On a different subject, I think it's about time I embraced my reclusive side and just quit telling people things. I'm really not psyched when I talk about things and people just say, "I have no idea what you're talking about." Sure, I might not be explaining things well, I might be generalizing, but somewhere in there, I do have a point or two. I'm also not psyched when I tell these certain guys things and they just shake their heads at me and say, "Oh, isn't that cute? You're so cute. Let's cuddle." How about not? How about I talk, and you listen carefully to what I'm actually saying?
Sigh. I'm surely complaining well out of hand, though. Do whatever you want. Don't ask me about this in person or say, "Hey, what's wrong?" It's unnecessary. Don't try to change things for me. Just go about your business as if you didn't read this...I'm bloody well allowed to kvetch if I want to without you people trying to change things.
Edit: I don't think you guys got the point of my questions about the space program. The deal here is that sure, it's easy to think we've just done everything there is to do on the moon, and that probes can do the rest—but a few good expeditions to the moon might clear up a lot of mysteries about the composition of the soil in certain places, whether water actually exists there, and a host of other inquiries. No one's even tried to visit the moon in a good 30-plus years, and pretty soon no one will even be around who knows much at all about the old missions. Government documentation is notoriously sketchy, so we might want to be concerned that this knowledge is being lost—if it ever existed at all.
Seriously, though, think about it: This iMac I'm sitting at right now has more power than the computers used in several Apollo missions combined. So why can't we do more moon missions? Just as I'd love to see the entire budget of the university clarified and explained, with funds in and out enumerated, it'd be great to know what the space program is doing if it's not putting money into shuttle missions or moon landings, i.e. things to do with getting people into space. Sure, there are all these experimental probes and little Mars landers they're developing, and sure, it's dangerous to put people in space, but still... Clearly I don't know everything there is to know about NASA and its relationship to the government, and plenty of NASA things are still probably classified, but regardless, I really wonder what's going on with the moon.