"Be the change you want to see in the world"

- that Ghandi guy was quite the wordsmith.

What change do I want to see in the world? Gillyweed is up there. My superpower of choice in dreamland, if you were curious, is water breathing. Whenever I have those self-aware holy shit dude you are dreaming go nuts nights, if I ever find myself in the presence of water, the first thing I like to do is levitate into said water, then swim around. It's mind blowing. Probably as close of a feeling as I'll ever get to doing LSD, and even more probably the closest I'll ever get to breathing with my own lungs an no other assistance underwater.

But I digress.

The more manageable change I want to see in the world is more blog posting. For me, addictinggames has kind of run it's course. I feel like I've discovered/conquered every physics game the Internets has to offer, and youtube only goes so long before I truly feel like a waste of life.

So I turn to the blogosphere. Not a very big one in my world, but one that has just about everything I want.

That is, when there is new stuff to read. I'm done bitching and moaning about it though (well, following this, obviously). I know how I get when more important things take hold so who am I to judge? Instead, I'm going to be the change I want to see in the world. I'm going to subject you, the loyal readers, to whatever the heck I have been doing lately in my admittedly random-as-fuck (pardon the language...i was trying to keep this post clean) life.




Today, mid-procrastination, I found a few things of note.
1.) I really like this painting:



I wouldn't consider myself an art critic by any means, but once in a blue moon I see something that strikes my fancy. Funny thing is, I vividly remember seeing this in our AP Euro book back in sophomore year when we were talking about Renaissance art. Damn you photographic memory... The badassness in this particular piece of art lies in two facts. First, a quick wikipedia search shows that all the guys in the picture are ones you read about in the science/history books all through school. There is something about putting a face/body (fictional though it may be) to Ptolemy and Pythagoras that blows my mind a little. That's the nerd in me though.

Also, this little anecdote I came across adds a little pizazz to the piece:

Technically, this painting is titled "Philosophy," and it's merely the most famous of a series of four.

Raphael was painting that while Michelangelo was working on the Sistine Chapel ceiling (which is just down the hall, literally). On his breaks, Raphael used to sneak over and poke his head into the Sistine Chapel to see what Michelangelo was working on. If Michelangelo noticed him, he'd starting shrieking curses and throwing crap at him. (He hated Raphael. He was just about the only one.)

Even if it is completely false, the thought of Raphael running down the hall to give Michelangelo a big FUCK YOU MANE while the two are in the process of creating timeless masterpieces cracks me up.

I have two final thoughts; First, I love semi-colons and even though it was a stretch to use it here, I'm happy I did. Also, I doubt Raphael ever thought about the translatability of "The School of Athens" into a desktop background, but it still makes a pretty damn good one.

2.) This girl is pretty damn good, but has a little too much of a country twag for my regular-listening tastes. Quite the looker though:


3.) I love the idea of having a tattoo, but can't commit to any one idea. One minute I want this, the next I want something Latin. The latest is something literary. Maybe some Frost, a few select lines from Eliot, hell, even Hornby. Point: I have commitment issues.

Maybe that should be my tat. Right across the front of my chest:

I have commitment issues.

It's been two massively life altering years

...with more changes in my life than I'm sure I can ever recall since I first stepped foot on the campus of college. But one thing has remained the same; I'm still an ENTJ . Albiet a little more on the "E" side of things than I was back in the day (went from a 12/12/1/12 to a 22/12/1/22).

Does this sound like me? It sure as hell does to me, but then again I can't say I've exhaustively looked at the other options. I'm sure Momma would probably read this description and go "that's my boy," especially when it comes to the "strong sentimental streaks" that we "often hide from others as it is perceived as a weakness." She usually gets the brunt of those...

Should I be concerned or relieved that I have pretty much stayed the same - from a basic personality standpoint - "halfway" through college? Who knows. That's too big of a question for this post to answer.

Either way, I'm pretty surprised that I've stayed relatively the same. I have a good feeling that by the end of the year the "Extrovert" number will probably get even higher. Then again, my whole analysis of the ENTJ-ness of myself pretty much locks me even more into an ENTJ. Vicious cycle, it is.

As much as I blaze on psychology, it does have some pretty freakin' creepy/cool aspects. If anyone else knows what they are, or wants to take the quick version, post it.

I have no clue what the picture is supposed to mean... but it's pretty badass... so I'll take it!

Math is fun

One thing that as been surprising to me is that in my engineering specific classes, a lot of the time there is very little focus on getting the right answer. A lot of times it is like math-light. Constants are rounded to the point to where, as one of my professors puts it, "You aren't right, but neither is thermodynamics, and at least you are in the game."

In doing math-light a lot this year (though when you are dealing with something like a Benedict-Webb-Rubin equation, not much can be considered "light" about it...) it's surprised me how easy even complex math can become but just knowing "this number gonna be really big, so screw this number, its only gonna change the final answer by like .2, oh but this number matters," and so on and so on.

This morning I saw that one of the supplies of the New York Times had not been emptied (they usually are by about 10 minutes after 8 AM, when classes start) and switched to the Science section because I'm a huge nerd and Wall Street confuses the shit out of me, only to find this article.

Basically, that sense of approximation is starting to be linked to one's mathematical ability. This seems kind of stupid and common sense-ish to me, but the WAY that they were able to test for it is really kind of cool. Basically, the test flashes a random number of circles on a screen for .2 seconds, some blue some yellow. It is your job to determine, basically off of a gut instinct, which color circles there were more of.

Sort of a why didn't I think of that type of thing...

Anywho, I like to think I have a mildly varied readership, so I'm curious how some people test. Clink the link above, go for maybe 20 or so tries, and lemme know what you get.

For the record, I went 50 times, got 76%. I'm sure at least one person will try to beat the system and play like seven times to get 100%, so ahead of time.... I win.

YAYYYY WE SURVIVED!!!

Happy LHC Day! Were not dead

Or we are and we don't know it.

o.O

AHH!!

Holy crap...

Mythbusters is awesome and hilarious. In this I learned how helium-voice works, and why it never works for me (I exhale...)

Now, what happens if you inhale sulfur hexafluoride? (Science types, is this unhealthy??)



[EDIT]:

Chemguy, if you can sweet-talk the higher-ups, this would be a freakin sweet before-winter-break lab:

Consider this my formal goodbye...

No not from the blogosphere you willy-nillies (not sure if that is even applicable there...).



Consider this my formal goodbye world if the entire planet goes caput from a man-made black hole, as some are fearing upon the completion and first run of the LHC.

Personally, I'm not even going to fake like I know enough to really understand why people would jump to this apocolyptic conclusion, or why physisicts are so damn excited to play with their new toy. I don't really care about the former, and if any of the more scientific types could explain the latter a little bit for me (or ask everyone's favorite Ghanaian) it would be greatly appreciated.

Even with my relative lack of background on the subject, the Popular Science nerd in me can't help but be a little excited. As the comic explains, usually if science makes someone fear for all of humanity, science is on the right track.