Hermetic Physics

Below you'll find the wholly-remarkable (if only for the curiousity of why I wrote it down in the first place) ramblings of a, well... er, uhm, whatever I am. Yes, there are a lot of quizzes - consider it self-psychoanalysis... but you'll also find some gems of wisdom from yours truly.


Well, "gems of wisdom" a rough phrase meaning "rant against idiocy."


PLEASE NOTE SOME ENTRIES ARE LISTED (unfortunately) "FRIENDS ONLY," as a little more of my life has been spreading around the Academy than I thought was appropriate. ;-) If you think I could be a better person by adding you to my friends list, drop me a line. By doing so, you'll get the juicy, disturbing, frightening, and I'd-frankly-not-like-to-get-fired bits that are left out of the public version. :-)


In any case, remember the rules:
1) Read and comment all you want, but if you start throwing sarcasm my way, make sure you're prepared to drown in it.
2) I'll say some things that will offend you. I use LJ as a way to be honest with the world (one of the few venues I have available to me), and I can't afford to PC my way around the more thorny bits.
3) If you can't handle lots and lots of News from the World of Science - slowly back away now.


Fortunately, I started LJ late enough that I could retrace and add tags. As I add more to the journal, I'll include them here... so feel free to jump directly to what interests you.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is true. The latest and greatest* news from the maker of RNftWoS is delivered to your e-doorstep.

* actually, it's a pretty boring month for science, but that's no reason not to celebrate it

SPACE
Dress Rehearsal for Mars Spain ain't the place to raise a kid
How the First Stars Were Born Sol's grandparents
Victor Emerges in Stormy Battle on Jupiter NOM NOM NOM

LIFE SCIENCE
Lights Out for Fireflies? One of the few good things about being stuck in Indiana was the nightly lightshow. Keyword: was. Yes I'm old, but I remember THOUSANDS of 'lightning-bugs' in ~every~ yard. ::sigh::
Animal Chatter More Varied Than Thought Finally some more research into ::gasp:: non-human communication. I still remember being told in *High School* science classes that "animals don't think." The teacher finally gave up on it so I would stop arguing. :-)
Monkeys Reward Friends and Relatives And to continue the sentience spectrum: Animals and Nepotism
Surprising Truths About Fruits and Vegetables Hey! I learned something! :-)

MEDICINE
Sixth 'Taste' Discovered - Calcium Calcium tastes calcium-y
Now Hear This: Don't Remove Earwax I've been a baaaaad man
The Power of Positive Thinking: Truth or Myth? Goddammit, I'm happy. Now go to hell... please.
Why Do We Get Baggy Eyes? I don't remember a time when I *didn't* have 'em
5 Ways to Beef Up Your Brain Get crack'n!
FDA Allows Irradiation of Your Vegetables If being irradiated is good enough for me, it's just fine for my food

ENVIRONMENT
Groups: Bush Rushing On Endangered Species Rule Changes Something other than elections to get the gidster all fired up. ;-P
Live Architecture: Grow Your Own Home Hell, my old AD&D mage could have told them this would work
Changes to Endangered Species Act Called Bad Science redux, with more science
Old Computers Recycled to Make Construction Material Now *this* is a tech that should have been created 20 years ago. :-/

TECHNOLOGY
Microscopic Battery Made with Live Viruses itty-bitty energizer bunnies
How Bubble Wrap Could Power the Future Oh come on, how many of us ~didn't~ predict this? ;-)
Bionic Humans: Top 10 Technologies For the transhumanists among you ::cough vargr::

CULTURE
Why Are 'Mama' and 'Dada' a Baby's First Words? The Freak's first word was "Doom." True story.
Political Flip-Flops: From Lies to Legitimate Change Now this is culturally relevant
Real-World Recycling Puts U.S. to Shame Perhaps Muncie's *only* redeeming feature. Near mandated recycling.
Monsters, Ghosts and Gods: Why We Believe May I be touched by his Noodly Appendage

HISTORY
(no, it's not science, but you ppl filled out that poll last year - don't blame me! :-P)
How Manchuria Changed the World Middle-Kingdom: the adolescent years
How the Roaring Twenties Changed the World See a theme here?
How the Wright Brothers Changed the World Not as obvious as it seems. No, wait. Yes it is.

