Sunday, July 03, 2005
Expect a lot of these
It's 2:42 AM and I'm sitting in my office, waiting for something to happen. If the building burns down or floods, I get to go home and other people have to deal with that mess. Unfortunately, the risks of getting caught and the desire to stay employed are preventing me from taking things into my own hands. So I sit here, while all the servers run smoothly. I am the failsafe, the plan that everybody needs to have, but nobody thinks they'll need, because in all likelihood they won't. I am reminded of a day at my old job, where I showed up to work at 9 and it got started like a regular day. Then, all of a sudden, the company was getting kicked out of a colocation facility because of spam complaints (I'm still not sure if it was legitimate or not, but who cares), and I had to stay until 5:00 in the morning driving servers around the great state of Virginia. Today feels like it's going to be like that day, only more so. I got to work at 8:00 am today, and stayed until noon. I had a whole 12 hours off, and spent most of it with Tracey painting, or stripping wallpaper, and meeting a lot of her family. I got no sleep, but it was my choice so I can't complain too much. Anyway, I'm here until 6:00 in the morning. I expect that by the end of my shift I will be quite delusional, and writing much more fanciful posts.
Friday, July 01, 2005
Women and Ice Cream
Good, glad to see I got your attention. Please, if everyone would be seated we can get started. I've recently come to the conclusion that too many of my posts have been narcissistic, detailing my comings and goings as though I live an interesting life, a life worthy of a best selling autobiography. So I'm going to try, at least in part, to give you something interesting to read.
Those electrons up in the sky have been up to it again. They've gathered forces and in about a day, struck a girl sleeping in bed, a boy through his video game controller, and a worker at the National Weather Service facility. I for one welcome our new electron overlords. Partially because if I try to get rid of them, I'll die. I'm especially fond of the last one, since they were tracking a severe weather system at the time.
Back to the shameless self promoting that we've all grown to expect. I saw The Eels at the 9:30 club on Tuesday. My sister wanted to go, but didn't want to go alone, so she got me to go. She thought they'd be on later, for whatever reason I'll never know, so we didn't get there until 9:15ish. Unfortunately, they started around 8:15, so we missed a good portion of their show. We still got to see a good set, and they did three encores. A couple of which contained multiple songs. They'd disappear, and people would start to leave, or bang their hands together violently, and the band would eventually come back. My sister had some doubts each time that they'd be coming back, but if there's one thing I learned from working stage-crew in high school, it's that that whole fat-lady-singing thing is a myth; it's not over until they bring up the house lights.
I'm working some great hours this weekend. Here's a quick run down:
The actual encounter with Tempel 1 will be at 1:52 am EDT Monday morning. I'll be working at the open house then, but I've been told that I'll be able to see the data as it comes in. If you're bored, here's the UMD website for Deep Impact.
Those electrons up in the sky have been up to it again. They've gathered forces and in about a day, struck a girl sleeping in bed, a boy through his video game controller, and a worker at the National Weather Service facility. I for one welcome our new electron overlords. Partially because if I try to get rid of them, I'll die. I'm especially fond of the last one, since they were tracking a severe weather system at the time.
Back to the shameless self promoting that we've all grown to expect. I saw The Eels at the 9:30 club on Tuesday. My sister wanted to go, but didn't want to go alone, so she got me to go. She thought they'd be on later, for whatever reason I'll never know, so we didn't get there until 9:15ish. Unfortunately, they started around 8:15, so we missed a good portion of their show. We still got to see a good set, and they did three encores. A couple of which contained multiple songs. They'd disappear, and people would start to leave, or bang their hands together violently, and the band would eventually come back. My sister had some doubts each time that they'd be coming back, but if there's one thing I learned from working stage-crew in high school, it's that that whole fat-lady-singing thing is a myth; it's not over until they bring up the house lights.
I'm working some great hours this weekend. Here's a quick run down:
| day | begin | end |
| Saturday | 8:00 am | 12:00 noon |
| Sunday | 12:00 midnight | 6:00 am |
| Sunday Night-Monday Morning | 10:00 pm | 3:00 am |
| Monday | 12:00 noon | 5:00 pm |
| Tuesday | 6:00 am | 12:00 noon |
The actual encounter with Tempel 1 will be at 1:52 am EDT Monday morning. I'll be working at the open house then, but I've been told that I'll be able to see the data as it comes in. If you're bored, here's the UMD website for Deep Impact.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Monday, June 27, 2005
It's Monday
And that means that I'll post to my blog instead of doing actual work. I love having a job where I sit by a computer all day long.
Last week was good. I thought I was coming down with a cold in the beginning of the week, but it passed quickly. Boxing on Tuesday was mediocre. There were an odd number of people boxing, so I had to group up with the newbies and help the instructor demonstrate. That meant that I didn't get to do much actual boxing, but I won't complain too much since I was getting over the aforementioned cold. Wednesday afternoon I donated blood. I didn't wind up getting light headed like I usually do when I lose that much blood, so that's a plus. After work I went up to Paul's house and we then went to his pool. Wednesday nights at his pool are 21 and up, and you don't have to be a member (though a member does have to let you in.) So we hung out with his brother, this guy Dylan, and Tracey's sister (a lifeguard) would occasionally sit down with us. Tracey got there a bit late, since she had field hockey that evening. Not much to say here; we went swimming, then we left. It's a pool. What do you want?
Thursday I went up to Tracey's house with the intent to watch a movie, which never happened. I got there as she and her brother were making dinner, then we all got in their hot tub. (Just once I would like to live in a house with a hot tub.) At some point whilst hot tubbing we heard some voice calling for help. It was one of their neighbors; he had fallen down a few stairs and couldn't get up. This guy was old, feeble, and from what I'm told not too mentally stable or nice. Still, Tracey's brother and I hopped the fence and helped him up. This was a long and arduous task; this guy seemed pretty shaken, and didn't want to move that fast. Two middle aged men came by to help, and we got him on his way. Only afterwards did I realize that one of the men who came to help was Tracey's dad; he had just gotten home. I'm not sure what kind of first impression I made there. On one hand, I was helping someone who had fallen. On the other hand, I was in a bathing suit, as was Tracey, and the hot tub was on. I hope that the fact that Tracey's brother was there, and was also in a bathing suit, convinced him that we weren't fooling around in his hot tub.
Friday I went up to Paul's to play poker. Tracey and Danny are good at poker. Paul and I lack skill. I should read up on poker strategy some time before the next time we play. My only real consolation is that we don't play for real money.
Saturday Tracey and I went to the pool in my new neighborhood. I'm not sure how I feel about this pool. On the one hand, it's fairly large, and close. On the other hand, there's no grassy area (it's all concrete,) and there's little area to sit. Later that evening we got dinner at Ricciuiti's and then went to Cold Stone for ice cream. Cold Stone is an interesting place. They follow the logic that people who want ice cream also want to get it at some goofy place... a place that Willy Wonka would design if he were lazy and didn't feel like breeding more Opmpa Loompas. For starters, the people working behind the counter have to sing a little song, of which there appear to be many, every time you give them a tip. From what I can tell the song they choose is mostly random, but I think they may have special ones when the tip surpasses a dollar. Also, they are too crazy to follow conventional size names. Small, Medium, and Large are too straightforward. They don't even go with the big American trend of forgoing Small and having Medium, Large, and Extra Large. They avoid that whole mess and have names like "Like it", "Love it", and "Gotta have it" which make ordering, in my opinion, almost too stupid to be worth the ice cream you get in return. "Hi, I'd like a gotta have it of lobster cheesecake ice cream." Okay, the flavors aren't that bad, but they are somewhat goofy too. One last rant with this ice cream establishment: the actual portions. The bowls they have on display for the various sizes look like they differ by about 25% at the most. I figure, I'm in the mood for ice cream, I may as well get the large, um, "gotta have it." So I get it, and the thing is huge. From what I can tell they fill up the smallest bowl half way for the smallest portion, and for the largest portion they fill up the largest bowl so that you have a 50-50 chance of spilling the thing before you leave the store. I couldn't finish mine, so I threw it out. I was half tempted to drop it in their tip jar just to see if they'd have to sing.
I took Tracey home, then headed down to Laurel. Kevin and I shower (he was coming from work, me from a hot day and a chlorinated pool), separately, and I drive us down to Santa Fe where people were, get this, drinking. Only Kevin forgot his ID and we had to drive back up to Laurel, then down again to the bar. I have a few beers, but don't get shitfaced since I'm the designated driver, and eventually we leave. I'm growing less and less fond of bars, not that anything particularly bad happened there. It's just not my scene.
I'll have to have Tracey come down to the place in Laurel more often, so more of you people can meet her. She's only met Kevin so far, and I'd like her to see the whole spectrum of assholes I hang out with.
Last week was good. I thought I was coming down with a cold in the beginning of the week, but it passed quickly. Boxing on Tuesday was mediocre. There were an odd number of people boxing, so I had to group up with the newbies and help the instructor demonstrate. That meant that I didn't get to do much actual boxing, but I won't complain too much since I was getting over the aforementioned cold. Wednesday afternoon I donated blood. I didn't wind up getting light headed like I usually do when I lose that much blood, so that's a plus. After work I went up to Paul's house and we then went to his pool. Wednesday nights at his pool are 21 and up, and you don't have to be a member (though a member does have to let you in.) So we hung out with his brother, this guy Dylan, and Tracey's sister (a lifeguard) would occasionally sit down with us. Tracey got there a bit late, since she had field hockey that evening. Not much to say here; we went swimming, then we left. It's a pool. What do you want?
Thursday I went up to Tracey's house with the intent to watch a movie, which never happened. I got there as she and her brother were making dinner, then we all got in their hot tub. (Just once I would like to live in a house with a hot tub.) At some point whilst hot tubbing we heard some voice calling for help. It was one of their neighbors; he had fallen down a few stairs and couldn't get up. This guy was old, feeble, and from what I'm told not too mentally stable or nice. Still, Tracey's brother and I hopped the fence and helped him up. This was a long and arduous task; this guy seemed pretty shaken, and didn't want to move that fast. Two middle aged men came by to help, and we got him on his way. Only afterwards did I realize that one of the men who came to help was Tracey's dad; he had just gotten home. I'm not sure what kind of first impression I made there. On one hand, I was helping someone who had fallen. On the other hand, I was in a bathing suit, as was Tracey, and the hot tub was on. I hope that the fact that Tracey's brother was there, and was also in a bathing suit, convinced him that we weren't fooling around in his hot tub.
Friday I went up to Paul's to play poker. Tracey and Danny are good at poker. Paul and I lack skill. I should read up on poker strategy some time before the next time we play. My only real consolation is that we don't play for real money.
Saturday Tracey and I went to the pool in my new neighborhood. I'm not sure how I feel about this pool. On the one hand, it's fairly large, and close. On the other hand, there's no grassy area (it's all concrete,) and there's little area to sit. Later that evening we got dinner at Ricciuiti's and then went to Cold Stone for ice cream. Cold Stone is an interesting place. They follow the logic that people who want ice cream also want to get it at some goofy place... a place that Willy Wonka would design if he were lazy and didn't feel like breeding more Opmpa Loompas. For starters, the people working behind the counter have to sing a little song, of which there appear to be many, every time you give them a tip. From what I can tell the song they choose is mostly random, but I think they may have special ones when the tip surpasses a dollar. Also, they are too crazy to follow conventional size names. Small, Medium, and Large are too straightforward. They don't even go with the big American trend of forgoing Small and having Medium, Large, and Extra Large. They avoid that whole mess and have names like "Like it", "Love it", and "Gotta have it" which make ordering, in my opinion, almost too stupid to be worth the ice cream you get in return. "Hi, I'd like a gotta have it of lobster cheesecake ice cream." Okay, the flavors aren't that bad, but they are somewhat goofy too. One last rant with this ice cream establishment: the actual portions. The bowls they have on display for the various sizes look like they differ by about 25% at the most. I figure, I'm in the mood for ice cream, I may as well get the large, um, "gotta have it." So I get it, and the thing is huge. From what I can tell they fill up the smallest bowl half way for the smallest portion, and for the largest portion they fill up the largest bowl so that you have a 50-50 chance of spilling the thing before you leave the store. I couldn't finish mine, so I threw it out. I was half tempted to drop it in their tip jar just to see if they'd have to sing.
I took Tracey home, then headed down to Laurel. Kevin and I shower (he was coming from work, me from a hot day and a chlorinated pool), separately, and I drive us down to Santa Fe where people were, get this, drinking. Only Kevin forgot his ID and we had to drive back up to Laurel, then down again to the bar. I have a few beers, but don't get shitfaced since I'm the designated driver, and eventually we leave. I'm growing less and less fond of bars, not that anything particularly bad happened there. It's just not my scene.
I'll have to have Tracey come down to the place in Laurel more often, so more of you people can meet her. She's only met Kevin so far, and I'd like her to see the whole spectrum of assholes I hang out with.
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Another weekend
Another two days without work. Really, I consider my weekends to begin Friday nights and end Sunday afternoons. What was that? You don't care?
Friday night Paul and Danny (Pauls brother) and Tracey all came over to play Poker with Kevin and me. Tracey is a friend of Pauls that I met at his graduation party. We played a couple games with no buy in, and one with a $1 buy in. We're big spenders over here. I won no game. I didn't even come in second place in any game. I suck at poker, but I'm learning. Slowly. We'll probably try to play again on Friday, but we'll see. All are welcome, anyway. Before she left I asked Tracey about seeing a movie, but I'm going cronologically so we'll get to that later.
Sunday began slow. I went home to trade cars with my dad so that my brother could have a car to drive that wasn't standard. There's something seriously wrong with my dads car. When you run the AC it smells like something died, and some clear nonalcoholic liquid drips from inside the dash onto your ankles. Still, if you don't run the AC and just roll the windows down instead it's quite the nice ride. I went to the liquour store down the street and customized a couple six pacs for my dad, picking beers I've had at some of these beer tasting festivals. He's been asking me a lot about all the beer we've been brewing and the odd beer we've been trying at the house, so I figured it would make a good fathers day gift. Then, I went up to Catonsville to pick up Tracey. We got diner and saw Batman. If any of you out there haven't seen Batman, see it. Not because it's a great movie; though it is quite good. But rather because it's the first batman movie I've seen that isn't laced with mind-numbingly idiotic conversations between unconvincing characters. It's a real movie. Honest-to-god. Someone's finally done a batman movie well. Anyway, it was a good evening.
Sunday I went home. I wanted to go to the pool, but it didn't get hot enough for me to feel like it was worth it. I didn't go. I did go to Best Buy with my dad so that we could look at routers. They're getting fiber optic internet at the house sometime next month and he's trying to understand what he'll need to do various things. He wasn't to clear about the whole wireless-wired thing at first, nor about the differences between hubs, switches, and routers, but he's a quick learner with computer stuff. I'm not sure why he wanted to go to the store, instead of just talking about it at home. Maybe seeing the products in his hand while I described it made it easier. Around 5 I headed back to the place in Laurel (the town) so that I could give Kevin my pool pass so he and Laurel (the girlfriend) could go to the pool. Kevin's not a member, but he looks enough like me to get by with my pool ID. I doubt they care that much anyway. I came back to my parents place and we had dinner. After dinner we played some poker. Once again I didn't win or come in second, and with only 4 of us playing I guess I should be happy that I didn't lose entirely. I did beat my dad... I guess we're not that nice, my family, not letting my dad win on fathers day. I went out shortly after him, and Jeremy and my mom decided to quit then, my brother having more chips.
I'm probably going to see Tracey again this week. Wendesday or Thursday or something. Who wants to start placing bets on how long I take to screw this up?
Friday night Paul and Danny (Pauls brother) and Tracey all came over to play Poker with Kevin and me. Tracey is a friend of Pauls that I met at his graduation party. We played a couple games with no buy in, and one with a $1 buy in. We're big spenders over here. I won no game. I didn't even come in second place in any game. I suck at poker, but I'm learning. Slowly. We'll probably try to play again on Friday, but we'll see. All are welcome, anyway. Before she left I asked Tracey about seeing a movie, but I'm going cronologically so we'll get to that later.
