equinox

happy spring. or as we like to call it here in montana, 'mud season.' ok so it's probably called that in other places, too. whatever.
the weather has been quite nice recently. highs in the 60s during the day, sunshine, gentle breezes - very springlike. today though, the clouds rolled in, and it rained and then sleeted/hailed. holla! montana weather is nothing if not perverse.

it's even spring break next week. so all the students and professors will be pretending to catch up on work and mostly just hanging out outside because it's impossible not to want to be in the sunshine after a long missoula winter. cameo is working on her springtime fur coat, shedding out all the fuzzy hairs she built up over the winter. i haven't had to brush her all winter, and now she's leaving clumps everywhere, the cutie.

i'm looking forward to the next few of weekends. at the end of march, hank and i are driving over to seattle with anna to visit ashley and jason and BFO and to (hopefully) see an improv show with colin mochrie and brad sherwood (from whose line is it anyway). woot! it's gonna be amazing! and then the next weekend, jason and ashley are coming to visit here! yessss. and then hank and i have to work out going to helena with bethany so we can see stu and chelsea sometime soon. it's nice to have fun things to look forward to. lights at the end of tunnels.

good books, cocktail parties

finished another terry pratchett novel today - a hat full of sky - while lying in bed recovering from the cocktail party we hosted here last night. lots of (generally not very high quality) liquor. it was a fun party, though typical of a missoula crowd, the party didn't start until about an hour and a half after it actually started, at 8. we stocked up on vodka and gin, and a couple of other spirits, and put together a cocktail menu and had some nice hors d'oeuvres out: hummus, cilantro bean dip, deviled eggs, vegetables & pita, and brownies. all very tasty. we saw some friends we hadn't seen in a long time, which was nice, and had some great conversation and good drinks. it was fun to make tasty cocktails for people and play bartender. we should do it again sometime.

anyway, a hat full of sky is the next in a series dealing with the character of the young witch, tiffany aching, who is always accompanied by the completely endearing wee free men (or nac mac feegle). pratchett calls the feegles a type of 'pictsy,' which is hilarious because they are sort of tiny scottish caricatures - 3-6 inches tall, red-haired, covered in blue tattoos, living in clans, etc. the first novel was called the wee free men, and it was great too. i appreciate terry pratchett so much, and i'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series about tiffany aching, wintersmith. should be good.

evolution and religion

i really like the new york times. especially when they report on more than just "the news" and really go in depth on topics in their articles. for example, this past week they published an article on the evolution of religion, and why and how that happened to the human species. this series of questions from the article pretty much covers all the issues surrounding this topic.

"Which is the better biological explanation for a belief in God — evolutionary adaptation or neurological accident? Is there something about the cognitive functioning of humans that makes us receptive to belief in a supernatural deity? And if scientists are able to explain God, what then? Is explaining religion the same thing as explaining it away? Are the nonbelievers right, and is religion at its core an empty undertaking, a misdirection, a vestigial artifact of a primitive mind? Or are the believers right, and does the fact that we have the mental capacities for discerning God suggest that it was God who put them there?

"In short, are we hard-wired to believe in God? And if we are, how and why did that happen?"

it's quite a long article, but well worth reading if you're interested in that kind of stuff. which i am, obviously. it's called Darwin's God

enjoy