I can't believe how impatient I am!  So I decided to start a garden this year, in pots on my balcony.  I got a tomato starter for one pot, but am also seeding my own, as well as some herbs and hopefully carrots.  The problem is that I planted the tomato and herb seeds in little peat pots two days ago, and they haven't sprouted yet!  I know they will take a few days at least, possibly more, but I am unendingly axious over them, constantly checking to see if they need water and are warm enough, and I worry about them while I'm at work.  What if they dry out or get cold?  What if one of the cats knocks them over? (I put them in the cats' least favorite windowsill that still gets morning sun)  What if one sprouts while I'm not there?  What if Brian gives them too much water?  Or I do?  I wonder what plants did before there were inexperienced gardener wanna-bes to practically suffocate them by caring too much.  I also worry about Anna (the starter who is already in her large pot with staking and railing) but not as much, she's healthy so far.  I guess if nothing else, this experience will teach me to be patient.  I hate thinking that I'll have to wait MONTHS to have beautiful, ripe tomatoes, and smell lovely fresh basil.  I've been searching the internet relentlessly, looking for advice, trying to find out the best ways to do this, and have determined that it's like when Davida says asking two rabbis will get you five answers, so I'm hoping that I chose the best ones, and will leave it at that!  Here's to a summer outside reading poems to my plants.

I want to post about Fox News and video games, but to be honest, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.  How can you bring an "expert" on the show to talk about the effect a new video game might have on teens, when the video game in question is rated m, so younger kids can't even buy it, and your expert has never played a video game, much less the one they are talking about?  Does this make sense to anyone else.  Youtube, of course, has the clip, look up "se"xbox.  They aren't very subtle about their implications at Fox.  Then, look up Adam Sessler's response, Mass Stupidity.  I love it.  Adam is so articulate, and the vernacular comparison is rediculous.  This, children, is why you read, and love your dictionary.  Back to the point.  I'm tired of biased reporting.  I'm also sick of hearing the same redundancies used to label video games, as well as many other things.  And I'm sorry, but if your teenaged son cannot distinguish between game play and real life, then your son has much deeper problems than anything you can solve by taking away the console.  Of course you have to pay attention to what games your child is playing, that is part of being a responsible parent.  And yes, many games will be innapropriate for your younger children, that is why you should be an active part of their lives.  Parenting has not ever been without these responsibilities, and video games are not the sole cause of the corruption of our youth.  I blame bad parenting.  Not the media, or the school systems, or even pop culture.  Lack of interest and initiative on the part of parents who give their children their credit cards, and send them to the mall, or leave them at home by themselves all day long starting when they are four.  Guess what?  Your child did not learn to swear by playing xbox live, nor is that the first place they ever heard a racist remark.  Go spend a day in the hallway at their middle school.  Please, can people stop blaming games for everything that is wrong with the world?  I don't think our exalted president got the idea to send troops to Iraq and kill children along with militants by playing Grand Theft Auto.  There are bigger problems in the world people.  Or should I say, actual problems.  I grew up with video games, my boyfriend even more so, and neither of us, or the hundreds of other young adults from our generation, turned into promiscuous, violent, out of touch with reality car theives due to complete immersion in the gaming world.  One last request.  Can people start coming up with more original labels and arguments than bleeding heart liberal and video games causing the downfall of society?

End rant.