Sunday began slow. I went home to trade cars with my dad so that my brother could have a car to drive that wasn't standard. There's something seriously wrong with my dads car. When you run the AC it smells like something died, and some clear nonalcoholic liquid drips from inside the dash onto your ankles. Still, if you don't run the AC and just roll the windows down instead it's quite the nice ride. I went to the liquour store down the street and customized a couple six pacs for my dad, picking beers I've had at some of these beer tasting festivals. He's been asking me a lot about all the beer we've been brewing and the odd beer we've been trying at the house, so I figured it would make a good fathers day gift. Then, I went up to Catonsville to pick up Tracey. We got diner and saw Batman. If any of you out there haven't seen Batman, see it. Not because it's a great movie; though it is quite good. But rather because it's the first batman movie I've seen that isn't laced with mind-numbingly idiotic conversations between unconvincing characters. It's a real movie. Honest-to-god. Someone's finally done a batman movie well. Anyway, it was a good evening.
Sunday I went home. I wanted to go to the pool, but it didn't get hot enough for me to feel like it was worth it. I didn't go. I did go to Best Buy with my dad so that we could look at routers. They're getting fiber optic internet at the house sometime next month and he's trying to understand what he'll need to do various things. He wasn't to clear about the whole wireless-wired thing at first, nor about the differences between hubs, switches, and routers, but he's a quick learner with computer stuff. I'm not sure why he wanted to go to the store, instead of just talking about it at home. Maybe seeing the products in his hand while I described it made it easier. Around 5 I headed back to the place in Laurel (the town) so that I could give Kevin my pool pass so he and Laurel (the girlfriend) could go to the pool. Kevin's not a member, but he looks enough like me to get by with my pool ID. I doubt they care that much anyway. I came back to my parents place and we had dinner. After dinner we played some poker. Once again I didn't win or come in second, and with only 4 of us playing I guess I should be happy that I didn't lose entirely. I did beat my dad... I guess we're not that nice, my family, not letting my dad win on fathers day. I went out shortly after him, and Jeremy and my mom decided to quit then, my brother having more chips.
I'm probably going to see Tracey again this week. Wendesday or Thursday or something. Who wants to start placing bets on how long I take to screw this up?
Friday, June 17, 2005
Modest Mouse Concert
I went down to D.A.R. Constitution Hall last night to see the Modest Mouse concert with Tim, Parker, and Leonard. We took the Metro downtown, and on the way there we shared a train with Chevaun, a woman I know through some friends I used to get high with. Haven't seen her in years, though. She seems to be doing well, still talks to Leslie every now and then.
There was some confusion with our seats when we got there (the usher working by us didn't know Section L from her ass, and it was dark so don't blame us) but it got cleared up before Modest Mouse came on. The concert was good, but not great. I felt they had a lot of energy, but didn't channel it well so it just sounded unproduced (yeah I know, it was a live show) and the lyrics were unintelligible. Lots of screaming, which doesn't work well with their style of music. Still, I would see them again. The opening band, whose name I cannot recall but I'm sure Tim could tell you, was also fairly good.
On the way back to Greenbelt, on the green line, I bumped into some guy whom I apparently went to elementary, middle, and highschool with. I can't remember his name, but I don't think I ever hung out with him anyway so I'm not too concerned with that. Nothing interesting to note here, the conversation was that kind of forced you get when you throw two people together who should know each other, but have nothing in common. The more I talk to people who I went to school with, but never hung out with, the more glad I am that I chose to hang out with the people I did, or glad that they chose to hang out with me, or glad that none of the cool people would hang out with me, or something else like that. Highschool cool doesn't really translate to real world cool; I'm under the impression (delusion?) that I am real world cool. Hell, people even read my blog. I'm a celebrity.
There was some confusion with our seats when we got there (the usher working by us didn't know Section L from her ass, and it was dark so don't blame us) but it got cleared up before Modest Mouse came on. The concert was good, but not great. I felt they had a lot of energy, but didn't channel it well so it just sounded unproduced (yeah I know, it was a live show) and the lyrics were unintelligible. Lots of screaming, which doesn't work well with their style of music. Still, I would see them again. The opening band, whose name I cannot recall but I'm sure Tim could tell you, was also fairly good.
On the way back to Greenbelt, on the green line, I bumped into some guy whom I apparently went to elementary, middle, and highschool with. I can't remember his name, but I don't think I ever hung out with him anyway so I'm not too concerned with that. Nothing interesting to note here, the conversation was that kind of forced you get when you throw two people together who should know each other, but have nothing in common. The more I talk to people who I went to school with, but never hung out with, the more glad I am that I chose to hang out with the people I did, or glad that they chose to hang out with me, or glad that none of the cool people would hang out with me, or something else like that. Highschool cool doesn't really translate to real world cool; I'm under the impression (delusion?) that I am real world cool. Hell, people even read my blog. I'm a celebrity.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
having trouble with the whole "title" thing
<disclaimer-speak>
Damnit. I just wrote a huge post, but the keybindings in Firefox are different from Safari and I just erased the whole damn thing. If this post doesn't seem up to par, blame it on that.
</disclaimer-speak>
This weekend went quite far in bringing me back to my normal happy self. I should probably be less dramatic in the future.
Friday night a bunch of us were planning on going out to Santa Fe. Kyle and Katie were coming up from D.C., and I hardly get to see them so I was looking forward to that. Kevin and Laurel were also planning on coming, and so was Karen and some of her high school friends. Everybody but me takes longer than expected to get there, and Kevin called on the way to tell us that they were bringing Amy, Laurels sister, who is 19. That means, of course, that we cannot go to a bar since all the College Park bars are 21 and up. I start thinking that the night is going to suck, because things aren't going according to plan and I like plans. Plans make doing things easier. Breaking plans is worse than not having plans. I need to lighten up. We go to Town Hall to pick up some booze and come back to the old house. We stay in and drink there. After a few beers a bunch of us decide we're drunk enough to walk down to 7-11. I zip up a beer in one of those huggies and we start walking. At the store Laurel buys a couple cans of that aerosol whipped cream, so she and her sister can fight later. I don't know whose idea that was, but I want to shake their hand. When we start walking back Kyle tells me to run to the house, then back to them. I drunkenly oblige. It was about a half mile to the house, and I got there sweaty and hot, so I drop off my shirt figuring I don't want it any more and it will serve as proof that I got to the house. I then run back to everybody. Man am I suggestible while drunk. Later at the house, we're hanging out on the deck, and Laurel and Amy start fighting with the whipped cream. For some reason they decide to attack me, still shirtles. It wasn't a fair fight, but I wasn't so drunk that I would demand a friends girlfriend and her little sister to take their tops off. I am a gentleman. So this gentleman takes those whipped cream cans and start spraying back. It gets messy. At some point during the brawl a can gets launched off the deck. Amy goes for the stairs and Kevin, in his constant attempt to get my pants off, is pulling on them partially to keep me from going over the side of the deck. The only way for me to get that can is to take my pants off and jump off the edge, so I do it. I know it wasn't a good idea, but at the time the 5 beers in me were doing a good job convincing me. So I get the can, and the fight continues. At some point my pants get thrown in a tree, then lost. The party slows down after that, and around 5 in the morning I drive Kyle and Katie up to my place in Laurel (the town, not the whipped-cream-wrestler.) By the way, if you get covered in whipped cream and sweat, take a shower. It will dry and smell like vomit. I took a shower and went to sleep.
The next morning after we all get up I drive Kyle and Katie to Rockville so they can meet up with a friend, and I head home to switch cars with my dad so my brother has a non-manual car to drive over the weekend. I hang out at the pool some trying to get a tan, then head home and get ready for Paul's graduation party. His party was pretty good, lots of people and the conversations were engaging. The party starts to dwindle but stays interesting. We start a couple poker games. I came in third out of five the first game, and the second game I won. Winning at Texas holdem was a new experience for me. We decide we should make it a regular event, poker night, and I hope we manage to do it. Paul's friends seem like decent people.
Today was uneventful, relaxing, and I heard back from my uncle, the physics professor, and he says that he doesn't think the delayed choice quantum eraser experiment has been verified. He sent me to these two pages:
http://www.bottomlayer.com/bottom/kim-scully/kim-scully-web.htm
and
http://www.tardyon.de/ko2.htm
That's all for now. I'll probably have more by the end of the week.
Damnit. I just wrote a huge post, but the keybindings in Firefox are different from Safari and I just erased the whole damn thing. If this post doesn't seem up to par, blame it on that.
</disclaimer-speak>
This weekend went quite far in bringing me back to my normal happy self. I should probably be less dramatic in the future.
Friday night a bunch of us were planning on going out to Santa Fe. Kyle and Katie were coming up from D.C., and I hardly get to see them so I was looking forward to that. Kevin and Laurel were also planning on coming, and so was Karen and some of her high school friends. Everybody but me takes longer than expected to get there, and Kevin called on the way to tell us that they were bringing Amy, Laurels sister, who is 19. That means, of course, that we cannot go to a bar since all the College Park bars are 21 and up. I start thinking that the night is going to suck, because things aren't going according to plan and I like plans. Plans make doing things easier. Breaking plans is worse than not having plans. I need to lighten up. We go to Town Hall to pick up some booze and come back to the old house. We stay in and drink there. After a few beers a bunch of us decide we're drunk enough to walk down to 7-11. I zip up a beer in one of those huggies and we start walking. At the store Laurel buys a couple cans of that aerosol whipped cream, so she and her sister can fight later. I don't know whose idea that was, but I want to shake their hand. When we start walking back Kyle tells me to run to the house, then back to them. I drunkenly oblige. It was about a half mile to the house, and I got there sweaty and hot, so I drop off my shirt figuring I don't want it any more and it will serve as proof that I got to the house. I then run back to everybody. Man am I suggestible while drunk. Later at the house, we're hanging out on the deck, and Laurel and Amy start fighting with the whipped cream. For some reason they decide to attack me, still shirtles. It wasn't a fair fight, but I wasn't so drunk that I would demand a friends girlfriend and her little sister to take their tops off. I am a gentleman. So this gentleman takes those whipped cream cans and start spraying back. It gets messy. At some point during the brawl a can gets launched off the deck. Amy goes for the stairs and Kevin, in his constant attempt to get my pants off, is pulling on them partially to keep me from going over the side of the deck. The only way for me to get that can is to take my pants off and jump off the edge, so I do it. I know it wasn't a good idea, but at the time the 5 beers in me were doing a good job convincing me. So I get the can, and the fight continues. At some point my pants get thrown in a tree, then lost. The party slows down after that, and around 5 in the morning I drive Kyle and Katie up to my place in Laurel (the town, not the whipped-cream-wrestler.) By the way, if you get covered in whipped cream and sweat, take a shower. It will dry and smell like vomit. I took a shower and went to sleep.
The next morning after we all get up I drive Kyle and Katie to Rockville so they can meet up with a friend, and I head home to switch cars with my dad so my brother has a non-manual car to drive over the weekend. I hang out at the pool some trying to get a tan, then head home and get ready for Paul's graduation party. His party was pretty good, lots of people and the conversations were engaging. The party starts to dwindle but stays interesting. We start a couple poker games. I came in third out of five the first game, and the second game I won. Winning at Texas holdem was a new experience for me. We decide we should make it a regular event, poker night, and I hope we manage to do it. Paul's friends seem like decent people.
Today was uneventful, relaxing, and I heard back from my uncle, the physics professor, and he says that he doesn't think the delayed choice quantum eraser experiment has been verified. He sent me to these two pages:
http://www.bottomlayer.com/bottom/kim-scully/kim-scully-web.htm
and
http://www.tardyon.de/ko2.htm
That's all for now. I'll probably have more by the end of the week.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Time Machine
So, back to my crazy self, I've been thinking about physics. Mainly, quantum physics. I think I've found something wrong with either the theory, or my understanding of it. However if I'm right about this, then we should be able to setup a very simple experiment that violates causality. Still there? Okay, first, some background...
The double slit experiment is fairly simple and has been tested and confirmed. There're details here, and wikipedia does a much better job at explaining it than I could. There's something interesting to note, now. If you place something in front of each slit that sets the spin of the photon (don't worry if you don't understand spin, just accept that it can be set, and then determined later,) and make sure that the spin set by one slit is around a different axis than the spin set by the other slit. Have the detector modified so that not only can you determine where on the detector the photon hit, but also its spin. Doing this will get rid of the interference pattern. The photon can't have two different spins when it's detected, so is must have gone through one of the slits, but not both. Here's the weird part: If you place something after the double slits but before the detector that sets the spin of every photon to be the same, regardless of what it was before, the interference pattern will come back. The reasoning behind this is that since the detector can't determine which slit the photon passed through (the spin set by the slits has been erased by the new spin-setting filter in front of the detector), the photon actually passed through both, and therefore will produce an interference pattern. Oddly, it seems you can erase information, and in doing so you can erase the fact that the information ever existed and any affect that information had on a system.
There's a way to modify the experiment where rather than using a laser and two narrow slits in an otherwise opaque barrier, you split the laser into two beams using a double mirror, then recombine the two beams on the detector. I'll try to describe this process now, since it will make my next suggestion easier to follow:
Imagine you have a square. The top left corner has a laser beam directed at it from further left (the laser is pointing to the right, and is located to the left of the top-left corner). This top-left corner has a half-mirror slanted at a 45 degree angle, so its two sides are facing up-and-right and down-and-left. This mirror will split the laser so that half of it continues along it's original path heading towards the top-right corner of the square, and the other half will be reflected down towards the bottom-left corner of the square. Now, at the top-right and bottom-left corners you place mirrors that redirect the photons to the bottom-right corner of the square. To sum up, the laser starts at the top-left corner of the square and can either go right then down, or down then right, and ends up either way at the bottom-right corner of the square. You place the detector at the bottom-right corner, and you get an interference pattern. This is really the same experiment as the double-slit experiment, except that the paths that the photons can take are more widely separated.
Like in the first example I gave, with photon spin being used to detect which path the photon took, you can place a device called a downconverter along the two paths the photon could take. A down converter converts a photon into two photons with half the energy of the original. One of these photons (called the signal) is sent on the path the original would have taken, and the other (the idler) can be detected. Thus, we can listen for idlers coming from the two downconverters and determine which way around the square a photon went, and in doing so we destroy the interference pattern. That happens because information about which way around the square a photon went is recorded. The photon can't go both ways at the same time since it had to decide at the downconverters if it was either 100% on that path, or 100% on the other path. The downconverter makes the photon decide before the detector which way it went, so its wavefunction can't wait and recombine later at the detector. No wavefunction recombination = no interference pattern.
Here's the odd part: What if we take the two idlers and send them to a double mirror. You can set up the experiment so that once an idler passes through or is reflected off of the double mirror, you have no way of telling which downconverter produced the idler. When you do that, the information about which way the photon went is irrelevant. It could have gone either way around the square, and the results would be the same. When this happens, you get the interference pattern back. That's pretty cool. Even though you know the photon passed through one of the downconverters (earlier, we knew it had some definite spin), it doesn't matter since the path information held by the idlers is erased (earlier, the spin was set to be the same for all photons.) Erasing which-path information can affect the signal photons, even if you don't touch them after the downconverters and only look at the idlers. Somehow the idlers can tell the signal photons whether or not they can act like they took both paths and produce an interference pattern, or if they have to decide one way or the other, and produce two bright spots (one for each path.)
That's weird enough, but it's not that bizarre if you accept quantum entanglement or "spooky action at a distance" as Einstein called it. The real problem is when we start to look at this from a causality perspective. Imagine that we send the idlers along some path that takes a very long period of time, like a second or two. Lets setup a lab on the moon that can either accept the idlers from earth and pass them through a double mirror, or if it wants it can detect each idler independently. If it passes the photons through the double mirror we should see an interference pattern develop back on earth, and if it detects each idler (and the path it took) without erasing the path information, we should just get two bright spots on our detector here on earth. What's wrong here is that we made the observation (interference pattern or no) more than a second before the idlers are detected. Someone on the moon, a second from now, could thus send information back to earth using the photons the earth sent it. The information would travel backwards through time. Increasing the distance a light year or so, and sending a bunch of idlers, we could use Morse code (or any binary language) to send messages from the future when the idlers are detected back to the present when we conduct the experiment.
