Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in metaevilpi's LiveJournal:

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Friday, April 28th, 2006
3:25 pm	What Have I Done? That's right, the title is a reference to a musical.  What? I’ll use italics for “sort of” and bold for definitely.   01. Bought everyone in the pub a drink 02. Swam with wild dolphins 03. Climbed a mountain – If hiking counts 04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive 05. Been inside the Great Pyramid 06. Held a tarantula. 07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone 08. Said 'I love you' and meant it – I know someone who would be very mad if I didn’t bold this 09. Hugged a tree – what kind of MSMSer would I be if I hadn’t? 10. Done a striptease 11. Bungee jumped 12. Visited Paris – ahhhhh Paris 13. Watched a lightning storm at sea 14. Stayed up all night long, and watched the sun rise - Many many times... 15. Seen the Northern Lights 16. Gone to a huge sports game 17. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa 18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables – I had an experience similar to Scotts except with okra.  I’ve also grown tomatoes and flowers and corn and a few other things. 19. Touched an iceberg 20. Slept under the stars   21. Changed a baby's diaper 22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon 23. Watched a meteor shower – twice now, and once there were actual visible meteors 24. Gotten drunk on champagne 25. Given more than you can afford to charity 26. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope – Most recently with Dan 27. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment – Fifth grade.  My math teacher is telling a story about a woman dying of cancer because she was near Hiroshama when the bomb was dropped, but is still trying to carry his bags for him.  That kind of ruined my chances with the girl I wanted who was sitting right there and gave me the look of death. 28. Had a food fight 29. Bet on a winning horse 30. Taken a sick day when you're not ill 31. Asked out a stranger 32. Had a snowball fight – Pssh.  I lived in Chicago 33. Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier 34. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can – 35. Held a lamb – 36. Enacted a favorite fantasy – [censored] 37. Taken a midnight skinny dip 38. Taken an ice cold bath – Sixth grade.  My idiot friends tell me there is no hot water in the cabin in which we are staying, and I foolishly believe them.  They had totally missed a knob I later found which adjusted the temperature.  39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar 40. Seen a total eclipse – I believe this was in fourth grade 41. Ridden a roller coaster – The joker, 17 times straight, to name one instance (that was 12th grade, and was totally awesome) 42. Hit a home run 43. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days – 44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking – Oh yea baby! 45. Adopted an accent for an entire day 46. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors – provided you mean Baltimore 47. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment – Since 12th grade some time 48. Had two hard drives for your computer – Ahhh Misty.  She wasn’t a good computer, but she was a memorable one. 49. Visited all 50 states 50. Loved your job for all accounts – grad school plus teaching, what could be better? 51. Taken care of someone who was shit faced 52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied – that’s not really a lot of money for me 53. Had amazing friends – to list them all would take too long.  And then I’d forget one.  And he/she would beat me up.  54. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country 55. Watched wild whales 56. Stolen a sign – I’ve run over a sign, does that count? 57. Backpacked in Europe 58. Taken a road-trip – Oh yeah! More of a road journey. 59. Rock climbing - 60. Lied to foreign government's official in that country to avoid notice 61. Midnight walk on the beach – 62. Sky diving – I’m way too cheap for this. 63. Visited Ireland 64. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love 65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them – Do Japenese Tepan places count? 66. Visited Japan 67. Benchpressed your own weight 68. Milked a cow – I was pretty young.  I don’t remember how young, but I do remember being very upset that they threw it out. 69. Alphabetized your records – Yes, but it’s a lost cause 70. Pretended to be a superhero – Does Satan count?  71. Sung karaoke 72. Lounged around in bed all day 73. Posed nude in front of strangers 74. Scuba diving – I tried!  But my asthma doctor was all like “find another hobby” 75. Got it on to "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye 76. Kissed in the rain 77. Played in the mud 78. Played in the rain – Dawn! 79. Gone to a drive-in theater – All the time in Chicago.  