Monday, February 26, 2007

Question of the Week

Question:
"When am I ever going to use this?"
-My math class, in regards to trig identities

Answer:
I don't know, eternity's a long time. Maybe it'll come up.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Idea-A-Day Six ~ Luminous

Idea Count: 6/20

Title: Luminous Puffy Dress

Category: Fashion

Feasibility: 9/10

Likelihood: 8/10

~~~~~

What's this? You better believe it.

Prom dresses are interesting. Being a guy, I'll never have to wear one, yet I get to see them three times a year. They're outrageously expensive, and most of them are fairly immodest. I figure any prom dress that doesn't cover you right is just an expensive towel.

And really, towels aren't worth that much. You should probably play it safe and get the modest ones.

In any event, I was at a dance recently where all the girls were wearing prom dresses. Some were modest, some weren't. That's not really the point of the discussion, the point here is that I've got a pretty good idea.

See, girls go all out for these dresses. So, why not push the envelope?

I'm thinking of putting some sort of lights in the dress. In the bottom part, the poofy skirt-ish part. I have no idea what to call that part. But, can you see those big princess-esque dresses, the modest ones? With the big bottom parts. How cool would it be to have some sort of soft light emanating from within? You'd totally be glowing.

And since you're in a very low-light environment, it'd be an amazing effect. You'd look like some sort of angelic doober.

It'd definitely be a soft light, nothing huge. You'd have to have several lights, so as to avoid casting awkward leg-shadows. They'd have to be small, lightweight, and not generate a lot of heat. Battery powered, not prone to catching on fire. They'd have to cast light evenly everywhere.

But still, how cool would that be? At the dance I was at, I saw some girl standing on some stairs in a dress like that. There weren't lights in it, but she was leaning up against the wall right in front of a light, it was sorta buried in her big bottom part of her dress. It totally light the whole thing up, it was an awesome effect.

So hey, why not steal the idea and market it?

So that's my idea. Make prom dresses that glow just a little bit. You'd honestly be radiant. I'm not sure if I've done a good job putting the picture across, but in my mind it's pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen. Just a comfortable warm glow. Hmmm. Perhaps I'll have to sponsor an experiment next homecoming. Hmmm indeed.

Yep.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Miracle Drug

I found a miracle drug. It's called Mr. Olsen.

So, I thought history was due Friday. I was so proud of myself for starting it yesterday. That was something like three days before I even had to.

But alas, it's due tomorrow. I've got it done. It took some time.

It looks like it's off to the glue factory for me.

-----)(:::::::::::::::::::>

That's a sword.

<(oo<)

That's Kirby pointing to the left.

(>oo)>

And that's Kirby pointing to the right.

Wanna see Kirby point both ways?

Too bad.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Interest

A few things have caught my interest in the past few days. They're interesting, if nothing else.

http://www.cangooglehearme.com/

Aaron Stanton decided that he had a brilliant idea that Google needed to hear. He didn't really know how to get in touch, so he decided to fly to California and camp out in Google's lobby until he got an appointment to pitch his idea. Great story, pretty inspirational. Makes me smile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotic_jockey


Camel Racing is huge in a few countries in the Middle East. It's sorta like the rich man's sport. To have a camel go fast, you need to have a small jockey. They used to use small children, 4 year old boys or so. Slave trade, abuse, etc. etc. got them in trouble with the Western world. Qatar found a solution: Hire some swiss guys to build us robotic jockeys. Seriously. Robots riding camels. How cool is that?

~

Those are the two stories I really liked yesterday. I'm sure there were others I forgot. In the meantime, a few pictures that sorta blew my mind.

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA07997.jpg

That's a sunset. On Mars. Taken by one of the rovers right at the end of a Martian day. So cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sol582A_P2299_L456-A590R1_br.jpg


Another Rover picture. Take a look at that at full resolution. It'll take a day and a half to load, but it's amazing. I have a big crush on the mars rovers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Deep_Impact_HRI.jpeg

A picture from the Deep Impact mission NASA ran in 2005. The basic concept was that we'd shoot an 80 kg slug of copper at a comet, and we'd watch and see what'd happen. That's all fine and dandy, until we realize how ridiculously far away this comet is from us, how fast it's going, how fast the impactor is going. It's sort of like someone shooting a bullet in Oregon while we shoot a bullet from the top of the high school and have them collide. So cool.

I hope there's something primo coming in the future. Hmm. And now a few one liners.

"Steve was one of those guys that carried a notebook in his pocket just in case a girl told him she liked his shirt. Whenever that happened, he'd take it out, jot down her name and his current shirt, and put it back in his pocket. He spent a few minutes each Sunday organizing and planning his shirt distribution for the next week. He considered what classes he had with what girls on what day. He factored in the weather, the activities he'd be pursuing that day. He was prepared to maximize the exposure of his shirts to the ladies that loved them so.

