That's Some Distance

For those who didn't hear, someone at the University of Memphis drove her car off the top of a 5-level parking structure. The video can be found here. According to the report (updated after the video), the woman was taken to the hospital in critical condition, but at the scene, they say she had only minor injuries. I'm hoping for the minor injuries result, so that my title wasn't in too bad a taste. If you watch the video, when they zoom out and count the number of stories on the building, notice how far that truck was from the edge of the building. It takes some speed to plow through a concrete wall and still land that far away from the building, so I'm having trouble believing the "accidently stepped on the wrong pedal" theory, but I guess it could be true.

I got my ballistics program up and running today. I'm not quite sure what was wrong with it, but it's better now. I also derived different equations for the motion than Dr. Flandro did. I'm going to check with him about it tomorrow in class, I suppose. The program will eventually include thrust, drag, gravity, lift, the rotation of the Earth, the roll of a fair die, the day of the week, my checking account balance and possibly the phase of the moon. It's going to be awesome.

Lee, I thought I told you to lock the doors! More tomorrow.

Scruffy*'s Gonna Die the Way He Lived

Dr. Flandro is scary smart. Not only did he plot the Voyager missions back in the 30's or whenever they were, but he is teaching us trajectories essentially from knowledge, with only very basic notes. Also, he knows to expect us to be completely worthless. He had asked us to figure out where a ball bearing dropped from 1000m above the earth would land (taking into account the Coriolis acceleration), but he didn't actually expect anyone to have had it done. Low expectations are always appreciated. (By the way, the answer is 55cm east of the drop point.) I've been doing a fair amount of brown-nosing in the class, but come on, this is the guy who plotted out the Voyager trajectory. If there's one guy to impress, it's this guy.

After class was lunch and my flavorless BBQ sandwich. I don't quite have my sense of taste back yet, though I am usually able to breathe now. This cold needs to go away.

The afternoon included working with a PASCAL program that Dr. Flandro had written for trajectory calculations. We're converting it to MATLAB for use, but his version is in a computer language older than FORTRAN, and I think he wrote it recently. Also, did I mention scary smart?

Heroes was good tonight, and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip keeps on doing whatever it is that it's doing. I like the show, as a poor-man's West Wing, but it needs some type of purpose. Heroes went from "save the cheerleader" to "stop guy from blowing up in the middle of New York City." Studio 60 has thus far done nothing to even try to hold onto the Heroes audience.

* Yes, I suggested through the use of the asterisk that I would be explaining "Scruffy" from this post's title. Actually, I won't be. More tomorrow.

Toasty

It's a sweltering 15 degrees outside as I write this. That's 15 degrees AMERICAN for those of you used to that other system. I have no idea who that might be, but I wanted to be clear. And to insult foreigners.

Except for a few hours this afternoon / early evening I've felt pretty decent today. About 3, my skull started to feel about 2 sizes too small, so that wasn't fun. I'm not quite well, but I think I'm getting there.

I've got something to turn in tomorrow in Tactical Missiles. It's not quite, um, good, but it's something. It was supposed to be trade studies of several engineering factors. It became recopying his analysis, with a little justification as to why my solution is good. After the way I've felt this weekend, he better not say a word.

NyQuil, do your thing. More tomorrow.

Sick Day

I took a sick day today. Not quite as good as taking one on a day of class, but it had to be done. I woke up about 9 this morning, and dragged myself downstairs to eat some breakfast so I could take my cold medicine. At 10, I was about to fall asleep again (who knows why), so I managed to make it back to my room and slept until about 1. After that, I watched TV for a while, then cooked myself a nice meal. I haven't been eating a lot while I've been sick, mostly just what I could grab quickly, so last night, I decided I was going to cook tonight. So I did. I could barely taste anything, but at least I ate. After eating, I worked a little while on my Tactical Missiles homework that Flandro gave us to work on. It's an evil vector algebra problem, which happens to reduce to a fairly simple vector algebra problem. (It's an order-of-magnitude argument to do the reduction.) My answer matches an equation I found online to do the same type problem, so I'm pretty satisfied it is correct.

One thing I've learned from this cold: there are some flavors which should never be mixed. I have cherry-flavored cough drops, orange-flavored DayQuil, and green-flavored NyQuil (officially it's "original" flavor, but I don't know what that means, so I call it green-flavored). Add to that any food I eat, plus tea, and it's no wonder I can't taste anything. Besides the cold knocking out some of the ability, my taste buds have retreated in order to survive the onslaught.