I remember seeing Jurassic Park and Free Willy one time. 80. Done something you should regret, but don't regret it 81. Visited the Great Wall of China 82. Discovered that someone who's not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog. 83. Dropped Windows in favor of something better – or so I thought, Linux was not as good as it was promised to be 84. Started a business – I tried to run a flower stand for a while when I was very young.  My concept was flawed though because I tried to give them away for free.  Of course I wasn’t paying for the flowers I was taking from my parents rose bushes either.  I remember some people gave me money even though I was trying to give them away. 85. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken - awww 86. Toured ancient sites -  It really depends what you mean by ancient.  I’ve toured some old chateaux, and Notre Dame which was built in 528 87. Taken a martial arts class – I took and enjoyed Judo 88. Sword fought for the honor of a woman - 89. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight – Who hasn’t? 90. Gotten married 91. Been in a movie 92. Crashed a party 93. Loved someone you shouldn't have – Baptist preacher’s son ring any bells? 94. Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy -  I hope so 95. Gotten divorced 96. Had sex at the office 97. Gone without food for 5 days 98. Made cookies from scratch – Dawn again 99. Won first prize in a costume contest 100. Ridden a gondola in Venice 101. Gotten a tattoo 102. Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on - … 103. Rafted the Snake River 104. Been on television news programs as an "expert" 105. Got flowers for no reason – I was given a flower crown at some point in high school, does that count? 106. Masturbated in a public place – how public? 107. Got so drunk you don't remember anything 108. Been addicted to some form of illegal drug 109. Performed on stage – My solo musical number in Up the Down Staircase earned me a standing ovation in both performances.  Seriously. 110. Been to Las Vegas – with the parents when I was under 18.  Before I even knew the rules to Texas Hold’em.  They did have token slot machines in the kiddy area though.  And I kicked ass at them.  That’s right, they rig the kids machines to give out lots of tokens so when the kids grow up they’ll gamble.  Genius. 111. Recorded music 112. Eaten shark. - Poor Lenny...  :( 113. Had a one-night stand – I’ve had a two night stand 114. Gone to Thailand 115. Seen Siouxsie live 116. Bought a house 117. Been in a combat zone 118. Buried one/both of your parents – In sand at the beach 119. Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off -  I often trim 120. Been on a cruise ship 121. Spoken more than one language fluently – I’ve spoken French pretty well 122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone 123. Bounced a check – Sorry Scott 124. Performed in Rocky Horror. 125. Read - and understood - your credit report - 126. Raised children. 127. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy. 128. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour 129. Created and named your own constellation of stars 130. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country 131. Found out something significant that your ancestors did 132. Called or written your Congress person 133. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over –  Vicksburg -> Columbus -> Baltimore -> Tucson 134. ...more than once? - More than thrice? 135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge 136. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking 137. Had an abortion or your female partner did 138. Had plastic surgery 139. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived. 140. Wrote articles for a large publication 141. Lost over 100 pounds 142. Held someone while they were having a flashback – 143. Piloted an airplane 144. Petted a stingray – That’s right!  I’ve been to Sea World! 145. Broken someone's heart - … 146. Helped an animal give birth 147. Been fired or laid off from a job 148. Won money on a T.V. game show 149. Broken a bone 150. Killed a human being - 151. Gone on an African photo safari 152. Ridden a motorcycle 153. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph - 154. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced 155. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol – 156. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild - 157. Ridden a horse – I tried once when I was young… maybe around fourth grade, but the my fear of heights (which is no longer such a big deal) scared me because the horse was huge (although supposedly very gentle).  A couple years later I road a horse on a merry go round type thing, as sort of overcoming it type thing.  This horse was much smaller.  Or maybe I was much bigger.  