This forethought brought about two great results. Steve learned to be organized, and girls liked the way he dressed. This put Steve in the perfect position to be the organizational head of Saving Boston. He was dashing and organized; what more could you want in a spokesman?"

Yep. These are just sorta there.

"If there was one characteristic that truly defined that brief and panicked interlude between the fall of the old world and the emergence of the associations, it was the speed in which bad guys constructed their lairs. It had only been two weeks; this place was huge.

Garbage can entered the hall. It was then he realized his mistake.

He should have stayed in bed this morning.

This was suicide. Ridiculous. Poorly thought out and a logistical nightmare from the beginning. It was sadly comical in the "let's irritate the panther and see what happens!" sort of way. Garbage Can let out a sigh. There were bad guys. Everywhere.

And here he was with explosive tic-tacs.

Great idea there Alpha, real great. No, honestly. The tic-tacs. Maybe I can offer the Brown Punisher a mint before he kills me. We'll take a little break while he freshens his breath. He'll pop it in... his brain will explode... great deal. only 94 bad guys left. No sweat.


See, there was a curious phenomenon at work here. It was called the Husenberger uncertainty principle. It stated that it would be impossible to determine just how many bad guys were waiting behind a certain door to kill you. In addition, it quanitified very certainly that they were going to kill you pretty quickly no matter how many tic tacs you offered them.

Garbage Can didn't know who this Husenberger fellow was. He didn't like him much.

Dr. Breakdance's thugs were closing in on him. He was toast. There were villains everywhere.

He had one shot. There was only one way out of this place. Breakdance Fight, now.

Garbage Can increased his stature. With as much macho as he could muster in the face of so many ugly bad guys, he called out defiantly, "Dr. Breakdance, your time has come. It's me and you, breakdance fight. If you win you can have the warehouse and we leave town tonight. If I win, you turn the bank back over. Take me on, boy. You got nothin'."

Now, asking Dr. Breakdance to have a breakdance fight with you is a lot like asking Bill Clinton to have a "Who looks more like Bill Clinton" contest. The smart money is always on Clinton for the win. No, really?"

To be continued on that one.

Yep. Happy Friday.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Valentine's Interview

Hey Everybody. I sat down with my good friend Nick to have a Valentine's day interview with him. We covered a wide range of topics, all related to the lady situation. Everywhere from the perfect date to religious aspects and Ultimate. It was quite enlightening for me, and I hope that you find it cool as well. Remember, I'm in the blue. Nick's in the red. Score it.

*Nick interviewed me too. That can be found on his blog. Check it out, it's gonna be fun.

Begin Transmission~~~~

Let's get down to business. Q: Nick, have you ever had a romantic relationship? Perhaps a romantic interlude? What's your history in that category like?

Honestly? Only failed crushes and crushed spirits. On a lighter note, now I like it that way. Of course, back then it was a different story.

You say you like it that way now? What changed between now and then?

My outlook. Right now, I realize that nobody needs a romantic relationship in high school, no matter how much they might want it. Seriously, people, it's called restraint. Exercise it.

So, relationships are a no go for you right now?

Yeah, pretty much. Of course, it's not only that I don't need the drama, it's that I couldn't pick up the ladies with a forklift.

I think that's an overstatement. I've seen those forklifts in action. I gotta tell you; the ladies can't resist a man driving a forklift. But really now, you can't be totally anti-relationship. Aren't there some nights when you really wish you had a significant other? What about those evenings?

Oh, believe me, I've wished for it many a night. Most nights, in fact. Those are the evenings when I'm pretty depressed. I usually feel better later, though, and rethink it again. I've "rediscovered" the reasons for not having a relationship many a time.

Alright, I hear you. So, let's take an adventure to one of those depressed nights, if we can. What are your specific reasons for wanting a "more than just friends" on those occasions?

Well... honestly, I think it'd just be fun. You'd have someone to spend time with, someone who really cared about you and was concerned about you, someone who'd listen to you, someone who'd pick you up when you were down, someone to be there for you. I don't know, I think that'd be a really nice feeling.

With a list like that, how could you not want a relationship? What are your reasons for saying "No dice" to the ladies for now, then?

The list of "no dice"s is nearly as long as the list of "yes dice"s. I'm not financially secure (ladies cost money), I may not think it, but I know I'm too emotionally immature to sustain a relationship, I don't want any of the high school drama, I don't want to be picked on by Kyle, I enjoy my high status in the "Clean Lips" club, and honestly, I just don't have the time. (Some of you out there will notice I omitted the obvious "facial features" reasoning).