On TV today, the History Channel was airing a marathon of Dogfights. I watched about 3 hours worth during the middle of the afternoon. The show was a balance between the pilots' reactions and the airplanes' performances. Among the planes I saw were two types of MIGs, F8's, Wildcats, Hellcats, Zeros, a Flying Fortress, and several others. The Flying Fortress took on at least 17 Zeros during its mission, and returned to base. The front gunner died, and the pilot was badly injured, but the mission was completed and the aircraft landed back at base. Another interesting part was how the Hellcat was an improvement over the Wildcat (and was better than the Zero) and how that led to American domination in the Pacific theater. Also, and it can't be said enough, American servicemen and women should be thanked and honored all day everyday for what they've done for us. Some gave all; all gave some.

It would be exceptionally nice to be able to breathe when I wake up. More tomorrow.

Shoot Me Now

Lee has had a cold / flu / sinus infection / something for a couple weeks. Now, I'm coming down with something. I really don't want to spend the next two weeks with something.

In class this morning, I was doing my best to follow along with only about half of my brain working. It wasn't a medicated trance, but I definitely wasn't all there. I did go after class to get some medicine. I got Day Time and Nite Time (DayQuil and NyQuil, but Wal-Mart brands), plus cough drops, and Aleve Cold and Sinus. The Aleve contains pseudoephadrine, so I had to get it at the pharmacy counter. I felt like a criminal with all the security on this stuff. I wanted something that lasts 12 hours, though, and all my choices were behind the counter. After all the trouble it takes to get this stuff, it better be good.

After a nap (I hardly slept at all last night due to the coughing and congestion), I was feeling much better, though still well below 100%. I've been holding steady since then, but I haven't done much, either. I did try my hand at some calculations for a design I'm considering for my tactical missile project. I know that what I did is wrong (I used basic projectile motion, and we established in class today that that model is much too simple to work over the range), but it gives me a place to start. I still don't have a good answer for how I'm going to stop it when I get it into the target zone, but I need to get it there first.

I don't want to go to class tomorrow. At least it isn't an early class. I can take my time in the morning, get fully medicated, and just show up for class, then leave again.

And yes, I did email Gloyer asking for some formal project requirements. He had not gotten back to me as of this writing. Anything I get will be forwarded on, if needed (I assume he'd just send it to everyone). More tomorrow.

The South's Gonna Do It Again

If you don't believe me, just consult the song by Charlie Daniels' Band.

I don't have much news. Heat Transfer is in the stage where he says he's not going to derive equations, then he essentially derives everything, then says the derivations aren't important. I really want to nap through it, but I feel kinda bad about it. I want to learn this stuff, but that particular one class wasn't teaching me anything. His policies don't help either, because all he really asks is that you show up. If you don't need to learn everything, then audit and skip the classes you don't need. The problem is, I don't know the lesson plan ahead of time, so I don't know if I know what he's going to cover.

That was yesterday. Today had no classes, so I read a little bit about some things related to my missiles class (very little) and sorted some of my music files. Really, I did nothing. More tomorrow.

Happy Blue Monday

"Today is the unhappiest day of the year. Or at least it is in the eyes of a bunch of British people. They have studies that say that this is the unhappiest day of the year, due to weather, debt, failed resolutions, and many other factors." -- Brent's blog

Well, I can confirm that based only on my day before 10AM.

7:45 - The dryer repairman who is supposed to show up after 1PM, shows up at 7:45. He fixes the busted thermostat, but won't reattach the vent hose. Why? Got me. My guess is because it wasn't attached when he got here. I had taken it off in order to get to the thermal fuse, as requested by the Sears guy. I have also somehow torn another hose in the linoleum.

After dude leaves, I try to reattach the hose. I do not succeed, and in the process, I break the water level switch off of the washer. At this point, I stop trying to fix things.

9:45 - I have packed a lunch and headed to school. As I'm getting out of my truck to go up to the office, I drop the baggie of chicken tenders. My lunch falls out of the baggie and onto the ground. Yummy.

10AM - I call it a day and go back to sleep. I wish.

I went to class at 10:45, that went fine. Dr. Flandro was there today. He plotted the Voyager mission. He's very smart, and still very sharp for his age (or my age for that matter). Also, he's just a good guy. I scored some brownie points by answering some questions. Lee was off in space due to some medicine, and no one else who'd had the stuff before seemed willing to answer. That was over a minute or two before noon, and Lee and I went to lunch in the cafeteria (he'd forgotten his completely).