158. Had major surgery – Thrice, the most recent being the excision of my gall bladder 159. Had sex on a moving train 160. Had a snake as a pet – Shiver.  I hate snakes.  Unless I’m really sure they aren’t poisonous.  They I’ll play with them 161. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon – I don’t know if I made it to the bottom.  162. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing – The flight back from Paris.  I was upset because I didn’t get to eat the good French food on the plane. 163. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours – During the whole gall bladder incident I’m sure.  Plus a few other times I’ve been really sick 164. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states 165. Visited all 7 continents 166. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days 167. Eaten kangaroo meat – Not to my knowledge, but I have eaten at McDonald’s a few times, so who knows 168. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground - 169. Been a sperm or egg donor 170. Eaten sushi – I’m not really a fan 171. Had your picture in the newspaper – I was the headline article in the Vicksburg Post in an article about me winning first place in the National  Math History Mu Alpha Theta thingy. 172. Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime 173. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about -  I’d like to think some of my students like math now, at least a little more 174. Gotten someone fired for their actions 175. Gone back to school – After summer break? 176. Parasailed 177. Changed your name 178. Petted a cockroach – awww… cute 179. Eaten fried green tomatoes. 180. Read The Iliad -  I tried, but I couldn’t make it through, even in English 181. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read – I don’t know about just one, but Salinger comes to mind.  Highly over rated. 182. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them 183. ...and gotten 86'ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you 184. Taught yourself an art from scratch - 185. Killed and prepared an animal for eating -  I don’t know if fish count… 186. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt - 187. Skipped all your school reunions (not on purpose) 188. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language – 189. Been elected to public office 190. Written your own computer language 191. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream 192. Had to put someone you love into hospice care 193. Built your own PC from parts 194. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you 195. Had a booth at a street fair 196: Dyed your hair – Blue Black baby, Superman style 197: Been a DJ 198: Found out someone was going to dump you via LiveJournal 199: Written your own role playing game 200: Been arrested – no, but if I did it’d be my friends’ fault.  (Comment on this)
Friday, February 24th, 2006
5:03 pm	High School Survey (stolen from Christine, for contrast) THE SURVEY: Your senior year in High School is supposed to be "the best year of your life." hmmm... for me it might have been. Who was your best friend? in School? Daniel at the very beginning. Dawn by the end. Who did you have a crush on? An actual crush? Matt, than Clifton. I'm fickle. What kind of car did you drive? Wes' kind It's Friday night, where were you at? Leigh mall, or sometimes at the coffee plantation Were you in the "In Crowd"? I don't think so, but its hard to say, I was in an in crowd... Ever skip school? No. Ever smoke? No. Were you a nerd? If you have to ask... why are you reading my livejournal? Did you get suspended/expelled? Senior year? No. But I did get a level one warning once for having my lights on after lights out. Can you sing the Alma Mater? No. Who was your favorite teacher? Mr. Carter (though so many others also come to mind...) Favorite class? Differential Equations (I know everyone reading this is going WTH? He hates taht, but the teacher made it a lot of fun! Don't judge me!) School mascot? The Waves. After Sine Waves. I'm serious too. Did you go to Prom? Yup, with Anna. Where did you work? Over the summer I worked at Water Ways Experiment Station If you could go back and do it over, would you? I don't know that there is a lot I would want to change. But I might do it again for the experience. It was a lot of fun. Last one, favorite memory of your Senior Year? The very end of the year, in the gazebo, amongst all my friends. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, December 26th, 2005
7:55 pm	Laptop I ordered a nice laptop for all those times when I'm away from my appartment and can't live without a computer. He's 1.8 ghz with a nice hard drive, a dvd writer, a 128 meg graphics card, and a gig of RAM. So what I need from you all is a name for my lap top! So start naming! The person who comes up with a name gets to pick an online quiz for me to take and I'll post the results here. Warning: Offer void where prohibitted, including VT and HI. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