And finally,
ODDS & ENDS (mostly Odds)
Yoda: The Cat with Four Ears I would have named him "Mephisto"

( random updates )

Now things are making a bit more sense in the medical arena.

Doc called this morning to talk about a surgery date. Apparently the ultra-sound yesterday morning found some gall-stones that were too big to pass... which isn't surprising since I've had them for THREE YEARS. ;-)
The picture becomes more clear when you realize that these puppies have been causing an infection in the entire region, which caused inflamation, which is why the Sodium Naproxin used to work (keywords "used to").
It also explains why the scan yesterday afternoon couldn't find the little bastard. It's probably already necrotic (or well on its way). No blood flow to the area, no way for the gamma indicator to show up on the scan.

What confuses me is that gall-stones are supposed to be in the top three most painful 'illnesses' that a human being can have (right up there with kidney stones and childbirth). I'll be the first to admit that the past three years wasn't fun... but I'm not sure I'd agree with what I've been reading regarding the pain level.

Yes it was a constant 2-3. Twice a week it would sustain a 6.
Once a week it would peak to an 8 for several hours.

So, either I need to re-evaluate my pain-scale...
Or all of you mom types can send me cash, or I let your secrets out. Mwhahaha

So, surgery for me to keep the gangrene from killing me. (hooray!)
Missing a chunk of the crucially important first few weeks of classes. (booo!)

So... test 4 of 4 (round 2) of med procedures ended today, and what was supposed to be a "quick" (30-60m) imaging period, followed by another "quick" (30m) functional diagnostic ended 2 hours later with one bored patient and three exasperated lab techs.

It's hard to move on to the 'functional diagnostic' phase (i.e. inject a synthetic hormone to get my GB to 'work' on demand), when they can't find the damned organ in the first place.

So I spent two hours of "move this way please... now don't breathe for 30 minutes" and "lay on your right side please... now don't breathe for 30 minutes" and "just one more... we'll get it this time," etcetera ad nauseum.

With this in mind, I take back what I said about Mr. Wussy. He isn't a pansy organ.
If he is what is actually causing all my symptoms, then he's a damn good assassin, since my gall bladder is:
1) trying to kill me.
2) somehow can't be found in a 3D x-ray scan of my entire lower torso

So what I have to show for my day is a loss of ~another~ 3 hours (1 for the morning ultrasound and 2 for the afternoon fiasco) out of my life.
Okay, although the whole ordeal was annoying, some good things came from it:

1) The main lab-tech assigned to me was cute, tiny, and cute. Did I mention cute? She was also, to date, the smartest lab tech I've ever seen... which made her even more cute. If there is a word that means "more cute" than cute, I would use it for her. English sucks.
Her name was "Charity" though, for which I am grateful... since by a convoluted pathway of thought I was led in interesting directions during my 2 hour bore-a-thon.

(Make a fist with your left hand, thumb on top. Place right thumb and right fore-finger together, and move in circles approximately 2 inches from left hand. nightharbinger may be the only one to get this, but at least I took one person on this ride with me.)

2) The Technetium-99 currently running through my blood-stream has a half-life of 6 hours. So by international standards I'm a legal gamma-ray source until 7am tomorrow morning. w00t! Who wants a hug!

Oh... and I almost forgot.
CT scans and other unsavorables tomorrow! I *am* looking forward to the radioactive blood, but am *not* looking forward to the No Food Or Drink from Midnight to 3pm.

I can go 2 days w/o food or water because I FORGET to eat or drink, but I can pretty much guarantee that at 12:01am I'll suddenly feel ~~very~~ thirsty. :-(

Hmm.... only 8 hours of meetings today. Not 11. (I was able to avoid 3 hours worth - w00t)

3rd hour in = best meeting (General Faculty/Staff)
Did you know that I shouldn't accept lingerie from a child? Really! It's true. I learned that today.
I also learned (granted, I had an inkling of this already) that exposing a colleague's breasts in the middle of a meeting can get you fired.
Granted, I didn't see either of these, but it was ~assured~ to me by _experts_ that both statements are indeed valid.

I was also assured that a 17 year old girl walking naked into my office is NOT a reason to engage in sexual relations with her. That, fortunately, I knew quite a few years ago. ;-)

___

7th hour in = 2nd best meeting (Science Division)
Science Division Chair: "I was told by certain parties that Steve did an upstanding job on the Professional Affairs Committee, and that we'd be doing the Academy a great service by electing him to it again for the next 3 year term."
Me (a bit surprised): "Huh. That's a far cry from what 'certain parties' said when I was elected to this post 3 years ago."
::general laughter from division::
Science Division Chair: "That's what I told him."