After lunch, I tried to talk to my thesis advisor, but he'd been called into a meeting (I later learned), so no dice. I can continue to avoid him for a few more days now.

There was some watching of Heroes, and it was good. I have no clue what they'll do after they stop the explosion, but I'm hooked for as long as they want to run the series.

I ran some laundry, too. Clean clothes are a good thing. More tomorrow.

The Pimp Bots Were Created by Man

I got some work done today. Amazing, I know. I cataloged every U.S. ground-to-ground and ground-to-air missile that I could find data on and set up some graphs of various properties (mostly relating to weight and range). It turns out that the current arsenal of missiles will not meet the requirements of the design project, as those requirements have been made clear to us. That means that anything designed will require new technologies, which are expensive, and therefore this project isn't feasible. Q.E.D. More tomorrow.

Still No Dryer

Marv: Walk down the right back alley in Sin City, and you can find anything.

Except maybe someone to fix my dryer. The thermal fuse was fine, so I'm told, so it's something else wrong with my one-year-and-three-week-old dryer. A service guy is coming Monday afternoon. The Sears store manager / owner / franchisee is going to try to cut me a deal on parts or labor or the service fee, but I'm still three weeks past my warranty and there's nothing Sears can officially do about it. And I'm running out of clean clothes. I can always dry them using the half bathroom's heater and fan, but that's not an optimal solution. Oh, and moving the dryer, I've managed to tear a hole in the linoleum floor. I'm not entirely sure that it wasn't there before because it doesn't look like a fresh tear, but it's going to be fun when it comes time to get my deposit back on the apartment.

I watched Deep Impact and Sin City tonight. I'd seen both; Lee had not seen Sin City, so he watched that. He was working on something during the other one. I should have been working on things, but I'm lazy. What can I say? I like both movies, though Sin City is a little weird, and it's a little hard to sit through some of the story parts to make it to the action sequences, once you know the story. Still, though, good movie, not for everyone.

John Hartigan: Skinny little Nancy Callahan. She grew up. She filled out.

More tomorrow.

Think Through Your Head

Futurama may be coming back! I have an internet source saying that Comedy Central has ordered 13 episodes. That's not quite the same as a real source, but it'll do.

This morning, I went to Sears to force them to fix my dryer. They told me to call the service number. I would have hurt someone, except the guy there told me that my problem was probably (a) the breaker or (b) the thermal fuse. He said if the house were older and had real fuses rather than a circuit breaker, he'd bet money on that being the problem, but the circuit breaker was still high up there on possibilities. I checked it when I got home from school, no problems, so it was on to the thermal fuse. This is a small-ish piece on the back of the dryer which prevents the whole thing from over heating. There are about 3 million reasons it could have blown. Lee's dad also believes this to be a likely source of the problem. Lee and I took the back cover off the dryer and removed the thermal fuse. I'm going to take it back to Sears tomorrow and they are supposed to check it for me, so that I'll know if that's really the problem. They have replacements for it, so I might get by with only paying a few bucks for the replacement part with all the labor being done by me or Lee (with some phone tech support from Lee's dad). Knock on wood.

Tactical Missiles is still interesting, but I'm with Lee on wishing for a little more formality in the requirements for this first project. Looks like Amy's joining us in the class. I figured she would. It's a more fun class than heat transfer, and on a better day (not Friday afternoon). I'd make the same choice. I DID make the same choice, until my advisor told me to take heat transfer also.

School lasagna and garlic bread for lunch. That's good vittles. Then a nap while everyone was in class, and finish the day off with a seminar (grade: A) and the purchase of a UTSI hoodie. More tomorrow.

Four For Four

Of the four semi-regular bloggers among us, all have now posted today. I'm too lazy to see if it's happened before and how often, so I will declare this the first time it has ever happened. WAHOO!!

I met with Dr. Moeller again today. His instructions: keep on with what I'm doing. Great, I made a special trip to the school to be told not to change anything. This is why email was invented, people. I do need to put some equations into Excel, but he'd already told me that. I was just too lazy to do it.

Tonight, Lee and I discovered that my one-year-and-three-week-old dryer doesn't dry clothes anymore. The warranty was for one year. Wonderful. I'm going to go up to Sears and try to get them to ignore the three weeks and fix it under warranty. Failing that, I may see if the property owner's son will do me a favor (or just be cheaper in general than going through Sears). He installed the new dishwasher, so he might can fix a dryer. Either way, I'm about to run out of clean clothes.