What if we set up another experiment where the people detecting the idlers have a separate interference-pattern detecting device that sends its idlers back to earth. It'll take a year to get here, and when the idlers do we can decide if we want to produce an interference pattern or not on the detector a light year away and a year in our past. Assuming the people a light year away are nice enough, they could in theory copy the message we sent them and send it back to us. They would do this by looking at the presence or absence of an interference pattern on their end, and combine the idlers we sent them when they detect an interference pattern at their end (thereby inducing an interference pattern at our end), and when they don't see an interference pattern on their end they could detect the idlers we sent them independently (thereby preventing an interference pattern at our end.) This would, in effect, allow us to send messages 2 years into the past.
This, obviously, violates causality. So what's the deal? What don't I understand here? Is it actually possible to send information backwards through time? I'm betting that this is like the perpetual motion machine I designed years ago: it looks good on paper to novices, but once you really understand what's going on it's obvious why it won't work.
The double slit experiment is fairly simple and has been tested and confirmed. There're details here, and wikipedia does a much better job at explaining it than I could. There's something interesting to note, now. If you place something in front of each slit that sets the spin of the photon (don't worry if you don't understand spin, just accept that it can be set, and then determined later,) and make sure that the spin set by one slit is around a different axis than the spin set by the other slit. Have the detector modified so that not only can you determine where on the detector the photon hit, but also its spin. Doing this will get rid of the interference pattern. The photon can't have two different spins when it's detected, so is must have gone through one of the slits, but not both. Here's the weird part: If you place something after the double slits but before the detector that sets the spin of every photon to be the same, regardless of what it was before, the interference pattern will come back. The reasoning behind this is that since the detector can't determine which slit the photon passed through (the spin set by the slits has been erased by the new spin-setting filter in front of the detector), the photon actually passed through both, and therefore will produce an interference pattern. Oddly, it seems you can erase information, and in doing so you can erase the fact that the information ever existed and any affect that information had on a system.
There's a way to modify the experiment where rather than using a laser and two narrow slits in an otherwise opaque barrier, you split the laser into two beams using a double mirror, then recombine the two beams on the detector. I'll try to describe this process now, since it will make my next suggestion easier to follow:
Imagine you have a square. The top left corner has a laser beam directed at it from further left (the laser is pointing to the right, and is located to the left of the top-left corner). This top-left corner has a half-mirror slanted at a 45 degree angle, so its two sides are facing up-and-right and down-and-left. This mirror will split the laser so that half of it continues along it's original path heading towards the top-right corner of the square, and the other half will be reflected down towards the bottom-left corner of the square. Now, at the top-right and bottom-left corners you place mirrors that redirect the photons to the bottom-right corner of the square. To sum up, the laser starts at the top-left corner of the square and can either go right then down, or down then right, and ends up either way at the bottom-right corner of the square. You place the detector at the bottom-right corner, and you get an interference pattern. This is really the same experiment as the double-slit experiment, except that the paths that the photons can take are more widely separated.
Like in the first example I gave, with photon spin being used to detect which path the photon took, you can place a device called a downconverter along the two paths the photon could take. A down converter converts a photon into two photons with half the energy of the original. One of these photons (called the signal) is sent on the path the original would have taken, and the other (the idler) can be detected. Thus, we can listen for idlers coming from the two downconverters and determine which way around the square a photon went, and in doing so we destroy the interference pattern. That happens because information about which way around the square a photon went is recorded. The photon can't go both ways at the same time since it had to decide at the downconverters if it was either 100% on that path, or 100% on the other path. The downconverter makes the photon decide before the detector which way it went, so its wavefunction can't wait and recombine later at the detector. No wavefunction recombination = no interference pattern.
Here's the odd part: What if we take the two idlers and send them to a double mirror. You can set up the experiment so that once an idler passes through or is reflected off of the double mirror, you have no way of telling which downconverter produced the idler. When you do that, the information about which way the photon went is irrelevant. It could have gone either way around the square, and the results would be the same. When this happens, you get the interference pattern back. That's pretty cool. Even though you know the photon passed through one of the downconverters (earlier, we knew it had some definite spin), it doesn't matter since the path information held by the idlers is erased (earlier, the spin was set to be the same for all photons.) Erasing which-path information can affect the signal photons, even if you don't touch them after the downconverters and only look at the idlers. Somehow the idlers can tell the signal photons whether or not they can act like they took both paths and produce an interference pattern, or if they have to decide one way or the other, and produce two bright spots (one for each path.)
That's weird enough, but it's not that bizarre if you accept quantum entanglement or "spooky action at a distance" as Einstein called it. The real problem is when we start to look at this from a causality perspective. Imagine that we send the idlers along some path that takes a very long period of time, like a second or two. Lets setup a lab on the moon that can either accept the idlers from earth and pass them through a double mirror, or if it wants it can detect each idler independently. If it passes the photons through the double mirror we should see an interference pattern develop back on earth, and if it detects each idler (and the path it took) without erasing the path information, we should just get two bright spots on our detector here on earth. What's wrong here is that we made the observation (interference pattern or no) more than a second before the idlers are detected. Someone on the moon, a second from now, could thus send information back to earth using the photons the earth sent it. The information would travel backwards through time. Increasing the distance a light year or so, and sending a bunch of idlers, we could use Morse code (or any binary language) to send messages from the future when the idlers are detected back to the present when we conduct the experiment.
What if we set up another experiment where the people detecting the idlers have a separate interference-pattern detecting device that sends its idlers back to earth. It'll take a year to get here, and when the idlers do we can decide if we want to produce an interference pattern or not on the detector a light year away and a year in our past. Assuming the people a light year away are nice enough, they could in theory copy the message we sent them and send it back to us. They would do this by looking at the presence or absence of an interference pattern on their end, and combine the idlers we sent them when they detect an interference pattern at their end (thereby inducing an interference pattern at our end), and when they don't see an interference pattern on their end they could detect the idlers we sent them independently (thereby preventing an interference pattern at our end.) This would, in effect, allow us to send messages 2 years into the past.
This, obviously, violates causality. So what's the deal? What don't I understand here? Is it actually possible to send information backwards through time? I'm betting that this is like the perpetual motion machine I designed years ago: it looks good on paper to novices, but once you really understand what's going on it's obvious why it won't work.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Jeremy's Graduation
Jeremy just graduated from Springbrook yesterday, so I took off work to go to the ceremony at D.A.R. Constitution Hall. Once we got there and sat down, the Ralphs sat down next to my family. My sister was good friends with Colleen, and they also have a daughter older than my sister, Bridget (my age), and one my brothers age, Emily, who walked in the procession next to my brother... coincidence? I think so. The ceremony was typical for a highschool graduation. Uninspiring speeches by people who will soon probably be flipping burgers at Taco Bell [sic]. At seemingly random points throughout the event people from the crowd would yell their friends names, and sometimes someone on stage would do a little dance or pimp walk or something. Also, people would clap during a musical performance, rather than after, which is typically expected. So people don't know how to act in public: no news here, and nothing changed from 4, 5, or 7 years ago, when I attended other highschool graduations. One thing I thought was funny was that my dad and sister would comment on how rude people were being, and then when they were reading out the names and the graduates were walking across the stage my dad tried to go to sleep. Now, being disrespectful like that is nowhere near the kind of inconsiderate hooting and hollering while whoever's talking/performing on stage that other people were doing, I still found it ironic that he would do it after being so critical of everybody else. Ah well, that's my snobby hypocritical family for you. After the ceremony we went out to dinner at a French bistro, "Mon Ami Gabi" in Bethesda, and not only did I work on a group project in my U.S. government class a year or two ago with the hostess, but I also knew our waiter from a few years back; I used to get high with him. It was kindof awkward being waited on by a guy I'm used to thinking of as a friend (or at least a friendly acquaintance, since we typically only saw each other through mutual friends.) At least he hung out by the table every now and then so we could catch up, and not about the specials they had that day. I was just worried that my parents would make a scene and I would have to wind up apologizing for them at some random party in the future. They behaved. Now I just hope they tipped well.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Pissed off
I'm not sure how to go about describing my current state of mind, but it's not good. I've been pissed off at a lot of people lately and I'm not sure if it's something wrong with me, or them, or both. Most of this has happened since moving into the new house, but I think the roots of it go further back. It's a shame that I don't understand this better. I have a couple guesses as to what's going on. First, it's some kind of hormonal thing, possibly brought on through to my newfound addiction to swimming and lifting weights, that is making me notice things now that would have previously gone undetected, or at least ignored. I'm not so sure that's it, though, since my malaise seems to be directed at specific people, not everybody I see. I guess I could have also hit some kind of tipping point where I'm just tired of ignoring all the stupid shit I have to put up with. An alternative is that I am, in fact, surrounded by people who aren't as decent as I thought. Now I'm not saying that I'm some kind of saint, nor that I'm any better than any of you. I know I can be a jerk sometimes, and I'm working on that. I'm just used to feeling like I'm surrounded by smart, honest, decent people, and now I'm getting the impression that I'm not and it's frustrating. I think this is all compounded by the fact that everybody whom I think really understands me isn't ever around, or even in the state. This isn't the first time I've felt this way, but usually it only lasts a day or so before I revert to my indifferent, coping self. This time, it keeps getting compounded by my interactions, so I'm going to actually try to do something about it. What, I'm not sure, but I'm going to need to affect major change in the way I live my life if I'm ever going to get out of this rut.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Drinking at the zoo, round two
This 3-day weekend just past wasn't as relaxing as it could have been, and I'm not sure why. I did all the stuff one would usually do to relax (I drank, I slept, I saw a movie,) but for some reason it just didn't click and now I feel like I should take the rest of the week off too.
Saturday morning Tim and I went to help Karen move some china cabinets from her aunts house to her parents house. Barbara brought her Suburban and Tim, Karen's dad, and I hauled these cumbersome wood-and-glass boxes down some stairs and into the SUV. When we were unloading the heavy one we failed to notice that the rear gate of Barbara's Suburban wasn't straight on top (due to one of those center brake lights,) and this put a lot of pressure on the cabinet, breaking the mirror set in the back. Luckily it looks like it will be easy to replace. After this, Karen, Barbara, Tim and I went to Le Madeleine for lunch, then Tim and I drove back to the place in Laurel, picked up Kevin, and headed up to Baltimore to pick up Nina and go to the Baltimore Zoo. This was the second Brew at the Zoo I've been to, and the first trip was much more successful. I was worried that the weather would be bad, but we lucked out there. Unfortunately we got there a little late, so a lot of booths ran out of their beers before we could try them. This wouldn't have bothered me so much if we hadn't been waiting in line at two of these places when they ran out. We all came back to Laurel to hang out, and on the way there we saw Parker coming home from work. She honked, we flipped her off, then she somehow passed us. I blame Tim's driving. The five of us (Parker included) went to Olive Garden for dinner, then hung out at the house for a while before I drove Nina home.
Sunday I went to the gym, then took a nap. This somehow took up most of the day. At around 9 we headed up to Nina's for a party she was having. Now, I'm not saying the party sucked (because it didn't, really,) but for a while thefacebook.com and Nina's computer were jointly the most popular person there. Parker drank too much and passed out on the futon (at least she didn't vomit) and Tim dragged me out of there before I could make a huge mistake. I must learn to limit my alcohol consumption when I'm around former girlfriends.
Monday I went to the gym, then went to my parents for the afternoon to see my family and eat dinner. Jeremy and I talked Becky into coming out to see Star Wars III instead of working on her resume (res-um-AY, res-um-AY, it still sounds weird.) I wasn't impressed with the film. Sure, the graphics were cool, and Yoda and R2-D2 kicked ass, but the dialogue was horrible, and in the last 10 minutes of the movie it appears that they lost all the futuristic looking technology from episodes I, II and most of III, and decided instead to go with 1960s style British military uniforms and huge rectangular plastic buttons. I guess maybe the retro look was coming back into style.
So that's that. Maybe it sounds like a fun weekend, and maybe it actually was and I just had too much on my mind to appreciate that, but for whatever reason today feels like a Friday, or a Thursday at the earliest. Tonight I get to go to this Boxing club, so I guess I'll figure out if it's something I want to do all summer.
Saturday morning Tim and I went to help Karen move some china cabinets from her aunts house to her parents house. Barbara brought her Suburban and Tim, Karen's dad, and I hauled these cumbersome wood-and-glass boxes down some stairs and into the SUV. When we were unloading the heavy one we failed to notice that the rear gate of Barbara's Suburban wasn't straight on top (due to one of those center brake lights,) and this put a lot of pressure on the cabinet, breaking the mirror set in the back. Luckily it looks like it will be easy to replace. After this, Karen, Barbara, Tim and I went to Le Madeleine for lunch, then Tim and I drove back to the place in Laurel, picked up Kevin, and headed up to Baltimore to pick up Nina and go to the Baltimore Zoo. This was the second Brew at the Zoo I've been to, and the first trip was much more successful. I was worried that the weather would be bad, but we lucked out there. Unfortunately we got there a little late, so a lot of booths ran out of their beers before we could try them. This wouldn't have bothered me so much if we hadn't been waiting in line at two of these places when they ran out. We all came back to Laurel to hang out, and on the way there we saw Parker coming home from work. She honked, we flipped her off, then she somehow passed us. I blame Tim's driving. The five of us (Parker included) went to Olive Garden for dinner, then hung out at the house for a while before I drove Nina home.
Sunday I went to the gym, then took a nap. This somehow took up most of the day. At around 9 we headed up to Nina's for a party she was having. Now, I'm not saying the party sucked (because it didn't, really,) but for a while thefacebook.com and Nina's computer were jointly the most popular person there. Parker drank too much and passed out on the futon (at least she didn't vomit) and Tim dragged me out of there before I could make a huge mistake. I must learn to limit my alcohol consumption when I'm around former girlfriends.
Monday I went to the gym, then went to my parents for the afternoon to see my family and eat dinner. Jeremy and I talked Becky into coming out to see Star Wars III instead of working on her resume (res-um-AY, res-um-AY, it still sounds weird.) I wasn't impressed with the film. Sure, the graphics were cool, and Yoda and R2-D2 kicked ass, but the dialogue was horrible, and in the last 10 minutes of the movie it appears that they lost all the futuristic looking technology from episodes I, II and most of III, and decided instead to go with 1960s style British military uniforms and huge rectangular plastic buttons. I guess maybe the retro look was coming back into style.
So that's that. Maybe it sounds like a fun weekend, and maybe it actually was and I just had too much on my mind to appreciate that, but for whatever reason today feels like a Friday, or a Thursday at the earliest. Tonight I get to go to this Boxing club, so I guess I'll figure out if it's something I want to do all summer.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
New house
We've all moved in to the new place in Laurel. I've been sleeping in the guest room since my room had no bed, but my bed was delivered yesterday and I am quite happy with it. We're still in the process of unpacking our shit and figuring out where to put our various pieces of furniture, so the place is still in a state of disarray. Once the place is cleaned up and we're ready to trash the place again we'll have some sort of house warming party, probably in mid June. This will probably be the venue my brother and I use to decide who is stronger and, therefore, a better person.
On another note, Becky is living at home this summer, so I'll actually get to hang out with my sister from time to time. This is nice now that we get along; when we were teenagers I would have sold my left nut to get her out of state for a couple months. My whole family has the same insensitive, dark, sarcastic sense of humor now, so we all have been getting along quite well.
I've been talking to some people about going to grad school for meteorology and the general consensus is that I shouldn't go to UMD since their program has gone down the tubes, and should look to either Florida or California. Florida has the National Hurricane Center, which I think would be fun to work with, so that will probably be my first choice. I just signed on for another year at the department of astronomy so this is still another year off, and I may still decide to do linguistics instead; I'm having trouble deciding.
Man, I am not feeling this post. I guess that means I should stop wasting your time.