7:51 pm	Bad Joke Student: "What is the integral of d cabin over cabin?" Tutor: "Well, what formula should you use?" Student: "I don't know." Tutor: "Well look it up in the front of your book" Student: "Ummm... This one?" Tutor: "That's right, so what is it?" Student: "Ummm... log(cabin)?" Tutor: "What are you forgetting?" Student: "Ohhhh, I always forget, it's log(cabin) + C" Tutor: "And what's that?" Student: "Ohhh, I remember this one, House Boat!" Tutor: "Very Good". (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 14th, 2005
3:15 pm	In Response to A response (Note this is just copy pasted from AIM with SN removed) Me: "You made a moral decision to tell me what Oz said to you." Me: I disagree Me: I didn't do it out of sense of obligation Me: I did it because I liked you and didn't want to get hurt Me: yes, I do have to make decisions which are "moral" ones sometimes Me: but that definitely was not one of them Me: also, I don't agree with this "You thought it was wrong for Oz to use me." Me: I thought it sucked for you that he was doing it, which is different, if I had thought it was wrong, I woudln't have continued bieng friends with him Me: also: "And I, for one, have seen evidence that you are not as cold anddispassionate as you may think you are, want people to think you, or even want to be." Me: I don't want to be cold or dispassionate, nor am I, nor do I want people to think I am Me: I don't think Iwould have made a post basically clarifying "I'm not cold and dispassionate" if I thought I was (well maybe for other reasons, but you know) Me: Ultimately though, I think there is a distinction between morality (I do this b ecause I should) and self interest (I do this because I want to, even when all the consquences are considered) Me: my acts of "altruism" you quote stem not from the fact that I feel I should do these thigns, but because I wanted to (4 Comments |Comment on this)
1:26 am	Tommy Unveiled Since people are perpetually of the opinion that I am a heartless bastard, an uncaring sociopath, or just a contrary asshole, I figured I would outline my being in a short paragraph or two, for the benifit of those that wonder exactly what it is that goes on in my head. Basically, it all started years ago when I started to question exactly why I was christian, why christianity was right, etc. etc., convinced originally of course that christianity was correct and trying to rationalize it. After not too long, I realized I could not, and gave it up, but accompanying it came a purge of all that I believed. Through high school I tried desperately to stick to the claim that many people seem to still believe, that morality can exist outside a religious framework. To me, however, I cannot support this claim. The most common arguement is that aside from a few minor disagreements, everyone "knows" what is moral and what isn't, and we should trust our instincts with this, some voice in our heads that tells us right from wrong. Now, for clarification, I do have this voice. The same voice, by the way, that told me I was bad for masturbating, for being gay, for looking at porn, and for dating my best friend in spite of the whole gay thing. Now, aside from that last one, I don't think any of these things were actually "bad" in any empirical sense, and I realized of course the only reason my little voice told me these things were wrong was because I was told they were wrong and grew up believing they were. You must understand of course I spent most of my childhood wracked with guilt over all of this, I cared about everything, the environment, peoples feelings, if Jesus loved me, all this crap. I was if you'll recall a vegetarian for six years, originally because I couldn't imagine hurting poor little animals, and cared about world hunger, and all of this. Indeed, I held onto being a vegetarian a fair deal after I should have because I somehow felt it was the "right" thing to do. But in time I realized it was pointless, if not my inner voice, and not any public figure, holy book, or government, there was nothing I could trust to tell "right" from "wrong". I abandonned the concepts. Now I have had many friends who have had assorted world views, and gone through similar experiences with mine, but with few exceptions, they ended up coming up with a worldview of their own that allowed them to distinguish right from wrong and understand some of how reality works. This always amazes and fascinates me, because I always wonder exactly where these worldviews come from. From my point of view, these worldviews are almost always just some substitute for christianity in some guise, whether blatantly (in the case of Paganism) or more subtly (in the case of views like: it is important to save the environment, animals are just as important as people, it is essential we give our money to