Michael Crichton was one of my favorite authors. I loved reading his books and feeling not only vastly entertained but also educated. His movies... well... they don't do his books justice. I can't say they're bad because Jurassic Park is my favorite movie. It also happens to be one of my favorite books by him. The stories are pretty different though. Anyway, what merited these musings was an urge to watch Timeline last night. Now, "Timeline" was an awesome book. I remember reading it in high school at a volleyball game. I had reached the joust in the book and the crowds were going wild, as were the crowds at the volleyball game. It was like Crichton and life coming together. Seriously love that book. ...moving on... So, I watched Timeline last night and it made me wonder about the modern day immune system.

People spend so much time killing germs and sanitizing things. Sure that may be the healthier thing to do, but isn't it, inevitably, weakening our immune systems? For those of you that don't know the basic storyline of Timeline, it's about a company that is trying to master teleportation and discovers a wormhole in time instead. They end up sending people back to 14th century France, the day before a big battle. My question is, with modern day immune systems, wouldn't they just be obliterated by the diseases rampant in the 14th century... diseases that mankind has built up a tolerance for and then lost the tolerance because the disease has been eradicated. Just by having a weak immune system alone, a person who traveled that far back in time would be, at the very least, sick all the time. The same could be said for anyone that would travel to the future. They would bring with them all the germs and nonsense that they don't know will eventually be harmful. The image that is brought to mind is from Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World". Linda, though she is from the shiny, clean part of the world, has spent years with the "savages". The image I have is of Linda returning to the shiny world as a broken down and dirty beast. Would a time traveler really be welcomed? Because of things like that, my guess is no.

Besides, I'm convinced that time travel isn't actually possible, it would have to be interdimensional travel... I wrote a blog about it once. Read it!

Last year... almost to the day, I wrote a list that was 100 random things about me. Since I recall this list taking many hours to write, I decided to do it again, but only do 50 things this time and then see how the lists compare.

Here goes:
1. I love lists.
2. Despite promising myself that I would never again live in Texas, I currently live in central Texas.
3. Jurassic Park is my favorite movie.
4. I despise almost everything about celery.
5. I am the procrastinator.
6. I have visited 15+ countries.
7. I have a Bachelors Degree in English with a minor in History.
8. Left up to my own devices, I don't eat meat.
9. I love cross-stitching and knitting.
10. I am a total nerd.
11. British humor might be one of my favorite things.
12. I love love love asian food.
13. The English language is one of the most interesting things to me.
14. I can't drink milk.
15. I sleep on the floor out of choice.
16. I don't like staying in the same place for even a year at a time.
17. I drive a cadillac.
18. Watership Down is my favorite book.
19. I love to garden.
20. I would rather stay up late than get up early.
21. Camping might be my favorite thing.
22. Due to unforeseen circumstances each time, I have been unable to attend grad school twice and the peace corps once.
23. I haven't added any new music to my collection in about 6 months.
24. I love popcorn.
25. Born and raised Minnesotan.
26. I rather enjoy the smell of citronella.
27. I went to school in Wisconsin.
28. One day I would like to open a used bookstore and coffee shop.
29. I love cats and dogs... and can never decide which one I like more.
30. I can type about 55wpm... not sure if that's average or not.
31. Writing is my catharsis.
32. I am really quite awful at making friends.
33. Strawberry rhubarb pie is my favorite.
34. I love cooking with oils... sesame being my favorite.
35. Neil Gaiman might just be my favorite author.
36. I've been to the Ren Fest 9 times out of 10 in the last 10 years.
37. I've been known to act from time to time.
38. I do my best not to lie.
39. Joss Whedon rocks my socks off.
40. Photography is one of my hobbies... last year I was one of the photographers at Comic Con here in Austin!
41. I am a total introvert.
42. My sister is my best friend.
43. Speaking of my sister.... I'm going to be an aunt soon!!!
44. My graduating class had 15 students in it and 2 exchange students.
45. My life is like one big movie reference.
46. I am not a competitive person.
47. I love 90's music and cartoons.
48. I think almost all movies have some sort of redeeming quality about them.
49. I have an irrational fear that I'm going to eat something with peanuts in it and then talk to someone who is deathly allergic to peanuts.
50. It's past my bedtime and it's only 11pm. *sigh*

So, there you have it folks! I hope that tickled your fancy! Take a look at both lists and see what has changed!

One of my most used labels or tags for this blog is "time travel". Well, that usually leads to other, wonderful thoughts. Today, my thought was about teleportation. 

Now, for the sake of clarification, this is teleportation like in "The Fly" where technology allows for instant teleportation from point A to point B. This has nothing to do with evolution, mutation, or superpowers. 

The actual point of this blog is that the sense of adventure with the advent of teleportation will actually decrease. This is why I think this:
Each major city will have at least one teleportation device. Your range of travel from that point is limited. Say I wanted to go to Rome for the weekend. I would just hop in a teleporter and head to Rome, wander around the city and head back. It makes me think of the Olympics being held in Beijing. They spent a lot of money and time making sure the area around the olympic stadium was beautiful and pristine, but go a couple blocks in a different direction and you'll get a better idea of "real life" where people go to work each day and aren't flooded with tourists etc. 

What teleportation would do for travel is phenomenal, but then who would take the time to see the deserts of Africa, the rainforests of Costa Rica, and the Australian outback? Spend the weekend in Sydney and then go home. So, while transportation would open the door for travel, it would also limit it. The ease of getting across the world would be far more preferable than taking an 18 hour drive into the middle of nowhere (for most people anyway). 

When actual teleportion is implemented throughout the world, tourism will be much more efficient. The lanes of traffic will be more precise, and hopefully, those wannabe adventurers will leave those of us who actually prefer "roughing it" alone. One day I hope to see a teleportation pod type thing in the middle of a field or like a train station. 

These are my thoughts, they are mine, they are my own. I would like to know yours... so feel free to share!

For those of you that don't know, this is a picture of family guy that parodies The Fly (with Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis). Look it up if you want to really know what this picture is about.

I was sent this picture because of my love for Jurassic Park. This makes me happy in many ways, I hope you all enjoy...