The unthinkable has happened!!!

The 2004 Boston Redsox have won the World Series!!! Wait... what? 1918? Oh sorry yankee fans, that phrase doesn't mean anything anymore. Oh? When's the last time... oh, that's right. 2000. Maybe your new battle cry should be 2K. Tonight is living proof that money and ego doesn't equal victory. Go Boston!! Hats off to you. This night you deserve.

Change. Seems like it's everywhere. The seasons are changing here. Summer is long gone, and fall barely arrived before winter starting knocking on the door. Leaves are changing colors, sweaters are on the dogs, kids are all bundled up in the strollers, and baseball is now officially over. Such an interesting thing how much affect change has. The Boston Redsox finally won a world series. The Cal Bears (minus usc) seem virtually unstopable. The Raiders have traded Jerry Rice. Both Bay Area football teams seem to have hit a rut.

With only a little less than 2 months left, there's still much change to come. So much uncertainty. Even more amazing is how much has changed since I've came to school here. My family has moved around. Some relationships have been made, others broken. Things that used to be taken for granted are no longer certain. I've come to grips with what once would have toppled me. In some ways, I'm so much stronger than I could have ever imagined, and yet at the same time, more foolish as well. But in the end, I'm just me. Everyday I learn more about myself, about the choices that were made, about the change that happens all around. I'd like to think most of it is good, but undoubtably, there's some bad in there as well. But, it's just something I've got to learn to deal with and accept, just like the color that was missing from the lunar eclipse tonight...

Go Boston.

Pavlov's Dogs

It's so weird how such responses are tied to certain stimuli. Bell ringing = salivating dogs. But it does hold merit either way. No one has to tell you to not stick things in the electric socket. Even if you tell a kid don't do it, they will still stick forks into it. But, most kids will do it only once, and from that day forth, will never do it again. You don't have to remind that kid that electric sockets are dangerious. They'll remember that sensation, and if you bring them near a socket, most likely they will squirm and try to run away.

As we get older, it's interesting to see what will bring about such responses. Smells, sights, sounds, touch, taste, whatever. The other day, I was listening to some old music on my harddrive, and it reminded me of ramen. Eating ramen in the dorms on a cold rainy day. And all of a sudden, i wanted ramen. It was just interesting to randomly go through some of my super old stuff i haven't heard in a while, and see what kind of memories are tied to certain songs. Most line up correctly, sad songs will not so good times, and upbeat songs for happy times, but every now and then, i'd come across a song with an upbeat tune, but be tied to a melancholy memory. Weird how the brain works.

Which leads to wonder about all those people on the subway with headphones glues to their heads. They're living with a constant soundtrack to their lives. Blasting their commute away whatever they happen to be listening to. What happens in a few years if they decide to play back whatever they were listening to now? Would they be flooded with memories of being smooshed in a subway car full of smelly people, being banged around as the subway made it's way between stations? I dunno about you, but that's something i'd try not to remember. It kind of makes me think of what i'm listening to, and what i'm doing at that moment. Will whatever happens be forever tied to that certain tune, thereby making me despise that particular song if something bad happens? What if I like that song?

Makes one wonder. After all these centuries of study and exploration of the mind and how it works, we always end up with more questions than answers. Sure, we've made progress. We no longer just cut people open and start cutting out parts which we think are "bad". But is that really progress? Who's to say if that's progress. I think some mysteries are better left unsolved. Think pandora's box. In the meantime, i'll just sit here and enjoy some more music

Courtesy Urban Dictionary

Wardrobe Malfunction

- A lame excuse offered by a major television network after broadcasting nude images of a used singer.


fo' shizzle my nizzle

- "fo shizzle ma nizzle" is a bastardization of "fo' sheezy mah neezy" which is a bastardization of "for sure mah nigga" which is a bastdardization of "I concur with you whole heartedly my African american brother"


You forgot Poland

- A sad excuse for an arguement given by a incumbant President trying desperatly to escape his dismal record.

While a "You forgot Poland" comment seems true, in reality the event never actually happened in the first place.

A "You forgot Poland" comment is weak and a sign of desperation because even if it *did* happen as claimed, it would still be a really weak and practically meaningless point.