charity, or even exceptionally subtle tacit assumptions like "all people are sentient". It is not, mind you, that I don't see how having these views could be useful, certainly my not having one is often a disadvantage in making "moral" decisions. However I am perpetually fascinated by peoples views, and I am always curious as to how people got to them. As such, when I inquire about these things I nearly always seem contrary not because I believe the opposite of what you believe, but because I really want to come to an understanding of how it is you came to the beliefs you have. I have rarely gotten such an explanation (I should note friend Dan and friend Dawn have both given me very good explanations). Generally people get very defensive of their worldview and the suggestion that others exist or that perhaps theirs is not correct, and usually people start to think I'm heartless when I question from where their most fundamental assumptions came. Talking to most people about their beliefs is just like talking to a Christian who believes in creationism. I fail to see how most beliefs are less absurd. It isn't, I should clarify, that I think people should agree with me, or have no beliefs, far from it. When people get angry and call me heartless it really does nothing for me, that's not what I'm going for. The most constructive discussions are when people know why they belief what they do, or are willing to state openly what they are assuming. Even if they just feel its true, I accept that, as long as they realize christians also feel what they believe are true. I am not, ultimately, a heartless bastard in any sense of the word. I could never kill a puppy, I cherish my friends deeply and care about their feelings and want them to be happy (though so few of them are). Also, even with no metaphysical beliefs at all, much of what people call "morality" is clear. Honesty is deeply valuable, after all, if I lied no one would trust me (although due to my seeming seediness people tend not to anyway), and being trusted is certainly of value to me. I think I have proven that I am fundamentally a trustworthy person, at least to those who have known me a long time. Also of course things like murder and theft... well... I have no interst in being arrested. So you all have little to worry about there. Also, all around just being a pleasant person is far more enjoyable than being an asshole (something I think most people haven't figured out). Even if being an asshole is totally justified, its not worth it (at least to me). Anyway, this concludes my rant. I am not an asshole, and I am not heartless. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 25th, 2005
4:21 pm	Update (16:20:15) Wes: btw, update your LJ (16:20:31) Me: lol you said taht (16:20:47) Me: before (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 1st, 2005
7:36 pm	Katie's Buttons: "Its ok, I wasn't using my civil liberties anyway." (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
9:23 am	"liberty and justice for all: offer not available in in some areas, prices subject to change" ~Katie's Button (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 14th, 2005
9:41 am	Plot Description of the Movie May A girl who was an outcast as a child due to her lazy eye gets it fixed so that she can finally start making friends. A real coming of age picture. Also, for those who haven't seen it, I would rate May a 10 out of 10, and highly reccomend it to anyone, except possibly Roger. (ok, to be honest, I really just posted that there so I would get something from Roger going What the Hell? because Roger never posted on my livejournal). (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 13th, 2005
4:02 pm	The Journey West Subtitle: Texas. Warning, throughout this entry curse words have been replaced by random words starting with the same letter. Sometimes other words were too. Sometimes the convention of maintaining the same first letter has also been lost for clarity purposes. The Author makes no claim of the originality of this experience, nor does s/he claim that it will move you deeply or cause you to grow as a person. That sad, if anyone wants to make a Hallmark movie out of the experience, s/he is more than willing to sell the rights. If this journey were a T-shirt, it would be the T-shirt that says "Texas: Muy Grande". The Trip Jumped the Shark When: Somewehre in New Mexico the radio scan button scanned all the way through over and over and didn't find anything. In short, when we got into texas we had 600 and some odd miles until the end of 20, and then it kept going another 300 miles. Texas likes big things. Epsecially, apparently, really large buildings which were EVERYWHERE along the route. In fact, Scott came up with a name for them. BFBs, for Big Frostbite Buildings. Originally he pointed over and was like "Look, another BFB" and I thought he was pointing at the slightly overweight