Dangling Participles

I can't intentionally write in dangling participles, but if I could, I would. It's a grammar joke from Psych. It's not really funny, but the episode took place at a nerd school, and grammar jokes were about all they had that the writers could understand. They did have Avogadro's number make a guest appearance, which was awesome. Dude even wrote it with units, though I didn't get a good enough look at them to determine if they were correct. The number itself was correct to all the decimal places I know. There was also a joke about calculus as "remedial math," which is the writers' attempt to show that these kids are geniuses. What the writers don't realize is that "calculus" isn't just a subject, it's a whole field of study. Even math majors don't cover all of calculus in college. Math doesn't end at calculus. Math begins at calculus. All that other stuff is background. I'm serious. I also fully acknowledge that my math skills, while more than sufficient for engineering, aren't nearly to a level to be a mathematician. Not by a long shot. I took the detour into the practical world of using math to do stuff as opposed to doing math for the sake of math. And I'm much happier for it. How did this paragraph detour into my career choice? My mind works in strange ways.

A huge storm blew through Tullahoma earlier this evening. Remnants are still around, but it got loud for a while. Power and cable blinked off, right at the critical "explain the entire scheme of the bad guy" moment of Psych, but nothing was lost for long. I explained the lightning as a strobe light in the sky - it was that frequent. Along with the two sonic booms earlier today (and those must have been some low-flying aeroplanes), one might think the sky was angry at something. Of course, one who thinks that would be an idiot, since we know it was sonic booms and thunder, but one might still think it. The rain has lowered the temperature all the way down to 68 degrees outside. That would be appreciated for the next several days, even if I have to be rained on. I'll take the cooler weather.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not, but someone from MDA in Huntsville called me Monday while I was at the school. Since reception is so lousy up there, I just let it go to voicemail. I returned the call when I got home, about 3:40 that afternoon, and left a voicemail. I didn't hear anything Tuesday or Wednesday, so I called again Thursday morning. No answer, the call went to voicemail again. Rather than leave a second message, I hung up. I called again that afternoon - no answer, I didn't leave a message. As of tonight, I still haven't heard back. I'm wondering at what point I start calling my other contacts at MDA. This sounded like it was clearing up the final hurdles to finally set a start date, and I'd like to do that as soon as possible. Right now, I think I'm going to be unavailable the week of Labor Day, too. I told them a month ago I could be available then, but they never got back to me. Now, I think I don't want to have to drive that week if I don't have to. Also, it will give me an extra couple of days in Memphis. Government pay period doesn't start until the next week anyway, so it should make life easier for everyone.

Well the eagle's been flying slow and the flag's been flying low
And a lot of people are saying that America's fixing to fall
But speaking just for me and some people from Tennessee
We got a thing or two to tell you all
This lady may have stumbled but she ain't never fell
And if the Russians don't believe that they can all go straight to hell
We're gonna put her feet back on the path of righteousness
And then God bless America again

And you never did think that it ever would happen again
In America, did you?
You never did think that we'd ever get together again
Well we damn sure fooled you
We're walking real proud and we're talking real loud again in America
You never did think that it ever would happen again

From the sound up in Long Island out to San Francisco Bay
And ev'ry thing that's in between them is our home
And we may have done a little bit of fighting amongst ourselves
But you outside people best leave us alone
'Cause we'll all stick together and you can take that to the bank
That's the cowboys and the hippies and the rebels and the yanks
You just go and lay your head on a Pittsburgh Steeler fan
And I think you're gonna finally understand

And you never did think that it ever would happen again
In America, did you?
You never did think that we'd ever get together again
Well we damn sure fooled you
We're walking real proud and we're talking real loud again in America
You never did think that it ever would happen again

In America by Charlie Daniels' Band. More tomorrow.