Changing directions. Let's say, hypothetically, that you are going to fall madly in love with a girl tomorrow. Based on your current status, what would have to happen for that to actually happen? What would the girl have to say, do, wear, smell like? I know it's possible, show me how.

Okay, hmm. All the girls I know... well, they wouldn't have to change much. They're all really amazing, say really cool stuff that makes me laugh, dress really nice, and smell really nice. So, I don't think it's anything on their end that would have to change, unless it was some girl who approached me... then I might be a little more receptive. But as of now, I think my outlook on dating as a whole would have to change for me to "fall madly in love."

Is there anything a girl could do that make your outlook change in a day? I bet there is.

Well... making the first move. I mean, I know I'm supposed to be the guy, make the first move, but that would be very... convincing. Um. Well, it'd be the little things. How they looked at me, how they acted around me... if a few of those things changed, I don't know what I'd do with myself. Of course, you have to realize... I've thought about this. I really could be in love with pretty much any girl I know. I just choose not to see them that way.

Right on. What are your favorite about the ladies that really attract you? Jaron's been posting stuff on his blog in this neighborhood. What's important to you?

My "traits"? Well. That's not a huge list... it doesn't really take a lot to impress me. But I'll be as verbose as possible.
  1. She must be intelligent. I don't know about everyone else, but this is a big priority for me. If I can't have an intelligent conversation with a girl, it's just no fun. Fortunately, I don't know any unintelligent girls.
  2. She must be funny. If she can't laugh at me (often) and herself, what's the point?
  3. She must like music. Especially classical... if a girl just doesn't understand classical music, then... my whole life is meaningless to her. And that's no way to have a relationship.
  4. She should probably be modest. I mean, it's not as big a deal for me as it is for others, but... nobody wants to see that.
  5. She must be attractive to me. Now, notice I said "to me." Regardless of anyone else's opinions of her physical features, she will be attractive to me if she's got an amazing personality to back it up.
  6. She should have a relatively large vocabulary. Really, conversations are very important in a relationship.
  7. She must be patient. I'm very... easily distracted. Which means I'm lazy and don't pay attention. So.
  8. She should like sports, in particular Ultimate and hopefully racquetball, and be willing to play them with me.
  9. Bonus points if she plays an instrument. But not too much, then it'd be uneven.

I think that's about it. I mean, there are lots more contributing factors, but those are the main ones.

Wow, sorta hard to break in there. I can think of a few girls that meet the criteria though, so it's not too unrealistic.

Well, it probably is a little unrealistic. I mean... I usually do kid myself about most things.

Me and you have had discussions about the religious issues surrounding this topic for you. What do you think about that these days?


Well, Eckankar really doesn't have any guidelines or anything regarding that that I know of. I mean, they emphasize good values, mostly in line with the LDS faith, and many others. All in all, you should marry who you love, dating isn't really discouraged before a certain age, but it's not encouraged. As far as I know, that's the official standpoint. My personal belief is that steady dating in high school is lame and generally not good. Serious relationships should be saved for later in life when both parties are more mature.

Sounds pretty good to me. Are there certain things that, when you see a girl with, totally takes her out of the running for your affection? Stuff like bad breath, that business?

Hm. Well... I'd say I'm a pretty easy-going guy. I mean, there's not much they can do that will make me not like them. I don't like girls who don't let me be a gentlemen. Some independence is okay, but I mean... I can't hold a door open for you? That's ridiculous. I don't like girls who cry at every little thing. I mean, they've got to cry sometime, otherwise I can't comfort them, but crying because you broke a nail or some other such lame excuse? Not cool. Fortunately again, nobody I know does that. Also, bad breath = bad. However, I still don't know anyone with that problem. Gosh, the girls I know are just really cool.

Yeah, the girls around here are tiggity-tight. What's your feelings on the Levi-Sydney situation? Any thoughts or comments?

Hm. Well, I mean... it may not be for me, but it's his life, she's cool, and... I wish them the best of luck in the future. Honestly, no hard feelings there. If he wants it, he should go for it.

Good outlook. What's your idea of a dream date? Let's get into specifics here.

You mean the girl or the activity?

Both. I guess focusing mainly on the activity, but bring in the girl too, that's a good idea.

Okay, well, I've been thinking about the perfect date. The perfect date for me would entail picking the girl (and maybe another couple) up, driving downtown, eating at a fairly fancy restaurant, but not really expensive, and then go to the symphony. Now, this really depends. I mean... it'd be really, really, really cool to take a girl to the symphony, or maybe an opera, one that is kinda sad. I don't know, I just thought that'd be a good date. Ladies, don't worry about me--I like going to ballets, dances, museums, you name it, I'm good. After the symphony, we'd go someplace for hot chocolate or some other beverage and talk for a while. Honestly, just talking to a girl is the best. The girl would have to like classical music, though... and talking to me. So. I don't know too many of those.

