Gallegos... More than meets the eye

Hmmmm...

I just read this news article. A woman in Galicia (people in Galicia are called Gallegos) gives birth to a girl with the help of her 6 year old son. She had pain the night before and dismissing the whole super large pregnancy bit, she rolled over and continued sleeping because she figured it was just pain from moving furniture the day before. Apparently, she also didn't tell her husband before he went to work. She went to the restroom, her water broke and her new daughter dangled from her far enough that she had to hold her and ask her son to help. In the end, she called for some help and followed instructions on how to handle the umbilical cord. The Emergency folks arrived toward the end of the whole thing.

In latin/hispanic culture, they make fun of gallegos. They make them out to be not the cleverest of people and end up being the butt of jokes. I don't really find those jokes funny because I am so far removed from the culture that surrounds the "funniness" of the jokes. I do have to wonder about a couple of things:
1. Moving furniture while pregnant... hmmmm
2. Not telling husband of strange abdominal pains while very pregnant... hmmmm
3. Delivering a baby with 6 year old, while 6 year old finds it normal and easy... hmmmm

Maybe I ought to read more about how these jokes started... Oh, and all of you who read the story and find it cool or sweet are simply sick! At 27, I do not want to deliver my mother's baby (especially by pulling down while reaching) any more than I did at 14 when my mom did have a baby.

Why Darwin is wrong, it is not the fittest that survives but those for whose God's appointed days are not over yet

I am perplexed why people think this video is heart-warming or tender. I think this woman has a death wish. However, this illustrates a good point and is a good example of why Survival of the Fittest is not the rule that truly applies to how a group sample changes over time.

Following Darwin's survival of the fittest, she has twice escaped her fate: she rescued a hungry (skinny lion's are not usually over-stuffed) lion and then she came up to his pen and reached in. According to Survival of the Fittest, this woman's life is such that she would die before child bearing to make the group of humans fitter going forward.

Here is the point that is missed. This woman will likely die a Steve Irwin death, not due to stupidity because we have already seen her stupidity was not enough twice already. She will die when her God given days are over.

So what if she dies as a lion appetizer? Well, this is no different than someone who often eats bad foods (henceforth called Fatty for endearment) dying from a blocked artery or heart attack or someone in a high stress job (such as a CEO and henceforth called the suit for effect) dying of a heart attack. In the examples of Fatty and the Suit, they are not necessarily less fit, especially if Fatty eats a lot but excercises a lot so that he actually looks and acts fit and especially considering the Suit exemplifies all the characteristics we admire in this here corporate America.

It is not unnatural for people to die doing what they do most of the time, by simple probability. If at any point in time, you have a 1% chance of finding out you won the lottery, it should be no surprise that you find out at work if you are a workaholic, at the gym if you are sick and ripped like Schwarzenagger or at Starbucks if you are a yuppy.

Besides, she looks like she could have had kids already if she had wanted to so that the supposed certain effects of Natural Selection would be mute at the time of death.

What is the moral of the story?
I would rather die with a full stomach in my 90's than IN a full stomach any day, so I will not be rescuing or hugging lions any time soon. Oh and I am not going near stingrays, fires, fubu (the blowfish, not the clothing brand, although wearing the wrong brand/color of clothing in the wrong place would be a bad idea too) or downtown Atlanta either just to better my chances of dying the way I want since I cannot control the when.

Tornado in Atlanta

We are safe!

There was a tornado in downtown Atlanta at about 11pm. We found out by chance when instead of turning off the TV we decided to check out Leno briefly only to find out some crazy news scene. I think cable tv companies should have a way to interrupt programming or send messages regardless of what channel you are watching.

Tornadoes scare me a bit. A hurricane is scary, but it goes by steadily, and rarely hits one house while sparing the next oh and you have a whole 1-2 weeks build up of expectation and preparations. We also read the 3 little pigs story and build out of cement for when the big bad tornado wolf blows our house stands.

I an getting a NOAA radio... trying to calm back down. Here is live feed from the inside of the Georgia Dome from the coverage of the basketball game that was taking place at the time. I think you can hear noise kind of like a freight train (not a horn but a train) in the background:

The difference between Alabama and South Carolina

It is not apparent to the naked eye. In fact, it is not clear as you drive through the fields on the mostly straight highway in the opporite direction from the other.

That said, I enjoyed my time in South Carolina a good bit more than any hour I have spent in Alabama. I even found me some land and a cow for sale if I ever choose to move. It also seems like planting and selling fruit is a lucrative and popular business. Besides, at $5,000 an acre and the fast rate of growth of Atlanta, it may be a good investment for when the Atlanta city limits border SC so that SC is the great suburbs we pay so much for. The way I see it, we only have 1/4 or less of an acre and pay a rent it from the bank for a good bit more than $5,000. While all along I could have bought an acre for $5,000 and a high quality trailer for about $2,000 my cow is about $1,500 (not too high quality but it will do to not have to pay someone to mow the lawn) and I would have been all set. Heck, I paid more than that for our 1.5 years in our 650 sq ft. apartment.

But this is not about realty or money and quite honestly this post is not about making much sense. The one thing this post is about is my bewilderment that knowing land is cheap in Alabama ends at the word cheap and is followed by my high dislike of our neighbor to the west but knowing land in South Carolina is cheap has a long string of what I would do with it and how big the farm would be etc when in reality they both look very much the same and have about the same amount of entertainment and are equally far from civilization.

I am going to Alabama again at the end of March. I will spend the whole weekend there. I will be working in Alabama that weekend. I will be doing this somewhat voluntarily even. I will not be using the words never and Alabama in the same sentence again anytime soon. At least this time Mambo and Jamil will be coming along. Oh, joy!