FOR THE LOVE OF KNOWLEDGE!!!

I have become seemingly obsessed with gaining as much knowledge as possible on anything and everything that intrigues me lately via books, 'books on tape,' movies and the internet.
I'm learning about 'Taosenos' (pronounced with an ~ over the "n") thru Tony Hillerman's, The Great Taos Bank Robbery: And Other True Stories of the Southwest on account of my brother and sister-in-laws, Dani & Jason relocating to Taos, NM this past summer. I am so intrigued by the town and wanted to learn more about it. I wonder if some of these quotes ring true for two new residents? Can't wait to visit someday!
"One of the few places where a man can still feel adequately dressed downtown in bib overalls."
"Taos is a tolerant village, well accustomed to whimsey."
"What seems outlandish in Columbus, Ohio seems fairly normal in Taos."
"A certain amount of eccentricity is required for conformity."
"A place of confusion concerning gender."
"Taos is a small community, and it's street are few, narrow, crooked and short. It is a completely innappropriate setting for a high speed automobile chase."

Next I watched two Globe Trekker presentations on Chile & Easter Island and Ecuador & the Galapagos Islands. I have a very strong desire to spend an extended amount of time in South America someday in hopes of strengthening my grasp on the Spanish language, and also being culturized. I have a strange draw toward Ecuador, having sparked my interest thru a report I completed on the country in middle school, knowing a family friend who came from there, and having a cousin who visited a couple years ago. I became especially intrigued with the Galapagos Islands tho after this particular presentation. I didn't ever know that these islands had contributed to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. There are a vast number of endemic spieces, meaning they aren't found naturally anywhere else in the world (because yes, I had to look up the word 'endemic')... and the speices found on these 40 islands have no natural predators so they fear no man so you can swim freely with the sea lions and other wildlife... it looks absolutely amazing! Plus the number of tour boats allowed to visit at one time is limited and the national dish of Ecaudor is ceviche! What's not to be excited about?!
And a word on Chile... known as the Valley of the Moon, with one of the largest observatories in the world. And it's home to the driest desert in the world, the Atacama Desert. I still don't feel like I know enough about this country...
I also watched a documentary on lightning this past week. Since we reside in the lightning capitol of the world I figured I could afford to gain some knowledge on this frequent act of nature. It was very interesting to be informed that lightning actually strikes upward but our eyes register too slowly to see this. Also come to find out, the saying, "lightning never strikes twice in the same place" is a myth. The Empire State Building is struck on average 100 times a year. And get this, a lightning bolt is 5x hotter than the sun. Wowee. I learned some more cool stuff but can't seem to recall all the details... I should start taking notes!
My next quest is the electric car...

And Ashley, don't you dare tell me i'm turning into Zane and Pete! I'm not glued to the history channel or the military weapons channel or getting daily historical tidbits on my IPOD ok! Gimme some credit! Hahaha