Far Removed

Can you tell I'm bored since I'm home alone today? Ethan's been telling me about some of the news back home and things going on at work. I feel so far removed from NASA without any technical people here, even, to talk to. It will be odd to go back after eight months to a place where life will have gone on as usual and I'll be expecting it to be right where I left it because I won't really know any different. As far as other news - I catch glimpses of presidential candidates during the news sometimes at dinner. Otherwise, I'm not really aware of what's going on at home. I wasn't in the habit of reading/watching the news at home all the time so I haven't done it here either - though it would certainly be easy to check CNN or Google news every day. Last night, Ethan was telling me about the Janet Jackson Superbowl thing and all I could think was "How stupid". On so many levels - that stars go to extremes to get attention, that we give it to them, that we're so hung up on not showing any part of the body on TV... (The French have no problem showing half-naked women on tv... a topless woman drinking or eating a certain product in a commercial always makes for better sales, right?) And then I was thinking, "Thank God the French haven't gotten a hold of this craziness - I wonder what they would think if stuff like this was all they saw about Americans on the news."

And then, just now while I was typing this, with one of those crazy interview shows on in the background, they did a segment about it - the Janet Jackson thing. Oy vay.