On another note, Becky is living at home this summer, so I'll actually get to hang out with my sister from time to time. This is nice now that we get along; when we were teenagers I would have sold my left nut to get her out of state for a couple months. My whole family has the same insensitive, dark, sarcastic sense of humor now, so we all have been getting along quite well.
I've been talking to some people about going to grad school for meteorology and the general consensus is that I shouldn't go to UMD since their program has gone down the tubes, and should look to either Florida or California. Florida has the National Hurricane Center, which I think would be fun to work with, so that will probably be my first choice. I just signed on for another year at the department of astronomy so this is still another year off, and I may still decide to do linguistics instead; I'm having trouble deciding.
Man, I am not feeling this post. I guess that means I should stop wasting your time.
Monday, May 16, 2005
hit me
Friday afternoon after work I decided to go for a bike ride to prepare for a longer bike ride on Saturday. I rode on this trail I ran on a week or so ago when I was looking for the pullup bars I was told were on the trail. When I ran, I stopped just a little past Paint Branch Parkway, turned around, and ran back up Route 201. Had I gone a quarter mile further, I would have found what I was looking for. When I rode, however, I went way past that. I think I did about 15 miles all in all, stopping at the pullup bars and dip bars to mix things up. This was all, however, a poor decision because the next morning I was riding 31 miles for the American Diabetic Association and my legs could have used a day off. Either way, I finished the ride on Saturday with little soreness and got a free lunch from Outback Steakhouse. By free, I mean free once I paid $40 to register. I also got a water bottle and a star-shaped cookie cutter. What a weird goodie bag.
After the ride, Tim and Parker and I went back to Parkers place to shower, and Paul came up and we all went out to Frederick for the Maryland Brewers Festival. I don't know much about Frederick, but apparently there are a lot of hicks there. The beer was good, it rained a little but not so much that we couldn't enjoy ourselves, and I got a t-shirt from the DuClaw brewing company that says "drink naked" on the front. I thought Hey, what a novel idea: A shirt that advertises something you cannot do while wearing the shirt. How dumb, but apparently they brew a beer called Naked Fish, and the back of the shirt explains it all, thus destroying an otherwise ironic joke.
After that we came back down to the house in College park for a BBQ (I took a small detour to pick up Jeremy). It was raining, but we did it anyway, and a modest number of people showed up. This was good, because I really didn't want to deal with a ton of people in my house. I was tired, sore, and had already gotten drunk once that day. I was in no mood to party, and went to bed shortly after midnight.
Sunday I got up early: 9:00. I wasn't even aware that Sunday had nine o'clock in the ante meridiem. I drove Jeremy back home and we had breakfast with dad. Eggs I think. Then Jeremy and I went out to Seven Locks (near where 495 hits River Road) to pick up his uniform for his lifeguarding job this summer. I dropped him off at home, went to swim and lift weights. The last couple times I've gone to the gym I've run into Katrina, whom I know from S.S.D.P., and have been talking about joining the boxing club at Maryland (of which she is a member.) Fortunately she says the club doesn't have permission from the school to spar yet, so I won't get my ass beat quite yet. Still, I would like to learn how to throw a punch. After working out I went back and we went to Ricciuti's for dinner, then I came home and did laundry. That's right, I'm ending a blog entry with laundry. Deal with it.
After the ride, Tim and Parker and I went back to Parkers place to shower, and Paul came up and we all went out to Frederick for the Maryland Brewers Festival. I don't know much about Frederick, but apparently there are a lot of hicks there. The beer was good, it rained a little but not so much that we couldn't enjoy ourselves, and I got a t-shirt from the DuClaw brewing company that says "drink naked" on the front. I thought Hey, what a novel idea: A shirt that advertises something you cannot do while wearing the shirt. How dumb, but apparently they brew a beer called Naked Fish, and the back of the shirt explains it all, thus destroying an otherwise ironic joke.
After that we came back down to the house in College park for a BBQ (I took a small detour to pick up Jeremy). It was raining, but we did it anyway, and a modest number of people showed up. This was good, because I really didn't want to deal with a ton of people in my house. I was tired, sore, and had already gotten drunk once that day. I was in no mood to party, and went to bed shortly after midnight.
Sunday I got up early: 9:00. I wasn't even aware that Sunday had nine o'clock in the ante meridiem. I drove Jeremy back home and we had breakfast with dad. Eggs I think. Then Jeremy and I went out to Seven Locks (near where 495 hits River Road) to pick up his uniform for his lifeguarding job this summer. I dropped him off at home, went to swim and lift weights. The last couple times I've gone to the gym I've run into Katrina, whom I know from S.S.D.P., and have been talking about joining the boxing club at Maryland (of which she is a member.) Fortunately she says the club doesn't have permission from the school to spar yet, so I won't get my ass beat quite yet. Still, I would like to learn how to throw a punch. After working out I went back and we went to Ricciuti's for dinner, then I came home and did laundry. That's right, I'm ending a blog entry with laundry. Deal with it.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Lying is fun
So we're having a BBQ on Saturday. Ben, Anna, whoever else reads this: you should all come. I know I said our last party would be the last, but either I was lying then, or am lying now, or some third thing, probably involving quantum mechanics. I'm not sure when this shindig will be, but it should be early evening/late afternoon. I'll post a time once I know it. Show up early and enter the drawing for a free BBQ 2005 t-shirt. Offer void where applicable.
This is why I need to post more often...
So it's been a while since my last post, and this has come to bite me in the ass since I have a lot to write about. I'll go chronologically because it beats alphabetically or longitudinally. Prepare yourselves for a Kaylaesque post.
Two weekends ago I went home and did some construction for the garden my brother and I are building for my mom for mothers day. Our back yard is a big hill, and the southwest corner was just dirt. No grass, no nothing. So we build some retaining walls out of railroad ties so we could create a stepped garden. Not having dirt or mulch to put in, however, meant we had to stop there.
Last Friday I went to Art Attack but missed the Gin Blossoms. I don't know if that's a bad thing or not, but Chevelle was better than I thought they would be and Guster was, if nothing else, better than that Bruce Willis CD I have. During Chevelle Tim and I hoisted Paul up to crowd surf after telling him that he should give us his glasses. He didn't, and he lost them. Luckily someone found them and held them up, and Tim saw that and got them back. Tim was the next to go up and had the foresight to give me all his crap first. I was the last to go up, and made it all the way to (and over) the front fence keeping the crowd a few feet back from the stage. Along the way I crossed paths with some girl who was also crowd surfing and she got dumped in my lap. We were carried as one big mass for a while, which was kindof weird. There were also some mosh pits breaking out, which was fun because I like to shove people.
Saturday there was a toga party, and rather than just don a bed sheet I did a little research and figured out how much fabric I would need to do it right. Turns out I needed a piece 18 feet (roughly 3x my height) by 4 or 5 feet, so I went out to the fabric store to get some. Paul came along because he didn't think he had a white bed sheet, but decided to just get 1.5x his height. Why he did that, I don't know; I told him he wanted three times his height but he didn't seem to think I was right. I also picked up 18 feet for Tim. I'm glad I didn't get less than I did, since when I was putting on my toga I had just enough to do it right. Paul was having some trouble putting his on, and when Tim got back he got his on fine. Parker did the whole bed-sheet thing. We got to the party (with the obligatory 40oz bottles of malt liquor) and there were so many red-necks, republicans, military personnel, and die-hard Christians that I had to finish my bottle quick and start a new one, or I wasn't going to be able to have a good time. I still got into a lot of arguments, but at least I was drunk. I lost my drivers license and the $20 bill it was wrapped in, but some nice person found them and returned both. We stumbled back to the house at around 5 and I went to sleep.
Sunday morning I got a call around 10am from my mom asking if I was coming home for breakfast, so I got up, took a shower, and headed home. When I got there my Dad's car was gone, and when I asked where he was my mom told me that he went up to New Jersey because my grandfather was having health trouble again. He had died earlier that morning. I was fairly close with all my grandparents, especially my dads parents (since not only would we see them when we went up to New Jersey where all my grandparents lived, but they would also came down to visit; my moms parents, on the other hand, didn't travel very much) and this all happened so fast that I didn't really know how to react. So my brother and I went to work in the backyard (after all, it still was mother's day) wheelbarrowing mulch and dirt from the huge piles on our driveway to the garden in the backyard, and trimmed some trees in our backyard. I think neither of us really shows our emotions that much, and we were keeping busy, so we didn't end up talking much about it. I think my dad took it pretty hard, and my sister took it even worse.
Monday, after work, I packed my bags and headed home. My sister had driven up from school in Virginia that afternoon, and she and my brother and I were driving up to NJ Tuesday morning. We got to my grandparents house early afternoon and got to visit with our cousins from California whom we rarely get to see. The service was later that afternoon, and a lot of people came, both family and those people who aren't blood related but may as well be. During the service my grandfathers business partner spoke, as did all three of his sons. I was surprised to hear my Dad talk about the McCarthy hearings; my grandfather was discharged from the military as a result of his investigations and wasn't reinstated, despite not actually *being* a communist. I think I understand my families political opinions a lot better now. After the service most of us went back to my grandparents house. It was nice to see so many people I rarely get to see, I just wish it was under better circumstances. I had a nice long conversation with my grandfather's friend Jack Okun about working out. This guy is almost 90 years old and is partially paralyzed from having polio as a child, but he has got to have the best outlook on life out of anybody I know. He's starting to get movement back in his leg which has been more or less dead for most of his life, and I think hearing him talk about lifting weights, considering his age and history, is going to help me keep exercising after my brother and I have this brawl in a month or so. So far I have just been exercising so that I don't wind up getting beat up by my him.
Wednesday afternoon I drive back with my brother and sister, drop them off at my parents house, and go home. I wasn't really in the mood to go out at first, but when it became obvious that I wasn't going to do anything else that evening, I met up with Karen and her friends from class at Cornerstone. Not much to speak of there; I drank some, I bumped into Laura (a girl from my art class), the place got real crowded, Karen's friend Kathleen (sp?) tried to freak dance with me but, as you all know, I do not dance. Paul drove me, Karen, and Kathleen back to our house some time between 1:00 and 2:00. Karen and Kathleen and I stayed up a little longer talking about stuff, then went to bed.
Today I went to my art class and found out that I got an A for the semester. I'm not that surprised, since the teacher liked all the work I did and was always commenting about how hard I worked. All my work is now sitting in my car.
Two weekends ago I went home and did some construction for the garden my brother and I are building for my mom for mothers day. Our back yard is a big hill, and the southwest corner was just dirt. No grass, no nothing. So we build some retaining walls out of railroad ties so we could create a stepped garden. Not having dirt or mulch to put in, however, meant we had to stop there.
Last Friday I went to Art Attack but missed the Gin Blossoms. I don't know if that's a bad thing or not, but Chevelle was better than I thought they would be and Guster was, if nothing else, better than that Bruce Willis CD I have. During Chevelle Tim and I hoisted Paul up to crowd surf after telling him that he should give us his glasses. He didn't, and he lost them. Luckily someone found them and held them up, and Tim saw that and got them back. Tim was the next to go up and had the foresight to give me all his crap first. I was the last to go up, and made it all the way to (and over) the front fence keeping the crowd a few feet back from the stage. Along the way I crossed paths with some girl who was also crowd surfing and she got dumped in my lap. We were carried as one big mass for a while, which was kindof weird. There were also some mosh pits breaking out, which was fun because I like to shove people.
Saturday there was a toga party, and rather than just don a bed sheet I did a little research and figured out how much fabric I would need to do it right. Turns out I needed a piece 18 feet (roughly 3x my height) by 4 or 5 feet, so I went out to the fabric store to get some. Paul came along because he didn't think he had a white bed sheet, but decided to just get 1.5x his height. Why he did that, I don't know; I told him he wanted three times his height but he didn't seem to think I was right. I also picked up 18 feet for Tim. I'm glad I didn't get less than I did, since when I was putting on my toga I had just enough to do it right. Paul was having some trouble putting his on, and when Tim got back he got his on fine. Parker did the whole bed-sheet thing. We got to the party (with the obligatory 40oz bottles of malt liquor) and there were so many red-necks, republicans, military personnel, and die-hard Christians that I had to finish my bottle quick and start a new one, or I wasn't going to be able to have a good time. I still got into a lot of arguments, but at least I was drunk. I lost my drivers license and the $20 bill it was wrapped in, but some nice person found them and returned both. We stumbled back to the house at around 5 and I went to sleep.
Sunday morning I got a call around 10am from my mom asking if I was coming home for breakfast, so I got up, took a shower, and headed home. When I got there my Dad's car was gone, and when I asked where he was my mom told me that he went up to New Jersey because my grandfather was having health trouble again. He had died earlier that morning. I was fairly close with all my grandparents, especially my dads parents (since not only would we see them when we went up to New Jersey where all my grandparents lived, but they would also came down to visit; my moms parents, on the other hand, didn't travel very much) and this all happened so fast that I didn't really know how to react. So my brother and I went to work in the backyard (after all, it still was mother's day) wheelbarrowing mulch and dirt from the huge piles on our driveway to the garden in the backyard, and trimmed some trees in our backyard. I think neither of us really shows our emotions that much, and we were keeping busy, so we didn't end up talking much about it. I think my dad took it pretty hard, and my sister took it even worse.
Monday, after work, I packed my bags and headed home. My sister had driven up from school in Virginia that afternoon, and she and my brother and I were driving up to NJ Tuesday morning. We got to my grandparents house early afternoon and got to visit with our cousins from California whom we rarely get to see. The service was later that afternoon, and a lot of people came, both family and those people who aren't blood related but may as well be. During the service my grandfathers business partner spoke, as did all three of his sons. I was surprised to hear my Dad talk about the McCarthy hearings; my grandfather was discharged from the military as a result of his investigations and wasn't reinstated, despite not actually *being* a communist. I think I understand my families political opinions a lot better now. After the service most of us went back to my grandparents house. It was nice to see so many people I rarely get to see, I just wish it was under better circumstances. I had a nice long conversation with my grandfather's friend Jack Okun about working out. This guy is almost 90 years old and is partially paralyzed from having polio as a child, but he has got to have the best outlook on life out of anybody I know. He's starting to get movement back in his leg which has been more or less dead for most of his life, and I think hearing him talk about lifting weights, considering his age and history, is going to help me keep exercising after my brother and I have this brawl in a month or so. So far I have just been exercising so that I don't wind up getting beat up by my him.
Wednesday afternoon I drive back with my brother and sister, drop them off at my parents house, and go home. I wasn't really in the mood to go out at first, but when it became obvious that I wasn't going to do anything else that evening, I met up with Karen and her friends from class at Cornerstone. Not much to speak of there; I drank some, I bumped into Laura (a girl from my art class), the place got real crowded, Karen's friend Kathleen (sp?) tried to freak dance with me but, as you all know, I do not dance. Paul drove me, Karen, and Kathleen back to our house some time between 1:00 and 2:00. Karen and Kathleen and I stayed up a little longer talking about stuff, then went to bed.
Today I went to my art class and found out that I got an A for the semester. I'm not that surprised, since the teacher liked all the work I did and was always commenting about how hard I worked. All my work is now sitting in my car.
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Party
So, broadcasting this on the interweb may not be the smartest thing to do, what with anybody being able to see it, but whatever. Nobody reads my blog anyway. We're having a party Saturday night. If you read this blog regularly, and will be a reasonable distance from our place this weekend, you should come. This may be the last party we have at this house.
Friday, April 15, 2005
Yes, but are they networked
If you watched Minority Report and noticed the technological flaws instead of the plot, you may find this funny. Too bad I used my only good(?) joke about this in the title.
Monday, April 11, 2005
A Room with a View
Saturday morning I went to the Humane Society facility in Rockville to help build benches, mulch the area around some sidewalks, and do whatever else they needed done. It was for the community service project Jeremy needs in order to get his eagle badge. This is probably the first scout function I have been to in quite a while. I think the last time I did something with my old troop was when Tim and Kevin and I rode along with them for a while when they biked the C&O cannal a couple years ago. Before that your guess is about as good as mine. Saturday was a nice day to spend outside: a clear sky but not too hot, so I didn't notice the amount of sun I was getting. Since I was looking down most of the time, the back of my neck got a nice red hue by the end of the day. When I got back home I tried to combat it by sitting outside with no shirt on for a while, and it's starting to even out. The last thing I want is to have a beat-red neck and pasty white abdomen. I think I'm going to spend a lot of my weekends outside since I spend most of my time during the week inside an office with no windows.
