day.

Well, hello there. My, it's been a long, long time.

The obvious question – particularly to those who only know me through this blog, and I imagine that may be one or two of you – is where the hell have I been?

Just to give you a recap, since the date of my last post, I've been in the hospital, gotten out of the hospital, quit smoking, been diagnosed with diabetes, started a diet, added three medicines to my daily routine, gotten a new computer, started an additional blog, stepped up my freelance writing, shaved my goatee and grown a full beard.

Now that that's out of the way, let's get back to the business of the blog: stream-of-consciousness ramblings presented in what I hope is a palatable style.

As the presidential campaign starts to ramp up in earnest, I must ask why the news networks seem so anxious for it to be over. In the days leading up to the start of primary season, the theme of Hillary Clinton's candidacy throughout the media was inevitability. Then came Iowa, and the Clinton bandwagon was hastily papered over with the beaming junior senator from Illinois who was presented breathlessly to America as the second coming of RFK and MLK all rolled up in one. Suddenly, Hillary was one loss away from being eliminated from the race altogether.

Then came New Hampshire.

Now, the networks are grudgingly admitting nothing is decided, though one almost gets the sense they're desperate to paint this as a tipping point for a return to dominance for the Clinton campaign. I just don't understand why there's such a reluctance to embrace a wide-open free-for-all. And for those who counter the media is happy to tout the unpredictability of the Republican race: that doesn't count, seeing as how the GOP is the National Football Conference of the political world right now. (No one knows who'll win, but it doesn't matter, as they seemingly don't have a chance in November.)

One more thing on political coverage, and then I'll let us all catch our collective breath. I know it would eliminate half the TV news content, but could we please ban interviews with campaign representatives and party officials? We know what they're going to say! These intersnooze ... err ... interviews just ends up being boring, free commercials.