A long time ago, when people got rather sick, doctors would bleed them, often using leeches.

...it seemed like a good idea at the time. Monday, I'll go to the clinic and have a giant q-tip shoved down my throat to see if I have strep. I'd sing "Memories," but I hate that song.

Started to take the ACT yesterday, I had my answer sheet destroyed and left in the middle. There was no way I was going to salvage a 31 out of that mess. Anyway, after that, I got locked out of the building, couldn't get to a phone, and had to walk home. I also got disoreinted and temporarily forgot where I lived. But I did make it home, and I feel rather proud of myself for doing so. I was rather miserable at the time, though, because I wanted to get the 31 and get it over with, and now I have to try again. I just didn't forsee getting so sick so shortly before the test. There will be other chances. And also the SAT next week. I never knew how much pressure one point could create.

I got a pet on friday- the first one I've had since sixth grade. It's a betta. He's red, and I've named him Raskalnikov Anasazi. I call him "Fish" just as often, though. I feel kind of bad for Raskalnikov; the fishbowl isn't that big, but I guess it beats that tiny thing he was in at the shop. That, and he's in no danger from any cat, and his authority isn't questioned by any other bettas, so I guess he's doing alright. Bettas were originally pretty ugly- mud green/brown in color, no fancy fins. But the Japanese somehow bred them to look like the bettas we're framiliar with now. They would even pit the fish against each other and bet on the outcome, much like dog fights in America. Don't ask me, I don't understand the fascination behind either.

I was finally able to read Shadow Puppets. I like it, but that's no surprise- like many, however, my favorite of Card's remains Ender's Game. The fish is staring at me...... Anyway, Puppets is well worth the read.

Daylight savings time has thrown me off. Time to hit the library.

Much illness. My temperature jumped five degrees wednesday night, and I still don't feel very good. So... yeah. You'll have to wait your turn before you get whatever it is that I had. Hopefully I haven't sneezed on many people.

Why do we lie to small children? Maybe it's one of those things I'm not allowed to understand because I'm not an adult nor a child, but really. A little boy our family knows lost his first tooth tonight, and I had to perpetuate the tooth fairy myth. And you know what? I felt bad. I mean, eventually this kid is going to have to find out there is no Santa, or Easter Bunny, or Tooth Fairy (note: capitilization of proper nouns) and he'll be crushed. And why do we do it? I'm not really sure. Is it because parents like to see their kids excited about some non-existant entity coming in the night and leaving them gifts? Am I the only one that finds that slightly perverse? Ah, well, I digress.

JAG is a good show. There aren't many out there, but it's one of them. I was watching it tonight and some of the flight footage reminded me of this one time in Texas...

A young man in the navy (is navy a proper noun?) who works (or did at the time) on an aircraft carrier came to visit an aquaintence of mine, who I sometimes ate lunch with, while he was on shore leave. And as luck would have it, he came at lunch. So we talked quite a bit about aircraft carriers, to say the least. My grandfather was in the navy, and my dad, as I've mentioned before, is interested in planes, particularly fighters, so I knew some about them, but not near so much as one who actually lives on an aircraft carrier. I had a great time talking with him, nice looking young man he was, too. Just another one of those things I figured I should write down so I don't forget about it. Someday, I'll have to write about how I almost joined the air force- that's probably something I should remember, too. Who knows? I may yet join the reserve.

Speaking of martial arts, I saw some stuff about Shaolin Kung Fu, and did some sketches of some still photographs. Here's one of them:

Had a revaltion today, though. While I do miss wrestling in Austin, I don't want to wrestle here. People keep trying to get me to go out for it this year, supposedly there would be other girls, blah blah blah... But it's completely different here, and it wouldn't be fun. I know better than to try to recreate the past, or some place in a different place or time. I wouldn't have fun, so I'm not going to do it. It's that simple. Now that I've figured it out for myself, I'll have to explain it to them when it comes up again.

Some of them won't listen to me, though, because they think somehow it's about womens rights or something. I was never and will never be in that sort of movement; I just wrestled because wrestling is fun. (Put that in your pipe and smoke it, FemNazis! (I deal with a few that think I'm their hero...)) Next year, in college, I think I'll take a adult beginners martial arts class of some kind- I've wanted to learn karate or something similar since I was seven, but haven't gotten around to it, yet. I was in gymnastics and use to look in the other gym where kids my same age were learning tae kwan do, or something, and I was jealous. Gymnastics was cool and all, but I wanted to be in both gyms. There's just never enough time to do everything, and that's a shame.

