A Calculated Risk Taker

So, recently, I have been called a "calculated risk taker". Actually, i was just called a "risk taker" but I made the person recant and turn it into the "calculated" variety. We were talking about how I ran with the bulls in spain, and then she added in the knowledge of me and my motorcycle. I'll tell you though... I am not getting risk taker type action. From the ladies that is. I mean, come on! You'd think they'd be showing up in statistically signifigant numbers... perhaps even staying around. But alas, they do not. maybe its the "calculated" part. Maybe I should just go all or nothing you know? Its just not in me. I am trying to think of other actions that would land me in the "calculated risk taker" (CRT) club... I won't tell you them all. Mulling around peru on my own for a week? nah. At JMU I climbed up into our school's cupola (its a restricted area) late at night a few times. I shot potatos out of a potato gun using a liquid nitrogen bomb as the propellent... until the cops came. Uh... I made liquid nitrogen bombs... a lot. I jumped off a 30 ft. tower into a lake of some kind. I went out into an ice storm with a friend in only my underware to throw a frisbee around. I stood up on a railing and drew everyone's attention to a couple of girls who were cutting in line at Six Flags in GA which turned into a verbal confrontation with them where they threatened me and the rest of the people in line congratulated me. I don't know... those who know me have to help me out here. Or if you are so inclined, leave your own risky behavior tales.

The people have spoken...

And so... this is just some mindless something to give you somthing new to read. Why is it that we long for these distractions? Thats really all I am looking for when I look for a new blog entry by so and so. I do, in fact, hope that they have something interesting, profound, shocking, or obviously stupid to say, but at the core, I want those types of posts because it will just allow me to spend a longer time looking at the blog and possibly adding some comment of my own. My job isn't really all that bad. Its not boring all the time. And i certainly never lack in my list of "productive things I should be doing". Its just that it is easier to distract myself. Especially with a good distraction.
I don't know about you, but I know that for me, at the end of the day, if I have worked on actual work for even just most of the day i feel like i have really accomplished something. Im sure that Im not alone in feeling this way. I often think that "if i was only properly motivated..." or something like that. But in my line of work the motivation has to come from myself. Even the best advisor can only motivate you so much. (those who try to motivate too much probably discourage more than motivate.) Thankfully, I am getting such motivation in recent days. I am newly excited about the project that i am working on, and I only hope that I will be ready in time.
Anyway, that gave you somthing to read for all of 4 minutes. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

Dord.

Can you find a dictionary with the word "Dord" in it? maybe. Can you tell me what "dord" means? probably not. Its related to physics, and so i post it here.

Its been forever.

May it suffice to say that I've been busy. School mostly. We have a "run" this week which consists mostly of sitting and just being here for hours. We make a beam, we put it on a target, we collect data. Only, getting all of those things to happen is extrordinarily difficult. I may post more often out of bordem. so lucky you... i guess.

Sweet art.

Check this out:

Notice anything unusual about this? This guy is a sidewalk chalk artist. This is a 2D chalk drawing on a sidewalk which the perspective of the viewer looks 3D. The pic is a link to more of his stuff. Its pretty amazing. They show at least one viewed from the correct and then opposite side so you can see that its actually chalk.

This won't earn me any dates...

however, this was too funny not to share. Please don't hit me with your car.

All of us

All of Us

As soon as you stepped through my door,
I saw You for the first time all over again.
And time well spent seems
Lonelier than the way it used to go.

As I smell you for the first time all over again
I'll begin to remember to be alive
So if you don't mind
I think I'll wear my heart on my sleeve,
'Cause I'm tired of not being able to bleed.

All of us are searching for an open arm.
Well, it's a shame how I curl up in the dark
When it's the same old word giving me the spark.
All of us are searching for an open arm.
Well, it's a shame how I curl up in the dark

I've felt a loss for some time
I slipped, stumbled, but fell face first
straight into your hand.
Then I hit my head on your palm
And waking up to the smell
Of tears drying up in the sand

All of us are searching for an open arm.
Well, it's a shame how I curl up in the dark
When it's the same old word giving me the spark.
All of us are searching for an open arm.
Well, it's a shame how I curl up in the dark

I washed my wounds with tears of hope.
I washed my wounds with tears of hope.
I just ...

All of us are searching for an open arm
Well, it's a shame how I pull myself apart.
When it's the same words making me run for cover to your arms.

(All of us are searching for an open arm)
When it's the same words making me run for cover to your arms.
(All of us are searching for an open arm)
(All of us are searching for an open arm)

Its a good time to start thinking about local elections...

I found this link to be a good place to start to try to find stuff about the upcoming midterm elections. This year, I'd rather not vote for someone based solely on party affiliation, or because I like their name better than another.

Rightly upset.

Facts are facts. (most of the time).

been thinkin bout quarks and the Trinity

"What are quarks?" you ask. Well, quarks are part of a model that describes matter very well. Most of you have surely heard of protons and neutrons and electrons I hope. When i was a child I was led to believe that these were the smallest elements of matter that existed, and I was content. "When I was a child, I thought like a child..." Also, my middle school science teachers probably weren't reading physics journal articles, but rather old high school science texts, so I forgive them.
Im not here to give you a lecture on the quark model. Consult the link on the title if you care to dabble. Im just here to philosophize about some properties of quarks that I find to be pretty interesting. First of all, there are 6 types of quarks. (12 if you include their anti-partical counterparts) They are called Up, Down, Strange, Charm, Top, and Bottom, and I believe that they have all been observed by now (which was not the case when I was an undergrad-- only 4 years ago). The most ordinary nucleons (protons and neutrons) are made up of only up and down quarks. The proton is up up down, and the neutron is up down down. The property that interest me for philosophical reasons is the property that wikipedia calls "confinement". The layman's definition of confinment, as I understand it would be that a quark cannot exist by itself. It must exist with its counterparts, or with at least one other quark. Its been descibed like old lovers... if you try to seperate them, they exert an enormous attraction to each other which otherwise you don't see.
I often think about philosophical things that are religious in nature, and I'm something like a scientist, so forgive me for thinking of something that must be quite a stretch, especially for people who actually know what they are talking about from either of these fields (science or philosophy). I was wondering what it means for something in nature to exist in such a way that that it is effectively one thing but is best described by three different parts. The proton is the best example. It is ultra stable. If it does decay into something else, we haven't seen it do so yet. Protons, as I said before are ( at the moment) best described as composed of two up quarks and one down quark. It is at the very least interesting to me that something so fundamental in nature could be analogous to a concept like the Trinity-- that of One God with three persons, or in the scientific language, a singular entity that is best described by three seperate things that are inseperable. At this time, I treat the similarity of the numbers as a coincidence without signifigance, however, it was probably helpful that the numbers were the same in order for me to make the connection. As for myself, i find it to be a beautiful similarity (if it is a good one at all) between the natural and the supernatural. There may be more meaning within, or not. I'd like to entertain the possiblity that understanding more about one could enhance understanding of the other. (in reality, the quark model will probably be replaced in some time and the links would break down). who knows...? (perhaps more later).