Speaking of my office with no windows; I spoke with one of my bosses the other day and I will be staying on with the Department of Astronomy another year. Next year I am going to take classes that I hope will help me figure out what I should do about grad school. My current feeling is that I should go for meteorology, but not broadcast meteorology; I don't want to be a weatherman. As far as teaching, you all have made yourselves very clear as to your faith in my teaching ability, and it has finally sunk in. I would be a horrible teacher, so I have scrapped those plans. I may take another linguistics class, but I'm not sure I would be cut out to do that for grad school. I could see it being a hoby, but I can't see myself going for a career in it. Staring at clouds, on the other hand, would be an excelent way to fill both of my job requirements of 1) getting paid and 2) staring at clouds all day. I could do that now, if only my office had a window.
Speaking of my office with no windows; I spoke with one of my bosses the other day and I will be staying on with the Department of Astronomy another year. Next year I am going to take classes that I hope will help me figure out what I should do about grad school. My current feeling is that I should go for meteorology, but not broadcast meteorology; I don't want to be a weatherman. As far as teaching, you all have made yourselves very clear as to your faith in my teaching ability, and it has finally sunk in. I would be a horrible teacher, so I have scrapped those plans. I may take another linguistics class, but I'm not sure I would be cut out to do that for grad school. I could see it being a hoby, but I can't see myself going for a career in it. Staring at clouds, on the other hand, would be an excelent way to fill both of my job requirements of 1) getting paid and 2) staring at clouds all day. I could do that now, if only my office had a window.
Monday, April 04, 2005
Alcoholistic Medicine
What a week. So many people died, and the only one I really cared about was Mitch Hedberg. The rest really didn't effect me. As far as the Pope goes, I'm betting that, like all U.S. Presidents, he will be another white Christian male. OK, so the Christian part is excusable.
I'm turning into an alcoholic, but at least I'm surrounded by friends whose drinking problems make mine look less raging. I've been to a bar 3 times in the past week. The same bar, too, so I'm a boring alcoholic. Wednesday we went to Santa Fe for cheap Yuengling and buffalo wings, but they were all out of buffalo wings so really it was just for the cheap beer. I met up with Laura from my art class there, and she seemed to get along well with all my friends, so that's cool. Friday night Karen, Nina, Paul and I all went to Santa Fe because we had nothing else to do. Then Saturday night after we got dinner Laura and I went to Santa Fe again with a bunch of her friends. I'm starting to recognize waiters there. Is that a bad thing? Also, Tuesday night Tim and I bottled the beer we're making (an Irish stout), so that should be ready for consumption tomorrow. At least some studies support the claim that drinking in moderation is good for you. I didn't get shitfaced any of the times at the bar, so really I'm just drinking for my health.
Sunday afternoon I went home to hang out with Jeremy for a while, then when our parents got back from NJ we went out to Red Lobster. I'd never been to a Red Lobster before and probably won't ever go again. The food wasn't horrible, but it wasn't particularly good either.
I've started lifting weights at the gym on campus, and it is pathetic. The first time I went I could hardly lift anything. I blame that on running since it purportedly decreases muscle mass. I couldn't even lift what I usually start out with after having not exercised in a while. I've gone a couple more times since then, once with Jeremy, and he can definitely lift more than I can. I'm still not worried about our post graduation brawl, but I am going to have to prepare for this. He's benching a good 40 pounds over me. I'm beginning to notice a slight difference in strength, and I think that within a month I should have caught up with him. I just need to stop running so much and maybe swim or something. I tried swimming Saturday morning, and did a 250 before deciding to quit. Anna, what do you know about combining swimming with weight training?
I'm turning into an alcoholic, but at least I'm surrounded by friends whose drinking problems make mine look less raging. I've been to a bar 3 times in the past week. The same bar, too, so I'm a boring alcoholic. Wednesday we went to Santa Fe for cheap Yuengling and buffalo wings, but they were all out of buffalo wings so really it was just for the cheap beer. I met up with Laura from my art class there, and she seemed to get along well with all my friends, so that's cool. Friday night Karen, Nina, Paul and I all went to Santa Fe because we had nothing else to do. Then Saturday night after we got dinner Laura and I went to Santa Fe again with a bunch of her friends. I'm starting to recognize waiters there. Is that a bad thing? Also, Tuesday night Tim and I bottled the beer we're making (an Irish stout), so that should be ready for consumption tomorrow. At least some studies support the claim that drinking in moderation is good for you. I didn't get shitfaced any of the times at the bar, so really I'm just drinking for my health.
Sunday afternoon I went home to hang out with Jeremy for a while, then when our parents got back from NJ we went out to Red Lobster. I'd never been to a Red Lobster before and probably won't ever go again. The food wasn't horrible, but it wasn't particularly good either.
I've started lifting weights at the gym on campus, and it is pathetic. The first time I went I could hardly lift anything. I blame that on running since it purportedly decreases muscle mass. I couldn't even lift what I usually start out with after having not exercised in a while. I've gone a couple more times since then, once with Jeremy, and he can definitely lift more than I can. I'm still not worried about our post graduation brawl, but I am going to have to prepare for this. He's benching a good 40 pounds over me. I'm beginning to notice a slight difference in strength, and I think that within a month I should have caught up with him. I just need to stop running so much and maybe swim or something. I tried swimming Saturday morning, and did a 250 before deciding to quit. Anna, what do you know about combining swimming with weight training?
Monday, March 28, 2005
ramblings from the past week
My heath is improving, but I'm not entirely over this cold yet. I still have a sore throat and a cough, but no more swollen gums and I finally managed to pop my ears. All in all I'd give my current heath a solid B. I feel pretty good other than the throat, which I would give a C, independent of the rest of my body.
I took Monday and Tuesday off last week, and came in for a half day on Wednesday and Thursday. I spent most of the time I wasn't working either sleeping or eating. It was boring, but relaxing.
I played basketball with Kevin on Thursday last week. I started out horribly, and worked my way up to mildly miserable; basketball is not my thing. Friday night I went out to Santa Fe with Kevin, Karen, and Nina. It wasn't as weird going out to a bar with Kevin and our exes as I had originally thought it would be. Saturday Tim and Parker and I went up to see some more houses. I liked the first one more than the second, but everybody else liked the second more than the first and it looks like we're going to apply to the second house today. Oh well. Saturday evening a bunch of us went to a pool hall and played a few games. I want to get a pool table for our house when we move in. Skip the next paragraph if you don't care about computer crap.
That night my computer crashed, and wouldn't boot up normally (I kept on getting a kernel panic, if you know enough to be curious.) I first tried burning the install CDs for FC4 test release 1, but the 1st CD disabled IRQ#9, which meant my keyboard wouldn't work, then asked me to press enter to continue. I get the same problems whenever I try to use an updated kernel in FC3. So I re-burned the FC3 install CDs on my mac and tried doing a linux rescue, but it couldn't find my partition table; however, it found it fine doing a full install. So after a couple errors on disk 2, and some media checks (all coming back OK,) I re-burned the second disk and, after a few crashes during the install, I finally got FC3 reinstalled. By this point it was well into the morning. Once my system was booted it ran fsck, which kept on crashing and dumping me into a shell, which would restart the computer when it was exited. I ran fsck manually on / and /boot, which came back fine, and didn't feel like doing it on /home (my 200 gig drive) so I edited /etc/fstab to have /home not automounted and rebooted. I still got the same error and shell, so I ran fsck on /home which, after a couple dozen errors, finally finished. I restarted my computer and it booted up fine. So now I have to download a couple hundred updates from the RHN and reinstall all my custom packages, the sources/rpms of which I keep on /home so that when I format my 40 gig drive for a new OS I don't lose the install files for programs I install.) Skip the next paragraph/sentence/whatever if you read all that.
Summary for those who skipped over that last part: I stayed up all night fixing my computer.
I tried to get about an hour of sleep around 2 in the afternoon, but it didn't really catch, then went to my parents for dinner. Upon coming back to the house, I felt like going for a run. Now, it was raining outside, and I was sick and going on no sleep, but I still managed to run the whole 3 1/2 miles without stopping. I've found I'm getting much better at pushing myself lately, and I don't know why. I got back to the house and felt like I do every time I get back from running: tired. I expected to feel a lot worse, but I didn't. Maybe this is a sign that I should start running farther.
I took Monday and Tuesday off last week, and came in for a half day on Wednesday and Thursday. I spent most of the time I wasn't working either sleeping or eating. It was boring, but relaxing.
I played basketball with Kevin on Thursday last week. I started out horribly, and worked my way up to mildly miserable; basketball is not my thing. Friday night I went out to Santa Fe with Kevin, Karen, and Nina. It wasn't as weird going out to a bar with Kevin and our exes as I had originally thought it would be. Saturday Tim and Parker and I went up to see some more houses. I liked the first one more than the second, but everybody else liked the second more than the first and it looks like we're going to apply to the second house today. Oh well. Saturday evening a bunch of us went to a pool hall and played a few games. I want to get a pool table for our house when we move in. Skip the next paragraph if you don't care about computer crap.
That night my computer crashed, and wouldn't boot up normally (I kept on getting a kernel panic, if you know enough to be curious.) I first tried burning the install CDs for FC4 test release 1, but the 1st CD disabled IRQ#9, which meant my keyboard wouldn't work, then asked me to press enter to continue. I get the same problems whenever I try to use an updated kernel in FC3. So I re-burned the FC3 install CDs on my mac and tried doing a linux rescue, but it couldn't find my partition table; however, it found it fine doing a full install. So after a couple errors on disk 2, and some media checks (all coming back OK,) I re-burned the second disk and, after a few crashes during the install, I finally got FC3 reinstalled. By this point it was well into the morning. Once my system was booted it ran fsck, which kept on crashing and dumping me into a shell, which would restart the computer when it was exited. I ran fsck manually on / and /boot, which came back fine, and didn't feel like doing it on /home (my 200 gig drive) so I edited /etc/fstab to have /home not automounted and rebooted. I still got the same error and shell, so I ran fsck on /home which, after a couple dozen errors, finally finished. I restarted my computer and it booted up fine. So now I have to download a couple hundred updates from the RHN and reinstall all my custom packages, the sources/rpms of which I keep on /home so that when I format my 40 gig drive for a new OS I don't lose the install files for programs I install.) Skip the next paragraph/sentence/whatever if you read all that.
Summary for those who skipped over that last part: I stayed up all night fixing my computer.
I tried to get about an hour of sleep around 2 in the afternoon, but it didn't really catch, then went to my parents for dinner. Upon coming back to the house, I felt like going for a run. Now, it was raining outside, and I was sick and going on no sleep, but I still managed to run the whole 3 1/2 miles without stopping. I've found I'm getting much better at pushing myself lately, and I don't know why. I got back to the house and felt like I do every time I get back from running: tired. I expected to feel a lot worse, but I didn't. Maybe this is a sign that I should start running farther.
Monday, March 21, 2005
Sick of being sick
So it would appear that I've got the flu, or something like it. I spent all weekend sleeping, trying to sleep, or eating. I'm starting to feel better today but I'm not going to bet that will last. It also seems that this cold has gotten backed up into my inner ear because everything sounds like I'm underwater. For an ear infection, though, it doesn't hurt, so I've got that going for me. I think Nina had the same problem for a while, but I doubt I got it from her. The back of my mouth/throat is swelling up a little, which is bad news for my wisdom teeth. My mouth has just enough room for them, so with the slightest bit of swelling I start to chew gum. It hurts, but not too bad. Both Kevin and Jeremy tried to get me to drink pickle juice to help my cold. Both were doing it just to see if they could get me to drink pickle juice, and both came up with the idea independently. I almost did it when Kevin told me, since he has a bit of medical training. Man are my friends assholes.
Friday night a bunch of us went up to Craig's (of Maria and Craig) for a day-late St. Patty's Day party, which was nice. Craig's basement is set up well for parties, and his friends were cool. Not being able to speak very much (no voice) limited my enjoyment a little, but it was still fun. I also got to practice massaging with Parkers sister, who never complains when I do that.
On Saturday we went back to the house we were trying to rent but it doesn't look like we're going to get it. The landlord is being nice and is giving us a lot of other leads in the area. I slept the rest of the day and that night, and went to visit my family Sunday afternoon. I slept a lot there too. I did my taxes and it looks like The Man owes me a couple grand, so that's cool.
All in all, quite the uneventful weekend.
Friday night a bunch of us went up to Craig's (of Maria and Craig) for a day-late St. Patty's Day party, which was nice. Craig's basement is set up well for parties, and his friends were cool. Not being able to speak very much (no voice) limited my enjoyment a little, but it was still fun. I also got to practice massaging with Parkers sister, who never complains when I do that.
On Saturday we went back to the house we were trying to rent but it doesn't look like we're going to get it. The landlord is being nice and is giving us a lot of other leads in the area. I slept the rest of the day and that night, and went to visit my family Sunday afternoon. I slept a lot there too. I did my taxes and it looks like The Man owes me a couple grand, so that's cool.
All in all, quite the uneventful weekend.
Friday, March 18, 2005
St. Patrick's Day
Yesterday we went up to an Irish pub near Nina's apartment in Baltimore. Nina was meeting a few friends there first and Tim, Parker, Paul, Kevin and I were going to meet her. Crystal wound up coming too. The bar was very crowded when we got there, so we couldn't find Nina. We got corned beef sandwiches because, I believe, none of us had anything to eat for dinner. Tim and Parker were coming up separately so we had to wait for them to find us too. Eventually we all met up. I have to admit that it felt weird to be around Nina in this environment. I try not to be a jealous person, and as long as I'm actually in a relationship I'm fine. It's when I'm out of one and see some guy talking to my ex that I get uncomfortable. So that sucked. Later on we all got a table in a quiet corner of the bar, and continued with the drinking. Nina seemed depressed but I didn't know what I could do to help her, or if I was even in a position to help. I think she's just been depressed in general, but I think it's possible that she also could have thought something is going on between me and Crystal (nothing is), which may have made things worse. Or, I could be way off. Either way, she didn't seem too crazy about Crystal. I'm beginning to see why dating friends is a bad idea, I hope Nina starts feeling better (if she actually is depressed), and I really want to stop feeling so weird about it all. Later on that evening Kevin and Crystal and I went to pick up Jillian, a girl we went to high school with, and came back to the bar to hang out for a little longer. Some time around midnight we left, dropped off Jilian and drove back to the D.C. area. We then dropped Crystal off and headed home.
This morning, I woke up and couldn't speak; it would appear my cold has taken a turn for the worse, so I'm not going to work today. I also haven't run in a few days, on account of my cold. I want so very much to be healthy again, so I'm going to sleep all day.
This morning, I woke up and couldn't speak; it would appear my cold has taken a turn for the worse, so I'm not going to work today. I also haven't run in a few days, on account of my cold. I want so very much to be healthy again, so I'm going to sleep all day.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
3 posts in 3 days? Don't get used to it.
Yesterday I went running after work. I have had a sore throat and an on again/off again mild headache, so running may not have been the best idea. I don't feel that much different today and I've been eating a lot of zinc cough drops which are supposed to help with colds, so I'll probably continue running until I really feel like crap. Running has been great incentive to not smoke. I tried to quit on New Years but that didn't last. It's funny; I managed to quit smoking pot but not tobacco. Anyway, it's been a while since I've had one and I'm feeling a lot better. Just in general, I feel more alert, articulate, happy, and in better shape than a few weeks ago. Now all I have to do is start eating better and going to the gym to lift weights, and my brother won't stand a chance when we fight this summer. For those of you whom I haven't told: my brother is taking weight training this year, and after he graduates he wants to "throw down." Now, I'm 5 years older than him and haven't had much trouble keeping him down in the past, but he is getting stronger and now I am starting to worry. Still, I think I'll have better technique than him. Plus I will be intimidating since I've always been able to beat him up. Either way, this should be interesting.