How to become dissapointed with humans in general in one easy step:

1- Go to a Gallagher show.

Supposedly, the man's a comedian. I hear that at one time he might have been. As far as I could tell, though, he's a sexist xenophobe. I could see that some people who came grew a brain and walked out, which was encouraging, but the fact that not only was there a crowd, but that it was completely enthralled in the disgusting display, was extremely disappointing. (And people think my dislike for this town is unwarrented. Ah, that's what happens when you put a city kid in a small country town, I guess.) I would have walked out, but I committed to working there last month, and if I say I'll work, I'll work. There is a little consolation, though, in that the perverse crowd that was there is paying for my new sound card. I know for future refrence, too, that going to one of his shows is a bad idea. So all is not lost! (Just three hours.)

So anyway, for now, I'm just listening to some MxPx and waiting to get a ride to the library. I did some ironing today and made some brownies; I need to think of something to make for supper- maybe I'll just order pizza... I don't know. At the library, I'm planning on picking up Shadow Puppets if it's in. It's the third book in Bean's parallel to Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. I can't believe I waited until this year to read Ender's Game and Dune. I'm also going to pick up the second movie in the From the Earth to the Moon series. I watched about half of them in eighth grade science in Austin, and wanted to start over and watch them all the way through. Dad and I finished the first movie the night before last. His interest in aeronautics and mine in aerospace overlap in the space program, which is cool, so we're watching the videos together. He remembers a lot of the things that happen in the videos, too, and will talk about seeing it on the news, reading it in the papers, or hearing it on the radio.

I'd like to work for NASA someday, but more than likely I'll end up in the private sector. Or maybe I'll go crazy in college and get an English major or something. That's a frightening thought. Not that there's anything wrong with English majors- my big sister is one- it's just not something I see myself doing. Then again, I never saw myself living here, either. I've learned not to be too confident in what I percieve the future to be; it seems to have a mind of its own.

Soups on! Yes, my first attempt at vegetable beef soup was sucessful. Not perfect, but sucessful. I've had two bowls- it's definitely edible, and I might even venture to say that it tastes good.

On further inspection of other blogs, it seems to me that suburbia produces the most angst ridden, and delusional people. It makes me wonder about myself, actually, as I, too, am a product of suburbia. I know I'm not angst ridden, but I could quite possibly be delusional. After all, how would I know? Scary thoughts, eh?

This three posts in one night thing serves two purposes. One, to get all the built up entries out, so that my brain can work more efficently, and two, to make up for those weeks at a time that I will completely ignore the fact that I have a ...blog.

Yep, still hate that name.

On my way to updating this yet again, I looked over some of the titles and content of the "Fresh Blogs." The variety impressed me, though not necessarily the quality, and in some cases, the radicalism slightly disturbed me. But, to each their own, I guess. I'm sure I disturb some people, or will in the future.

Earlier tonight I turned on the TV, which was left on the sci-fi channel, as it is one of the few worthwhile channels available here. The first thing I saw was Gordon Michael Woolvett (Seamus Harper on Andromeda) get hit by a Mack Truck. Strike one. I switched to ESPN2 just in time to catch the end of Montreal beating Detroit, 3-2. Strike 2. So then I turned the channel to "The New TNN" and Star Trek TNG was a rerun. It was a sign. I turned off the TV, and got out my book.

The book I'm reading currently is How the Universe got its Spots, by Janna Levin. A lot of it (at least so far) is just basic theoretical physics review, but I'm enjoying the book anyway. Probably because the book is not entirely physics driven- there is a human element to it as well, and she has struck a good balance between the two. I don't read it very quickly though, because my mind wanders off on it's own physics tangents about twice per paragraph, but that's okay. This sort of book should provoke thought.

I agree with Miss Levin on many points, including the rather unpopular finite and unbounded universe theory. However, there are a few points on which I disagree with her. None of them have very solid arguments on either side, though, so they hardly warrant mentioning. Dimensional conflict did send my mind off into a rather amusing tangent, however...