The pirate eye patch was demonstrated to have an actual purpose for people who haven't lost an eye. It allows you to keep one eye dark-sensitive so that you can go from light to dark quickly without losing vision - just switch the eye patch. Also, cannon are cool. More tomorrow.

If You Want to Win a Man Back, You Have to Learn to Tackle

And when The Oprah tells you to dress sexier, she means it.

[begin rant]

I love Boston Legal. I could, however, do without the incessant political commentary. We get it, you hate President Bush. The only character who likes him is suffering from Mad Cow Disease. I do love how they use random numbers to support themselves without providing context. For example, Halliburton made $10 million or billion or something since the war started. The question is: how much did they make in the x years before the war started? The one number alone doesn't tell you if the war has even had a benefit for this one company (which is important mostly because it's one that people recognize, not because someone in office was associated with it - think about it this way, how much would you really do for your former employer. Sure, Cheney may know the bosses there and be friends, but it's not like no one else doesn't have friends who get favors FROM BOTH PARTIES). I'm sure from the industry that Halliburton is in, it's had some benefits, but so have other companies not associated with executives. Those, however, aren't as quickly recognizable.

On the opposite side of politics, I happen to agree that No Child Left Behind has failed in its mission. For one, much as this is un-PC, some kids need to get left behind. Not throw them to the wolves left behind, but people don't need to keep getting passed along without mastering the skills of the previous grade. END SOCIAL PROMOTION. (I'm going to stop doing nightly quotes, but I really like the one I'm using tonight, and it relates to this topic.) Also, teaching most non-math and -English courses without mastery of math and English is pretty much a waste of time. How can we expect people to understand the complex workings of the treaties and alliances that led to World War I if they are (a) too young to be expected to make logical inferences such as those common in math and (b) unable to READ. At Thanksgiving, we teach 5-year-olds about the Pilgrims and the harvesting and the eating of turkey, but we fail to explain religious (in)tolerance which led to these people starting out for a new life in the New World. These religious problems stemming from any number of other causes you don't learn about before high school (if then). And I don't know who to blame. Teachers try, but they teach the way they were taught, which is the method I'm criticizing. Parents, for the most part, I think, want to help, but they're in the same situation as the teachers - they learned it one way and have trouble changing, or never really learned it themselves and can't help. Organizations of any type are resistant to change, so little would be done even if we had a coherent plan. The best and brightest in the current system tend to be those who work outside it. By that I mean they don't stay with the lesson plans. They read on their own, or seek other sources of information, or happen to fall into some type of extracurricular activity that provides the challenge they need in order to excel. They also tend to go into fields other than teaching because their teachers, as a rule, weren't the biggest influence in their lives. I know some people who have gone into teaching who I think can do some great things, but the system tends to encourage mediocrity. Inventive teaching, really reaching students and encouraging them to keep working and find something they are really interested in, isn't encouraged. It's teaching to the test - and it's not new. Since kindergarten, I took the TCAP (Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, I think), a standardized test. What did this test tell my teachers? Well, that I took the TCAP well, mostly. That I could ace a week-long series of tests the week after I just lost an hour of sleep due to daylight savings time, since it was always the week after the time change. Instead of teaching up to the best students, or even teaching to the middle of the class, we now teach to the bottom students. Sure, they deserve an education, too, I guess, but the reason we don't get excellence out of our students anymore is that we actively discourage it (a) by telling kids everyone is equal (news flash - they're not. People are better at some things than others. Some aren't good students. The truth hurts.) and (b) forcing our schedules on them. This mass-produced education means that schedules trump ability. We aren't dealing with identical parts off of an assembly line, yet everyone needs two weeks on factoring or whatever. You have to push and have an outline, but when the schedule trumps the student, you've already lost. You want a great education system? Not going to happen. The system can never be great. It can be better, but no system of education can be great. The greatness comes from the individuals - teachers reaching students in a way that can't be measured on any test. That's not systematic, and it can't be produced with a system. Criticize the system, it deserves it, but I have yet to hear either side suggest something that will actually work better. At least we tried No Child Left Behind. Not a success, OK, we make sure it's given its fair chance (we're close if not already past that), then we try something else. More money into a failed system isn't the answer, though that seems to be the solution everyone falls back on. My solution, which will never work because it's "unfair" is to let the best students be the best. [1] Competition has done nothing but make me better. [2] It allows the pace of the class to be tailored more closely to the student's natural pace. [3] It weeds out the goof-offs. [4] Larger classes of the self-starters (class size was never an issue for my level of learning) frees more teachers for the needier learners. [5] It encourages excellence among those most capable of producing it, while still providing the time for those who need that. [6] It may discourage the slower learners by separating them, but then again it may not. How many students fall behind because they see themselves as too slow and holding the class up? What if everyone is at their level? When did age become the ONLY factor in determining if someone is ready to learn something? Yes, there will be a stigma with being in the slower class and some people who might could handle the faster pace will be slowed by their placement (solvable to a degree with multiple tiers of speeds), but the stigma still exists in classes, and if anything is worse because people are teased, then are embarrassed to ask for the help they really do need. If you made it this far: what, you don't have work you should be doing instead of reading my rant? I'll admit, it's not a perfect solution, especially in smaller school districts where reasonable speed-of-learning groups might be 2 or 3 people, but it's A solution. America has always been about achievement, and this idea rewards ability and hard work. Yeah, you'll probably be stuck with whatever your label was for the rest of your life, but you really already are. You know people who didn't need to be in high school, but they were because they had to be, and they held your learning back. Maybe you knew people who had no real business in college, but were there anyway. They didn't care about working for a degree and either dropped out (wasting everyone's time before they did) or majored in something useless (those majors do exist) just to finish a degree program. Not everyone who doesn't make it through college is "less" than those who do - there are a million reasons for not getting the degree, but you have to admit some people just don't belong in upper levels of education. It's true, admit it.