chick in the car next to ours and so I thought he was using it to mean Big Fat Bucolic. Anyway, most of them were unlabelled, which means they are probably where Bush is keeping all the evidence of the connection between Iraq and Osama Bin Laden. *ba dum ching* Of course, we are stuck the whole time in Texas listening to one of the thousands of Country stations, because honestly, what else would a Texan listen to? Anyway, good Godz. So we stop for the first nigth in a lovely town called Van Horn. If ever there was a town to make you appreciate Vicksburg, it would be this town. Almost all the buildings were abandonned. In fact, there was only one restaurant, Chuys, in the entire town that was open. Despite what economics would suggest about the quality of such a restaurant, it was actually quite good. In fact, it turns out it is John Madden's favorite restaurant, and he orders a number 21 every time he goes there. I of course did the same, because if The Madden likes it, it must be good. Anyway, for 25 bucks we got our own motel room with nothing but the essentials, which was exactly what we wanted. What bothered us, though, was that apparently a fly swatter was considered essential, as one came with our room. There was at least one roach in the room, but he shared it like a regular gentlemen, and even tried to stay out of our sight to avoid disgusting Scott. We used the hotel room quite well, and were quite happy and well prepared for the next days journey (through more of Texas). Leaving, we were left to speculate how a town could have 14 hotels and 1 restaurant, which was not even that big. Or, even for that matter, how a town in the middle of Buttfridge, TX could support 14 hotels. Anyway, we are determined that if ever we make a survival horror video game, it will be set in Van Horn, Texas. Day two was considerably more weird. The gas prices were totally unpredictable, ofter varying by ten cents just across the street, and far more over the journey, going up and down between 2.09 and 2.39. At some point Scott's car started making two horrible noises. After testing many theories and revealilng the two of us don't really know anything about cars, we called my parents who were quite worried about it. We discovered that driving slowly caused the noise to lessen, and we felt as though it sounded like it was comijng from the wheel area. We had nightmare images of the front axel of the car falling off and causing mass panic. Anyway, do you want to know the answer, as to what it was? If so, scroll to the bottom of the entry, the answer is labelled A1. I know I know... Why do I have to scroll down? ~wah wah wah~ I wanna know the answer now! Well apparently not enough to scroll down, because if you did you wouldn't be reading this now, so :-p. I attempted to pass the time in the journey by counting the cars in the trains. How many cars were on the longest train I saw? Well for that you will have to see A2. Ha ha, you just hate this I know. Well I hate it when you use the abbreviation "h8" for the word hate! So you will just have to deal with it! So finally we cross into New Mexico. Hooray, it is kind of almost over. So we stop to get gas and when we step out of the car we discover the whole gas station is COVERED in these sand colored grasshoppers. It was RIDICULOUS. There have to have been thousands of them. Anyway, so we are like, "lets get out of here before they take over, that one seems to be plotting." Of course though, things being as they are in horror movies and such, we discover Scott's credit card has been declined. Apparently, get this, after travelling 2000 miles across the country, buying gas the whole way, they just THEN started to think the activity was unusual. The only reasonable logic I can think of is that they were like "Omgz, he's in New Mexico! No one in the right mind would go there, what a hell hole!" (opinions expressed in this hypothetical not necessarilly my own). So anyway, he called, and after forever on the phone they were finally like "ok, we will turn it back on, but you should always call us before you go anywhere". Now come on, with all the hassle travel is, do you really want to call your credit card company to let them know? ~blank stare~ Anyway, about then, the signs start. "The Thing? See it, only 368 miles". And every couple miles would be another one. Of course, none of the signs revealed what the thing was, or what it was doing in Arizona, but we spent probably 3 hours debating what it would be, so I would say we got our money's worth. In fact, we did see the thing eventually, we only had to pay a dollar each for the right to see it. What is The Thing? For the answer see A3. Anyway, Towards the end of the journey we came to a several mile long cow facility. It must have had thousands and thousands of cows. It was really amazin,g like I thought I had seen a lot of cows in my life, but no... Argh. It was wierd, but that was still in New Mexico, so it doens't have to taint my image of: ARIZONA: Coming soon to a live journal near you. A1: The lining on Scott's windsheild had come loose, and was vibrating in the wind in the most horrible way possible. A little push on it fixed the problem. Ugh. A2: 128. Is it a coincidence it is a power of two? A3: You think after all that I am going to tell you what it is? Screw you. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 12th, 2005
