18 WEEKS: Our Lil Sweet Potato!

Super Exciting! 4.5 months is almost 1/2 way there :)

It's your birthday!

Something about today's XKCD made me smile big and wide, and I found it oddly life-affirming. I'd been having kind of a crappy night, and this cheered me up to no end.

We all need a friend like that, and I think it turns out I have a few. Thanks, y'all - you know who you are.

Wolfram Alpha: good idea, terrible interface

"The market of stupid people is indeed enormous. The market of stupid people who like to use data-visualization tools is, well, not."

Unqualified Reservations digs into why Wolfram Alpha works so badly.

"You've got to come back with me, Marty!"

So, the first scene in Back to the Future 2 is also the last scene in Back to the Future 1. But, since Michael J Fox was visibly older and Marty's girlfriend had been recast, they had to reshoot the scene for the opening of 2. (This should not be an exciting trivia fact to anyone.)

However, proving once again that no matter what, someone has more free time than you do, The Internet has made a side-by-side comparison of the two versions of the same scene.

Funny stuff to note: while Michael J Fox delivers his lines in a very different way, Christopher Lloyd is almost perfectly synced with himself. Also, the number of reused shots surprised me - for example, the close-up of Doc Brown pulling stuff out of the trash is recycled from the first version, but the shot of Doc dumping it all into Mr. Fusion is new - which means that some poor sod had to carefully watch the first version and figure out what pile of trash props they needed for the reshoot. (Why do that? How is that easier than just using new trash?)

Apollo + 40

For the 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing, NASA has restored some of the original TV footage. BB, as always, has the original.

Still stunning, 4 decades later.

Also, there's something fundamentally eerie about the way we seem to have abandoned the future 40 years in the past.

In this post, there is a Rapping Opera Singer

Guys this is what the internet is for: some guys have used Science to make the Worst Song Ever. By their calculations, "fewer than 200 individuals of the world's total population would enjoy this piece." Go Listen.

WEEK 15: Feeling like I'm pregnant

Up until now I just felt sick, but as of yesterday, something has changed. I went to take a nap and rolled onto my stomach and for the first time I felt like there was something there. I guess it is time for 5.25 months of side sleeping now :)

Swine Flu is Scary, by Heidi Helman

So it turns out that Mother Nature's relative, Uncle Pestilence, has come up with a great thing to STRESS out pregnant ladies -- Swine Flu.

I consider myself a healthy gal; good pulse, great BP 108/67, high-ish but okay cholesterol, etc. I am a tad high on my prenatal screen for glucose tolerance, so I may be at risk for gestational diabetes, but that is temporary since it is based on placenta hormones and regularly I am not diabetic. I am a bit fluffier than I would like, but that is the way the it is and by all accounts I am a very healthy pregnant gal. Or am I?

According to the CDC: anyone who is overweight, pregnant, diabetic, asthmatic or suffers from heart problems is at risk to get the living tar kicked out of them by the Swine Flu. I can't help but notice that I can use three of those adjectives on myself. DAMN IT! So now I have these horrible fears of me and the baby catching the Swine Flu and keeling over from delivering in the middle of the winter flu season. I know this is a useless worry to dwell on because all I can do is take good care of myself, wash my hands often, avoid eating out as much, stop licking door knobs and hope for the best. No amount of worry will make me any safer from illness, if anything the stress of worry weakens the immune system.

I have had the flu once, I was a year out of college, and it was the worst I had ever felt in my entire life. I missed a whole week of work and I was living in a apartment by myself with my little dog Lexxy. I laid on the couch and moaned and little Lexxy laid on my chest and snuggled my cheek. After 3 days my fever of 103 broke and I began to want to stand upright again. By day 7 I was back at work.

Considering I pulled through that one flu within a week, I guess I should be comforted by the fact that my body knows how to kick some influenza tush. Maybe even if I do get Swine Flu, everything will turn out okay. I just have to make sure to keep taking good care of myself -- and not listen to the media.