Also

No words.

FD&C

Yum. Too bad it's probably saturated with artificial colors. FYI - the current seven FD&C dyes are, if I'm not mistaken, petroleum/tar distillates. Crazy.

Mad Pierrot

I have pineapples. I love pineapples. I am happy.


Well, at least I was. Then I finished the can. Now I'm recalling all of my many woes. Cars, money, bikes, family, you name it. Things could be worse, I suppose, but saying that doesn't solve anything. Then again, neither does complaining.

My brain has officially gone into a state of torpor. I no longer think about engineering or physics or math. I only really think when I'm working at the bike shop, and even there most of what I do, I do automatically without much thought. It's a welcome change that won't last all too long.

Anyway, enough talk. Time for sleep.

Oh, Ben Stein...

...I have lost all respect for you. Why are you backing Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed? Do you really believe that creat - excuse me - proponents of 'intelligent design' (none of whom, by the way, are really scientists) are being discriminated against in the scientific community? That's tantamount to making a claim that black people in America are less discriminated against than white people.

Do you know why intelligent design isn't (or at least should never be) included in science curricula? BECAUSE IT ISN'T SCIENCE. Science can be measured. Science can be observed and inferred from observation. Science is tangible and logical. Intelligent design has none of these qualities. Essentially, it's just stating "well, life is too complex to have come about on its own, so God must have planned it."

I agree that the universe (biological or otherwise) is complex, and that there might have been some divine will in shaping the cosmos. I won't go around teaching that to people though, because that's my belief, and it can neither be proven nor disproven. I think Stan Marsh put it best when he said that evolution is the how and not the why. Science is about what's concrete, not ideological beliefs. Science is about the how.

Out of Time

That very well sums up how I feel about life right now.(I made that one too!) The semester's over, and even though I have to figure out my financial aid stuff, I'm going to let that slide for a couple days. I think this might be a movie marathon week. Possibly including Dawn of the Dead. Anyone care to join?

Absolute Ego Dance

Eight posts, and I doubt anyone's actually reading. Unless they receive an email from me. For some reason, I deemed it necessary to include the URL to this "blog" in the signature of my email.

That short paragraph made me die a little on the inside.

---

For me, setting things aflame would be an ancillary benefit of having a blowtorch. What I really want to do is make crème brûlée. Or brown meringue. I saw Martha Stewart once brown the top of a lemon meringue pie with a blow torch. Awesome. Bread pudding is another thing I'd like to learn to make. That one doesn't seem as hard, as it doesn't involve making custard. And quiche. I've recently become reacquainted with quiche in all of its fattening goodness. Trader Joe's has some inexpensive frozen quiche that tastes tasty.

You just wasted a small portion of your life. I'm only writing this because I've had a couple ciders. It's cider season for me, by the way. No more beer for a while.

Pump It

Not only do I now have a weblog (or, if you will, "blog", because people need abbreviated terms), but I use it to post ridiculous Youtube videos. Like this gem:

My mom's the one playing keyboards and singing backup at about 0:55.


Of course, there's more than one type of video that can be posted. There's also the obscure commercial from way back when:

Now, I surely wasn't around when that commercial aired. Hell, I don't even ever recall eating Count Chocula. I do, however, remember seeing Boo Berry and Frankenberry on the shelves and in commercials. And the time when there were three chefs selling Cinnamon Toast Crunch:

They must have downsized. I won't make any jokes about them dying because, well, that's my childhood, and that's one of the things that's off limits in my book. I'd like to retain at least some of my childhood innocence.


Now of course, one type of video posting that's relevant to me is bike videos:

For the uninformed, that's a pump track. My roommate Kevin and I (and a tiny bit of help from others) are currently building one in our super secret visible location. It's nowhere near as big as that one, but we're just getting started.

In the process of building the track (which we've dubbed "The Fountain" for obvious reasons... well, obvious if you've seen it), I've discovered that people have a tremendous desire to name things. The first berm we built is campfire, the second is brickside. The third feature is a large hip/berm, that got the name "the happy hip" after I spraypainted a smiley face onto it with marking paint. The funny thing about these names is that no one will really get it. The smiley face will fade away. The other names are only obvious because we built the whole damn thing, and we know what it was like before There are bricks used as a support for one berm, and the other was built around what appeared to be a fire pit. Rest assured, when it's done, I'll post videos of us riding it too.


Finally, there's the music video:

Mighty Fest Draws Nigh

Citizens of Science

I feel like I had something pertinent to say about something. I can't remember what it was. Whatever, YMO's awesome. It's all I've been listening to lately.

Broke your glasses, but it broke the ice/You said that I was an asshole and I paid the price

Broke. Utterly broke. $0.73 in my bank account broke. I've not yet resorted to scrounging for change, but I don't think I'll get to that point. There's been a lull (of sorts) in my life recently. I work two jobs, but I don't have enough time to work. Unfortunately this gives me a low cash flow. The semester is almost over, so I'll be able to work a lot soon, but that doesn't help right now. Fortunately, the most important stuff is covered, and I finally got my car back. After about a month and a half (maybe longer), I got my car back. It runs great. Hell, after a head rebuild, new timing belt, and new control arm, it damn well better run great. I have lost a bit of confidence in the reliability of the car, but hopefully it'll soon prove itself and I'll be able to go on a daytrip or something.

Unless you're an engineering or physics major, you probably have no idea how much my life revolves around triangles and sums of forces/moments right now. Simple frames boil down to triangles and sums of forces/moments. Less simple frames and roof trusses do the same. All that mathematics behind light and optics is simply trigonometry. Everything has to equal zero. Static equilibrium. Snell's law. Reflection. Refraction. Friction. Greek letters.

One class is down. Linear algebra. I took my last test tonight. I'm fairly certain that I got a B overall in the class. I should have done better. I very well could have, had I studied more.

I need food. I need to buy food. All I've got left is tuna and chili. Doesn't seem like an appetizing combination.

Wintry Mix

So how many thousands of loyal readers have I earned myself? I assume < 1.000.


First, an announcement. I am selling this bike (click for details):




The weather has turned south, but this is typical of Philadelphian winters. I believe that the NWS forecast for today called for a mix of snow/sleet, followed by ice/sleet, then sleet/freezing rain, and finally freezing rain/rain (or you can use the umbrella term 'wintry mix'). Now it's just raining, and since I'm stubborn and have not turned on the gas heat, I'm relying on an oil-filled electric heater to provide warmth. I'm actually thinking of breaking out my tent, and setting it up with the heater inside. Fire hazard? Probably. Warm? Definitely. But anyway, I would be happy with just plain snow.

Last winter, I had a 1993 Subaru Impreza to get me around. That car handled incredibly in the snow. Shit, that car handled great all around. I once took it to a giant sand pit down by the airport, and it had NO problems getting in and out of it. Soon enough, I'll get my Saab back (that's another story altogether), and though I know it won't be anywhere near as good as the Subaru, I hope it at least handles decently in the snow. It is Swedish, after all. Perhaps I should have gotten an old Subaru GL wagon, or even a Brat. Both have true four wheel drive, and have amazing offroad capabilities, as can be seen in the following videos:





I don't care if it is kind of a redneck thing to do. I want one. Lifted and all.



I didn't wake up until about 4:00 today. I went out last night and had some strong beers. On top of that, I've not been getting much sleep lately. Now I'm up and not doing lab reports. I guess I should get on that.