I'm sick and tired of presidental candidates who use (and sometimes mispronouce) big words, and who reference things I don't understand and am too lazy to research...I shouldn't have to be expected to think anymore, and I want a candidate who believes this. This is why I support Ugg the Caveman for President.
"Ugg think all citizen deserve fire. Fire good, but fire also bad...once Ugg tent caught fire...that bad time. Ugg believe education important. Ugg learn much from high school PE class. Ugg think strongest hunter make decisions. Ugg very good hunter, Ugg once kill three mammoth in one day. Yes, press man white shirt funny tie."
"Yes, Mr...ah...Ugg. Are you aware that mammoth have been extinct for thousands of years?"
"..........because Ugg kill them all!"
Come on, everyone, now that's a campaign we can all believe in.
Ugg the Caveman for President: Because fire good, but fire also bad.
I just spent the last few hours of my life in the Rocky Face WaffleHouse, drinking way too much coffee and doing algebra...and then, driving home at ten till midnight on the longest day of the year, with Sigur Ros blaring from the stereo and the day's rain steaming all around me in an ethereal curtain of wisping mist, the soft lights of Chattanooga silently glowing in the northern sky, home somewhere in front of me and the car an extension of myself sliding into the curves of the road, I cannot help but think in this moment it feels right. In this moment, I am happy. And I wonder if it is a selfish thought, to wish it would always be so.
Guess who bought a new book this weekend. I'll give you a hint. It ain't Gandhi. But it was Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman! by Richard Feynman, so I think it was justified. Even if I'm going to die before I read all the books I own. At least I'll die happy I guess.
I'll be twenty in a few months. I know by many standards (including my own) that's still so unbelievably young, but that's a fourth of my life. If I'm lucky, that's a fifth. I remember when I was little and it seemed so clear to me, and I was sure, utterly convinced that by the time I got to this point I would have everything figured out...I would have a plan and a life for myself and everything that that entails. But that's not the case now is it? If John Mayer didn't get on my nerves, I'm sure I would liken myself to one of his songs.
I guess that's what I get for working in a bookstore for a year, but I just can't stop buying books...I bought The Birth of Venus today as well as the second Patrick O'Brian novel about Captain Aubry...what can I say, I loved Master and Commander. But I can't read them yet, because I am currently reading A Brief History of Nearly Everything, The Fabric of the Cosmos, The Elegant Universe, The Orchid Thief, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintinence, and The Golden Compass. And once I finish those I need to read the other two books in His Dark Materials (The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass) and all the Harry Potter books again. And those Harry Turtledove alternative history novels I got a few weeks ago. And Purple Violet Squish. And...oh god, there are others....someone save me...stage an intervention. I'm addicted.
Did anyone else see today's Penny Arcade? Link seems to have some problems...of course, I would too if after twenty years of saving Hyrule I looked like a gay little boy as well.
I am alone at the moment because everyone has gone to Riverbend to eat, drink, and be merry...but my head hurts so I did not go. I can't get the smell of cleaner out of my hands...but oh hey everyone, buy the new Clorox toilet cleaner wand. It's awesome.
It occured to me today that Georgia summer is coming in head on to fling it's unholy burning wrath upon me.
The kittens are sitting on my feet. I have too many cats.
YOU MIGHT BE A PHYSICS MAJOR...
if you have no life - and you can PROVE it mathematically.
if you enjoy pain.
if you know vector calculus but you can't remember how to do long division.
if you chuckle whenever anyone says 'centrifugal force.'
if you've actually used every single function on your graphing calculator.
if when you look in a mirror, you see a physics major.
if it is sunny and 70 degrees outside, and you are working on a computer.
if you always do homework on Friday and Saturday nights.
if you know how to integrate a chicken and can take the derivative of water.
if you think in 'math.'
if you've calculated that the World Series actually diverges. series....*body-wracking shudder*
if you hesitate to look at something because you don't want to break down its wave function.
if you have a pet named after a scientist.
if you laugh at jokes about mathematicians.
if the Humane society has you arrested because you actually performed the Schrodinger's Cat experiment. (I think I should get this one because I know what experiment is being referenced here)
if you can't remember what's behind the door in the science building which says 'Exit.'
if you have to bring a jacket with you, in the middle of summer, because there's a wind-chill factor in the lab. (The classrooms at Dalton are cold...)
if you are completely addicted to PhysLink.com.
if you avoid doing anything because you don't want to contribute to the eventual heat-death of the universe. (Well NOW I don't)
if you consider ANY non-science (or math) course 'easy.'
if when your professor asks you where your homework is, you claim to have accidentally determined its momentum so precisely, that according to Heisenberg it could be anywhere in the universe. (Oh man, that's funny...I should try that)
if the 'fun' center of your brain has deteriorated from lack of use.
if you'll assume that a 'horse' is a 'sphere' in order to make the math easier.
if you understood more than five of these indicators.
if you make a hard copy of this list, and post it on your door.