Monday, March 14, 2005
Closure
This is going to be another short post. I told Nina we needed to talk face to face and she came down tonight so we could do it. I had a lot I had planned to say, and said very little of it. It's what I expected to happen; I usually get nervous doing stuff like this and forget a lot of the things I had planned, so at least I remembered a little: the important stuff. We walked around the neighborhood because I didn't want to do it in the house. I wanted some place that was neutral, and wandering around felt good. I'm not getting into details because I honestly can't remember a lot of them, but the summary is: it just didn't work. No rebound, no deception, at least not in large portions. It just wasn't going anywhere. I agree that it wasn't really anything serious by the time she broke it off, but I would have been fine keeping at it. She didn't want to do that, which I guess is well in her right, and it's good she did it before I actually got attached. So it's back to being friends, only this time with a hint of awkwardness and uncertainty, with no hurt feelings. Hopefully something will happen to make things comfortable like they were before, but I'm not sure what that would be other than just the slowly passing time.
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Weekend goodness
First, to wrap up old stuff. I'm not upset Nina left me. I'm pissed she ever dated me. I feel like she used me as a rebound, and that's not something you do to friends without at least telling them first.
Thursday night Kevin comes over to watch the softcore porn he got for his birthday: "The Kama Sutra." This thing is rated R and despite a little nudity, sucked both as a film and as porn. I learn some things from my friends later about theories as to what Nina thought was going on while we were "dating" or whatever, which pissed me off, but like I said above, I'm not upset. Just disappointed.
Friday night we all went out to Santa Fe. Tim, Parker, Paul, Kevin, Crystal, and Shari and I got a table near the entrance, opposite the stage, but the music was still so loud we had to lean in and yell to understand each other. Karen, Nina, and some of Karen's friends went to Corner Stone and everybody had a good time except Nina, who wanted to go to Santa Fe but was prevented by Karen. It sucks, but it happens. Turns out Crystal went to college (in the real Santa Fe) with a good friend of Karen's who comes to parties time to time. Small world. I learned a lot about what people actually though of me in high school, as opposed to what I thought they thought about me, particularly my ass, but also me as a person in general. No wonder my self esteem has had such a troubled history. People say bad things about me to me as a joke. I am not quick to pick up on these things. We left and went to Wawa to get food, because drunk people like food. While in line a couple barely dressed girls tried rubbing their breasts up against me and dropping things in front of me, but Crystal (and unintentionally Parker, who wasn't aware of this at the time) were giving them dirty looks and Crystal was pulling me away from them. I was hardly aware that any of this was happening, but not completely oblivious. We went back to the house and despite my previous rule that my bed not be used to host parties, everybody piled in. My bed is comfortable, they say. Eventually Tim and Parker go to bed, and I just lay in bed with Crystal and Shari with Kevin and Paul sitting at the foot. Karen comes home and hops in, and we all probably annoy the housemates across the hall with how loud we're being. No, nothing like that, just sitting around talking. Eventually Kevin sobers up and takes Crystal and Shari home, then comes back and goes to bed.
Saturday morning Tim, Parker, Kevin and I go up to Savage Mills to look at a townhouse. We liked it a lot, and want to move in this Summer very much. I hope we get it. Tim will probably post pictures of it eventually, if he hasn't already, but if we get it we will throw a party when we move in and all you can see it in real life. 3 stories, 3 and 1/2 baths, 4 bedrooms, a couple living areas, deck, woods/field/high-voltage-powerlines behind the house. It was well decorated when we saw it, but I'm sure our ugly furniture will detract from the architectural pleasantries of the place. We drive around the area a little, and it looks nice. Howard County, if you're curious, just south of where 32 hits 95. Later, after we get lunch and go back to the house and Kevin leaves to go do stuff, Tim and Paul and I go for a run. I've been running about 3 1/2 miles every day this week, walking for one stretch of road maybe an eighth of a mile long a couple miles in to cool off, and Tim didn't think he could do it. Motivated to not lag behind, or to prove he's a big man, or something, he kept up the whole time, even on the half mile hill at the end that gets steeper and steeper the closer you get to the top that usually kills me. So that's good. We hang out some before going up to Columbia Mall (yeah, I know, going to a mall on a Saturday Night is lame middle school stuff, but we were just getting dinner with Parker who works there for the time being. We go to Parkers house later that night and watch Donny Darko, which I had been wanting to see, and liked it very much. Kevin and Karen came up to watch too. Went back to the house in Karen's car, and we bitched about some stuff. Went to bed.
Got up this morning intending to run before going to my parents for breakfast, but decided to sleep in instead. I still got home before breakfast, and got to hang out with Becky who is almost always in another state/country going to school or working in some national park, and Jeremy, who is almost always there. We had bagels, salmon, and whitefish (whatever that is, i'm not sure, but I didn't have any so it's okay that I'm unclear as to it's source,) if you're curious. You're not, are you. Too late, you read it. I came home at around 2 and went for what is becoming my daily run to, around, and back from lake Artemisia (sp?). I then ripped my new Modest Mouse CD "Building Nothing Out Of Something" and listened to it. And it was good. Then, I decided to post to my blog, and actually write something. Now, I am finishing it, staring at the monitor, waiting to go up to Duclaw up in Arundel Mills with Paul, Tim, and Parker. I'll talk to you all later.
It's starting to feel like Spring, both in the weather and in my head. This makes me happy.
Thursday night Kevin comes over to watch the softcore porn he got for his birthday: "The Kama Sutra." This thing is rated R and despite a little nudity, sucked both as a film and as porn. I learn some things from my friends later about theories as to what Nina thought was going on while we were "dating" or whatever, which pissed me off, but like I said above, I'm not upset. Just disappointed.
Friday night we all went out to Santa Fe. Tim, Parker, Paul, Kevin, Crystal, and Shari and I got a table near the entrance, opposite the stage, but the music was still so loud we had to lean in and yell to understand each other. Karen, Nina, and some of Karen's friends went to Corner Stone and everybody had a good time except Nina, who wanted to go to Santa Fe but was prevented by Karen. It sucks, but it happens. Turns out Crystal went to college (in the real Santa Fe) with a good friend of Karen's who comes to parties time to time. Small world. I learned a lot about what people actually though of me in high school, as opposed to what I thought they thought about me, particularly my ass, but also me as a person in general. No wonder my self esteem has had such a troubled history. People say bad things about me to me as a joke. I am not quick to pick up on these things. We left and went to Wawa to get food, because drunk people like food. While in line a couple barely dressed girls tried rubbing their breasts up against me and dropping things in front of me, but Crystal (and unintentionally Parker, who wasn't aware of this at the time) were giving them dirty looks and Crystal was pulling me away from them. I was hardly aware that any of this was happening, but not completely oblivious. We went back to the house and despite my previous rule that my bed not be used to host parties, everybody piled in. My bed is comfortable, they say. Eventually Tim and Parker go to bed, and I just lay in bed with Crystal and Shari with Kevin and Paul sitting at the foot. Karen comes home and hops in, and we all probably annoy the housemates across the hall with how loud we're being. No, nothing like that, just sitting around talking. Eventually Kevin sobers up and takes Crystal and Shari home, then comes back and goes to bed.
Saturday morning Tim, Parker, Kevin and I go up to Savage Mills to look at a townhouse. We liked it a lot, and want to move in this Summer very much. I hope we get it. Tim will probably post pictures of it eventually, if he hasn't already, but if we get it we will throw a party when we move in and all you can see it in real life. 3 stories, 3 and 1/2 baths, 4 bedrooms, a couple living areas, deck, woods/field/high-voltage-powerlines behind the house. It was well decorated when we saw it, but I'm sure our ugly furniture will detract from the architectural pleasantries of the place. We drive around the area a little, and it looks nice. Howard County, if you're curious, just south of where 32 hits 95. Later, after we get lunch and go back to the house and Kevin leaves to go do stuff, Tim and Paul and I go for a run. I've been running about 3 1/2 miles every day this week, walking for one stretch of road maybe an eighth of a mile long a couple miles in to cool off, and Tim didn't think he could do it. Motivated to not lag behind, or to prove he's a big man, or something, he kept up the whole time, even on the half mile hill at the end that gets steeper and steeper the closer you get to the top that usually kills me. So that's good. We hang out some before going up to Columbia Mall (yeah, I know, going to a mall on a Saturday Night is lame middle school stuff, but we were just getting dinner with Parker who works there for the time being. We go to Parkers house later that night and watch Donny Darko, which I had been wanting to see, and liked it very much. Kevin and Karen came up to watch too. Went back to the house in Karen's car, and we bitched about some stuff. Went to bed.
Got up this morning intending to run before going to my parents for breakfast, but decided to sleep in instead. I still got home before breakfast, and got to hang out with Becky who is almost always in another state/country going to school or working in some national park, and Jeremy, who is almost always there. We had bagels, salmon, and whitefish (whatever that is, i'm not sure, but I didn't have any so it's okay that I'm unclear as to it's source,) if you're curious. You're not, are you. Too late, you read it. I came home at around 2 and went for what is becoming my daily run to, around, and back from lake Artemisia (sp?). I then ripped my new Modest Mouse CD "Building Nothing Out Of Something" and listened to it. And it was good. Then, I decided to post to my blog, and actually write something. Now, I am finishing it, staring at the monitor, waiting to go up to Duclaw up in Arundel Mills with Paul, Tim, and Parker. I'll talk to you all later.
It's starting to feel like Spring, both in the weather and in my head. This makes me happy.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
3 months gone
short post, Ninas gone. Apparently she wasn't ever there. I'll be fine eventually, it's just the shock from being rejected (you'd think I'd be used to this sort of thing by now) from a relationship I thought was going somewhere. I hope we manage to stay friends since most of our friends are the same people. For the time being, however, I am going to be hurt, bitter, and avoiding her so I don't act like a jerk. We all know it's in me.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Ski trip
On Sunday, Paul, Tim, and I went skiing at Liberty. I was worried that morning because it was snowing, and the road was already covered, but the major roads were fine and we got there a little before noon. Rather than renting skis, I borrowed Tims dads skis, which just barely fit. They were big enough to get on, but they were a little narrow at the balls of my feet. Uncomfortable, but not bad enough for me to want to pay to rent skis. I hadn't been skiing in about 6 or 7 years, and I've only been skiing twice before, so I wasn't a "competent" skier. Still, I managed to go down every slope that wasn't a black dimond or, god forbid, double-black dimond, and wasn't constantly falling down. Tim is a much better skier than I, but I was doing a little better than Paul, so that's good. I watched Tim go down a black dimond which was covered with moguls, and he made it look almost easy enough for me to try. I didn't. Chock that up to cowardace or knowing my limits, your pick. All in all, I fell down a lot, but I didn't hit anybody.
We're going to try to go on another trip sometime in February or March, so if you want to come along let us know so we can try to go when it's convinient. I may try snowboarding, or I may just stick to skiing and hone my skils, because girls only want to date guys who have great skills.
We're going to try to go on another trip sometime in February or March, so if you want to come along let us know so we can try to go when it's convinient. I may try snowboarding, or I may just stick to skiing and hone my skils, because girls only want to date guys who have great skills.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Luck ran out
Saturday morning started out well, then quickly deteriorated. I woke up at Ninas, and left to go help Ben and Anna move in, or so was the plan. I got to the parking garage and went to pay at the machine (before returning to my car.) The machine took my ticket but wasn't accepting cash. I tried to put my credit card into the machine, and it took it, but didn't register anything and refused to give me my card back. I tried to cancel the transaction and the LCD display would lead one to think that everything was fine, but nothing came out. No credit card, and no ticket to use to get out. So after calling every phone number in sight, I called Nina thinking I could get the credit card out if she brought down a pair of tweezers. No dice; the tweezers wouldn't fit in the slot I put my credit card in. We checked the whole garage to see if the attendant (who if there wasn't at the booth by the exit) but found nobody. We checked the lot next door, managed by the same company, but nobody was there either. Eventually Nina just let me use her pass to get out (she has one of those monthly passes you just have to wave near the reader to get out.) On the way home, I tried unsuccessfully to get in touch with Ben and Anna to figure out when/where we should meet them, but they were already down at their new place, and weren't answering their cells. Maybe we can help you next weekend if you still need it. I canceled my credit card when I got back to the house, and I should be receiving a new one in the mail shortly.
We went grocery shopping before the snow got really bad, and picked up some sleds from The Sports Authority in Beltway Plaza. Later, we went sledding on the hill outside the elementary school across the street. At some point, while I was running with Angel, I heard what sounded like keys falling out of a pocket. I checked, and my pockets were empty. After looking around a little and finding nothing, I figured what I heard was just Angels leash jingling while we ran. Upon getting back to the house, I found out that my keys weren't in my room, so they were somewhere in the field across the street. I went back later that night with a flashlight and spent about an hour wandering around, not finding anything. The next morning I went back, and was looking for about a half hour before asking our neighbors if they had a metal detector. Pauls dad suggested it earlier while I was leaving the house to go look, and I had thought about it earlier as well. I was in luck (this guy has everything) and after another half hour of digging through the snow only to discover that somewhere under a half dozen spots on the ground there were probably coins, or iron-rich rocks, I found my keys.
That afternoon we watched The Lord of The Rings, all three movies, extended edition. Got started around 1ish, and wasn't done until after midnight. I spent most of the time in the kitchen washing various pots, pans, cooking utensils, plates and bowls in a pot of hot soapy water on the stove and a rubbermaid bin of rinse water on the floor. The pipes in our kitchen have frozen, so this is how dishes must be done, with water taken from the faucet in my bathtub (but not bathwater, that would be gross.) It's like I'm camping or something. We ordered pizza and I sat down to watch the last movie. Tim cleaned any cups or silverware that needed washing at some point, so we now have clean dishes.
How was your weekend?
We went grocery shopping before the snow got really bad, and picked up some sleds from The Sports Authority in Beltway Plaza. Later, we went sledding on the hill outside the elementary school across the street. At some point, while I was running with Angel, I heard what sounded like keys falling out of a pocket. I checked, and my pockets were empty. After looking around a little and finding nothing, I figured what I heard was just Angels leash jingling while we ran. Upon getting back to the house, I found out that my keys weren't in my room, so they were somewhere in the field across the street. I went back later that night with a flashlight and spent about an hour wandering around, not finding anything. The next morning I went back, and was looking for about a half hour before asking our neighbors if they had a metal detector. Pauls dad suggested it earlier while I was leaving the house to go look, and I had thought about it earlier as well. I was in luck (this guy has everything) and after another half hour of digging through the snow only to discover that somewhere under a half dozen spots on the ground there were probably coins, or iron-rich rocks, I found my keys.
That afternoon we watched The Lord of The Rings, all three movies, extended edition. Got started around 1ish, and wasn't done until after midnight. I spent most of the time in the kitchen washing various pots, pans, cooking utensils, plates and bowls in a pot of hot soapy water on the stove and a rubbermaid bin of rinse water on the floor. The pipes in our kitchen have frozen, so this is how dishes must be done, with water taken from the faucet in my bathtub (but not bathwater, that would be gross.) It's like I'm camping or something. We ordered pizza and I sat down to watch the last movie. Tim cleaned any cups or silverware that needed washing at some point, so we now have clean dishes.
How was your weekend?
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Dryer details you probably could live without
So, Tim broke the dryer the other day. His load had finished and he was taking his dry clothes out, but some articles were hanging on those shelf-like protrusions that help spin the clothes. He spun the cylinder manually (as so many of us do) and heard a loud snapping sound. Then, the cylinder wouldn't move when the dryer was on. Great.
Yesterday we disassembled the thing and found the problem: the belt that spins the cylinder wasn't connected to anything. We also found a pulley unattached, lending one to believe that this was somehow the problem. Here's the catch: The belt is, topologically, a donut. As is the pulley (with a slight fuzziness applied to forgive the fact that it's a wheel attached to a axle with a little space between, and probably some bearings. The point is, the axle forms a loop with the mounting bracket, so there's no way to get the belt to go around the pulley. It's like trying to do that magic trick where you take two separate rings and transform them to be interlocked, like links of a chain. Now, I know how that works, but this belt wasn't designed with magicians in mind. We figured out how it worked: and I will try to explain this without using pictures. Good luck understanding it. You can skip the rest if you don't care how our dryer works.