It's nice to see that I finally won over the Executive Director... and I did it without giving in, dammit! w00t! Goes to prove that even 60 year old alpha-males can be broken. ;-P

Lost power tonight (mere seconds after my previous post!). Turns out the transformer *didn't* explode (good thing), but the powerline came lose from said transformer, and caught both the electrical pole, *and* two trees on fire on its way to my house. ;-)

oooh. Pretty lights...

So we had a high-voltage line in our backyard for a few hours. Lots of sparky-sparky.

Lots of good times, with the possible exception of three items:

1) I forgot I could post about what was going on (even w/o power) because of the voice-post from my c-phone service. (maybe I could have gotten close enough for you to hear the Pzzap Pzzap) No amount of danger is too much for your entertainment!

2) I was hungry, and I am now dependent on my microwave for food. :-(

3) As it was the line from the transformer to my house, I'll probably get charged for the emergency repair and replacement. ::sigh:: 3 guys, 3 service trucks, 90 minutes. <== that won't be cheap.

The first session of the 839yR Cova Dois campaign went pretty damn well.

Some good character development, some good intrigue/detective-work, some happy combat, and some OH MY GOD THE HORROR MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP combat (my favorite!).

I broke in some ex-D&D'ers to the horrors-that-is-Harn (emphasis on "broke")... which is, of course, always a good thing.

By the way, piraticalintent, I realized tonight that 839yR is 96 years after Mikalin had his fateful adventure with Ulambulae & Co (Harbrighton I campaign). Boy, a lot changes in a hundred years. ;-)

...okay well not *that* high energy. I'm in no immediate danger of turning green and spilling purple dye on my underwear, but photon wavelengths in the Angstrom range shouldn't be disregarded either.

X-rays, my old buddies.

I had a lot more today... despite:
1) 2 months ago I had a 45 minute long X-ray session (with contrast, hooray).
2) I get more than enough x-rays teaching in a room across from the BSU coal-plant (you should hear the Geiger counters scream when you point them at it).
3) If #2 wasn't enough, I live in front of the photo-copier at work - and CERTAINLY get my daily allowance of x-rays from that (again, fun times with Geiger counters).
4) 20 years ago I sat in front of a 50,000 volt concentrated x-ray crystallography beam (long story) for ~TWENTY MINUTES~. That should get me out of every gods-be-damned x-ray session for at least five life-times.

It turns out that lab-techs are terribly interested in your x-ray history.

I also got poked a few times and have a bit less blood at the moment than I woke up with this morning.

And on Wednesday I go back in for Ultrasounds and a (w00t! More x-rays... only this time it'll be my ~blood~ that produces them. Ooooh...) CT Scan.

I suppose this is what I get when I finally go back to the doctor about that nasty back-pain I've been having ((4/16/08)). I gave him the run-down on all the new symptoms (I'll do you all a favor and not embellish on 'em - lets just say they've gotten a bit more irritating), and he started talking about Gall Bladders.

Gall Bladders.

If this is truly what my issue has been (hence all the tests), I certainly lost out on the "Masculine Disease Lottery." Gall bladder? Come on... it's a squirt gun for slime, and a wussy one at that! I would have settled with kidney function, or liver disease... I would have even been happy with stomach ulcers. Hell, with all the damned x-rays I at least deserve cancer.

Gall Bladders...

In any case, after we pieced together the fact that most of my symptoms would be explained if that wussy organ was dying on me (literally), I told him that my mother had a lot of issues with her's... and finally had to have it removed a few years back.

He made some comment about "you'd think you would have told me that already"... it wasn't worth the conversation to explain that my mother had been moved into the non-relevant closet of my head years ago. The idea that something about her may actually be relevant never really occurred to me.

So, if this line of research runs the course, I'll be saying bye to ice-cream.
And greasy hamburgers.
And cheese. <== ::oh god no::

Oh, and I'll also be saying bye to my ~GALL BLADDER~.