[end rant]

I've had a headache for the past few days. That's your update. Get over it. Read the rant then complain about the length of the actual update.

Sam Seaborn: Mallory, education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes. We need gigantic, monumental changes. Schools should be palaces. The competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be making six figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to its citizens, just like national defense. That's my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet.

More tomorrow.

Forrest, Forrest Gump

It's been a couple of days since my last update, and it's going to be at least one more day until I write a real update. More tomorrow.

Dead People Should be Dead

Missile Design is going to be awesome. It's going to be less of a class and more of a series of design projects. The professor did make one mistake, though. He told us that if we did a good job and worked quickly on the first two projects, then there would be three projects. I'm all for learning more things, but telling me that if I work hard I'll be rewarded with more work is no way to motivate me.

The exterminator is supposed to be here tomorrow morning to take care of the tons and tons of bugs. That would be very nice. I'm tired of these things. I kill probably 10 a day. They aren't wasps or anything with stingers, but it gets annoying just the same.

President Josiah Bartlet: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Do you know why?
Will Bailey: Because it's the only thing that ever has.

More tomorrow.

Raping Rhinoceroses

The whole world is upside down. Down is up; up is down. Elephants are raping rhinoceroses.

WHAT?! That, however, was the basic closing argument for the case on tonight's Boston Legal. If you haven't started watching that show, download and watch the first three minutes of tonight's episode and you'll be hooked. The trombone kazoo sells it.

Yesterday, I went up to school and talked to my thesis advisor. Nothing new, he still hadn't heard back from the people higher up on the ladder. He was going to call them and let me know. Today, I stayed around the apartment, and he finally emailed me that instead of early January for the meeting, it's now going to be early February. Keep in mind this whole project was supposed to start early LAST year. I am going to have things to do that will probably help my thesis in the mean time. I've got a thermodynamic analysis that I'm supposed to look over and probably further develop to do some trade studies (probably in an Excel format - go Excel).

I told Dr. Moeller yesterday that I'd signed up for both classes for credit rather than auditing, and I think he was a little surprised. I don't actually need any classes, but both he and Dr. Schulz wanted me to be in Convection Heat Transfer in some capacity and I wanted to take Tactical Missile Design, so I figured auditing a class may mean that I don't have to do the work, but that's the very definition of Dr. Antar's class, so why not go ahead and get credit for it? And this way both show up on my transcript as for-credit classes. MISSILES.

President Josiah Bartlet: Just remember these two things: she's nineteen years old, and the 82nd Airborne works for me.

More tomorrow.

6 Days on the Road

More like 6 hours, but it sure felt like days. There was a wreck on I-40 just east of the Tennessee River that stopped all traffic headed east for about an hour and a half. So Lee and I sat in the stopped traffic and waited. If you remember back a few months ago, and a previous blog site, I had a similar problem when trying to get back to Tullahoma. In that case, I chose to embark on a trek that carried me across every winding Tennessee state highway in the middle part of the state. Waiting it out is certainly easier than that was. It was rainy / misting that day, too. Coincidence? I think so.