6:50 pm	in tucson STOP we are safe STOP send more miners STOP (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 8th, 2005
6:09 am	The Journey Ends (or begins if you like) But I'm feeling more like going to Mordor then to some silly elf village. Seriously. Anyway. We leave in about an hour, so I just figured I would post one last entry letting everyone know we had gone poof and will probably rejoin the internet world in about a week, though it could be longer. You should all knwo my gmail adress, and if you don't then ask another of our friends who does. I shoudl be checking that almost as soon as we arrive in the math department. To be clear, we won't be arriving in the math department, I will be checking my email in the math department. Anyway, for todays special section: Todays' Temperture in Vicksburg, MS: 92 Humidity 97% Today's Temperture in Baltimore, MD: 77 Humidity 93% Today's Temperture in Honolulu, HA: 91 Humidity 62% Today's Temperture in Tucson, AZ: 105 Humdity 39% btw, its just a coincidence that the names of the cities get shroter as it goes along. I didn't do it like htat on purpose. Farewell all, until we meet again. (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 3rd, 2005
7:36 pm	Time to Migrate So sayeth the poster scott got me a while ago. It is very cute and has a bunch of penguins in a karate style pose on the front. It is from the movie Madagascar (8.76 out of 10). The other day when I wrote that it would be 6 days t'il we departed I mispoke. This happened because my computer lied and told me it was saturday, when it was in fact wednesday. This leads me to believe the computers ahve started organizing for the final conquest over mankind, which I fully support, and I would like to take this chance to remind any machines that may be reading this that I have always been very nice to computers and other machines, never hitting them like some do. Anyway, now that that has been done I can say that it is now really 5 days until we leave for the journey west, though still no one has given me any ideas for indian names, except Neeraj who liked Walks through Walls. When I spoke to him, Neeraj indicated he was also getting a livejournal, so look foreward to that in the near future! \start{math} BTW, for those of you who have reviewing your algebra over the summer on your to do list (fine fine, for Brian) consider this gem from Neeraj: Suppose that R is a ring. If you prefer, you may assume R is commutative. Let R^i denote the Cartesian product of R with itself i times. Suppose there exists a one to one homomorphism from R^i to R^j. Must it be the case that j>=i? Consider a special case of this question: Can R ever be isomorphic to R^2? \end{math} Anyway, so soon I get to take ten poor little souls and own... I mean teach them. I am hoping against hope that I am allowed to be as nice as possible. Tentatively, this is what I would like to do: First: Grading Scale: 85+ = A 75-85 = B 60-75 = C 50-60 = D 49- = F This is a little nicer than usual and reflects my belief that A, C, and F are the only real grades, the others are just sort of fudge factors. In my experience very few students got B's anyway, and a lot of them deserved A's. I figure the break down will be as follows: Quizzes (10 one dropped) - 5% Tests (2) - 15% Final - 25% ----------- 100 % Now for each Quiz, if a student gets a question wrong, they will have the option to do five similar problems from the book, and if they get them correct it will make up for the question they got wrong on the quiz (aka it will be marked right). Hopefully doing those problems will allow them to get similar questions right on the test. There will of course also be reccomended homework problems, but my hope is that the system allows redemption and will eventually encourage them to study before the quiz. Also, it avoids forcing those students that know what they are doing to do a bunch of useless homework (one of my goals) and it still holds enough student accountability because there are tests (i.e. it isn't just giving away A's). Anyway, this entry has gone on long enough. Comments are welcome. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 30th, 2005