"Good Riddance," I'd say.
__

Of course, it may not be the puny-squirt-gun-of-ineptitude. But it would be nice if this series of tests would find **something** (other than my wallet much much MUCH emptier).
___

Strangely, other than the heap o' money I'll be paying for my "share" of the procedures, I'm pretty blase about it. As I said in an earlier post: life itself isn't too bad at the moment. I'm just looking forward to not hurting all the time. ;-)

Nine days left of summer.

Hmm. I got absolutely NOTHING done that I had placed as ~priority~, but several things that I had tagged ~secondary~. I'd call that a successful, but lazy vacation. I don't think there really is a better kind, is there?

Normally by now, I'm either chomping at the bit to get back into the trenches, or I'm sweating bullets with trying to push off the inevitable. This year I'm pretty apathetic one way or the other.
Odd. I suppose I'll just ride this out and see what happens.

Still no word on the 2nd job thingy. Part of me is rejoicing (I get so little free-time during the school year as it stands), but part is a bit disappointed. I need the new car. A lot. The 12 year old girl sitting in the back of the house is a real trooper, but I still have that nagging suspicion that my luck with her is running out. It wouldn't be that bad if it weren't for my stubborn "no steps backward' mandate. The new car will need better gas-mileage *and* be more fun to drive. On top of that, I've told myself that this new one will need more of a cargo-hold as well... and so far the only car I've found that fits that bill is gonna run me 30k. That's a sh*t-ton of money on my salary, I can assure you. The 2nd job would *just* cover the monthly payments. Maybe.

On slightly better footing, the new campaign is gearing up nicely. It'll be weird, seeing that 40% of the group will be Harn n00bs (always fun to break in!) and 20% has ~zero~ gaming experience at all (as in "what's a d6?"). Poor thing... she's all excited about it but really doesn't know what she's in for. Mwhahaha
I still have room for 1 more (with comfort) if any in the area (like any of you are in the area :-/) are interested.

Hmm... anything else?...

Nope. Everything else is status quo as of late: About a 5.9 on the ubiquitous Scale-o-Happiness. Considering the situation 90% of my friends are going through, I certainly won't complain.

Here I am, sitting on the computer watching TKK videos, and littlebella1980 comes in with this odd look on her face.

"Uhm, there's a guy at the door for you."

My paranoid gland kicks in. Nothing good *ever* comes to our door. Bills, court summons, bible-thumpers... those come to our door. But even *those* never ask for ~me~.
"The front door?"

"yep"

Things just got worse in my head... so I cautiously approach the door. Who ever it is, 'bella shut the door after her. Oh joy.

So I open the door and here is the pretty clean looking guy, but indicative of the rough neighborhood I live in. Obviously NOT a government official. So far, so good.
"Yes?"

"Uhm... uh. Uhm..." He obviously looks nervous. Which I would be too if were him standing at the front door of a house between two of the biggest gun-carrying bigots on the street. I felt sorry for him. :-/

I prod. "go ahead."

"Uhm... not sure how to say this."

Now I think I may have damaged his car when I mowed the yard and he just doesn't want to be a jerk and tell me. But it gets better:

"Don't be offended by this, please..."

Oooh... now I'm *really* interested! Someone thinks they are going to offend me! Wee!

"I can assure you," I, well, assured him, "that I'm really hard to offend. Go ahead."

He looks a bit more relieved, but keeps checking both sides of the street as if someone were listening. By now I'm practically hovering off the porch with excitement - I don't think I made that 'little-kid' clapping motion, but I can't say that I remember *not* doing it.

"I couldn't ask your wife this..."

I'm ready to grab him by his T-shirt and shake him, but I put on my best pyscho-therapist voice. "It'll be okay."

"Uhm... uh... is this a swinger house?"

WOO! My mouth drops open and I almost laugh at him... the only reason I don't is because I'd hate for him to pass out from embarrassment. You really should have seen him. Poor guy! My first instinct was to say:
"You're close!" But instead I just look at him and say "no."

He almost passed out anyway. A bit of stammering left his mouth but I didn't pick up anything lucid. You could tell he was trying to find someway, ~anyway~ to backpedal. I bailed him out.
"It's okay. I'm not offended."

"Uhm, uh...I'm sorry. My wife, she kept bugging me.... er, uhm. Oh god, I'm glad I didn't ask your wife this."

"I think she would have found it amusing, too. Really, it's okay."

"I am sooo sorry. We were just told that this might be a swinger house."

I gave him the look. You know, the look I give the Mutants when they've said the one thing they shouldn't have and now I'm going to roast them for being stupid.
"Told by whom?"