Headed up to school tomorrow to (a) pay my bill for the semester ($90), (b) talk to my advisor and try to weasel out of any work, and (c) waste time up there rather than wasting time around here.

Ben Gates: If there's something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action.

More tomorrow.

Tullahoma Tomorrow

Well, it's been a relaxing almost four weeks in Memphis. I'm hoping that this semester won't be too bad overall, but I am officially taking an extra class over the usual, plus I want to try to get my thesis written as quickly as possible. That probably translates to about average for grad school, and not so bad when compared to undergrad.

I'm hoping to start on the job hunt soon, too. I'd like to be in Huntsville, definitely not Memphis. If anyone knows of openings for a mechanical engineer down that way, I'd appreciate knowing about them. Especially if they involve missiles, rockets, space travel, or a huge starting salary. Any of those.

Looks like I'm just about packed up and ready to head out. I thought I brought more home than this.

I've altered the usual with the quote tonight. Instead of one, here are several quotes from the TV show M*A*S*H:

Charles: 'Tis better to have loved and lost, then to never... oh, give me a drink.

Hawkeye: It was the least I could do. I always do the least I can do.

PA System: Due To circumstances beyond our control, lunch will be served today.

Colonel Flagg: You think you're real smart. But you're not smart; you're dumb. Very dumb. But you've met your match in me.

Frank Burns: I know I'm a real asset.
Hawkeye: You're only off by two letters.

Frank Burns: That's not my department, sir - intelligence is something I try to avoid.

More tomorrow.

I'll End You Both, So Help Me

If this bickering doesn't stop, I will pull this car over and you will both regret it.

Trivia Night was another non-win. The wings are still good, though. We were in good position, fourth, going into the final question, which was to place these movies in order from oldest to most recent: Caddyshack, Stripes, The Jerk. We had Caddyshack and Stripes reversed, so we lost. It's better than we did with the big group, but not as well as Lee and I did a few weeks back when we won it all.

I completed most of my application for a job at the Missile Defense Agency. I want to proofread it tomorrow and make a decision on formatting of a required "essay" before I submit it. They asked for December graduates, but they also have positions on a rotating basis, so even if they don't consider me for the current openings, they might for some in the future. MISSILES.

Dr. Venture: So you see, by applying the basic principles of the scientific method to the matter, we learn very quickly that the myth of the chupacabra is just that - utter crap. Now, if you apply the same principles to Catholicism, an interesting thing occurs . . .

More tomorrow.

C

It seems Einstein generated some discussion, though not about the solution. It was more a chance for Brent and Will to argue. I can't say who can run faster anymore, but I'll bet Will can win in a fight. One of Brent's groomsmen was trying to get Will to demonstrate his martial arts training on me. I didn't even know the guy. I knew who he was, but only because I knew who Brent's groomsmen were. To my knowledge, I'd never spoken to him before. So why was I the target? I like this president, at least more than the last one.

I saw a clip from some memorial that President George H.W. Bush was giving in honor of President Ford. He mentioned how Ford accepted the humor directed toward him and then Bush said he had planned to talk about how Chevy Chase turned a coordinated, even graceful, athlete into a bumbling idiot (on SNL), but that, in the words of Dana Carvey, "not gonna do it, wouldn't be prudent." I'm sure it's on YouTube or elsewhere, but I'm too lazy to go look for it. I would have liked for him to mention the Phil Hartman / Bill Clinton "food for refugees intercepted by warlords" sketch, but I wasn't writing for the former president.

I should probably start packing to head back to Tullahoma, but I don't wanna. I have to pay my activation fee, which was due today and they told me that about 3 days after I came home, so I didn't pay it before I left. Always fun to risk late fees.

Al Gore: If we don't go back there and make that event happen, the entire universe will be destroyed... And as an environmentalist, I'm against that.

More tomorrow.

Einstein

http://web.utk.edu/~jking50/einstein.html

I worked on that for a while this afternoon. It took me about 2 hours, but I solved it. I think the conjecture at the bottom would be wrong now, because more people have seen things of that format and because people, in general, tend to have more "book learning" now. Just an opinion about the way the education system has changed, not whether that's good or bad.

According to Blogger, this is my 99th post. You can expect something special for #100. You can expect it, but it ain't gonna happen. Part of the reason is that my blog is way past 100 posts, they're just sitting on my hard drive and not online anymore. Most of the reason, though, is that I'm just not going to go to the effort.

Perry White: Lois, Pulitzer Prizes are like Academy Awards, nobody remembers what you got one for, just that you got one.

More tomorrow.