i turned on the tv this morning to news of another shooting up in maryland. the absurdity of the situation was made apparent when the today show–what i consider to be one of the more reputable news shows–did a telephone interview with some guy who was “at the scene of the shooting.” ok, whatever, i can deal with that. but as they’re talking to the guy, he says “i saw the police cruisers and i followed them hoping that they’d caught the sniper, but unfortunately it was another victim.”
wait, rewind.
“i followed them.” as in, this guy, who actually was well-spoken and sounded reasonably intelligent, saw police cruisers with sirens going and decided he’d stoop to the level of those people who slow traffic for miles by gawking at accidents on the side of the road. i hate it when morbid curiosity gets the best of people. it’s not that i haven’t felt the same pull myself; i’m just sensical enough not to act on it.
here was the today show, interviewing some guy who’d decided he had nothing better to do than follow police cars and get in their way, and what’s more, the today show lady spent 5 minutes letting this completely random and probably unqualified bystander speculate on what he assumed had happened. “well, i think the sniper had to have been in these trees…” yeah. now that’s quality reporting, people.
{sigh} the sniper thing is serious business, and the media is just sensationalizing it. i hate speculation. i’d be happy if they just kept their mouths somewhat shut until they had more solid information. speculation only fuels the mass hysteria.
anyway. i had a lovely evening last night. first, i got to play interior decorator a little bit, giving carter suggestions on what to do with the furniture in his basement. second, i finally went to the grocery store so i can once again eat. yay. third, chris was bored so he came over and i cooked spicy tomato pasta and peas. hee hee. fourth, i put together the bookcase/shelf i’m using for my darkroom. it’s starting to look better and better. fifth, i got to read my book in my comfy bed. ahh.
softball’s been rained out for tonight (the ground is soggy, soggy, soggy), which is actually good for me since i wasn’t going to be able to make it anyway. instead, i will be in the control center learning how to use the voice loops and computer applicatons. ugh. i already know how to do all that, as i’ve been in mission control more times than i can count. however, i need to have it on record that i’ve taken the class, so i’m going. i guess it won’t be that bad. training academy has improved significantly now that we’ve gotten past the intro stuff that i already knew. i’m currently auditing space station classes that are interesting/applicable. yesterday i went to the medical systems class, which was ok, and the motion control systems class which was excellent–i learned a lot of very useful information in that one. this morning i went to the station modes class that was also good.
also, there are european space agency people attending the station classes, and they amuse me. they all speak french to each other, but when they speak english to ask a question or something, different accents come out. my guess is that only two of them are actually french, and one is italian, and two others are german.
la la la.