He looks around nervously for the three hundredth time. "Uhm, it's kind of what the neighborhood thinks."

Squeeee! I almost kissed him. Okay, I really didn't *almost* kiss him. He has the wrong chromosome and frankly I didn't find him very cute. But the thought did cross my mind. I did laugh at this point.
"I suppose any rep is good rep, right?"

He gave a nervous smile, and clearly didn't really know what to think of me now. That's okay... that's how I generally prefer it.

I did let him off the hook, and told him of the places in Ft. Wayne that might be able to direct him towards what he was looking for... he appeared grateful, if not for the info, but at least for the opportunity to get off my porch so he could die of terminal blushing in the privacy of his own car.

I'm pretty sure that I skipped to the kitchen to tell 'bella what had happened.

woohoo!


The great thing is that he aimed too low. :-)

N. Robin Crossby passed away a few hours ago.

Gygax may have put RPGs on the mainstream map, but Crossby had him beat on every factor other than business savvy.

He was the creator of Harn and the primary author of the HarmMaster rules-system... and was hands-down the absolute best World-builder ever published. (and I've played over 100+ RPGs) One could argue that other games may be more fun (subjective) or interesting (subjective), but nothing beats HarnMaster for immersion, consistency, and detail. (Aargh! All the detail!)

I had been following his blog for the past several years, during his long fight with cancer, the ups, the downs, the false hopes, and the Realization that the End was Coming. During it all he handled it with Robin-style wit and humor... it's not often that I laugh out loud at a dying man's account of his experiences with his illness.

His last blog post can be found here. It is a bit disjointed (understandably so considering the meds), but it is far more lucid than it may initially appear. This is classic Robin.

Harn, his campaign world, began in the early 60s, and he was creating content up until he could no-longer see the computer screen (2 weeks ago).

He may have been a loon. But he was a ~great~ loon - and the world is darker for his passing.

Heading out to spend 2 days with The Freak (aka ~ENERGY VAMPIRE~) this morning. Fortunately, I got some sleep last night.

Further updates:

1) Two weeks left until work starts grinding up again. Not particularly looking forward to it, but not dreading it either. <== I'll take that as positive.

2) I'm up to step 6 of the "2nd Job Thingy" for the fall. We'll see if my weirdo-oh-my-god-he-doesn't-have-short-hair appearance keeps me out of it. ;-) If I don't get it, it's not really a disaster - I can't decide if teaching at a Community College is a step up or step down. >,< Either way I step, I suppose, means a bit more cash flowing in... and *that* is a good thing!

3) My brain is working in 5th gear as of late, and I'm not really sure of what it's up too. Hopefully it'll let me know what it's grinding on when the time is right... else I'm wasting ~A LOT~ of time staring into space or pacing the house.

4) Geek News: I have a new campaign in the wings. It'll be tricky... it's been over a year, and I have brand-spanking-new gamers to break in to The Horrors That Is Harnmaster. Heh, we'll see how this turns out.

5) littlebella1980  has been doing pretty sell as of late. Which of course, if you have been paying attention, means that marduk_lok  is a happy camper. After all, no good vibes for me to feed on and I get all cranky. >,< The Freak has to get her ~ENERGY VAMPIRE~ nature from somewhere, yes? :-P

News/Epiphanies of the Week:

1) The Basement is finally getting cleaned. I know ppl who say their basements are complete ~horrors~. I've seen their basements. I'm embarrassed to let them see mine. 6 cats + 3 lazy people + 4 people's stored belongings + 1 washer/dryer set + 4 years of inactivity + 2 minor floods + 1 major flood = the 1 one place which even *I* actively avoid. It's gross. >.<

2) Getting a campaign back up and running after a little more than a year. Or at least trying. It's hard to find ppl who have even heard of Harn-master, not to mention willing to put up with its hyper-realistic rules set. Of course, this could be another 30+ hour of prep-work that goes *poof* after a session or two. At least my particular neurosis of "Must Have World Make Sense" works out well in this arena. No one is gonna accuse me of having an illogical campaign world. ;-P

3) First day for faculty starts up in a little over three weeks. I can't say I got a lot of productive work in this summer, although I can't say I'm disappointed for that either. Productive work over a summer = wasted summer IMHO. :-) I'm uber-productive 10 months out of the year: If they aren't gonna pay me for the other 2, then I don't feel much motivation... besides, 2 months of 24/7 video-games doesn't really strike me as a ~bad~ thing.