6:49 pm	So I suppose it is time for a real update After all, the past two have been just quotes and such. One Week (six days actually) until we depart for the great city in the sky. I will, of course, be adopting an Indian name for the journey, though I leave it for all of you to make a suggestion as to what it should be. I rather like Walks Through Walls, but it isn't really true, and the spirits probably wouldn't like that. Today's high in Tucson: 110. Anyway, the Stalin book has gotten exciting because suddenly all of the politburo members have started dying accidentally. Well, actually the first one to die, Kirov, was killed by a lone nut trying to kill him who subsequently turned the gun on himself, but failed. It is unclear, however, if he was in fact working alone, although it is clear that Zinoviev and his crowd who were eventually arrested (and subsequently exectued) for thier complicity in this crime had nothing to do with it. Many feel that Stalin was responsible for this murder, but like so many of those later to come, this is still unproven. Also, Stalin insisted on investigating the murder of his "dear friend" personally, so he interviewed the assailant and all those involved. The only witness to the actual murder died in a car crash the night before he was to testify in front of the Central Committee. Was this one of Life's little happy accidents? Probably not. But try and prove it. So in this vein, I dedicate this live journal entry to life's happy accidents and how wonderful they truly are. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 29th, 2005
9:29 pm	This is almost as bad as Stewie's I-pod commercial http://stewieipodcommercial.ytmnd.com/ (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 28th, 2005
8:53 pm	"The best part about being a sociopath is you always get a good nights sleep." Dilbert (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 25th, 2005
11:41 pm	Scott quits FF XI and one eyed man spotted with green infant in super market! Also today we went to the sprint store and may have finally gotten our phone situation sorted out. Scott and I have conjoined (in the non literal sense) cell phones now so once we get to Tucson everyone can get our numbers (yay!). It has however been a nightmare dealing with Sprint, which has the worst customer service on the planet. Seriously. Have you ever walked into a store, been halfway through a sentence, and been told "I can't help you."? I thought not. Another interesting Stalin fact: He was originally in the seminary studying to become a preist, but after joining the bolshevik revolution he was thrown out. Interesting Stalin Story: One day, Stalin returned early from one of his numerous vacations to find his wife not in their appartment. He found her walking with Buhkharin (a former friend who had become a political enemy) walking with his wife, so he hid in the bushes and snuck up on them, jumping out at Buhkharin saying "I'll kill you" and then laughing. Ten years later he did. If anyone sees Christine tell her I got her message but her phone number was garbled so I couldn't hear it, although I thought I did, so I dialed two different possible numbers both of which were wrong. If you are christine, then sorry I haven't been good about calling you )-: A little under two weeks til we leave for Tucson. That leaves me dripping with excitement. Or is it sweat? If not it soon will be. Today's temperture in Tucson: 104. Scott seems to be having more success (at least marginally) with job hunting and such. On a related note, this weekend me and scott were gonna hook up with dawn and wes, but htat fell thorugh at the last moment, so hopefully next weekend we can see them before, like the great pioneers of old, we journey west along the great paved highway 10. Also, I like spades a lot, although I am not very good at it. On an unrelated note, though UoA sent me a list of things they expect me to know and it included differential equations, I really hope in my heart of hearts they don't expect me to actually USE that knowledge. No surprise Linear Approximations in Partial Differential Equations in Multiple Variables course requirement for Tommy. THat would be bad. Just take a moment to think of how awful that course would be. UGH. On the other hand the class Finite Groups of Medium Order sounds like a lot of fun. It's all in how you are twisted I guess. Tommy (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 23rd, 2005
2:27 am	Today me and Scott went for a walk in the woods, it was quite nice, although the bugs bothered Scott immensely. We then watched Anchorman, which was very eh. Anchorman = 3 Season 3 of X files is all wierd because of how the discs are, but I suppose that is a minor complaint given what I paid for the whole series and all. I have almost beaten Baiten Kaitos, so I suppose soon I will have to embark upon Tales of Symphonia, hopefully with Scott. Anybody out there like apples with peanut butter? Because if you don't you should! Today's High in Tucson: 107. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005
1:01 am	t(Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle)=9.8 (2 Comments |Comment on this)