First, one should note that there was a motor near the cylinder (but not touching) with an extended drive shaft (connected to the motor at one end, but left free on the other so the belt could be attached.) It was clear that the belt should go around that. The belt should also go around the cylinder. So the only question is what the hell to do with the pulley.
There were holes near the motor, on the inner surface of the bottom of the dryer body (not the cylinder) to attach the pulleys' mounting bracket, and what you're supposed to do is push a loop of the belt through the space between the pulley and it's mounting bracket, and have that loop go around the drive shaft connected to the motor. Since the pulley is close to the motor this takes very little length from the belt. The rest of the belt (on the other side of the pulley) goes around the dryer cylinder, and the tension is enough that of the loop that got threaded through the pulley and it's mounting bracket, only one direction actually touches the pulley. So to clarify: imagine you're looking at the dryer from the front. You have a large circle (the cylinder you put clothes in), and outside it, below and to the right, there's a small circle (the drive shaft connected to the motor.) Closer to the bottom of the cylinder (to the left of the drive shaft) there's a pulley (a circle larger than the drive shaft but much smaller than the dryer cylinder.) The belt, starting from the top of the cylinder and going clockwise, goes around the right side of the cylinder until you get near the bottom Let's say 4:30. There, it departs on a tangent from the cylinder and wraps around the pulley, heading right again. This begins the loop that was pushed through that I mentioned earlier. The belt then goes around the drive shaft in a clockwise fashion (let's say from 11:00 to 6:00) and departs on a tangent from the drive shaft, now heading left. Now, this part goes through the loop formed by the pulley and its mounting bracket, but doesn't touch anything there, finishing the loop that was pushed through. It then continues to meet the dryer cylinder at around 6:00, and stays on the cylinder the rest of the way up.
Aren't you sorry you read all that?
Anyway, that fixed it, and the dryer now works. Plus, we somehow wound up with an extra screw after reassembling the dryer. That's probably not good, but I doubt one screw is going to make that much of a difference. Unless, you know, that screw was holding down the "do not randomly detonate" button.
Yesterday we disassembled the thing and found the problem: the belt that spins the cylinder wasn't connected to anything. We also found a pulley unattached, lending one to believe that this was somehow the problem. Here's the catch: The belt is, topologically, a donut. As is the pulley (with a slight fuzziness applied to forgive the fact that it's a wheel attached to a axle with a little space between, and probably some bearings. The point is, the axle forms a loop with the mounting bracket, so there's no way to get the belt to go around the pulley. It's like trying to do that magic trick where you take two separate rings and transform them to be interlocked, like links of a chain. Now, I know how that works, but this belt wasn't designed with magicians in mind. We figured out how it worked: and I will try to explain this without using pictures. Good luck understanding it. You can skip the rest if you don't care how our dryer works.
First, one should note that there was a motor near the cylinder (but not touching) with an extended drive shaft (connected to the motor at one end, but left free on the other so the belt could be attached.) It was clear that the belt should go around that. The belt should also go around the cylinder. So the only question is what the hell to do with the pulley.
There were holes near the motor, on the inner surface of the bottom of the dryer body (not the cylinder) to attach the pulleys' mounting bracket, and what you're supposed to do is push a loop of the belt through the space between the pulley and it's mounting bracket, and have that loop go around the drive shaft connected to the motor. Since the pulley is close to the motor this takes very little length from the belt. The rest of the belt (on the other side of the pulley) goes around the dryer cylinder, and the tension is enough that of the loop that got threaded through the pulley and it's mounting bracket, only one direction actually touches the pulley. So to clarify: imagine you're looking at the dryer from the front. You have a large circle (the cylinder you put clothes in), and outside it, below and to the right, there's a small circle (the drive shaft connected to the motor.) Closer to the bottom of the cylinder (to the left of the drive shaft) there's a pulley (a circle larger than the drive shaft but much smaller than the dryer cylinder.) The belt, starting from the top of the cylinder and going clockwise, goes around the right side of the cylinder until you get near the bottom Let's say 4:30. There, it departs on a tangent from the cylinder and wraps around the pulley, heading right again. This begins the loop that was pushed through that I mentioned earlier. The belt then goes around the drive shaft in a clockwise fashion (let's say from 11:00 to 6:00) and departs on a tangent from the drive shaft, now heading left. Now, this part goes through the loop formed by the pulley and its mounting bracket, but doesn't touch anything there, finishing the loop that was pushed through. It then continues to meet the dryer cylinder at around 6:00, and stays on the cylinder the rest of the way up.
Aren't you sorry you read all that?
Anyway, that fixed it, and the dryer now works. Plus, we somehow wound up with an extra screw after reassembling the dryer. That's probably not good, but I doubt one screw is going to make that much of a difference. Unless, you know, that screw was holding down the "do not randomly detonate" button.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Deep Impact
I just got back from watching the launch of the Deep Impact spacecraft. That's probably the last we'll hear about it until July 4th 2005 when it impacts the comet Tempel 1. That should be exciting, since it will be the first time we (humans) intentionally impact a body other than earth (excluding landings.) I just posted a story to slashdot about it, so we'll see if they pick it up. It's times like this that I find my work exciting. I have nothing to do with the mission yet, but once the impact occurs, astronomers from around the world will upload their findings to a collaboration site I built. I'd show you the site, but it requires a login and I can't just give that information out willy-nilly, and it's really not that exciting.
So if this comet is really some extra terrestrial spacecraft, when you find out we did this, don't come to me. Actually, come to me. I know how to find the people who did this to you. In exchange for that information, I expect a few minor privileges when you enslave the Earth.
So if this comet is really some extra terrestrial spacecraft, when you find out we did this, don't come to me. Actually, come to me. I know how to find the people who did this to you. In exchange for that information, I expect a few minor privileges when you enslave the Earth.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
How I Spent My Winter Break, by Andrew Ducore
Okay, so I wrote this post once already, but blogger done not kept it. Maybe I could just say my dog ate it.
The Thursday before Christmas, Nina and I went to Thai Farm in Rockville and then watched Clerks. It'll make sense why I mentioned this later.
Christmas Eve was lazier than I had thought it would be. I planned on going to work, but I didn't. I slept in until 3:00pm and then got breakfast (or lunch, or dinner, or whatever) with Nina at IHOP. By the time we got out the sun was going down. We went to Linens & Things to get some last minute gifts, and in the checkout line I ran into this guy Eric. We took piano lessons from the same teacher back when I was taking lessons. Anyway, I went home to spend the night.
Christmas was a slow day too. The day began with me being forced out of bed by those who I guess were worried that if we didn't get downstairs in time the gifts would disappear. (run on?) I was perfectly content sleeping. But no. I got the same thing for Christmas as everyone else: presents. I stayed in my Pajamas all day except to try on some clothing I got, and all evening until around 11:30 when I got dressed so I could drive home.
The day after Christmas I went out with my parents to get an electric keyboard (a combination graduation/Christmas present.) We went to that guitar place around Cicis and the Melting Pot and picked out one that suited my needs. 88 weighted keys, a bunch of instruments, and settings out the wazoo. It even came with a pedal. Okay, so maybe that's not that exciting, but it's still nice to have a piano around. Later that evening I watched Chasing Amy with some people in the house.
Monday I went to work, then hung out with Colin and Ian in the evening. Ian wanted to watch Clerks, and after a while of searching, the DVD was found and played.
Tuesday I went up to Baltimore to get ice cream at this little Italian place Nina knew about, then we came down to CP to watch movies. We saw clerks. Again. Only this time, it was Clerks X, which had a different version of the movie (and an animated clip of what happens in the funeral parlor, Clerks Animated Series style.) So in less than a week I saw Clerks 3 times and Chasing Amy once. You'd think I liked Kevin Smith in that special way or something. But no, it's just about the sex.
Wednesday morning I drove up to New Jersey to visit family. I got to see my cousins (my moms sisters kids,) two of whom recently had kids (okay, one of them had a kid, the other was just the father... not of the same kid... some other lady had his kid.) The point is, two of my cousins are new parents with two new babies, and not twins. I got to play with one of them, Phillip Ray, and not like this is news or anything but I want to have kids. My parents say I don't need to have kids yet, and that I don't even need to be practicing either. Whatever, I'll play with dolls if I want to. Seriously, though, I want to have kids. I know I'm not quite ready yet, so I guess I'll settle with wanting to practice. I hear it's all the rage in high schools these days. I drove back to MD late Thursday night.
New Years eve was spend running errands and getting ready for the party, then the party. The party wasn't bad. More people showed up than I had thought would (Ben, Anna, where were you?) Colin came over from a party down the street with some people I went to high school with, then he brought me over to the other party. This party down the street was more "happening" than ours. They had around 50 or 60 people (I'm guessing), while ours had a couple dozen. Their house was cool too; from what I understand it was built by some architect who lived there in the 70s. I came back to our party before midnight, and stayed there. I'm surprised how little I drank: two beers, a car bomb, and a champaign flute of, well, champaign. I didn't get drunk, unlike some people whose names I won't mention, Nina.
New Years and the day thereafter were spent sleeping in and watching movies on the TV. It was fantastic.
In conclusion, Libya is a land of contrast.
The Thursday before Christmas, Nina and I went to Thai Farm in Rockville and then watched Clerks. It'll make sense why I mentioned this later.
Christmas Eve was lazier than I had thought it would be. I planned on going to work, but I didn't. I slept in until 3:00pm and then got breakfast (or lunch, or dinner, or whatever) with Nina at IHOP. By the time we got out the sun was going down. We went to Linens & Things to get some last minute gifts, and in the checkout line I ran into this guy Eric. We took piano lessons from the same teacher back when I was taking lessons. Anyway, I went home to spend the night.
Christmas was a slow day too. The day began with me being forced out of bed by those who I guess were worried that if we didn't get downstairs in time the gifts would disappear. (run on?) I was perfectly content sleeping. But no. I got the same thing for Christmas as everyone else: presents. I stayed in my Pajamas all day except to try on some clothing I got, and all evening until around 11:30 when I got dressed so I could drive home.
The day after Christmas I went out with my parents to get an electric keyboard (a combination graduation/Christmas present.) We went to that guitar place around Cicis and the Melting Pot and picked out one that suited my needs. 88 weighted keys, a bunch of instruments, and settings out the wazoo. It even came with a pedal. Okay, so maybe that's not that exciting, but it's still nice to have a piano around. Later that evening I watched Chasing Amy with some people in the house.
Monday I went to work, then hung out with Colin and Ian in the evening. Ian wanted to watch Clerks, and after a while of searching, the DVD was found and played.
Tuesday I went up to Baltimore to get ice cream at this little Italian place Nina knew about, then we came down to CP to watch movies. We saw clerks. Again. Only this time, it was Clerks X, which had a different version of the movie (and an animated clip of what happens in the funeral parlor, Clerks Animated Series style.) So in less than a week I saw Clerks 3 times and Chasing Amy once. You'd think I liked Kevin Smith in that special way or something. But no, it's just about the sex.
Wednesday morning I drove up to New Jersey to visit family. I got to see my cousins (my moms sisters kids,) two of whom recently had kids (okay, one of them had a kid, the other was just the father... not of the same kid... some other lady had his kid.) The point is, two of my cousins are new parents with two new babies, and not twins. I got to play with one of them, Phillip Ray, and not like this is news or anything but I want to have kids. My parents say I don't need to have kids yet, and that I don't even need to be practicing either. Whatever, I'll play with dolls if I want to. Seriously, though, I want to have kids. I know I'm not quite ready yet, so I guess I'll settle with wanting to practice. I hear it's all the rage in high schools these days. I drove back to MD late Thursday night.
New Years eve was spend running errands and getting ready for the party, then the party. The party wasn't bad. More people showed up than I had thought would (Ben, Anna, where were you?) Colin came over from a party down the street with some people I went to high school with, then he brought me over to the other party. This party down the street was more "happening" than ours. They had around 50 or 60 people (I'm guessing), while ours had a couple dozen. Their house was cool too; from what I understand it was built by some architect who lived there in the 70s. I came back to our party before midnight, and stayed there. I'm surprised how little I drank: two beers, a car bomb, and a champaign flute of, well, champaign. I didn't get drunk, unlike some people whose names I won't mention, Nina.
New Years and the day thereafter were spent sleeping in and watching movies on the TV. It was fantastic.
In conclusion, Libya is a land of contrast.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
titles are for suckers
Last night I saw Rent for the third time. I had no idea that Darth Vader was Lukes father; I should really pay more attention when I go to plays. First time was in London sophomore year, then in New York last winter, now Baltimore. I'm beginning to think that this is the only play I'll ever see. Maybe by the time I die I can have seen it in every major city in the world. Maybe not.
Ninas cats are starting to be more friendly with me, despite my best efforts to make them hate me. I think that animals like it when you play rough, just so long as you don't actually hurt them. I know this holds for most dogs, but I always figured cats didn't like it. Maybe only kittens deal with it well, and when they get older they just want to be pet or left alone.
Today is my sisters birthday. She turned 24. That about sums that up.
Moving back in time:
Saturnight (I meant to type Saturday night, but that came out instead and I don't feel like using the backspace) I turned off my computer to make some quiet, and the next day when I turned it back on I got this nice little "Operating System not found" message. Restarted, same thing. Went into BIOS and my /home hard drive wasn't found correctly (the one with / and /boot was fine, though.) There was some other name (not WD200G or whatever) in place of the name of my 200 gig /home drive, and it had all sorts of extended ASCII characters. Somehow, opening the case and pushing all the EIDE cables connected to my hard drives against the drive fixed it. (nothing was disconnected, nor did any of the cables even move) So now my computer works again. Whatever that was. I'm beginning to think that I should upgrade my computer. I'm using the same MoBo and CPU that came with the computer, and while I have plenty of memory, my system isn't as fast as I would like, and every now and then it decides to stop working for a few days. Maybe I'll get a new computer over the summer. Maybe not.
Sunday I got to see some of Baltimore, including the National Bohemian building (I saw the face wink), Ninas school and the neighboring graveyard, the inner harbor, and some cool library. I'm not usually impressed by libraries (okay, maybe I am by the glib or libpng libraries, but that's different) but this place was different. Huge open spaces, a fountain with gold fish in the children's area... it felt like a museum, only a museum where you can touch things. I went home afterward to decorate the Christmas tree at my parents place, and despite the fact that I told them I'd be there in a half hour or so, the went ahead and started without me. Not that I was really bothered by it, hanging little trinkets on an evergreen is by far one of the most bizarre rituals in the Christmas celebrating culture.
I think we're going to try to go skiing some time next week (between Jesuses birthday and that day when, five years ago, every computer stopped working thrusting mankind into a digital ice age.) If anybody is interested in going skiing, let Tim or me know what days you're available so we can figure out an excuse for why you can't come.
Ninas cats are starting to be more friendly with me, despite my best efforts to make them hate me. I think that animals like it when you play rough, just so long as you don't actually hurt them. I know this holds for most dogs, but I always figured cats didn't like it. Maybe only kittens deal with it well, and when they get older they just want to be pet or left alone.
Today is my sisters birthday. She turned 24. That about sums that up.
Moving back in time:
Saturnight (I meant to type Saturday night, but that came out instead and I don't feel like using the backspace) I turned off my computer to make some quiet, and the next day when I turned it back on I got this nice little "Operating System not found" message. Restarted, same thing. Went into BIOS and my /home hard drive wasn't found correctly (the one with / and /boot was fine, though.) There was some other name (not WD200G or whatever) in place of the name of my 200 gig /home drive, and it had all sorts of extended ASCII characters. Somehow, opening the case and pushing all the EIDE cables connected to my hard drives against the drive fixed it. (nothing was disconnected, nor did any of the cables even move) So now my computer works again. Whatever that was. I'm beginning to think that I should upgrade my computer. I'm using the same MoBo and CPU that came with the computer, and while I have plenty of memory, my system isn't as fast as I would like, and every now and then it decides to stop working for a few days. Maybe I'll get a new computer over the summer. Maybe not.