Person A: "Secondly, when we went in, there were three countries: Great Britain, Australia and the United States. That's not a grand coalition. We can do better."

Person B: "Well, actually, he forgot Poland"

(Person B has failed to realize that Poland was not actually in the group that "went in". Only in August of 2003 did Poland finally send troops, and it really had no effect anyway, merely a token, noncombat force.)


bush

- see warmonger

1. one who uses patriotism and immense propaghanda to gain support for illegal unjustified brutal acts upon oppressed people for own gains. whether it be oil or money.
2. one who puts self gains in front of human life
3. immense dumbass
4. pubic hair.



warmonger

George W. Bush. The biggest asshole this country has ever seen.

George W. Bush is a warmonger who is leading our country to disaster.

These past few days have been crazy in terms of baseball. The longest game of baseball history was played last night, something like 6 hrs. 14 innings. Something like over 400-450 pitches between both teams. Boston Redsox against the evil empire, the NY Yankees. Both sunday and monday's game went stankin' long. I've been trying to study, but these games are killing me. Both of these games goes super super late, like 12-1am here. I'm hoping that Boston takes this series. That would something. I'm tired of seeing the yankees always in the playoffs and in the world series.

Whoa... Arod is a cheater. He swatted the ball out of the picthers glove. So much for the highest paid player in baseball. What a sore loser. And look at the high quality of yankee fans. They're throwing everything and anything on the field because the umpires called it correctly. It's absolutely nuts. Good going new yorkers. No wonder we live in such a filthy city.

I'm sitting here watching the game, and just hoping the Boston takes the series. I hope this game ends at the end of 9 innnings. I'm just glad tuesday is over. Tuesdays are my worst days. I have class pretty much for 7 hrs straight. And one of the classes i'm so frustrated at the professor. His voice just drones... and it sounds like he's got like cotton in his mouth. He doesn't really enunciate his words, and throw in a super thick indian accent, and it just compounds the problem. And the material is just not that interesting.

If you're in need of a good laugh... check this out: www.singlelongislandguy.com
absolutely hilarious

This weekend, I saw Team America World Police. I only have one word for this movie.

CRAP

I can't believe i paid $10.25 to watch that ..... garbage. It was somewhat funny for the first 10-15 mins, but after the novelty wore off of the puppets, there was nothing left. Utter and mindless garbage. To the credit of the movie, they do make a mockery of everything and everybody. Nothing is left unscathed. But just to drive the point home, Shark Tale made more money than this movie. I saw it opening night at 10:45, and the movie theater was about half full. A lot of the movie was just plain old rip-offs of other movies. It was so obviously blantant, they didn't even try to hide it. And i didn't quite understand the whole point to the movie. If there was a valid political point or theme to this movie... it was beyond me. Seemed more like a way to make fun of everybody and everything, which near the end got pretty crass. I enjoyed the South Park movie a lot more than this movie. But then again... that's just my opinion. The other guys i watched it with liked it.

To each their own...

Pet Projects

Projects are a part of school. You can't get away from it. Whether it be papers, research, lab... you'll always be doing some sort of project. So far, i've had to do a project in every class here at grad school. Projects which are time consuming, difficult, yet interesting. The whole point of the project has been to demonstrate to the professor that you have been able to tie together everything you learned and put it into a coherent and well thought out solution to a problem that's more in depth than a midterm or hw. Nothing is wrong with doing projects. Sure, i don't necessarily enjoy staying up for days on end staring at something i've worked on for weeks, but when it works, somehow it makes it all worth it.

But this semester is a different story. This one class i'm taking (which i think is an utter and total waste of time) we're required to do a project. No big deal. I didn't expect any less. What totally rubs me the wrong way is that the goal of these projects is to make something for which the professor has been meaning to do, but hasn't gotten around to doing it. I.e. we're his manual labor. What's that you say? The prof is blantantly using a class of 20 some odd students to do some projects which he's been meaning to do. He even admitted it.