Sweet deal. So, on the topic of Ultimate. Is your dream girl on the field playing, or on the hill cheering for and supporting you?

Oh, no, she's playing. In fact, she's on the other team, and we're both going for each other. We've got a serious vendetta against each other. We really just want to swat that disc. However, we're both really impressed with each other's skills. I'm more impressed than she is, though.

I can take her.

It looks like we're almost out of time, so one last question.

What does the future hold for Nick? Are they any girls that your eyes are on right now? When do you think you'll be ready for a relationship? Won't you be my neighbor?

The future holds lots of fun stuff. It holds school, no fear of getting pulled over if I drive with other people in the car, new friends, stronger friendships, ultimate, racquetball, music, dancing, the stars, and most of all girls. Yes, I have my eyes on girls. I don't know if I'll ever be ready for a relationship, but I'll probably have to have one someday. And I have his autograph.

You have Mr. Roger's autograph? Wow. That's amazing. Happy Valentine's day buddy, thanks for coming to the show.

Thanks for having me, it was a blast.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Out

I sort of want to sketch something right now. I don't quite feel like paint sketching though, this is more of a paper feeling. I know that nothing would come out if I started. I'd being with a nice little curve. From there I'd get nothing. I've got nothing to sketch, and yet it feels like I've got a masterpiece waiting to get out of here.

It's interesting.

I'm going to bed at a decent hour tonight. That's a really good feeling. No complaints there. This week has been much less sleep than I usually get. We're working on it though. I'm gonna learn from it.

There's a lot of business going on right now. PLC, sweethearts, Sem vid, the athletic options, school, basketball, independent adventures- It's a lot of business.

I've got to prioritize them better.

Fact: My associates and I are capable of creating amazing things. The Sweethearts project, informally codenamed Project Formidable Aroma, has taken a lot of work. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to talk freely about it yet. There's going to be some really cool results for you all to see real soon. Nick will probably post a run down on his blog once it's all through.

Back to the point. It's been a lot of work. Me, Jaron, Brad, and Nick got together a couple days after school and worked for a really long time. Coming home those days was considerably different than coming home on any other day. On a normal day I'll come home and check the blogs, read the news, check extralife, popsci, gamespy, wikipedia, blogoscoped, then wander off.

On work days things were different. The four of us came over here and we sat down and started trucking. It was interesting, to see that after five hour of being on the computer I wasn't even connected to the internet. I hadn't even noticed. We were just booking it along, getting business done.

And so I started thinking. What could we accomplish if we really set out on it?

At this point, honestly, pretty much anything. I'm looking at our skill base, and things are wide open. We could use someone with mad web-design skills. Some programming skills would be favorable.

But really now. You put Me, Jaron, Nick, and Brad in a room together for a while and we could get you elected president if we really wanted to. We could operate a highly successful website that got a thousand hits a day. We could change the world.

Right now I'm not changing the world, at least not as much as I'd like to be. Changing the world is a great feeling. The wonderful part about changing the world is that no one ever specified how much of the world you needed to change.

I believe I have changed the world, at least for a little bit. I know my contribution to happiness and progression isn't too much, but I'm glad that there's at least a little bit. I figure that every person I help with Physics or Math means one more brownie point chalked up on the great whiteboard in the sky. I think that every time I write something that makes someone smile or laugh or think or realize or want to be better- that's a point too.

I want to change the world for the better. I wonder why. Is it an ego thing? Is it genuine altruism?

I love AP History. It is beautiful and applicable at so many levels. I find myself going back to it time and time again. Anyone in my English class knows it- I keep busting it out. I'm seriously digging AP History. Rockwell is a raging studmuffin.

Also in the English department: I really like argumentation. Debates, arguments, whatever you want to call them. I love to get into them. I wish we could spend more time on it. There's something great about being able to look at a topic from both sides and find the most effective counter to whatever April just said.

It goes back to Physics, this argumentation thing. In physics you've got a couple basic formulas that you use. The most prevalent is Newton's second law, F=MA. It's a party.