Sunday I got to see some of Baltimore, including the National Bohemian building (I saw the face wink), Ninas school and the neighboring graveyard, the inner harbor, and some cool library. I'm not usually impressed by libraries (okay, maybe I am by the glib or libpng libraries, but that's different) but this place was different. Huge open spaces, a fountain with gold fish in the children's area... it felt like a museum, only a museum where you can touch things. I went home afterward to decorate the Christmas tree at my parents place, and despite the fact that I told them I'd be there in a half hour or so, the went ahead and started without me. Not that I was really bothered by it, hanging little trinkets on an evergreen is by far one of the most bizarre rituals in the Christmas celebrating culture.
I think we're going to try to go skiing some time next week (between Jesuses birthday and that day when, five years ago, every computer stopped working thrusting mankind into a digital ice age.) If anybody is interested in going skiing, let Tim or me know what days you're available so we can figure out an excuse for why you can't come.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Was that a date or a fig?
Nina and I got dinner and saw The Incredibles last night. I thought the movie was fairly good, and would recommend it to anybody who likes movies about superheros, computer graphics, or the thought of Samuel L. Jackson ice skating in form fitting spandex. I liked it for the superhero stuff. Now, I'm not much of a movie critic, nor am I down with the comic book superhero scene, so I'm pretty sure you shouldn't care that I liked the movie. Dinner at Duclaw was good, but the new beer they had was too bitter for me; Nina liked it, though. Man... I just realized that Nina is one letter off from Ninja. I should watch my back.
At the job I've been installing, and re-installing MySQL, php, apache, and java among a few other programs. The version of MySQL I'm running doesn't work with php out of the box, and the settings to make it work breaks phpmyadmin. I've managed to find a happy medium that supports everything, but I think the settings I came up with should be the defaults. Far be it from me to know if there's an easier way I somehow missed. That, and I've been burning CDs and DVDs. Fun.
At the job I've been installing, and re-installing MySQL, php, apache, and java among a few other programs. The version of MySQL I'm running doesn't work with php out of the box, and the settings to make it work breaks phpmyadmin. I've managed to find a happy medium that supports everything, but I think the settings I came up with should be the defaults. Far be it from me to know if there's an easier way I somehow missed. That, and I've been burning CDs and DVDs. Fun.
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
who wants gmail?
Gmail has given me six invitations to dole out. If any of you bastards want a email account like biggest_looser@gmail.com, let me know. If you're some random person reading my blog, and don't know me, chances are I won't give you an invitation (I'm a bastard like that) so don't waste both of our time posting and asking for one. That goes for you, too, Tim. Also, you probably shouldn't post your email address on this blog unless you want spam, so I don't really know how to go about all this. How 'bout you throw a brick with your email address on it through a window at my house. If more than 6 people ask me for an account, I'll come up with some crazy competition to decide who gets them, or just play favorites. That's all, move along.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Laptop
I got a message from Comp USA late last week telling me that my laptop was ready to be picked up. I managed to make it out there on Saturday (going to rockville on a saturday afternoon two weeks before christmas was a dumb idea.) When I got there the guy at the service desk told me I owed them something on the order of $300 for parts and labor. This is despite the fact that Apple said they'd take care of it all for free and all I had to do was take my laptop to any AASP (which Comp USA is.) I asked about this, and they said something about having to give them a proof of purchase to prove that I have a waranty. I don't, however, have a waranty. I got a one-year waranty which has since expired, but this repair was covered by an extended waranty that Apple granted to any ibook within a range of serial numbers. Mine fell in that range. I asked about this, and they guy went back into the workshop, came back and argued some more, then let me take it without paying. So either the people at Comp USA are idiots and didn't read the form I filled out (which had all this information on it) or they figured they'd try to sucker me out of a few hundred dollars. On the plus side, I got to argue with a business over money, and tell a worker that I wanted to speak with his manager. A first for both. I've finally achieved the rank of annoying uppity customer.
Also, I saw Dodgeball. Hilarious.
Also, I saw Dodgeball. Hilarious.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
weekend update with that guy who isn't funny
Ahhh the weekend, a time when I don't have to go to work or school, or generally bathe or practice oral hygene. Seriously, though, I wash.
Friday night was uneventfull; Paul and I got high and hung out, but it was a fairly boring evening all in all.
Saturday I went up to Baltimore to see Edgar Allan Poe's house with Karen and Nina; it was a nice walk from Ninas appartment to the house, but I like walking and cities facinate me so there's no real news there. The house itself was unobtrusive and small, but Poe lived in poverty so I wasn't expecting a mansion. We got there shortly before it was going to close so we didn't have to pay to get in. The stairs are hard to navigate and the informative video playing in one of the rooms was put together, apparently, by a 4 year old with sticky fingers. If anybody wants to get drunk on cognac on E.A. Poe's birthday this year, just let me know. Oh, and bring a ski mask so we don't get caught on film. On the way back from the house we walked through this indoor food market place, can't remember the name but it a few blocks from Ninas place. It was weird in that cool circusy kind of way. When we got back to Ninas building she and Karen went up and I went home. Later, around 8ish, Paul and I went up to Ninas for her birthday party, and once everybody else showed up we went to this bar around the corner. There was this band there, and like a sucker, I bought their CD. And like me, it sucks. I'm not even going to waste time describing it. Now mind you, by the time I bought the CD I had around 3 large glasses of beer, so my judgement wasn't working full time (eventually, I think it went on sabbatical.) Most of us went back to Ninas place where the drinking and talking continued, but not before Tim and I raced up 23 flights of stairs because, for some reason, the elevator wasn't good enough for us. Running up that many stairs while drunk, only to go drink more, really does a number on ones feeling of well being. We made margaritas, then Nina and I wound up doing 4 shots each of the tequila I got her for her birthday. That's 9 drinks for me, a few more for Nina. Needless to say we were drunk. Slowly the bodies started walking out the door, and Karen, Nina, and I carried on a very drunk, meandering conversation before falling asleep... um... yeah.
The next morning Nina made us pancakes and baccon (which kicked ass, by the way) and some coffee that I think Tim gave her. Karen and I went back to the house where I showered and went home to practice piano, still hungover but wanting to do something with the day. The Gershwin pieces I used to play are a bit rusty, but the Rachmaninov Prelude in C# minor came back quite easily, which surprised me since it's a lot of complicated cords and the hands kindof get in eachothers way in parts. Some time this week I think I'm going to the piano store on Rt. 1 and check out the electric pianos. So anyway, we had dinner and I traded cars back with my dad (I had been driving his car that week so that my brother could practice on an automatic and take the driving test in something other than the van, which isn't great for parallel parking.) The next morning I get a call. It's my mom. My parking permit (which I need if I want to go to work and not get a parking ticket) was still at home, so I had to take a hour long detour on my way to work to pick up the permit. Only later did I realize that the garage door opener my dad uses was still in my car. Ah well, I'm going home later this week for Chanukah and can give it to him then.
That's about it. Some other interesting things happened, but nothing I'm going to broadcast on the internet. If you really want to know, just tie me down and put a coat hanger on the stove. It won't take long before I start talking.
Friday night was uneventfull; Paul and I got high and hung out, but it was a fairly boring evening all in all.
Saturday I went up to Baltimore to see Edgar Allan Poe's house with Karen and Nina; it was a nice walk from Ninas appartment to the house, but I like walking and cities facinate me so there's no real news there. The house itself was unobtrusive and small, but Poe lived in poverty so I wasn't expecting a mansion. We got there shortly before it was going to close so we didn't have to pay to get in. The stairs are hard to navigate and the informative video playing in one of the rooms was put together, apparently, by a 4 year old with sticky fingers. If anybody wants to get drunk on cognac on E.A. Poe's birthday this year, just let me know. Oh, and bring a ski mask so we don't get caught on film. On the way back from the house we walked through this indoor food market place, can't remember the name but it a few blocks from Ninas place. It was weird in that cool circusy kind of way. When we got back to Ninas building she and Karen went up and I went home. Later, around 8ish, Paul and I went up to Ninas for her birthday party, and once everybody else showed up we went to this bar around the corner. There was this band there, and like a sucker, I bought their CD. And like me, it sucks. I'm not even going to waste time describing it. Now mind you, by the time I bought the CD I had around 3 large glasses of beer, so my judgement wasn't working full time (eventually, I think it went on sabbatical.) Most of us went back to Ninas place where the drinking and talking continued, but not before Tim and I raced up 23 flights of stairs because, for some reason, the elevator wasn't good enough for us. Running up that many stairs while drunk, only to go drink more, really does a number on ones feeling of well being. We made margaritas, then Nina and I wound up doing 4 shots each of the tequila I got her for her birthday. That's 9 drinks for me, a few more for Nina. Needless to say we were drunk. Slowly the bodies started walking out the door, and Karen, Nina, and I carried on a very drunk, meandering conversation before falling asleep... um... yeah.
The next morning Nina made us pancakes and baccon (which kicked ass, by the way) and some coffee that I think Tim gave her. Karen and I went back to the house where I showered and went home to practice piano, still hungover but wanting to do something with the day. The Gershwin pieces I used to play are a bit rusty, but the Rachmaninov Prelude in C# minor came back quite easily, which surprised me since it's a lot of complicated cords and the hands kindof get in eachothers way in parts. Some time this week I think I'm going to the piano store on Rt. 1 and check out the electric pianos. So anyway, we had dinner and I traded cars back with my dad (I had been driving his car that week so that my brother could practice on an automatic and take the driving test in something other than the van, which isn't great for parallel parking.) The next morning I get a call. It's my mom. My parking permit (which I need if I want to go to work and not get a parking ticket) was still at home, so I had to take a hour long detour on my way to work to pick up the permit. Only later did I realize that the garage door opener my dad uses was still in my car. Ah well, I'm going home later this week for Chanukah and can give it to him then.
That's about it. Some other interesting things happened, but nothing I'm going to broadcast on the internet. If you really want to know, just tie me down and put a coat hanger on the stove. It won't take long before I start talking.
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
I can't take credit for this...
...but I can post it in my blog. My dad just sent me this email; and I think I saw something like this on the West Wing once.
Subject: Dear Mr. Bush
Dear Mr President,
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from you and understand why you propose and support a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage. As you have said, "in the eyes of God marriage is based between a man and a woman." I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination.... End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.
I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help.
Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.
"Patriotism means to stand by the country, it does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official...."
President Theodore Roosevelt
Subject: Dear Mr. Bush
Dear Mr President,
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from you and understand why you propose and support a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage. As you have said, "in the eyes of God marriage is based between a man and a woman." I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination.... End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.
- Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?
- I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
- I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanness - Leviticus 15:19-24. The problem is how to tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense. Some have slapped me.
- When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Leviticus 1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
- I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?
- A friend of mine feels even though eating shellfish is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord - Leviticus 11:10, that it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there degrees of abomination?
- Leviticus 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?
- Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Leviticus 19:27. How should they die?
- I know from Leviticus 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
- My uncle has a farm. He violates Leviticus 9:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Leviticus 24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Leviticus 20:14)
I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help.
Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.
"Patriotism means to stand by the country, it does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official...."
President Theodore Roosevelt
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Nothing to see here
Man am I bored. It's not that I don't have anything to do; I have books I'm reading, classes to study for, and some side projects I'm working on with the hopes of making shit loads of money selling to the NSA. It's just that nothing really excites me anymore. This political season has left a sour taste in my mouth, so I don't feel like really following it (but I do anyway.) I don't know what I want at this point, and I'm tired of not really wanting anything. Complacency is soothing, but like Tim said, you have to want things to have excitement. So that's what I want. Excitement. Is there somewhere I can place an order?
I'm planing on volunteering for Habitat for Humanity at some point before spring. I have to figure out what things I'd be good at (apparently it isn't all hammering) and fill out the application. Assuming they work weekends, which I'm assuming they do since it's a volunteer based organization and most people need real jobs, it will give me something to do in my free time.
I've started really thinking about grad school, and I've narrowed it down to a few fields. I still like architecture, and building houses will probably increase my desire to design them. I'm also looking into meteorology (not broadcast meteorology), because honestly, who doesn't like staring at clouds? All I know at this point is that I don't want to program for a living. Don't get me wrong, I like programming, its just seems trivial lately. Maybe it's just my job. I would still like to be able to solve problems with computers, and architecture and meteorology both use computers to model things. Either way, if I don't get a job I enjoy at NASA or USGS or NOAA or some respectable company, I'll just go back to school. Then, if I still can't get a job I like, I'll teach. If I have to be miserable, at least I can pass it on to the next generation.
My laptop broke. I've been waiting for this to happen since I heard about an issue with the line of iBooks mine came from (the logic board, to be percise.) So now I have to mail my computer to Apple and have them fix it. The good thing is that if the problem is what I think it is, they'll fix it and handle shipping for free. If not, I could wind up paying through the nose. I hate computers, and if they weren't so damn efficient I wouldn't have anything to do with them.
This was kindof a downer post. Not entirely, just more than usual. I'm going to go do something fun.
I'm planing on volunteering for Habitat for Humanity at some point before spring. I have to figure out what things I'd be good at (apparently it isn't all hammering) and fill out the application. Assuming they work weekends, which I'm assuming they do since it's a volunteer based organization and most people need real jobs, it will give me something to do in my free time.
I've started really thinking about grad school, and I've narrowed it down to a few fields. I still like architecture, and building houses will probably increase my desire to design them. I'm also looking into meteorology (not broadcast meteorology), because honestly, who doesn't like staring at clouds? All I know at this point is that I don't want to program for a living. Don't get me wrong, I like programming, its just seems trivial lately. Maybe it's just my job. I would still like to be able to solve problems with computers, and architecture and meteorology both use computers to model things. Either way, if I don't get a job I enjoy at NASA or USGS or NOAA or some respectable company, I'll just go back to school. Then, if I still can't get a job I like, I'll teach. If I have to be miserable, at least I can pass it on to the next generation.
My laptop broke. I've been waiting for this to happen since I heard about an issue with the line of iBooks mine came from (the logic board, to be percise.) So now I have to mail my computer to Apple and have them fix it. The good thing is that if the problem is what I think it is, they'll fix it and handle shipping for free. If not, I could wind up paying through the nose. I hate computers, and if they weren't so damn efficient I wouldn't have anything to do with them.
This was kindof a downer post. Not entirely, just more than usual. I'm going to go do something fun.
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Fantastic
Man am I glad that's over. Now I can go back to not paying attention to what the government's doing until, 3 years from now, they advertise while I'm watching my scripted reality TV. That's the great thing about democracy, you don't have to do shit. Just sit back, and let those in charge make the important decisions. That's why they're there, so you don't need to think about what's good for you. It's not so bad that the rich people have a lot of say in the government; they already have what they need, so I'm sure they have everybody else's interest at heart. Could you imagine if the impoverished were given power? They'd be all "gimme food", "gimme medicine", "at least let me sleep on the park benches". Greedy bastards; they should learn from the rich. The rich obviously know the way the system should be used; they made it. And if I hear one more complaint about dead Iraqis, I'm going to fucking loose it. They're not Americans, so our government doesn't need to care about them, and since this fine government is "for the people, by the people", you too don't need to worry about them. And nobody can complain about not having a job. The U.S. military will provide every able-bodied american with a job for life. Man, some people just don't get it.
Seriously, though, we're all doomed. My only suggestion is for every liberal to fuck like bunnies, with a member of the opposite sex of course (not to be biggoted, but homosexual sex doesn't produce babies; they can adopt, or at least they should be able to), and raise your kids right so that maybe 18 years from now we'll be able to change things (in congress at least, 20 years for the president). Assuming we make it that long.
Seriously, though, we're all doomed. My only suggestion is for every liberal to fuck like bunnies, with a member of the opposite sex of course (not to be biggoted, but homosexual sex doesn't produce babies; they can adopt, or at least they should be able to), and raise your kids right so that maybe 18 years from now we'll be able to change things (in congress at least, 20 years for the president). Assuming we make it that long.
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