Light-Urple Rain

Admittedly I don't have much time for a long post right now. I have some homework due tomorrow that I have yet to begin...etc. etc. However, I feel I would be remiss if I didn't offer at least one comment on last night's "Super" Bowl. Now I could talk to you about the commercialization of the game and how much of a disgusting spectacle it has become. Or I could talk about how the game itself was fairly dull and the commercials were lacking. (After all, when a performance Prince is the highlight of the event, you know it's been a slow day.) And believe me I was happy to see the Colts win. TinRoof was happy. Tony Dungy was happy. And Peyton can finally tell Tom Brady to suck it. Or I could talk about how much fun it was to watch the game in HD (have I ever told ya'll that my TV is awesome?). But at the end of the day, this year's Super Bowl just served as further proof that baseball is better than football.

Let me be more specific. Colts players followed tradition by dousing a cooler of Gatorade on Tony Dungy to celebrate the win. Well perhaps I was the only one who noticed but... the freaking game wasn't over yet!! This kind of thing would never happen in baseball. In baseball, the game is not over until the last out has been called. It helps build what we like to call "tension". Even multiple-run leads that seem insurmountable can be... mounted. All you need is one out and a rally-cap. I've seen the Cardinals come back from as many as 8 runs in the bottom of the ninth before. And while I'm not saying football is never exciting and down to the wire (see the Colts' win over the Pats) it isn't even built to be so consistently.

Yikes. I gotta go.

Happy Groundhog Day

The little bugger didn't see his shadow. Can I get an amen? Short winter this year. Don't worry though, I'm sure it's totally unrelated to global warming. (By the by, did anyone else notice that Al Gore was recently nominated for a Nobel Prize?) In honor of my fellow shut-in, Punxsutawney Phil (he lives in a stump, I a windowless office), here are some lists about grad school...

Things I Don't Like About Grad School

A1. Office hours (see B5)
A2. An office with no windows (see B4)
A3. Research (see B1)
A4. Classes (see B2)
A5. Being underpaid (see B3)

Things I Do Like About Grad School

B1. Professors with Scottish accents (see A4)
B2. Irrational disdain for undergraduates (see A1)
B3. Coming in to work at 11 (see A2)
B4. "Working at home" (see A3)
B5. Getting paid to go to school (see A5)

You and your third dimension

Wow.
Just...
Wow.

Read this.

We are Mooninites from the inner core of the moon.
Our race is hundreds of years beyond yours.
Some would say that the Earth is our moon.
But that would belittle the name of our moon, which is: The Moon.
Point is: we're at the center, not you.

Et tu, Brute?

This is straight out of my kinetic theory text book...

A man is known to breathe out about 400 cubic centimeters of air at each breath, so that a single breath of air must contain about 10^22 molecules. The whole atmosphere of the earth consists of about 10^44 molecules. Thus one molecule bears the same relation to a breath of air as a breath of air does to the whole atmosphere of the earth. If we assume that the last breath of, say Julius Caesar has by now become thoroughly scattered through the atmosphere, then the chances are that each of us inhales one molecule of it with every breath we take. A man's lungs hold about 2000 cubic centimeters of air, so that the chances are that in the lungs of each of us there are about five molecules from the last breath of Julius Caesar.

Gas dynamics can be trippy huh?

The Arch

Over the New Years weekend when TinRoof came to StL to meet the parents we visited, among other places, the Arch. I hadn't been up in it since I first visited St. Louis in the third grade or so. It ended up being a lot of fun. It was a beautiful day and we had fantastic views of the city. Most noteably... the new Busch...

As an "engineer" it was pretty amazing to hear about the Arch's construction. Did you know their margin or error for merging the two legs at the top was 1/64th of an inch?

The other great thing about the Arch is the Lewis & Clark museum at its base. I find history more interesting when ginormous, life sized pictures are involved. Oh, and stuffed buffaloes... even if Tin Roof snuck up behind me and scared the bejesus out of me. Also, as UVA students, we couldn't pass up a chance to get our picture taken with TJ.

Addendum: These pictures were taken by mi hermana, whose nickname shall now be Hermana (unless she would prefer Arbusto). She is awesome.

Are you not entertained?

First off, I'd like to say I'm disappointed at the lack of audience participation this week. I was really excited to hear what some of you would say if you were the first person on Mars (cough cough Dubs cough Sandals). But I guess ya'll weren't interested. Well perhaps you'd rather I blog about politics....

Uh... the state of the union happened this week. It .. uh... was boring and I left after the first half and went to South Street for a beer instead.

Or maybe I could blog about the news...

A U.N. panel on climate change is set to give its strongest warning yet that human use of fossil fuels is stoking global warming. Of course this is nothing new to me, but I know I'll probably get posts from a relative or two telling me that the consensus of the 2,500 scientists who drafted this report is grossly exaggerated by the liberal media and that no credible link has yet been made between human actions and global climate change. Then if I really wanted to make them mad at me, I'd drop links like these on them: One Two (three?)

Or I could blog about sports...

...that is... once spring training begins. God how I miss baseball.

Maybe I'll just stick to what I'm best at - blogging about nonsense...

I hate umbrellas and here are some reasons why:

1. It's another thing you have to carry around with you... just in case.
2. They don't even do that great of a job usually. Your upper third perhaps stays a little drier but the rest of you still gets wet. The only way to get proper coverage is with an enormous umbrella which leads to...
3. They are unwieldy in windy situations. You have to hang on so tight it's not even worth the struggle. I let go of an umbrella in a storm a few years ago and haven't used one since. I just gave up on them.
   
4. It's just freaking water! We bathe in the stuff. We drink it. We're 80% made up of it. Why are we suddenly so scared of it?
5. Wear a freaking rain coat. Most people already are wearing one in a rainy situation - so what's the purpose of an umbrella? Oh right, you forgot how to use the HOOD.

I have spoken.

That's one Martian step for man

... one giant le.. Oh my God! What are those creatures!?!? Ahhhhh!

Once upon a time, I dreamt of growing up to be an astronaut. That dream has pretty much faded for me for a variety of reasons (primarily that I am physically unqualified on account of my poor vision...and no... laser surgery would disqualify me). Back in the day I aspired to be the first human to walk on Mars. At the time, I had done the rough math and figured I might just be the right age if things went well for the next few decades. Clearly there have been some setbacks in recent times which has slowed the progress of space travel. And while I do expect we will see a man on Mars in our lifetime, I imagine we'll be past our prime by then. However, I'd like to get some audience participation in relation to the most important responsibility of whichever lucky American is the first to set foot on Mars. And that is:

What would be the perfect exclamation by the first human to step on Mars?

Think about it! This is the real challenge of walking on Mars. Consider the competition. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." I mean, my God. Talk about poetry! If you're about to be the first human on Mars, you damn well better have a quote prepared to beat that. Your voice is likely to echo through time and you don't want to say something stupid like, "Boy is it dusty here" or "Meh, I see no signs of water."

So readers, what do you think? What would you say?

We have a winner

My new favorite Google search which has led someone to stumble upon my blog....

"I hate grad school"

Google really gets me, ya know?

In other news - I'm helping organize an enormous party tonight for all grad students here at UVA. It is likely to be insane as we've already had over 200 RSVPs. Hopefully food, drinks, and transportations issues will all resolve themselves. And hopefully people will like the music I've prepared for the event (if not, my feelings will be hurt). Ok I gotta go.