So we've got eight or so basic ideas and concepts to work with. These eight concepts can be switched around and substituted algebraically in order for us to solve anything that gets thrown at us. "What's that, you're spinning a 2 kg ball above your head on the end of a rope of rubber bands with a force constant of 1100 n/meter that's 1.5 meters long when it's totally unstretched at a rate of 22 revolutions per second? And you want me to find out the centripetal force after two revolutions? Should I find out when it's gonna break if the rubber bands have a breaking point of 500 newtons? Yeah, probably"

And we could do it.

Ok, so maybe not that problem specifically. I bet Landon could do it if we gave him enough time. In fact, I could probably get it with a lot of work. It'd get into calculus and be super trippy, but that's alright.

The point is, we'd have to use a bunch of little concepts and ideas to figure out the whole factor there. There's gonna be centripetal force, potential energy, kinetic energy, tension, all that business.

We take eight tools and apply them in various combinations to solve any problem that comes our way. It's our tool box. I love my tool box.

That's what argumentation is like. The source we're talking about gives us tools. In this case, tools are quotes. We've got external tools too- tools like history or scientific research. When all that's pulled in, we've got to take a look at it and say "Alright, how am I going to assemble these tools to fix the problem?"

I've got Karl Marx writing a book, the cold war with Reagan doing all sorts of fun stuff, and television ruining my life. Sam said that he grew up with TV, but Autumn said that her sister is Wack cause of TV. How am I going to put it together to fix the problem?

I love putting things together to fix problems. Maybe that's why I love Physics, Chemistry, and Math so much. Mmm mmm good.

I'm toying around with the idea of creating a private blog. One that nobody else could read. It'd be the same concept as typing stuff up and saving it on my hard drive, except this would be much more likely to last a year.

The only reason I'd consider doing this is because of the sensitive nature of some of the stuff I really need to explore in writing. I really want to talk about all sorts of business, but my better judgement tells me that that's just not a great idea. With now good writing is for my problem-solving processes though, it seems a shame to be unable to talk about the big issues here.

What if Levi stole my girlfriend and there were valuable lessons to be learned here? It'd be impossible for me to write about it. The girl would get her feelings hurt, Levi would get mad. I'd feel embarrassed about the situation. It's just not something that I could do. It'd hurt more than it'd help.

But what if there was a way to get the beneficial aspects of blogging about such an event and the feelings it creates without the pain? There are certainly enough benefits of writing to justify searching for a new possibility. By writing I can finally get feelings and ideas out all the way. It's hard for me to do stuff like this in person to most people. Some people are a little different, and I can bounce philosophy and ideas and metaphors off of them all day long. They are the small minority. I can dribble any cognitive function I want off of a blog.

Unfortunately though, some cognitive function is just too sensitive to blog about. Not that it's a big deal, because it's not.

But what if I want to write about track, but can't because my track team buddies would read it and call me out for being a pansy? What if I'm not satisfied with the way things are, but can't exactly come out and say it?

These are the problems that bring growth in people. I grow a lot when I sit down and think and write about what's going on. How am I supposed to write and think when doing so would obviously be a bad idea?

And so I'm thinking about it. It goes against my nature, that's for sure. I'm all about sharing, I hate hiding things. I rarely ever close the door to my room. It closes maybe twice a day, at tops. And even then, it's only closed for two minutes max. I honestly don't like closed doors at all. I don't like closing doors on what I have to say either.

The percentages change a lot, but the reasons for me sitting down and writing are about half for me, half for you.

Honestly, this might not do anyone any good. I'm still running at 50% efficiency though, and that's good enough for me.

But wouldn't I rather run at 100 than 50 percent? By keeping a secret blog I'm guaranteed a 50 percent success rate. Here I've got at least a shot at 100.

So it's sort of a catch 22 here. I can write everything here and censor, or I can write some business over there and gimp myself.

We'll see what happens. Chances are I'll start one pretty soon. What I'd like to do is have a time release deal. Where, in a year from now, I release posts. The concept would be that after a year anything that was too sensitive to write on a public forum such as this would have become not sensitive, and could be released for consumption. That way we both win. Just sorta slower than usual, that's all.

I think that's what I'll try. It sounds like a grand adventure.

Comings and goings of blogs are interesting. I wonder how many people are actually still writing a year after making their blog. I'm coming up on the two-year mark of near constant blogging. I'm happy about this. I've said it before, I love this blog.

But it's interesting to see who stays and who goes. Just interesting, that's all.

What are my plans for the future of this blog? A few things-

