A hole in my head and the role of genetics

Had a tooth removed today. The second from the last molar on the lower right side.

A year or so ago, I had a molar, second from the last, removed from the upper left side.

It's going to take a lot longer to eat now, and I already am a slow eater.

An hour later, I had lunch with Brother One. By that time, a big ol' blood clot had formed so I could eat, but half my face was still numb. It was a very weird experience. At least I didn't drool.

At lunch Brother One and I argued for 2 hours about nature vs nurture. He believes that life is 50% nature, 50% nuture. I disagree and give much much less weight to nature. You can have all the talent in the world, but it's society that grants or denies opportunities and your own decisions and choices too that determine how or whether you develop that talent.

After 2 hours, it was clear that neither one would change our minds and so we ended lunch.

It all started because I mentioned that I was having a nerdy day. I've been watching "Chuck" on Hulu and Chuck works as a member of the Nerd Herd that does home visits to fix computers. Then I was listening to the episode "Revenge of the Nerds" on the podcast "To the Best of Our Knowledge" on Wisconsin Public Radio.

The first segment was with Benjamin Nugent the author of "American Nerd: The Story of My People." He mentioned how WASPs would place themselves in the middle of a continuum that started with animals on one end, progressed to African Americans, Native Americans, then WASPs in the middle as "normal" and on to Asian Americans and machines at the other end. Nerds fall inbetween WASP and Asian American.

(As an Asian American, I guess this automatically makes me a nerd. And I am. I have no problem with saying that. Though whether I'm a dork as well is another issue.)

Anyway, clearly there are lots of problems with this continuum and the author discredits it. I mentioned this to Brother One and he started arguing that there are genetic differences between the races that give one race an edge over others in different areas.

That raised all kinds of red flags for me. Nazism and eugenics, the US forcibly sterilizing Puerto Ricans, segregation of all kinds, come to mind.

But Brother One was talking about evolutionary psychology which I read about in grad school but was treated very warily by sociologists. And that's just the beginning of our disagreement. I don't want to rehash our 2 hour argument here. I already have a headache from the hole in my head.

So this is what I have to look forward to this weekend:
1. hanging up some pictures
2. hanging out with Husband. Always nice.
3. Watching Pan's Labyrinth on DVD, which I got from the library.
4. More "Chuck"
5. More crocheting.
6. The Caribbean Festival on Auburn Avenue.

Maybe we will start up another batch of beer. We already have the kit to make Imperial Blonde Ale. We're down to about the last 8 bottles of the first batch and we're expecting 10 of Husband's relatives and friends from out of town for July 4 weekend. It would be nice to have some home brew to share.