News

Better today.  Deadline didn’t get further away, but I got more sleep last night.  I called it quits on work at about 7:30 last night instead of 9:00 or 10:00, or one night wasn’t it close to midnight?  I’ve lost track.  Stopping earlier helped.  More sleep helped.  We ended up watching some of the "Sarah Jane Adventures," which is a young adult/kid’s spin-off of Dr. Who.  All three of us enjoy the show a lot.  We also saw a little bit of "Planet Earth", that wild life film that is got to be one of the most spectacular pieces of filming ever.  We own it, but it had been awhile since we watched it.  You forget how visually wow it is, then you watch it again, and wonder how you forgot.  This series of films proves that our own planet is more bizarre and more beautiful than most science fiction worlds.  It’s just hard to top real biology.  Some of it’s simply gorgeous, and some of it’s breath-taking, and some of it’s savage.  Nature red in tooth and claw, and all that.  The large pride of lions, 30 of them, that in the dry season do a night hunt of a half-grown elephant is a case in point.  I was talking to Trinity about it, do my own narration.  Warning, I have a degree in biology so watching nature films with me, I’m usually either ahead of the narration, or adding more detail. 

Narration:  "I don’t see how the lions will take it down.  They either kill by massive blows, or bites and break an animal’s spine, which they can’t do to an elephant, or they suffocate it, and not happening here, or they gut it.  I don’t think they have the tools for that either."  A desperate lioness had jumped up on the elephants butt, clawing and biting, but making little head way.  The elephant is running like crazy trying to find the rest of it’s herd.  "If it just keeps moving, I don’t think they can bring it down, unless they swarm it.  There might be enough lions to do that, but they’d have to get on it’s back, and . . ."  About that time a lioness leaped upon it’s back.  A second one began to climb up to join it, and it was like watching huge, fury piranha swarm over the elephant.  There was a massive dust cloud.  The cameras either lost the hunt for a few seconds, or they edited it out, not sure which; the next scene is elephant down.  Lions everywhere, jaws already bloody. 

Trinity said, "It’s still moving.  They didn’t kill it.  They aren’t eating it are they?"

I waited on that answer.

"They’re eating, so they killed it."  She was happy with her answer and I kept my mouth shut.  I’ve learned with my daughter that some things are best left to her bright and shiny viewpoint.  Like the fact that the elephant’s ear was still fanning slowly, and one leg was kicking feebly, as the lion’s chowed down.  It’s hard for even thirty lions to kill something that big cleanly, but by Goddess, they were eating it.  It stopped moving soon thereafter.  Though, if it makes you feel any better I read an article years ago about a hunter in Africa that was mauled by a lion.  He said, it wasn’t painful.  In fact, from the first blow he just went numb and shock sat in, so he felt nothing, not even fear.  I hold onto that thought when I see things like the elephant hunt.  Be nice to think the elephant was beyond it all, as they started to feed, but that cynical part of me is never that certain. 

Trinity and I watched a little bit of a Mythbusters episode to send her to bed with good, happy images in her head.  Nothing like watching Adam and Jamie try to polish poo.  Watching Tori, Grant, and Carrie, try to do a literal, hit the ground running, was pretty amusing, too.  So, bed time on an up, and slightly silly note, which is not a bad way to send the kiddo to bed.  Or me either, for that matter.  Oh, Jon was still in his office fighting with installing a new Linux server.  Trinity did homework, and got to play a lot on her DS, and watch movies, or television shows that interest her more than us.  She thought it was a great weekend.