Yeah, I know-

I should have done this a week ago.

Anyway Saturday the 17th was my 36th birthday.  It was just a little family affair, no big deal, but cool.  My mom made chicken parm., grilled green beans, and a homemade cake.

I got some pretty cool things too (ok, to me they're pretty cool.  I'm a dork, though, so its all relative.).  My sister and brother-in-law gave me the entire series of Dr Quinn Medicine Woman which was one of my favorite shows in the 90's (yes, I know that's corny.  Bring it.  I'm totally ok with that.). Her mother-in-law gave me a really nice wrap sweater poncho because I'm ALWAYS cold.  My mom, knowing how into The Martian I currently am, bought me the book and the special blue-ray version that has a whole extras dvd and the dvd with the theatrical and extended release (yay!).

As much as I love corny old tv shows (yes, if I see Little House when I'm surfing, I will stop and watch it and I also love Frank Capra movies), science fascinates me, even when I don't always understand it.  I did well in biology in school, chemistry kicked my butt (more than once) and sometimes my brain just goes "Yeeaahh, I got no idea what you're talking about," and kind of gives up.  Sometimes, though when it finds out something it latches onto that fact and is like "That's fantastic!" This is kinda why I got into the Mythbusters.  There was an episode once where they were doing a myth that involved a seesaw and they talked about cranes (the machine, not that bird).  Now, I never really gave them much of a thought, even though I'd always seen them around.  Then they explained how they worked, (basically the cables are what enables them to be able to life and move the heavy objects around and at the heights they do) every time I saw one after for about a month I just smiled and thought "How cool."

But back to The Martian.  I'll admit that the first time I saw the movie I was like, "yeah ok, this is cool," but that was it, although this is was around the Oscars the year it was nominated and we were trying to watch as many of the movies/films that were nominated that were on On Demand.  Then a month or so ago it was on HBO and I thought "sure, why not" and I could not stop watching it.  I don't know what changed but I got sucked in.  The cast...you DUDE.  Like, I can't imagine anyone else playing those characters other than the actors they got...weellll, except if they got Naveen Andrews to play Venkat Kapoor instead of Chiwetel Ejiofor to play Vincent Kapoor but that's nitpicking.  Besides, Mr. Ejiofor is an AMAZING actor. Also YAY Sean Bean is a good guy!  That's just a plus in this one (BTW, I tried watching GOT...too much blood.  I got through the first episode and I was like "Umm...I'm not so sure about this one.  I mean, I like fantasy.  Dragons are awesome. Strong female characters are fantastic.  Arya is cool.  But the decapitation and kids falling from roofs...I don't think I can handle that.  That was a hell of an aside for you. Anywho...).  Matt Damon's Mark Watney is great.  The funny quirky dorky but cool nerd guy.  I mean, isn't there a little but of us all that's like that?  I know when I'm home alone I walk around and talk to myself (when Wolfie is passed out on the couch in his cocoon of blankets he's made for himself.  Seriously, if its soft, he thinks he owns it).  The huge difference is that he's mad smart and saved himself from dying on a wasteland planet.  Actually, without getting too philosophical (I'll save that for another post), I kind of have this theory that the whole theme of the book and movie is Faith, Hope and Love, not just Science.  Science got the job done, but if it wasn't for the other three, he wouldn't have gotten home in the first place.

I guess I've bored you enough for today! lol.

Catch you later.

EDIT: Oh yeah, so I forgot to mention the cool thing that I learned so far reading The Martian was that you can die from too much oxygen.  So there is is only around 20% oxygen in our atmosphere.  That's what we breathe.  The rest in Nitrogen (78% and change...thank you Google, because the book isn't within arms reach) and trace amounts of other gases, which also includes CO2, and Argon.  So apparently, your body can't handle too much oxygen; it can freaks your body out, your lungs will fill with fluid.  This link tells you all about it.  You know, just in case you haven't read or don't want to read the book.