1. Keep posting. This is the most important thing. In reality, it's the only thing that matters here. I've just got to keep coming here and leaving a dump of words. It's good for me. Maybe it's good for you. I like to think it is. I want to be a posting machine. I set a goal at the beginning of last summer to post at least once a week. As far as I know I've been doing pretty good on it. I need to keep writing. This thing's gonna last forever.

2. Finally upgrade to beta. Everyone's upgraded now. I have failed to get with the times because of the pseudo-custom template I've got running for me right now. It doesn't exactly roll over without any trouble, so I'd have to do some work on it. I need to upgrade and get some cool stuff over on that side bar. I'd like to include a quote of the period-of-time, and a picture of the period-of-time. There's other stuff that would be cool too.

3. Keep this as my blog. I want to start another website one day. Something different, a little more professional. This will always stay though. This will be the place where things always come. Where the big rants, the little business. All that is here. It'll stay. I want to get something professional going on somewhere else too, but that comes later.

Projects. I'm getting those crazy irresistible project run-like-crazy-at-the-moon-because-no- matter- how-far-away-it-is-and-how-hopelessly-screwed-you-are-you-want-nothing-more-
than-to-run-like-crazy-at-the-moon feelings again. They haven't been this strong since the beginning of the school year. During that particular epoch of project run-at-the-moon's the world saw the creation of the Taylorsville Alliance and Taylorsville Ultimate. Both of those projects are currently dormant, but there's a good chance both of them will be making a come back in the near future. With this much motivation, how can we lose?

So that's really what I want right now. Some accomplishments. Sure I want to win at basketball. But that's not what I really wish I had going for me right now. I really wish I had some projects running around. Things I could start, things I could maintain.

Yep, I'm gonna work on that. The project this week was Formidable Aroma. I think next week is going to be something a little different. Something good though, that's for sure.

I love leadership. I love being part of a team and getting work done. I can't wait to have a job. I hope that whatever I end up doing in my life requires a daily meeting to look at what we've done and what we still need to do. I hope there's brainstorming, I hope there's that rush of chemicals and galvanized wind in your neurons when a new golden idea comes rushing through. I hope we get to make something awesome. I hope we get to change the world.

H-Two-Oh

Rachel wrote a post about water. It was a very good one.

I have a theory. I believe that as the volume of water I drink in a day goes up, the level of my happiness rises with it directly.

To put it mathematically;

My Happiness = Amount of water I've consumed times x; where x is a constant. We're gonna name it something cool. All constants in formulas have cool names.

Moral of the story: I should drink more water, because it makes me happy. I find that whenever I'm unhappy, I am also dehydrated.

That doesn't mean that every time I'm dehydrated I'm sad, it just means that every time I'm sad I'm also dehydrated. There must be a correlation.

Drink more water.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Things to do

Remember how I talked a while back about deep stuff? How I said I'd let you know if I found something good?

Well, I found something good.

Then Wear the Gold Hat - Thomas Parke D'Invilliers {F. Scott Fitzgerald}

It's a four line poem. It looks stupid on the outside. Wow, it's deep on the inside. I found it in The Great Gatsby, on the title page. Since we're annotating it, I wrote a little note next to it.

The note looked a little like this.

"Advice for Kyle ---->" with an arrow pointed right at it.

Why is it advice for Kyle? Because Kyle and I are pretty similar, so it'll double for both of us. The message in the poem is pretty simple. "Do what it takes to get the lady."

I'm not pursuing any ladies at the moment. I'm keeping myself unaffiliated. There will, however, come a day when I don my combat boots and enter the race.

When this day comes it will be important for me to wear the gold hat. If the girl I'm trying to woo likes my blue shirt, you better believe that I'm going to wear that blue shirt every single day that I see her. If she's a big fan of the Beatles, I'm going to play Beatles in my van.

That task ---> woo the lady.

The means ---> whatever it takes.

We can apply this concept to the rest of life; it's not just restricted to wooing the ladies. When we're playing basketball, we are going to do what it takes to win. If shooting the there will win it, we will shoot the three. If running the tempo up will win it, we will run the tempo up. If giving the ball to Brad every play and letting him fly all over the court and humiliate the opponent will win it, we'll do that. Twice.

Life is way too important to not do what it takes. I understand that there are rules and guidelines we've got to follow, sure.

But when we wake up in the morning and say "Nah, I don't think I want to win today. I'm gonna go out there and give it not-my-best. I think I'm gonna sleep through math today. I feel like texting instead of earning a great living for my family in the future. Yeah, let's do that."

You're not winning any races like that. You're not gonna woo any ladies or dominate any junior jazz teams. Living like that is like playing soccer in a wheelchair.

Don't gimp yourselves. Do what it takes. If she likes the blue shirt---> by all means, wear the blue shirt.

