Tap the Rockiez

I'm leaving for CO today and I expect I'm going to have a lot of fun. The company is quite nice. Lots of sights to see that might cure my computer eyes.

A Cockney Rebellion

I think my body may be angry with me. I might have finally pissed it off to the point where it's better for my individual organs to move on without me. We're holding each other back and this is a dead end relationship. We've crossed the line from complacent domestic arguments to spousal abuse and if I don't straighten up and fly right the results could be disastrous. I can imagine right now that my liver is packing its bags secretly while I'm at work, carefully leaving behind every sentimental knickknack and taking only what it needs to start a new life; stealing away in the night and leaving behind only a tangle of lonely sheets and an imprint where an organ used to be. It won't even leave a note, maybe just a final glance before it passes through the doors into a brand new life where it won't ever be made to feel small again and punishment won't be doled out in pilsner glasses. Au revoir, mon chéri.

Bring On The Major Leagues

The trip to NASA went over pretty successfully I think. That is to say it was ridiculous. That place is pretty rad and would have been twice as awesome when I was a kid. A strange consequence of the trip is that I had a run in with something I had a problem with when I was a kid: large disproportions (or maybe proportions).
We toured the Saturn V rocket facility, and it makes me cringe (a funny feeling in my teeth) to imagine how small the rivets are compared to the bulk of the fuselage. I told you it was strange.

Time spent with these REU folks has been pretty enjoyable, but it's probably in my best interest to not become too attached (see: last summer). Particle accelerators are no great substitute for non-zombified humans.

Work is sort of frustrating right now, as I've been stuck on a certain problem in my research for almost two weeks. I think I've circumnavigated the boundary of the problem for a while now and it would really be nice to crack it open a little. Every time I do make some progress or fix an error it has an almost null effect on the end result, a result that is most definitely wrong! This is probably made worse by the time I've had to take to plan for REU events and my tiny drinking problem. Hopefully I'll make some progress soon before I leave for Colorado.

Also, I cut all my hair off. Whoops!

I went to Galveston this weekend. It was pretty fun despite how much middle-aged gay men like me and cloudy weather. I did get to see a waterspout while driving down the road which was pretty neat and I'll post pictures of that soon.


I've decided that top 5 lists are a fun thing to do and so I'm going to start off my first one:

TOP FIVE THEME PARTIES TO THROW BEFORE I DIE:

1.) Everyone dresses as a different type of dinosaur or prehistoric mammal, and at the stroke of midnight everyone pours out their beverage in honor of their 65 million year deceased homies.

2.) White Trash Bash. This happens before the end of summer for sure. No pants below knee length and no shirts with sleeves. Mullets are a plus.

3.) Dress Like You Did In Elementary School. Did your mom pick out your clothes? You dressed yourself? Do share.

4.) Favorite late 80s/early 90s television star (everyone please don't go as Fresh Prince)

5.) Watch me beat Metroid in 45 mins. Okay this isn't so much a theme party as a way to show you how badass I am at Metroid. Still...


I'm leading a huge expedition to NASA next monday. I want to tell you how I think that'll go down later.

This is Post-Worthy

They finally changed the death-timer on Med. No more ten minute bullshit.

It's just not reasonable for a human to get excited over something stupid like this.

Something Sciencey

(or pseudo-sciencey, but it makes an interesting point.)

I want to talk about a problem I've thrown some thought-time at lately.

The universe is a very large place, and even our tiny galaxy within it is incredibly large compared to our system. Upper estimates put its largest diameter at 100,000 light years, while our furthest interstellar probe is about 90 AU (.0015 LY) from Earth. That probe was launched in 1977. Our fastest probes might be a bit quicker by now but I doubt they are by orders of magnitude, and nowhere near the speed of light. One of the most often asked questions about the galaxy is whether or not there is other life in it.

Some attempts have been made to quantify the preponderance of civilizations in our galaxy which are advanced enough to communicate, the most popular of which is the Drake equation. It's a many variable quantity, and its parameters are highly contested, but results can often give N=0-100, while some estimates can give extremely low values such as 1e-10, where N is the number of civilizations. A recent computer calculation which assumes that a sufficiently technologically advanced civilization could build a ship which moves at 10% the speed of light, populate the nearest star systems (using an average spacing of systems which is empirically determined), and then 500 years after landing send a new ship out to its nearest system finds that the entire galaxy could be colonize in 5 million years after the beginning of such a program. If N was on the order of 10 or so, the probability of at least one of these civilizations being born before us is high, and taking into account the age of most systems in the galaxy (~13 billion years) it is quite probable that at least one of these civilizations was born at least 5 million years before us. The question then, is why isn't the galaxy colonized yet? There are many anthropic assumptions made in the argument (i.e. they communicate by radio, build spaceships, want to leave their planet) but it still makes an interesting point to play the pessimistic side of this argument. Maybe a factor which isn't taken into account by all these estimates is that a civilization sufficiently advanced to create spaceships of the required type it is also sufficiently advanced to destroy itself, and the probability of this occuring within 500 years of the creation of such weapons might be higher than we think. It's something to think about.

It's Monday by now, surely. I have had a very busy weekend, but it's been very good all the same. Rockwall is a growing town and a lot of what has been added on is very nice. There is a lakeside shopping district and movie theater now, and it's obviously been well-planned and had very solid investment. It shapes up to be a really nice place, overlooking the lake like that.

I realize from time to time that I'm lucky enough to have a lot of close friends, not acquaintances or passing friends, but people who actually givachitte. Thanks dudez.