I put what applied to me in bold...I'm a sad sad person...
It's true. Jennifer Lopez (I refuse to acknowledge her as J.Lo) has married again.
Sunday afternoons make me feel so lazy...I need to go wash my car though...
This weekend was great, so great in fact that I must steal a word from out favorite British transvestite...I'd have to say it was fantabulous. Friday night I spent with my sis and Tiffany and Kevin and Nathan and we all went to see Harry Potter. Best one yet. Awesome. Fantastic. I wish Cuaron was directing Goblet of Fire as well, but alas.
Saturday was even better...oh my god, the Howard Shore concert was so awesome. He's such a strange little man. His face contorts in such odd expressions when he is conducting. The vocal parts on the last four movements (there were two from each film) were sung by this Scandinavian singer named Sissel, and she did an amazing job, such an incredible voice. Very clear. I might go see if she has a CD out or something.
Well, that's all I'm going to bother putting cognitive effort into. I think I'll go wash the car now.
Right now I want sushi so bad it's making my teeth hurt. The Math Lab is terribly, painfully empty, so it has been for the past four and a half hours...in fact almost the entire campus is deader than Aristotle, so I wonder if a few of the evening classes were cancelled or something. I'm here until six, so I'm trying to find some way to amuse myself...let's go to albinoblacksheep.com and play grow some more...
Oh my god, I am so addicted to caffiene...
Three-quarters into the movie, Harry and Ron go to Osgiliath.
June 8th marks a monumental day in planetary astronomy. For the first time in 120+ years Venus is going to transit, or pass in front of, the Sun. I'm sure that just has you peeing yourself in excitement, but bear with me a moment. In the eighteenth century when natural sciences were first starting to take the world in a grip and fervor and people were first trying to figure out the nature of our world and solar system and universe, the transit of Venus proposed something very very cool...through a method called triangulation, basically it has to do with drawing a large triangle (gee I wonder why they call it triangulation), but it can be used to determine the distance from the Earth to the Sun. In 1769, as you can imagine, this was a pretty big deal. The ever famous James Cook (you know, British Explorer..."discovered" Australia) took the measuments and the astronomer Joseph Lalande did the calculations and determined the Earth is in fact 150 million kilometers from the Sun (Actually the precise distance is 149.597870691 million, but still, I wouldn't want to walk it). This distance of course became known as the Astronomical Unit (AU), and is still used as the basic unit of distance within our solar system. Of course, by now you're asking me (if you're still reading, or if you've read at all) just what the heck kinda importance does this stand for now? The calculations have been done, the science perfected, we know what will happen and what it will look like and just how long it will take and gee whiz, isn't that new season of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy starting soon? And to that I say to you: You're right. There's almost no scientific value behind watching the transit of Venus. But consider a moment exactly what is happening...there is a world out there, approximately the same size and shape of our own Earth...Had she been but a bit further from the source of light that is the cause of life as we know it, perhaps she could have held life too. For a brief few hours, our mother and our sister and us will align. For those brief few hours, with the human eye we will see a seperate, entirely alien world. Such a thing has not been seen since the years following the Civil War. My grandparents weren't even born then. Were yours? In 1882, William Harkness (then Director of the US Naval Observatory) had this to say on the matter: "There will be no other transits of Venus till the twenty-first century of our era has dawned upon the earth, and the June flowers are blooming in 2004. When the last transit occurred the intellectual world was awakening from the slumber of ages, and that wondrous scientific activity, which has led to our present advanced knowledge, was just beginning. What will be the state of science when the next transit season arrives God only knows. Not even our children’s children will live to take part in the astronomy of that day."
If you want to see the transit, it should be visible from Chattanooga, TN (weather pending) on the morning of June 8th, 2004 between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. I must stress to you to NEVER EVER EVER look directly at the sun through a telescope or binoculars. Another transit will occur in early June 2012, and it will be visible from North America, but the next will not happen for over a hundred years. Happy Hunting.