~~~~~

In other news, there are a few books I need to read in the near future. These will be good for me.

In no particular order...

1. 1984 (again)
2. Catch 22 (for reals this time)
3. Lord of the Flies (Piggy!)

There are others - I seem to have forgotten them.

Big business is coming up. This week is going to be good.

I'm beginning to want to revive the Taylorsville Alliance. It's still got potential. We'll see what happens.

Khap'Gok

That's Klingon for success.

My favorite part is that you think I'm joking.

But I'm not. I'm dead serious here.

It really is the klingon word for success. At least, it's how you'd spell the pronunciation.

I only know two Klingon words. Animal (Hawk-tuh-bah) and success (Cop-Gawk). Me and Darren Gardner decided that we were going to learn it one summer. We never actually did, but I managed to learn those two words. They've stuck with me ever since.

It was really funny, khap'gok actually squirreled itself into my regular vocabulary for a while back in the day. I was surprised when I found myself yelling Klingon interjections when I pulled off something awesome in sixth grade. I hadn't even meant to do it. But wow, I nailed that shot, and the first thing that came out of my mouth was a loud and nerdy Klingon translation for "Success!"

Yeah. I'm awesome.

The reason I relate this story is that today was a success. We won our Junior Jazz game; it was ferocious.

The first quarter was really good. Both teams played and matched each other. By the end of it, the score was Ten to Nine, our team up by one.

When the second quarter started, Brad, Jose, Jared, Cody, and I took the court. We were fresh from the bench, and the other team didn't have many subs. We were ready to run- they obviously weren't. We pulled our classic "Run-like-crazy-and-push-the-tempo-on-every-play-till-they-stop-trying" game plan. It worked surprisingly well.

At the end of the second quarter, the score was 30 to nine.

Yeah, we went on a 20-0 run there. We held them scoreless for the second quarter.

Dang straight. I'd like to thank our super fans for making it all possible.

The rest of the game was good times. The other team finally started picking it up in the fourth quarter, but by then it was way too late. We won by 25; our record is now 2-3.

