Sorry about the lack of updates lately. I’ve been extremely busy working night and day. Our sitter has been out of commission for quite some time, so I’ve been pulling Daddy duty and doing a full day of work in addition. Both my wife and I are exhausted. Something had to go, and the Blog was it. It was either that or sleep.

Today, my first day back at my regular schedule, I think I did something bad to my back. Wednesdays are my day in the office at McGraw-Hill. Depending on what I’m doing, I could spend between 30 minutes to 4 hours there. Anyway, I had two huge boxes to bring in today. After I loaded them in my car, I went bounding back inside. It felt like something slipped back there. I’ve had a dull ache ever since. It hurt like hell carrying those boxes in to the office. Of course, being an idiot, I ignored the pain all day. Now my back is stiffer than Bill Clinton at an Intern Convention. (Sorry, that was a cheap shot.)

The pain isn’t a surprise. I’ve been working on things that require me to be stooped over, or sitting in weird positions on the floor sorting hundreds of pieces of paper. I’m actually surprised it took this long to manifest itself. Until today I only had a sore hip. Not even thirty and I’m already having hip pain.

(Quick yell to my Aunt Elaine who recently had hip surgery. I should say she’s rewriting the book on recovery. I have no doubt that within a week she’ll be back to her usual routine. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she planned a vacation to the Running of the bulls this year. I come from strong stock! Get well Elaine!)

Because of this somewhat mindless work, I’ve spent some time in front of the TV half-heartedly watching movies and shows. Once I ran through just about every season of The Real World that MTV had, I needed to move on to something else. (That’s not true, MTV only showed one episode of The Real World. They just showed it 983 times.)

Luckily, last Monday TCM ran a Sci-Fi marathon. In one day I was able to watch Tron, Soylent Green and Roller Ball. I could have stayed for Silent Running with Bruce Dern, but I had just watched it within the last year and . . . it wasn’t nearly as cool as I remembered it as a kid.

Sunday, while working on a survey for McGraw-Hill, I watched Contact, with Jodie Foster (sigh, pitter- patter). I’ve had the DVD sitting here for months, as a promise to my friend. You see, I hated the film when it was in the theater. I couldn’t ever put my finger on why, but . . . we had done enough battle over the last two years that I finally promised to watch it.

And I did. Granted, I listened more than watch. But that’s okay. It’s a mediocre Robert Zemeckis film. You don’t really have to WATCH. Just glance periodically. But, it was written by Carl Sagan, so there are some real scientific theories floated about. Granted, the only one that has any prominence in the film is Ockham’s Razor. Not exactly heavy science there. But, I thing the screenwriter enjoyed the phrase, “All things being equal.”

Overall I felt the film was fun, but flimsy.

Let’s face it. I’m a geek. And this was a fictional world created by Carl Sagan. Which means it’s a world in which one of the most popular and influential scientists of our time doesn’t exist. There is no Stephen Hawking in this world. It’s an alternate reality I don’t like.

Plus the ending sucks.

There is one scene, however, that resonates with me. A man (David Morse, that raspy bland guy from St. Elsewhere. I’m sure his career extends beyond that, but that’s where it began and ended for me) is standing on a balcony with his daughter looking at the stars through a telescope. She asks about a certain star and he explains it’s a planet. He then goes on about how the planet got its name, how that’s ironic, etc.

I want to be that man.

I suddenly had an urge to become a scientist. I want to research and discover and know things that I don’t know. I want to search for the truth. I want to discover things about the future and the past. I want to think about things that are so small that they make me feel insignificant. I want to discuss theories that are so encompassing that I feel powerful.

I am Geek, hear my pocket protector rattle.