It Wasn't Bad At All!

Amicable.

This week is fucking killing me man! But I am pretty positive about my NSF application, it's turning out rather well. I sure do have a lot to say about something that I'm not sure I want to do. Going to talk about tattoos on Friday with friend, exciting. Buying skateboard decks in bulk, creative. Grading tons of papers and doing my homework, productive. Going to my group meeting in 15 minutes, not T-H-R-I-L-L-E-D. Going to LA to visit Beazur in Decembery, going to slam dunk it.

I Am Not Excited About This

Let's hope it isn't too bad. The burden is on me anyways.

On a lighter note, I watched Dune so much as a kid that certain childlike impressions of it were made on me. Maybe that's why I like it so much still. Anyways, the score for Dune is done by Toto. Toto Jackson right? Michael Jackson's brother? Whoops!

Rattled By The Rush

It's too cold to walk home
Sleeping in your office is rad
Caffeined out.

Family Matters

I love talking to my Dad sometimes. He has these moods where he is a very calm, well thought-out human with a neat outlook on life and he appreciates a lot of the minutiae that existence offers, and I think that he imparted a strong sense of that in me when I was young. Definitely thankful.

Two days ago I was forced, painfully, to remember an old adage my grandfather (Papaw) has often said: "You must be smarter than the machinery you intend to operate." I was using the high-powered stapler at the Cyclotron -- the one that's capable of stapling a sheaf 100 pages thick -- when it decided to jam up. Oh me, oh my, clever engineer boy to the rescue. So I started fiddling around with the ejector and I had one finger still under it, and I guess I loosened up whatever was jamming it with the surprise result that all the pent up, frustrated forces had now jammed a huge staple straight into the side of my index finger and right out the other side. My friend standing next to me at the copier just looked at it and asked, "Are you fucking serious?" It looked so damn bizarre, but I pulled the staple out and I guess it's okay now. I'll see you guys in a week or so with lockjaw.

The Turing (2,3) machine is universal. That's pretty neat, but it also still blows my mind. Also, did you know that a topological 2-sphere is evertible? (You can turn it inside out). The same doesn't hold true for a 1-sphere (topological circle). Watch this video:

Turning a Sphere Inside Out

:)

Axiom of Choice

You can choose to view things however you want. There's been no judgment passed so any offense or ill will you take is completely and arbitrarily determined from your perspective. Nothing about stupidity was ever said and not even close to implied, but a little consideration and responsibility concerning emotions is not unwarranted. Feel free to disagree. I'm just thinking in the best interest of friends, and I won't put a heavy load on you if you won't put a heavy load on me. Empathize. Don't try and make me feel bad because I act in a way that protects me. At this point in my life where my life is a big question mark, I can only value things on a friendly level. Don't misconstrue.

Every Winter for 22 Years

I think I need medication.

Operation G.Y.S.T. Pt. 2

So I've decided to quit smoking. Again.

That last time I "quit" smoking I ended up switching from American Spirits to Pall Malls, which is actually worse for your health. I'm not sure I can switch to anything worse than Pall Malls, except maybe Lucky Strikes or anything menthol. The psychology involved in quitting is really strange. I tore up and threw away a half pack of cigarettes this morning and it was actually difficult to do. There's something about knowing you don't have access to cigarettes that makes your brain start to freak out. I haven't smoked in maybe 4 hours but I'm definitely feeling it, a big ol' nic fit. Even as I write this my mind is playing with the idea that it's stupid to quit because I won't be able to concentrate on my take-home midterm tonight, that in all reality I told myself that I would quit tomorrow not today. Yikes! Smoking is pretty fucked.

Things I Want To Do With You

Let "You" be a variable.

1.) Let's go swimming.

2.) Let's go play basketball.

3.) Let's go bowling.

4.) Let's plant a garden or some flowers.

5.) Let's talk about the weather.

6.) Let's go on a long bike ride.

7.) Let's go on a short bike ride that ends in a picnic.

8.) Let's go skydiving.

9.) Let's jam on some instruments together.

10.) Let's fly a kite.

11.) Let's go camping.

12.) Let's rent a rowboat.

13.) Let's all cook a nice meal together.

14.) Let's try to draw what we are seeing.

15.) Let's go skateboarding.

Are You My Friend Or Not?

We (friends) were sitting in my living room the other day and I asked if anyone wanted to watch The Big Lebowski or Dune.

Spencer noted that this is equivalent to me asking: "Are you my friend or not?"

So true.

A Bit Off The Mark

A lovely girl and a close friend, but nice try.

Close!
But it really ain't nunya business.

Donut Burger Fantasy

I found out today that my friend and colleague Xingbo has never eaten a cheeseburger other than a McDonald's cheeseburger. That's ridiculous and will be soon corrected.

Whenever it starts to get cold and dreary like this I always go into donut burger fantasy mode for a week or so, maybe to add on a layer of fat to prepare for the ever so cold Texas winter.

I Wish Every Day Was Like Sunday

A lot of fun happened this weekend, culminating in Sunday. I took notes and this all deserves a cogent treatment, so let me chew on this one a bit!

<3

The Sun Also Rises

Everyone around me is anxious and this in turn is making me anxious, though I really don't have much reason to be. My life is pretty stable and my responsibilities are reasonable. I am employed, paid, physically healthy, and busy with my own work. Life is changing in the sense that more people whom I've become accustomed to hanging out with are leaving soon, but I always make new friends and I shouldn't really worry about that. I'm meeting goals, academically, physically and socially. I can't really tell where this nervousness comes from, it might be totally unfounded. I need a new footing but I want this to be something totally internal, a real solid anchor of my own that lets me keep sailing. Yadadaimean?

The weather is perfect today and everyone is enjoying themselves. Victory has been had on multiple fronts, and I feel that I'm going to do really well on my first test tomorrow (crossed fingers). If I'm a little iffy lately, bear with, I am a work in progress.

<3

Update Your Vocab

From now on going to work is called "high-fiving the money monster".

Who needs a house out in Hackensack, is that all you get for your money?

They (the MSC) are playing Billy Joel's "Movin' Out" in February. I am hell of excited.

Tron

I think I need a baby supercomputer to do these calculations. Or a supercomputer baby. I think they are interchangeable. I need a supercomputer, baby.

Yeah I Talk To Folks, What Of It?

I was outside the library the other night getting my Pall Mall on, and I sat down next to this Indian guy name Api and started chatting him up. He was an interesting guy who's doing a master's in urban architecture and I've always found architecture pretty interesting. I asked him about urban sprawl and he lit me up with an idea I'd never really thought of before: The primary reason behind our current trend for cities to overgrow and become the ugly, inefficient monstrosities they do is a simple lack of engineering common sense.

Every time the roads become clogged and the time to travel between two points in a given densely populated region is decidedly too long, we increase the number of lanes and highways in that area. If you increase the number of lanes, all other things being constant, the time it takes to travel between the points decreases, and decreases for further areas as well (we can't just widen one small section of a highway). It then necessarily becomes an option for those living closer into the city to move further out and experience the same time delay. So by attempting to alleviate the problem of traffic congestion, we expand the radius of population able to work in a region. This will cause buildings to be built of course, but not high density urban buildings, rather the typical short, wide spaced suburban buildings we see so often. As time goes on, the congestion reaches these further points, and we continue on ad infinitum. The other reasons to build more dense urban centers and public transportation are obvious, but this one is often overlooked I think. The whole "only build up when you run out of space" mentality is flawed, a proactive approach would be the only way to solve the problem without a complete rededication of space, which is very costly. Government engineers are nuts.