4) lordlothair needs to stop throwing girls in my direction. My weakness for broken-strays gets me in trouble far more often than it helps, as my brain has been going in bad bad directions in this arena as of late. People always point out the perks of being Poly. No one ever mentions the fact that unless your plate is full-to-bursting, you're almost always lonely.

5) I'm on step 4 of 6 of getting a second job in the fall. If I can wrangle a simple "one night a week" teaching at ::shudder:: Ivy Tech this year it would go a long, long way towards:
a) a new car
b) medical stuff for littlebella1980
c) driveway for the house
d) new windows
Sadly, that's probably the order of precedence. No new car means that soon I won't be able to provide b, c, or d.
If I don't go for the job route, I'm seriously considering looking into the Einstein Fellow program in Washington DC. 60k for 10 months work. Only about 1 in 500 applicants get in, but hopefully my quals and background will overshadow my non-standard approach to life as far as Uncle Sam is concerned. Okay, it probably won't, but at least I'd get the satisfaction of making them tell me that. ;-)


Oh, and monstermommy found an interesting meme, for those who aren't on her LJ. Normally these little tidbits are little more than interesting-yet-ephemeral curiosities. This one could actually be useful to someone. :-)
( Follow the Link )

I've been playing with the Spore Creature Creator. Assuming that even 70% of what EA wanted to put in the game actually gets into the game, it should be well worth purchasing. At least it hits the shelfs after I get paid again! Not getting paychecks in the summer leaves a bit to be desired. If you haven't heard of Spore, check it out:
Spore Official Site
It'll be one of those 'cutesy' games, but I'm secure enough in my evilness to relax a bit and conquer a galaxy via cuddly-micro-organisms-turned-horrible-monstrosities.
_

Some girls that 'bella bellydances with told her that they were surprised that she 'considered' herself goth. Sometimes I *really* get tired of the masses mistaking emo-gothling with goth. Wearing black is nice and all (and looks damn cool when done properly), and frankly, when going out 'on the town' I won't wear anything BUT black... but earth-tones are just fine with me thank-you-very-much. I've been "Goth" for over 20 years. Damn proud of it. And I feel sorry for anyone who says "you're not Goth because you < insert idiotic reasoning here >." As far as I'm concerned, those true dark-souls that I respect who *do* wear velvet/eye-liner/etc don't do it to prove to themselves that they hate humanity - they just need to look out the window to reinforce ~that~. They wear it because it because it's who they are, and frankly, look damn-fine doing so. :-P
Besides, sometimes after a late-night out-of-town, I can't make it home to change before classes start... so I show up with all my regalia. Always good to keep The Mutants on their toes!
( A picture is worth a thousand words. )
_

Bella dyed her hair red a few weeks back. Jackal is thinking of doing the blue route. *That* outta be interesting.
_

I'm this close to ~finally~ getting my 2nd tattoo. All that remains is the design that's been rattling around in the back of my head for the past 4 years... it's almost ready to let me know what it is - almost. I have been, in the interim, working on a 'family' design for 'bella, jackal and myself. Who knows what'll come of that, but it gives me a chance to stretch my art-genes a bit... gods know that it's been a while since I've been able to do that.
_

17 years ago I started growing a beard. Frankly, I was too young to realize that I looked, well, like crap with a beard. Yes, it was a girl who convinced me to do it... it's always a girl, I know. 14 years ago I got fed up with it (thankfully) and shaved it off... but stopped when I saw the goatee. Of course, think back to the early 90's. No one had a goatee. Only visitors from the 'evil universe' and villains in movies/TV had goatees. So, I just had to keep it. After all, I started wearing this ponytail back in the mid-80's... when only "girls" and rockstars had them.
That's me, Mr. Trendsetter. ;-P
Well, the point is that 3 weeks ago I started on this beard thing again. Still not sure if I like it. I'll give it another few weeks before I re-evaluate if it's a keeper. Otherwise: zip-zop it's back to the goat.
Frankly, I'm not sure if *anyone* on this blog has known me long enough to remember me without a goatee. hmm.
_

