Ridley Scott is on board to direct a prequel to Alien, the 1979 movie that made John Hurt’s viscera famous. Since it’s a prequel, I can only assume that every human character dies or is otherwise prevented from returning to civilized space to tell the tale (otherwise, the original movie wouldn’t make much sense). I’m not sure it’s a necessary story, but I’m intrigued nonetheless. The years have not been kind to the Alien franchise and it desperately needs to be saved from itself. Between this project and his slated adaptations of The Forever War and Brave New World, Scott could spark something of a revival for serious, well-crafted science fiction films.

Here’s what I take away from the latest NYT/CBS poll on health care: people are quite capable of holding two completely opposing beliefs simultaneously. To wit:

In one finding, 75 percent of respondents said they were concerned that the cost of their own health care would eventually go up if the government did not create a system of providing health care for all Americans. But in another finding, 77 percent said they were concerned that the cost of health care would go up if the government did create such a system.

As a whole, Americans are deeply ambivalent of government’s ability to implement any kind of complicated social program. That’s what thirty years of conservative ideologues bashing government will get you. But once those programs are up and running, they tend to be pretty popular. Nobody talks seriously about eliminating Medicare or Social Security anymore because it would be political suicide. But we have a high tolerance for putting up with intolerable situations. As intolerable as our current health care system is, it is familiar. It’s like that beater car you once had; the one that leaked oil and pulled to the right and always needed a jump when the temperature dipped below freezing. It got you from place to place, but just barely.

If Congress can pass a decent reform bill, it could go a long way towards restoring our faith in good government. I’m just worried that decades of declining expectations for civil institutions of any kind have left us incapable of imagining something better for ourselves.

My body and I are on pretty familiar terms and I’ve learned to pay attention to its early-warning system. A nagging tingling in the back of my nose is the usually first sign of a cold virus taking up residence in my body. Then comes a certain lack of focus. An e-mail that would usually take me five minutes to write suddenly takes ten or fifteen. Then the sneezing begins. That sums up how things went at the office today. A sick day is in order for tomorrow, along with plenty of fluids and next month’s book club selection. Please send vitamin C tablets and an elite unit of Scandinavian nurses clad only in fishnets and silk camisoles.

Loneliness pushes people to seek comfort and solace from some unusual sources. For some Japanese men, the source of that comfort is a manga character printed on a pillowcase. These men belong to a particularly obsessive group of otaku–hardcore fans of anime and manga. They profess to having genuine romantic feelings for their favorite fictional characters, most of whom are prepubescent girls drawn in a disturbingly erotic fashion. The implied pedophelia is downright creepy, but Japanese society seems to tolerate these…eccentric?…man-children who have removed themselves from the realm of human love and romance. If an American guy showed up in any kind of public place carrying around the likeness of a half-naked cartoon girl, he would meet a much more hostile reaction. 

I suppose this is a sign of things to come. I can foresee a time when digital actors could be indistinguishable from flesh-and-blood people; real enough to become objects of desire for people who wouldn’t give an animated character a second look.

I was going to do another health care post today, but then I realized it was my birthday. I’ve now logged 36 journeys around the sun. And suddenly, forty isn’t just a number. It’s my imminent future.

My thirty-fifth year was something of a landmark. I started a new job that I continue to enjoy and that suits my interests and abilities quite well. I once vowed that I wouldn’t stay in government long because I didn’t want to slowly transform into a gray and humorless bureaucrat. But it turns out that I’m pretty good at this stuff (at least, most of the time). Check in with me in a decade or two to see if I’m still the enthusiastic public servant but, for the moment, civil service is quite satisfying.

I get a little anticipatory around my birthday, wondering what will come next. It could be amazing or…not. I’ll find out soon enough.