Have You Seen This??

Well, have you?  Seen it, I mean? Haha.  Just seemed like an appropriate title for today's post, which is both 'celebrating randomness' and catching up on some hot topics in this morning's news feed.

First up, is an AH-MAZING photo posted by Bruce Lindner (whoever he is...friend of a friend) on Facebook this morning, with this caption: 

"Okay, put your brain in neutral for a second. See that teeny, tiny black rectangle to the left of the Moon? It's a nondescript region of space that NASA trained the Hubble telescope on for a look/see. It opened its shutter, and photon by individual photon, the light from distant galaxies trickled in. The image required a total of 173,000 seconds to "gel," but gel it did. Each of those tiny smudges are enormous galaxies of a hundred billion stars or more.  The Moon is there for scale only, to demonstrate the size of area examined. HUDF stands for Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Now... Don't you feel insignificant?"

Insignificant is exactly how it makes me feel, and yet I am somehow empowered or enriched by the idea that life on Earth must be such a random occurrence (there's that word again).  What a gift we are given, if only for a very short time, to sit back and experience the wonders of the Universe.  Each enormous galaxy has A HUNDRED BILLION stars OR MORE???  And we sit here in our little Milky Way, eight planets and a couple of moons, surrounded  by a bunch of ding-dong Earthlings that believe they are the center of the universe.  Jesus.  It's pretty damn funny when you get right down to it.  A shout out to my friend Marty Qualls for sharing this photo this morning, it gave me such pause for thought.  

When I really stop to think about the fact that I'm little more than a grain of sand on the beach of humanity, in fact an atom in a neutron in a grain of sand, I could go in two directions.  One, that I really am insignificant, so why not just go back to bed (I luhhhhhh-vvvvvvvve my bed)?  I mean, what's the fucking point?  Who gives a rat's ass if I'm awake or asleep, other than my children when it's time to get picked up or eat dinner, or when they need money?  On the other hand, it's such a spectacular fluke that I'm here, that life on Earth is a reality, shouldn't I be ecstatic to be part of it all? Shouldn't I want to be awake for every possible thing life tosses my way?  No, People, I'm not smoking weed today.  I'm just celebrating randomness...the idea that humanity as we know it came to be out of nothingness, and here we are.  Wow!!!!  Maybe I should be smoking weed -- the thought process would no doubt be even more revelationary. Ha

Moving randomly down the list of things I'm going to touch on today, just saw a preview this morning for a new movie called About Time, directed by Richard Curtis, the creator of movies I LOVE like Notting Hill and Love Actually.  OMG!!!!  Looks freaking fantastic.  Here's the trailer...

Who wants to go see it with me???  Hubster, poor guy, will no doubt get saddled with the job.  He's such a good sport when it comes to chick flicks.  Anyway, the reviews are in and they are, for the most part, thumbs up all the way.

The review from the Hollywood Reporter was slightly less enthusiastic, but still had this to say...
The chief digressions here from the director’s established formula are a light twist of science fiction, and a lot more somber reflection on the value of love and family. This time, Curtis seems to be reaching for the philosophical depth and emotional clout of bittersweet magic-realist classics such as Groundhog Day or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He falls short of both, but his ambition is still admirable. Not as charming as his best work, but not as cloying as his worst, About Time received a modestly warm reception at its public premiere in London on Thursday. Commercial prospects will largely depend on whether the Curtis brand still packs the same platinum-plated punch as it did in more innocent times. 

The IMDb page for the movie says it will be out in theaters on November 8th.  Can't wait!!!


Next up...the new Skittles commercial.  FRENCH THE RAINBOW???  Yuck, I say.  I saw it this morning while watching the Today Show, and I was completely repulsed.  I love a good joke, love a teetering-on-the-edge commercial just as much, but this one definitely didn't do it for me...


Not sure if it's the mouthful of skittles that puts me off, or the whole 'frenching' reference, but...well, in summary, BLEH!!!


Are Oreos as addictive as cocaine?



Apparently, according to recent studies by students at Connecticut College, when rats ate Oreos they formed an equally strong association with the cookies as when other rats were injected with cocaine or morphine. Additionally, researchers found eating the cookies activated even more neurons in the rats’ brain “pleasure centers” than the addictive drugs.

“Our research supports the theory that high-fat/ high-sugar foods stimulate the brain in the same way that drugs do,” Neuroscience Professor Joseph Schroeder said in a school press release. “It may explain why some people can’t resist these foods despite the fact that they know they are bad for them.”

The student behind the study says she wanted to explore how foods with high fat and sugar content contribute to obesity in low-income communities, and that the results are troubling.

“Even though we associate significant health hazards in taking drugs like cocaine and morphine, high-fat/ high-sugar foods may present even more of a danger because of their accessibility and affordability,” Jamie Honohun said. On a lighter note, Honohun says they also got a surprise when watching the rats eat the Oreos. “They would break it open and eat the middle first,” she said.

Now that we've addressed the sugar-filled products Skittles and Oreos, let's talk about weight loss. Haha. Here's a photo that I actually saw posted on Facebook several days ago, which was also the topic of conversation and controversy on the Today Show this morning:

What was meant to be motivational is instead being taken as offensive by mothers all over the planet. Interestingly enough, the photo was posted over a year ago, but has just recently gone viral. So what do we think about Ms. Thang, I mean Kang?  Well, first of all, she is FRIGGING hot.  Second of all, in my humble opinion, the whole thing is a bit smug, and a little too in-your-face.  Yeah, she looks great.  Do I wish I had those abs?  You bet your sweet potatoes I do.  That being said, she is a personal trainer and a former bikini model.  Hello???  It's her job to look like that.  I would be a lot more accepting of the message if it were, say, a frazzled-looking mom with a 'normal' full-time job, sporting bags under her eyes.  

In response to the "haters," Kang recently reposted the photo with what she calls a "non-apology."
"I never called you fat, I never said that you were a bad mother, I never said what's your excuse for not looking like me, I never said anything like that. I just came out and said you need to own the thoughts you put in your own head because I didn't put it there, you did," Kang said.

Ummmm...I think she still sounds a bit bitchy, but what do I know?  Maybe her photo will be motivation for thousands of women trying to get their 'after-kids' body back.  Maybe not.  Either way, she's promoting herself, and why shouldn't she? It's a free country and all that jazz???

I went back and forth on that one, didn't I?