Math at its Muddiest

Today several fun and interesting things happened, but first and foremost we played Ultimate Frisbee as a youth group again. People are learning. Fast. Today there was much more running, throws were lower and faster, catches were more consistent, and there was more movement, less endzone sitting. We will have a Frisbee game by the end of the year, and I am looking forwards to it. In fact, despite how I hate running, I have started, so I can be in shape for Frisbee. But I digress. This is not math. Later this evening, we had a "Quiz" random facts about just about anything. We had one "Joker" we could place as we like, and being a calculus student I was saving our joker for math. What happens? Instead of being limits and derivatives and functions and all that fun stuff, its how many earrings does Denese wear, times the number of stars on the Australian flag. Irritation. Intense irritation. Not being so observant we go 20% right out of 10. Mega bad. Bleah. It was not math it was simple arithmetic and observation. Oh well. Next time I won't put it on math.

So Thats why Lawyers are rich...

My dad sent me this really funny thing about salaries I got a kick out of it.

Dilbert's "Salary Theorem" states that "Engineers and scientists can never earn as much as business executives, sales people, accountants and especially liberal arts majors." This theorem can now be supported by a mathematical equation based on the following two well known postulates:

Postulate 1: Knowledge is Power. Postulate 2: Time is Money.

As everyengineer knows: Power = Work / Time.

Since: Knowledge = Power, then Knowledge = Work / Time, and Time =Money, then Knowledge = Work / Money.

Solving for Money, we get: Money = Work / Knowledge. Thus, as Knowledge approaches zero, money approaches infinity, regardless of the amount of work done.

I'm Not Alright

Just today I got this amazing cd from a good friend who is now in America: X 2006. I loved this song so much, plus I figured it was about time to change it. I have heard this song somewhere before, but I have no clue where...This is bothering me. At any rate, wherever I have heard it, it is by Sanctus Real. Aurellentia is still open to exploration should anyone be feeling ready for what I hope will be a fantastic journey.

Aurellentia

I am trying out beta version of blogger, and it is interesting. Very simmilar to Blogger, and you have to have a gmail address to try it, but I am trying it all the same. While fooling with it (before I put all my blogs over) I am going to follow the life of a fictional character through a war in Antarctica from before the last ice age: the magical land of Aurellentia. I have linked it if you care to follow.

Thursday

Ok, this is a tad late, but here goes. I had a cool last weekend. It was three days, due to Yemeni elections. Apparently, the army was used to influence voters out in the east where they still run around with machine guns most of the time, and I have heard rumors of terrorists and such, but over all its been purdy quiet...Except for last night. Ramadan started yesterday, and last night there were fireworks going off, and some one with an AK let off ten or so rounds under my window last night while I was trying to study. This morning at school, Andre was talking about the gun shots he heard last night, and everyone had their explosion stories today... At any rate, what with all the terror threats and such, youth group got cancelled on Wednesday, but when things stayed quiet, we all went out and played Ultimate Frisbee at SIS. I am out of shape. Very out of shape. I am staying after school today to run to get in shape so that I can actually play the crazy game next time. Ah well. I really should be working...

The Unending Flood

of nicknames. I thought that when Jeremy and Melanie left the tide would at least recede, but no. Kieth and Ms. Morieka have taken over for her. I am now "Bush" and "Hair" respectively. Sigh. Oh well, I guess it is simply part of the shape of the universe.

Word Recognition Software

I have done it. My calculator now recognizes three words: Yes, No, and Dunno, and responds to them. I am quite proud of it. I can program it to recognize more words, but it gets hairy fast. What I did was I assigned numbers to letters and then had the words (when multiplied together) demand responses. However, if I start doing long words and letters like z, the numbers will rack up in a big hurry and I will wind up writting a really buggy program. It works. I'm happy. Enough said.

Quasi English

After youth group this week (a lot of my life revolves around youth group, so chances are you will be hearing about it a lot) we were taking a taxi home. We found one for a reasonable price and got in. For all my Yemeni readers, we had one of those drivers that have had lessons in english, and for my non Yemeni readers, this involves bouncing back and forth in the two languages randomly. At any rate, we got about half way home before we stopped at this traffic light, and this big lalualui (land cruiser) pulls out from the right, drives around in a circle in the intersection, and then promptly stopped, hood to hood, with our taxi. I started to laugh, it was such a Yemeni move. At any rate, our taxi driver decides its time to show off his linguistic skill, raises his hands in a gesture of incomprehension, and says "What the fxxxing you?" I thought, yeah, I'm about as confused, but I didn't say it, I just laughed harder as the lalualui backed up, dodged two motorbikes in the middle of the intersection, and tore off back in the direction he had come from. I got a kick out of it. Its these little things that I live for.

