of shopping sprees and reptiles
Spent all day yesterday thinking up ways to burn the $50 my grandmothers gave me for Christmas. I eventually settled on a new watch, since my old one was a cheapo gas station watch not worth the cost of a replacement battery. I managed to find a nice-looking one at Target for $12, which left me with enough money to buy a small red purse which was on clearance, a necklace (I'd been wanting a simple one which could go with lots of different outfits), and a new wallet to replace the raggedy old thing I had been using. I love Target. :) I also headed over to the pet store and purchased a bottle of liquid fertilizer for my aquarium, and a tube of brine shrimp eggs for the next time the fish spawn. Both were less than half the price I would've paid in Holland, so I was quite pleased.
After her school got out, I picked up my sister and we headed over to my grandma's, where we spent the evening chatting and watching the news. I almost started a huge argument when I expressed disgust at the decision of a school board in Pennsylvania to force teachers to teach "intelligent design" in science classes alongside evolution-- it's complete bullshit and completely inappropriate to teach in public schools. The supporters of this move claim that it's only fair to give equal time to the two theories, but what they can't get through their thick little zealot skulls is that they're not equally reasonable alternatives. Evolution is a theory in the scientific sense, meaning it is falsifiable, whereas the theory of intelligent design is not. What experiment are you going to conduct to disprove the idea that some pie-in-the-sky "supernatural being" created us humans? It's just not science, and it doesn't belong in the science classroom. Luckily, all the science teachers in that school district refused to go along with the ruling, so at least for now, kids are protected from religious indoctrination in public schools... Anyway, I reacted in typical Megan fashion to hearing about all this on the news, and got all worked up and was unable to hold my tongue. Turns out my grandma sincerely believes that Adam and Eve were the first humans and that the idea that we "came from monkeys" is ridiculous, and was rather upset to hear her heathenish granddaughter railing against her views. In order to preserve the peace, I backpedalled a bit and told her I thought religion and science were not mutually exclusive and that it was fine to believe in creationism, but that I didn't think it needed to be taught at school, since "it's the job of parents and the greater Church community to instill Christian values in kids, not public schools". This mollified her a bit. :) Still, it made me think about why I wanted to leave Texas in the first place: I'm always forced to hide my real views on things. It's nice to feel like part of the mainstream for once; it's just too bad I had to go all the way to Holland to feel that way.
So anyway, I spent the rest of the evening online researching what it would take to keep a chameleon as a pet. I fell in love with a Veiled chamelon I saw at the science center in Oklahoma last weekend (we'd gone up to visit my dad's family there), and was curious if they would make good pets. As it turns out, the Veiled chameleon can get really big (upwards of two feet long), and a better choice would be the Jackson's chameleon. I seriously doubt that I'll ever be keeping one, however, since they require such a large investment of time and money. Still, a girl can dream...
After her school got out, I picked up my sister and we headed over to my grandma's, where we spent the evening chatting and watching the news. I almost started a huge argument when I expressed disgust at the decision of a school board in Pennsylvania to force teachers to teach "intelligent design" in science classes alongside evolution-- it's complete bullshit and completely inappropriate to teach in public schools. The supporters of this move claim that it's only fair to give equal time to the two theories, but what they can't get through their thick little zealot skulls is that they're not equally reasonable alternatives. Evolution is a theory in the scientific sense, meaning it is falsifiable, whereas the theory of intelligent design is not. What experiment are you going to conduct to disprove the idea that some pie-in-the-sky "supernatural being" created us humans? It's just not science, and it doesn't belong in the science classroom. Luckily, all the science teachers in that school district refused to go along with the ruling, so at least for now, kids are protected from religious indoctrination in public schools... Anyway, I reacted in typical Megan fashion to hearing about all this on the news, and got all worked up and was unable to hold my tongue. Turns out my grandma sincerely believes that Adam and Eve were the first humans and that the idea that we "came from monkeys" is ridiculous, and was rather upset to hear her heathenish granddaughter railing against her views. In order to preserve the peace, I backpedalled a bit and told her I thought religion and science were not mutually exclusive and that it was fine to believe in creationism, but that I didn't think it needed to be taught at school, since "it's the job of parents and the greater Church community to instill Christian values in kids, not public schools". This mollified her a bit. :) Still, it made me think about why I wanted to leave Texas in the first place: I'm always forced to hide my real views on things. It's nice to feel like part of the mainstream for once; it's just too bad I had to go all the way to Holland to feel that way.
So anyway, I spent the rest of the evening online researching what it would take to keep a chameleon as a pet. I fell in love with a Veiled chamelon I saw at the science center in Oklahoma last weekend (we'd gone up to visit my dad's family there), and was curious if they would make good pets. As it turns out, the Veiled chameleon can get really big (upwards of two feet long), and a better choice would be the Jackson's chameleon. I seriously doubt that I'll ever be keeping one, however, since they require such a large investment of time and money. Still, a girl can dream...