Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Bliss
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2004 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
An okay Dinosaur Comics reminds me that Bill Nye has a "consider the following" shtick. I spent many pleasant hours in front of Bill Nye the Science Guy.
One year of high school I had gym sixth period. The last month of the year was the swimming unit. I'd barely swim through the tests, shower, ride the bus home through a heat I didn't mind, and flop in front of the TV with some corporate sugar soda and watch Animaniacs, Wishbone, and Bill Nye the Science Guy. For some reason I remember having a towel on my head; maybe I showered at home. My mom was in India so she couldn't shoo me from the tube. After a few hours my dad would come home from his job at Caltrans and I would make him coffee. ("Making coffee": use the microwave to heat up a cup of milk, then stir in instant coffee. Only after high school did I realize that most people make coffee very differently.)
I remember those afternoon hours as perfect contentment, possibly the happiest hours I ever had in that house.
Maybe that is why I compulsively watch Good Eats; Alton Brown himself is sick of the comparisons with Bill Nye, but it's a reasonable comparison.
