Dream Foo

Had two dreams. The first was pretty much just a roller coaster. I mean literally. I was on some kind of roller coaster at an amusement park. It was sort of a combination of a traditional coaster and one of those ones where they put you in a harness and fly you on wires.
The second, I was looking around my house and found a little box labled 'ELLA', which when I asked it for something that something happened. Apparently it stood for Electronic Laser Something (Limitless?) Assistant.
It linked up to a satellite in orbit which had a huge computer with enough processing power to alter reality locally, although it took a second or two for commands to get to the computer and the responses to bounce back.
Anyway, I used it for various minor things. Instead of clicking something on the mouse, I just asked Ella to do the function, search for whatever I wanted on the internet, etc. The reason I didn't do it myself was because I was still in a lot of pain with my back. Finally I realized, 'Hey, Why can't I ask it just to heal my back', so I did, and it did, and I just was able to move every which way without any problems.
Alas, it was only a dream.

Farscape News

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2004-04/05/17.00.sfc

So, we have a title, we have a channel (in the states, anyway), and we have a rough estimate for date (last 3 months of this year). Yay!

Selfish Altruism

So, my stepmother asked me to run to the bakery before it closes and pick up some mushrooms for the pizza she was making. My back has been hurting me since yesterday morning (and was utterly horrible this morning though has been getting slowly better throughout the day). Now, she (nor anyone else in my family) is aware I'm in any pain at all. Nor do I tell them, I just say sure, and go to it, even though the walk there and back hurt.
Why do I do such things? Because I'm crazy. But beyond that, becuase I'm selfish... I dunno, it feels good. I like being 'noble', I like doing things for other people, helping them, listening to their problems so they feel better, or all around attempting to make other people's lives easier especially when they're not even aware I did anything. (Since that gives the added bonus 'I've relieved them of the guilt of feeling they owe me anything).
Oh, sure, I enjoy getting thanks too, but even then I almost enjoy it just so I can say, 'Oh, it's nothing'.

Sure, it's a small thing, and when you get right down to it, selfish, but I feel better about myself at times like this than almost any other time.
Is this something genetically hard-wired into most people, but just generally gets beaten out of people? Or is it something that you build as time goes on? Or am I a particular freak in this regard?
(I don't claim to be anything special in the altruism department. I know many people who are great, giving people, but I don't know if there's this same particular psychological quirk at play, or if other people do it for other reasons.)
To put a bit more point on it. I don't do these things because they're 'the right thing to do', in my mind. I do them because I'm aware that doing them makes _me_ feel better. But I don't know for sure that, if I didn't feel better for doing the right thing, that I would still do it just for it's own good. (I like to think I would, but that thought, too, makes me feel good).

I think I've rambled enough on this.

Hellboy

Haven't seen it yet, probably won't see it in the theatres on account of having no one to see it with, but...
Want to win Hellboy's gun? Of an artistic bent?
http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=17283