Sunday 25 January 2009

Dogs are from Venus


Ok, so I know I said I'd finish my short story and post it, but I haven't edited it yet, so you'll just have to wait. Sorry, awfully bad of me, spent yesterday running followed by drinking wine and watching TV (re-run of war of the worlds - the Tom "jump up and down on a sofa" Cruise one) instead of writing.

I must say, it's one of the better sci-fi Hollywood remake offerings. My wife thinks it's scary - she's got some sort of alien invasion phobia - which I tell her is pretty weird but it still puts the willies up her. I mean, planet earth has been around for about 4 billion years (unless you're a creationist nutter in which case it's only been around 6000 years, but then the bible doesn't mention aliens so this sort of thing won't bother you anyway). And in that time, there is pretty much zero evidence of aliens ever trying to invade. As the average human life-span is around 70-80 years, you'd have to be pretty unfortunate to be around if/when they do invade.
My wife - an ex-scientist - did find comfort in the fact that they all die from bacterial infections, which she pointed out would actually happen if they where organic. - sigh

Don't get me wrong, I think that there is life out there in the great cosmos, maybe even intelligent life somewhere, but I think the chances of them coming to visit us is pretty remote. For a start, the amount of effort involved to travel here would be pretty immense. Why would they bother? I know the KFC party bucket meal is good value and everything, but is it really worth the trip out?

Some people just don't take this as a reasonable answer though. Some people think they've been abducted by aliens and had probes inserted into various orifices - but some people will think anything.
I think it's telling that in the 70's we got the odd hazy picture of what looked like the lid off a washing up liquid bottle, and lots of eye-witness accounts of grey men with big eyes - but these days when pretty much everyone in the western world carries either a camera or a phone with a camera, no-ones ever been able to get a picture of one of the little buggers.

Anyways, ran 6.1 miles yesterday, so very proud of that; even if I can't feel my legs today and my knees no longer bend. Got the day off work tomorrow as well - Whooha!

I'll leave you with a quote today, rather than inflicting you once more with my questionable taste in music:

'Friends are God's apology for relations.'

3 comments:

Kimberly said...

I'm thinkin that if there is life out in some other universe that they are like us and haven't yet figured out how to visit.

i have the sickness said...

i like how you refer to tom cruise as the guy jumping on the couch. i've never seen the movie mostly because i think he's a tool. its too bad he destroyed his career by going mad with star power.

Writers Block said...

HillBilly - agreed. The obstacles are so high that if they've figured it out they'd wipe us out in an instant anyhow.

Short Stick - Thanks for dropping by. re: The Crusie - you can't expect too much from a guy who thinks 'Battlefield Earth' is an historically accurate account of the origin of mankind. It's the wife I feel sorry for.
(mental picture of Katy Homes)
Ok, now I'm drooling again.