Apollo 2.0

So I was making my daily rounds on the internet and browsing the latest news on MSNBC's website, when the below headline (and article) caught my eye:

Cloned pit bull puppies revealed. All five of him.

As it turned out there was a woman who decided to have her pit pull cloned... AFTER the dog had already died. There is a biotech firm in Korea named RNL Bio who performed the cloning procedure from skin cells of the dog. Of course, the procedure wasn't cheap - it cost the lady from California $50,000 for this "service." Something else that will obviously be of debate is the ethical dilemma to this event that has raised furious debates from supporters on both sides - who are we to play God?

Supreme deities aside, I was quite surprised and intrigued at the sudden thought of how this could affect my life. While it's expensive and filled with potential complications (and who knows if the company will guarantee a definite successful clone and/or promise there won't be any side-effects) the procedure will eventually become cheaper. If indeed in about a decade or so's time the price drops by... say 1/2 so that it's about the same cost as that of a new car, and the results have been successful and positive, it really has gotten me thinking.



What if I had a second chance to raise Apollo? Or even a third chance? While it will obviously NOT be Apollo because of the way that each clone will be brought up in a different social environment and might be trained differently - on paper he is the same puppy to begin with, and will ultimately have more or less the same physical attributes. I will know any potential problems that Apollo 1.0 has (or will) experience and adjust for those things accordingly. I'll also be offered the chance to perhaps raise him a different way and train him in the ways that was most effective. Last but not least, he'll LOOK more or less the same and have the same genetic personality that should carry over into Apollo 2.0's characteristic traits.

What an intriguing world we live in... where we make the impossible, possible. I look forward to potentially spending the rest of my life, growing old, with the "same" dog.

Thinking and Seeing Clearly

Maybe I'm too picky, but then again most people are. I'm pretty sure everyone has their limits, boundaries, filters... whatever you want to call it, basically things that they can't handle or won't tolerate.

When it comes to women (and I've had this conversation a few times with Alex) and if you were asked to describe your perfect girl, would you be able to do it? I think I've attempted answering that question in the past but I remember coming up with something vague or saying "it depends." Let's try to break it down. There's obviously 2 parts: the physical and the personality.

Physical:

As far as their face/body goes, I'm as superficial as the next guy. You look at the face - nice hair, pretty eyes, cute complextion. Then you look at the body - size of boobs, slim/fit/average toned body, and overall curves. Finally you look at the big picture - does she take good care of herself, skin complextion, shaved legs, too much/not enough/or no makeup, and does everything come together? There are a wide variety of combinations that these things can be present in a girl... one combination that may pass as the "perfect girl" could be very different than the combination that generates a different "perfect girl".

I think up to this point in my life I've mostly judged a girl (at least initially to form a first opinion/judgement of her) from the physical perspective. Only recently did I start to really consider them from both the physical and personality wise as to whether or not she is "date-able" or compatible enough with me to work as a couple.

Personality:

With physical attributes, it's fairly easy to quantify those features and list those qualities out. However the list of things that make up someone's personality is endless. I don't exactly have a "points" system or "3-strikes" rule that would tell me that a girl is no-good. However there's a threshold in my head, while very obscure and hazy, that does in fact exist and once crossed, it's pretty much established that it's not going to work out.

A "perfect girl's" personality would probably mirror that of mine in numerous aspects and ways. It's probably pretty important that we share the same outlook on some big issues but at the same time it's the small things that matter as well. What TV shows does she like to watch? Does she like dogs? Does she share similar interests as I such that we have a great time doing things and hanging out with each other? I think that only recently did I begin to define what those things are to myself so that I can better figure out whether a girl has "failed" enough of those things and crossed the threshold that places her in the not-going-to-work-out category.

The Big Picture

And finally, it's how those 2 pieces come together. (I might sound shallow in this next comment but that's me, so deal with it) I think that regardless of whether you pass the physical or personality 1/2 of the test with flying colors... once you fail the other part, it's pretty much over and a done deal. I mean, I personally don't/can't see myself putting up with a ditzy girl that looked like Jessica Alba for the rest of my life - I can probably put up with it for 1 to 3 years but after I'm over the stages of showing her off to my friends and having crazy and wonderful sex with her, I can't spend the rest of my life with her. Likewise if I were to find a girl who was exactly like me (at least all the positive traits) and shared in each and EVERY one of my interests/hobbies/favorite things - but was completely unattractive to me, she will forever remain as my best friend and I'd never be able to sleep with her (because I wouldn't ever get turned on enough).

Now granted those are the 2 extremes, 99% of people I'll meet will fall somewhere in the middle and it will be pretty hard to figure out where exactly they fall. It's like having a scale and being forced to dissect a girl into those 2 halves, then weighing the two against each other to figure out if they pass.

It's a hard thing to do, but I think the sooner you are able to think/see clearly and make the judgement of whether the girl makes the cut or not - the better you'll be able to decide where you want your friendship/relationship to go.