After screening one of the episodes of the new American drama Skins, (based of off the award winning E4 show of the same name), PTC President Tim Winter had these painfully idiotic things to say:

“The episode included all manner of foul language, illegal drug use, illegal activity as well as thoroughly pervasive sexual content.”

He’s pissed off about this, and he’s not going to take it. Winter has sent a letter to the U.S. Senate and House Judiciary chairmen as well as the Department of Justice, because apparently, the fact that he didn’t like a TV show is serious business. I had no idea that his opinion was a matter of national importance. What a puffed up little twat. But it gets better!

“Many of the actors appearing in the show are below the age of 18. It is clear that Viacom has knowingly produced material that may well be in violation of [several] federal statutes.”

He’s accusing MTV and the producers of the American adaptation of Skins of making child pornography. Having watched the british version (which may be considered risque by American standards but in no way pornographic), I’m calling bullshit.

What troubles me most about this isn’t that he’s making a big stink about the content of the show – that’s nothing new. What troubles me is that he can’t seem to differentiate between acting and reality. Does this man go through life truly believing that what happens on TV is actually happening? Does he actually think the actors are really doing drugs on this show? Or that they’re actually having sex?

Does it freak him out when he sees Kurtwood Smith out walking around? Does he wander up to the man and go, “dude, I thought Robocop stabbed you in the neck, Mr. Boddicker.”

Does he get confused when actors play different characters? Does he just assume the world has an exceptional number of twins that get into film and television? Or is this why he’s against cloning – we should stop wasting the talent of wonderful actors like Leonardo DiCaprio in crap films like Titanic. Don’t they know we have to grow a whole new Leonardo every time the guy has an onscreen death? Titanic cost as much as it did because they had to grow five Leos in order to get the drama and emotion of freezing to death just right.

I’ve long mentioned my desire to plant a vegetable garden indoors. I’ve grappled with figuring out where and how I would set it up, what sort of mixtures I would use for different plants, how much light I could give them, what types of fertilizer I would need to get, and so forth. The limitations of an indoor apartment vegetable garden combined with the complex needs and desires of such a garden were daunting. I ordered books, I did research, I realized, to my increasing frustration, that the world was patting me on the head and going, “there, there, darling, wouldn’t you like some lovely flowers? Perhaps you won’t kill your next dull potted plant.”

That is, at least, until I remembered that I had done a hydroponic garden as a science experiment in high school (independent study, long story). We’d been given at some point an expensive hydroponic garden, everything included, by someone who’d grown fed up with it and given up. I was able to more than make it work, but in fact make it produce, even without fully understanding nutrients and pH levels, (worse, I didn’t entirely understand the science of which plants needed which nutrients, and as a result, all the plants got too much or too little of what they actually needed).

The benefits of a hydroponic garden are many, but let’s look at how they stack up against the limitations of an indoor container vegetable garden:

Suffice it to say, I discovered that old hydroponic system is still around and fully intact, if unused for about ten years. I’ll be setting up our storage closet in the coming weeks, dusting off the system, replacing necessary parts (presumably a new motor for water filtration), perhaps adapting some new functionality, such as an air stone, getting a sturdy and adjustable stand (and probably some new bulbs) for my light, buying a light timer, seeds, new grow media, pH tester and adjusters, liquid nutrients and a big ol’ floor mat to protect our carpeting.

I’m very excited to start growing a vegetable garden at home! It’s not quite as romantic as I’d originally envisioned, but it will be well-contained and protected, out of harms way, and out of our way, and hopefully we’ll get some wonderful yields!

“Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.”

“I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.”

“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

“Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.”

“Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.”