I'm seriously thinking about getting a second job in the fall teaching Physics at Ivy-tech. The extra cash would certainly go a long way to replacing the MX-6... although I'll miss the old girl. She's twelve years old, has most of her original parts, and still gets over 33 mpg on a regular basis - but my inner-voice is telling me that her time is almost up, and I don't want to get stranded in the middle of nowhere... since mainly everywhere I go is in the middle-of-nowhere.
Well, that and I should probably listen to the inner-voice. 12 years ago I didn't listen to it and had to work at not drowning in a collapsing cave complex. 8 years ago I didn't listen and lost Serena, Isabella, The Freak, and a house. 4 years ago, I didn't listen and was almost fired from my dream-job (although I can't say I have many regrets on that one, though). Now that I hear the whispering again, well... let's say I don't feel like drowning anytime soon.
_

I think I'm still getting used to this America thing.
My mother's family came over from Australia about the time she was being, well, born. My father's parents came over from Norway/Luxembourg in the 20's. Mom's side settled in southern Louisiana. Dad's side settled in Minnesota. So I grew up on gumbo and sourkraut (thankfully not at the same time!) and wasn't sure if I had an Australian accent or a Scandinavian one. What I really want to know is why my parents decided to settle in INDIANA of all god-damned places? ::sigh::
I'm *certainly* still getting used to this Hoosier thing. >,<
_

Other than the above rants, I suppose that things are doing pretty well. For the next few weeks, my life will still consist of:
1) getting out of bed
2) playing computer games
3) eating (optional)
4) going back to sleep
Not a bad set-up, actually.
Soon, work will start back up and it'll be back to teaching Mutants on the proper way to enslave the world, so I'm enjoying my forced exile from the working world while I have it.
_

Oh! 'bella went to her college orientation today. She now will have the pleasure of taking those lovely *core classes*! Lucky her! :-P
_

Hmm... well, I did warn you with the subject line, yes?

Yes, it's been far, far too long since I've irradiated your eyeballs with randomly useless factoids from < reverb > The World of Science < /reverb >.

Space & Earth Science

Astronomers Argue that Pluto is a Planet A "Plutoid"? ::sigh:: The IAU really dropped the ball with this whole Dwarf Planet thingy. There are so many better ways to classify that don't literally lock down the description of a planet to those objects orbiting our own star. But did they ask me? No. Idiots, all of them! ;-)

RIP: Ulysses Solar Probe Coming to End Soon ::salute:: This was one useful lil' trooper. We owe a great deal of our modern meteorological models to this device. She lasted much longer than was expected... and was probably one of the most successful probes our species ever launched from this rock.

Summer's Twilight Zones And you thought Twilight was simple.

Major Breakup Threatens Antarctic Ice Shelf This one was only 160 square kilometers, but was the keystone protecting a huge formation behind it. Wee!

Cosmic Grim Reaper Seen For First Time We finally catch a glimpse of a supernova *as* it triggers. Got lucky with this one! Although, I still think that my earlier post (March 11 2008: Looking down the Barrel) fits this title a bit more closely. :-)

Sociology

Primitive People: Innocent or Savage? A stupid title for the article, but it just makes me happy that we as a society can still have this argument. (The answer, of course, is "neither." But did anyone ask me? Once again... "no".) There is a very nice image-link in the second paragraph of this article. I don't think that these men really wanted that plane in their skies. You go, fellas! :-)

Pursuit of Females Dates Way, Way Back Uhm. Duh.


Life Science

Extinct Tree From Christ's Time Rises From the Dead Easter references aside, this is still pretty cool.

Better Sleepers Are 'Successful Agers' I know this will make some of you very very happy. Okay, not so much.

Study: Tree Leaves Have Built-In Thermostat Neat!


Technology

Hybrid Cars: How the Work I found this little article to be overly simplified, but I include it here for those who were curious. :-)

Behind the Scenes:
Cloaking Device Concept Moves Beyond Theory I've been following this for a bit, but apparently they made a sizable jump forward when I wasn't looking. We're a ~long~ way off from a true "cloaking field", but at least now we have the mathematics down - which is the hairy part of the process.

Monkey's Robot Arm Feels Natural When they can just replace this old shell of mine with a diamond and titanium war-machine, then I'll know that I've made the Big Time.

Robotic Soldier Suit Demonstrated LOL. For now I'll just settle for this. One day we'll use this to battle gigantic alien queens!


