Under a Rock, Next to a Nerd

We didn't watch the Academy Awards. (Were we the only ones?)

I haven't even seen a single movie that was nominated, let alone won. Oh, well, bits of Wall-E. I think these days I live under a rock. We don't even get television. At least I still know most of the names of the actors/actresses who were nominated. I haven't recognized most of the names of the "Grammy-Award-winning" singers in years. sigh.

Oh, wait, there was one film I saw. The one that probably nobody else saw. It was nominated in the Best Documentary category. Encounters at the End of the World is a documentary by Werner Herzog, about just what's going on down there at the South Pole. I figured we needed to shake things up a bit for Family Movie Night, you know, from the usual action violence and mystery and comedy. We got a little quiet and chilly (with our coordinating treat of ice cream), and some of us even a little bored. That's how real the movie was, because I'm sure we would be quiet, and chilly, and bored if we were to travel to Antarctica. At least some of the time. But the cinematography was beautiful. I was stunned to see such diversity and brilliant beauty in the lifeforms living in that dark, cold water at the bottom of the earth. It seems so much more fun to be swooning around in the warmer Pacific waters. These creatures really drew the short end of the stick, but at least they weren't shortchanged in their loveliness.

At one point, some under-the-ice diving occurred and water samples were collected. Tiny little organisms danced about under the microscope's eye. And then Dylan says,

"Wait, is it a prokaryote or eukaryote that doesn't have a nucleus?"

And Lyndsay answered (she answered!) "Prokaryotes don't have a membrane-bound nucleus or organelles, but their genetic material is still distributed throughout the cell's cytoplasm."

And Dylan replies, "Oh, yeah. That's what I thought."

And I chime in, "You two are a couple of nerds."

But I secretly love it. I love that my teenagers actually listen in science class. It's cool. (and they're good looking to boot!)


Nobody has time around here to watch much television anyway. Our studies consume most of our free time. My first semester ended last week (and I got an A!), and my next semester begins this week. I'm taking 9 credits, three classes. One online (Business) and two night classes (Biology and Humanities). You should see the reading list for my Humanities class. It's a whole post in itself, and probably forthcoming. Mama Mia!

And then, Biology. . .

Well, at least I now know that it's prokaryotes that don't have a membrane-bound nucleus. That's got to count for something, right?

(Oh, and our Antarctic documentary? It didn't win. Some guy tightroped it between the twin towers and he took home Oscar. )