The other guys did really play well, we were just too ferocious. They were trying to play man defense against a team that was running like crazy. Had they switched to zone things would have been a lot different. That's not the point though.

The game was a smashing success. We all had a good time.

And then, I came home, and worked like crazy and got a lot of stuff done. Project Formidable Aroma is sitting at 75% completion. It's shaping up to be really nice, I'm super excited to finish it up. w00t w00t.

To cap the evening off, I got to hang out with some of my friends. That was party time. I discovered that I can still do head-stands. I also discovered that I'm much better at head stands than I was last time I tried. Hooray for head-stands.

I had a lot of fun practicing my skills tonight. I greatly improved my M&M catching. I am now proficient in all sorts of comestible-catching.

Booyah Grandma.

What's the business? The business is that I'm going to bed. I'm a champion today.

Congratulations team 1101- we're unstoppable. Here's to a 5-3 record.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Twirling

"But tonight I say we must move forward, not backward, upward, not forward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom." -Kang as Bill Clinton (The Simpsons)

Friday, February 02, 2007

Complete

It's 2:07 AM. I, very recently, finished my chemistry homework. A little before I did that, I finished my physics homework. Prior to completing my physics homework, I busted out my history and capped that off too.

That's three pretty big assignments that I dominated between 11 PM and 2:05 AM. I honestly didn't think I was going to do it. I thought I'd fall asleep. I nearly did with history.

But then, as I contemplated whether I was going to do it or not, I remembered a lot of stuff. Because this stuff has to do with the lessons version two post I'm going to write in the near future, I won't elaborate too much.

Basically --> I told myself I'd finish. I said I'd do it.

And so I did it.

I was almost falling asleep, so I had to get moving or else I'd die.

So I started dancing like that weird old guy we saw on Saturday. You know who I'm talking about Annie. I totally busted out his moves.

And then I did some cool calf work outs. And then I pretended to be a boxer.

And all the sudden I was awake, and I busted out those physics answers. It was intense, that was a way involved little work sheet there. I have no idea on two of the questions. I'm alright with that though, I got the other four or so.

And then chemistry. I finished it. This was the hardest one. It was getting late, and I had about seven problems left. I kept on trucking. The first two took quite a while to calculate. I moved on to the third one. It was talking about van't something or others. I had never heard of that, so I had to go back and read. I read it, learned it, then finished the problem. That took a while.

I looked back on the page that tells us what questions to do. Yeah, I had just done 59. I was supposed to be doing 52. Hrm. Oh well, I learned something.

So I go back. I do two more problems, and then I realize something awesome. The next two I have to do are just theory problems. Nothing to do with my TI-86. I just have to answer something about colloids. No plug and chug. No conversions. Just answers.

I have to look some stuff up for those two. It doesn't matter though, I love theory answers. I'm excited, only one left.

And then I read the question. I was hoping for theory.

What I got was the bearded lady from the videos we watched in Olsen's class.

It was a three part question, dealing with two different solutions. Apparently I was putting benzosomething acid into CCl4, and then the same ammount of Benzotastic acid into C2H5OH. I had to figure out the mole ratios, the molality, and the molarity of each of em.

It took a while. It was the last problem, that wasn't nice of them.

But that's not what's important. What's important is that I finished it, and that now I'm going to bed. I am victorious.

I finished my homework. I didn't think I'd do it.

And yet, I stuck with it. I got it done. That feels great. I beat it. I was [] this close to giving up and just going to bed tonight. Oh no, none of that slackerpants business for me. I'm raging. I'm a homework machine. I was born to read text books. I'm not giving up.

It's 2:16- I'm going to bed.

Dang straight.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Trax Law

I love trax. It's an adventure every time I ride it. I love to observe people, and Trax is an excellent place to do so. Different individuals from all walks of life inhabit the trax train. Through my observations, I've found some business out. Check it.

In order to ride Trax, you have to fulfill at least one of the following four rules. (Fulfilling more than one is alright. Sorta)

1. Have really big/weird facial hair.
2. Have a really cool/weird hat.
3. Be with a date/spouse/significant other
4. Be a hobo.

Wow. Honestly, there's really only two kinds of people I've seen on Trax. People on dates, and weirdo's with facial hair that makes me jealous.

Like I said, I love Trax.