Odds and Ends (mostly odds)

One-horned Deer Looks Like Mythical Unicorn Uhm, not what *I* have always pictured... a silly article, but newsworthy IMHO. Barely, granted. :-)

Lost Parrot Recites Address to Veterinarian And my old parrot did nothing but yell "DIE DIE DIE" and try to bite you while laughing maniacally. Really. It was creepy!

Pick Your Pet: Program Evaluates Animal Personalities Uhm... perhaps I should have had littlebella1980 do this? ;-)

___

And, to be true to tradition, here is the picture bonus. Consider it your reward for sitting through yet another installment of "Random News from the World of Science!":

( Pale Blue Dot )

Good:
littlebella1980 is doing very very well. And since she is currently the only energy source I have to feed on (nom nom nom), her emotional health does wonders for me.
I have apparently *finally* snowed the administration at work enough that they are starting to think I'm actually worth something. Overheard 'the man' saying good things about me to some flunkie from the state department - of course, he may just be trying to pawn me off on her. lol

Bad:
My schedule is booked for the next few weeks. >,<
Only 13 days of class to go, and about 16 days of material to pack in.
Then a full week of finals.
Then two weeks of that ever-so-lovely "drag the reluctant physicist across Indiana" whirl-wind tour.
Then a week to prep for summer workshops.
Then, duh, the week-long summer workshop.
Mix in there the 14 edits I still have to make (approx 20 hours) and the four original tapes I need to make (5 hours) before finals week.
And add in the additional prep work I need for that road-show (Organizing Academites is like herding cats. Procrastinating cats. ;-P)
And I'm organizing places for one of my trouble-making padawans to stay for the next week and a half. (What is this with minions of mine ending up with apartments in the slums of Muncie? Just down the street from your old one, nightshade1387...)

On top of that, I'm on my third ear-infection in as many months, and think I have another one brewing in my "good" ear.
That, and the not-so-proverbial pain-in-my-back has started it's way further south. Kidney stones are looking more and more as a likely candidate. Fortunately, I have an appointment with someone who *should* be able to diagnose said problem next month.


Ugly:
So, considering my last day of official "Academy" work is May 27th, I'll get my last full school paycheck May 31st. I then get a ~half~ paycheck June 30th. Then nothing until another ~half~ paycheck Aug 31st... then full ones start up again Sept 30th.
The one-week summer workshop in early June will help a little, although the pay for that won't trickle down through the pipes until August.

In the midst of this I'm also doing something pretty irresponsible. ::gasp:: The last thing I bought myself was a Fields of the Nephilim hoodie back in early November... so now that Age of Conan is arriving next month, it's about time for a new gaming machine. One can only live like a monk for so long, dammit! lol

I should have enough saved up to get the computer, and still feed littlebella1980 and I through September. I'll have to get creative if I want to attend GLLA and GenCon in August, however.

Once I start getting my meager salary again, it's gonna go straight through my fingers:
New gutters ($700)
New Upstairs Windows ($1000)
Driveway ($500+)
New Downstairs Windows ($1500+)

Oh yeah, the big one. New car. >,<
Okay, well, new car *to me* in all likelihood. I seriously doubt I can afford a *new* car.

I'll also be starting up with payments to the BSU Bursar, as 'bella should be enrolled by then.

Good thing I'll have that new 'puter... since I won't be able to afford to stick my head outside of the house. :-P

___
So, in a nutshell:
Financially, life sucks (although I realize that it can get far far worse), but quality of life isn't measured in coin.
Schedule-wise, life sucks too... but quality of life isn't measured in time either (although time is probably far more important than coin!).

This time last year, life ~sucked~.

This time the year before that, life sucked so badly I kept looking over my shoulder half-expecting to see a looming Event Horizon.

Seven years ago, at this time, I would have been thankful for that Event Horizon. Less said on ~that~ period, the better.

Sometimes a sense of perspective is useful. :-)

Yes, I know I claim to throw "lots and lots" of Random News from the World of Science at you. I also know that I haven't done so as of late. Consider this a weak, yet present, bookmark in the Novel of your Knowledge.

( proceed to ZOOM extravaganza! )

For anyone that had bellas_jackal on your friends list, you may want to re-direct yourself to jackalsmischief. He forgot his password. :-P

Not that he had a lot on his old account. :-P

But... now that we (he and I) are getting matching computers (makes it far far easier to build), he'll be online a bit more often.

Or so he says. lol