Just so you get an idea of what kind of prof this is, he's a "wee" man in his late 50's probably. He's worked at Bell Labs (before they went through the tubes) for pretty much his whole life. Now for some reason, he's a guest lecturer at columbia. He's still single, and let me explain why. He's married to his test equipment. Not obsessed, but take it one step further. He reads the catalogues from the manufactures of this equipment for night reading. ??? What? Who in the right mind reads this stuff for fun? He says we should also know how much everything costs. Good. So he wants us to spend our free time reading the manuals and catalogues for all kinds of manufacturers of test equipment. Exactly what i've been wanting to do all my life. Hooray. I can't believe i'm paying money for this nut job to teach this class. All he talks about in class is his test equipment and how expensive they are, but he found them at a surplus sale for like 10% of the real cost. I don't care if you got the stuff at the surplus sale. Teach us real tools and tricks, on current equipment. I don't care about your 20+ year old crap you got for 50 bucks.

Anyways, back to the project, he already has a list of things he wants us to build. He continually shows off what projects the last year's class built, so i'm assuming that he keeps all the projects once we're done. That really irks me, since the students last year also paid for their own part and had to order it themselves. He then goes around touting how great these things are, but didn't do anything to help build them. Just for kicks, i'm going to go in and say i'm going to build something i already made over the summer. See if he's going to confiscate it and try to pass how he came up with the idea and what not. That should be interesting.

What a waste of time.....

This one is dedicated to all of those who have kids/want to have kids/babysitting kids....

http://www.whoohoo.net/operababy/operababy.swf

Let us observe a moment of silence for the loss of the Cal bears...

Geeky yes... but funny none-the-less

The following is a question on a physics exam at the University of Copenhagen:

"Describe how to determine the height of a skyscraper with a barometer."

One student replied: "You tie a long piece of string to the neck of the barometer, then lower the barometer from the roof of the skyscraper to the ground. The length of the string plus the length of the barometer will equal the height of the building."

This highly original answer so incensed the examiner that he failed the student who immediately appealed on the grounds that his answer was indisputably correct.

The university appointed an independent arbiter to decide the case.

The arbiter ruled that the answer was indeed correct, but did not display any noticeable knowledge of physics. It was decided to call the student in and allow him six minutes in which to provide a verbal answer which showed at least a minimal familiarity with the basic principles of physics.

For five minutes the student sat in silence, forehead creased in thought. The arbiter reminded him that time was running out, to which the student replied that he had several extremely relevant answers, but couldn't make up his mind which to use.

On being advised to hurry up the student replied: "First, you could take the barometer up to the roof of the skyscraper, drop it over the edge, and measure the time it takes to reach the ground. The height of the building can then be worked out from this formula I have worked out for you on my text paper here."

Then the student added, "But, Sir, I wouldn't recommend it. Bad luck on the barometer."

"Another alternative", offered the student, "is this: If the sun is shining you could measure the height of the barometer,then set it on end and measure the length of its shadow. Then you measure the length of the skyscraper's shadow, and thereafter it is a simple matter of proportional geometry to work out the height of the skyscraper. On the paper is the formula for that as well."

"But, Sir, if you wanted to be highly scientific about it, you could tie a short piece of string to the barometer and swing it like a pendulum, first at ground level and then on the roof of the skyscraper. The height is worked out by the difference in a gravitational formula, which I have determined here this time on a long sheet of paper with a very long and complicated calculation."

"Or, Sir, here's another way, and not a bad one at all. If the skyscraper has an outside emergency staircase, it would be easier to walk up it and mark off the height of the skyscraper in barometer lengths, then add them up."

"But if you merely wanted to be very boring and very orthodox about the answer you seem to seek, of course, you could use the barometer to measure the air pressure on the roof, and on the ground, and then convert the difference in millibars into feet to give the height of the building."

"But since we are constantly being exhorted to exercise independence of mind and apply scientific methods, undoubtedly the best way would be to knock on the janitor's door and say to him 'If you would like a nice new barometer, I will give you this one if you tell me the height of this skyscraper'."

The student was Niels Bohr, the only Dane ever to win the Nobel Prize in physics.

Hail to our commander in chief....?



But then again... do we want the Crypt Keeper to be running our country?

Something amusing that my friend sent me:

FAQ

Make sure you read all the way down to the comments. I wonder why it's no longer in print...