When I was younger, sevenish, I was familiar with the concept of other dimensions only through what I had seen on Power Rangers. (Yes, I know. I have never had very good taste in TV shows, but if I'm entertained, does it matter?) There were infinite dimensions, though a randomly selected hero, when abducted, was generally taken to either the fifth, sixth, or seventh dimension, and held there until saved by his/her friends. All of these dimensions looked alike. There were stone pillars, a concrete ground, lots of fog, and, naturally, outrageously costumed villans. I remember trying to talk to adults at that time about other dimensions, because when you're seven, adults are supposed to know the answers to all of your questions. I realized that other dimensions wouldn't have man-made structures, be about 10 ft square, and foggy, but I had no idea what they would be like. The adults answered me like adults do when small children ask them about other dimensions (though I'm not sure how common that is) and told me that they didn't exist. I suppose this could be damaging to some people, when other adults later try to drill into apathetic adolescents that there are other dimensions. Dimensions compacted into unbelievebly small sizes and hiding somewhere space because the failed to 'inflate' after the big bang (or something like that... must brush up on Plank.) It just seems to me it would be easier to explain it to someone who actually wants to understand. But what do I know?

So anyway, other dimensions. Kaluza used them to unify Maxwell's and Einstein's work, they help make the universe stable, and they make for fun art. (See cubism and Dali's Christus Hypercubus.)

Back to other fun physics things. Janna Levin finally clarified 'gravitational waves' in my mind, which is pretty cool, because I already knew about LIGO, but now it makes more sense. Check out the site, and it can make sense to you, too. I hope they have some form of sucess; the gravitational disturbance they require is rather considerable, and it may take a long time before one that can be detected happens.

So, after I read a while, I took out my notes from my summer classes. I was going to use them to explain (to the best of my ability) to my father what caffeine does in the body (slows down the breakdown of cAMP, blah blah...) because of a conversation we had earlier about caffeine, but when I went upstairs, he was asleep in the reclining chair in his office. I wish he would sleep in a bed- his knee has been bugging him lately, and my mother and I both think part of it is the strange crunched up position he sleeps in in that chair. He's also on his feet all day, which doesn't help, either. Mom's out of town for the next few days, but I've decided that he's not having hotdogs for supper every night. So, tomorrow I'm going to make vegetable beef soup for the first time. It should be an adventure. Pray that it's edible.

Now that that is out of the way, and I have a working (though rough and definitely not final) template, a pseudonormal entry is viable.

I have a friend who has more than once pitted herself against legions of physicists even though she is in her very first physics class. Today, she chose Einstein. So, world, listen well, those experiments that verify relativity- they don't count, because mesons and atomic clocks are not people. Apparently, we humans are less prone to error than atomic vibration and sub-atomic particle life span. She told me this with the utmost confidence, though obviously in different words, and since she becomes very upset when I explain to her why she is wrong, I just nodded and smiled. Being (probably) the only *INTJ female in the school leaves something to be desired. Most specifically, another INTJ.

Meanwhile, my own mind is lagging somewhat behind Einstein's, but I guess I shouldn't feel too badly about it, as most minds lag behind his. I have been considering relativity and other things, and I'm trying to figure out why both gravity and speed cause time dialation.

Another thing I'm examining is the event horizon of a black hole, where time "freezes." If someone from beyond (outside) the event horizon was watching someone on the event horizon, the person on the event horizon would appear to the other to be frozen in time. But what would the person on the outside look like to the person on the event horizon, who, in his own opinion is experiencing time normally. If the person outside remained there for ten or twenty years in her frame of reference, and then left, would it look to the person on the event horizon that she had vanished in less time than it had taken him to even draw a breath? Or would everything on the outside be a blur to the guy on the event horizon because it's moving so fast relative to him? I really don't know, but if I figure it out, I'll post it.



* Myers-Briggs/Jung Typology. Complete online test available here.

Ah, the requisite intro to blog post.

First off, I'd like to say that I really don't like the term blog, but I'm keeping one anyway because I prefer it to its pen and paper cousin, or its text-saved-on-floppy sibling. What can I say, I'm lazy about keeping track of things- I'll let someone's server do that for me.

So, anyway, all this is for right now is my inane ramblings and thoughts I have that I want to write down, but that don't really have a place on my webpage. They're not so much being put on the back burner as in 'thought storage' so why not Cryogenic? This way, they won't become exhausted and corrupted as quickly. Huzzah.