Calculator Dependency

I have been developing bad habits. Lately, I have discovered that I can't do math unless I have my calculator sitting beside me with the cover off and turned on. It just has to be there for me to be able to think for some reason. Today, I turned it on and left it while I did my homework, even though I didn't use it once. Last night I tried to program it, but the manual is poorly written, so I guess I will just have to fool with it for several hours before I get it. I figured out how to do if/then functions physics this morning while I was only sorta paying attention.

Hell on Wheels

Normally I am not a car fanatic, sure I know the cls and the cls 500, several different classes of Lexus and other nice cars, but I have beheld something so massive, so incredible, so blooming fast I just had to show you: It is called the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 and is quite possibly the fastest car out there. I first saw it in an article that was titled: 1000 Horsepower. Any Questions? The rest would probably bore any one but a car fanatic, but here are some pix, to give you an idea of what the crazy thing looks like. I said I wouldn't go into details but I can't help myself. The blooming car goes over 400 kph at top speed and can last for 12 minutes on a full tank of fuel. At top speed, it can come to a complete stop in 10 seconds, but it takes it a kilometer to do so. This beast is the engine, which delivers 1001 metric horse powers, and should be made illegal except to me.
This is probably not at 400 k's, but you get something of an idea on the incredible velocity attainable by this beast. I'll quote from the magazine one last time before I conclude: To go beyond 375 kph (233 mph), the driver must stop the car, insert a special key, and go through a checklist ("Seatbelts, check; oil, check; last will and testament, check"). There are only 300 of these purdy things out, and that's it. They also run at 1.7 million us bucks, just in case anyone really wanted one, but where you would go to get one I don't know.

Dragon Slayers

Last night we had our first youth group of the year (my last year in youth group... sad. Very sad) I led (that didn't go as smoothly as could be desired) and Mr. Saeli spoke, calling us to be Dragon Slayers for Christ. He called us to fight the 'Dragon, that serpent, who is Satan, the Devil' at school, home, in our minds. I

I have just discovered something wonderful: internet radio. http://eternaltrance.temp.fm is great, provided you like euro trance, dance, house, that kind of thing.

Today Abe and I went out to school despite the fact that its a weekend here and worked on the scorpion project from last year. That is the coolest class I have ever had. I mean, how many of you people out there know even the theory behind welding without having to look it up, and how many of you have actually used a welder for hours on end making something out of metal? And fiberglass? How about bondo? all awesome. I now have fiberglass all through my left forarm, and it itches, but that's fine, a price paid for a cool class.

The End of the Beginning, and the Beginning of the End

Well folks, that was the last day of our first week of school. Guess what? I'm dying. By the end of the school year (just another 172 days away) I am going to have lost it completely and will be terminally insane. Despite all that, I am learning how to play classical guitar. While practice is boring, the results are quite exciting. I may actually become something of a proficient musician by the time I die, or loose it, whichever comes first. Looking at the year, chances are leaning strongly to the latter.

Murder

There is a difference between your senior year and all the rest of highschool. Your teachers are all trying to kill you. Research, Econ/Gov, British lit, Physics, AP Lit, AP Calc, and Music are all these huge classes that I really want to do well in, yet they rain down busy work on me. In addition to that I have Year book, and that looks like it will just consume time without really doing anything of profit. I have had more homework in this first week than I had in a month last year. This does not bode well, in fact, I should be doing it now. Drool later dhogs.

School and Rain

Yesterday, school started. In ways this is good, others, it is bad. I am now a senior. It feels no different, we are not special in any way, we just get to take cool classes like AP Calculus. Shiver. I got Jeremy's old book, I hope I can live up to his legacy. I am also one of three students responsible for putting together the yearbook this year. I am afraid that things might fall apart ever so slightly. I am also unsure as to our advisor (homeroom teacher person) because he doesn't do anything until after the bell has rung for us to go to our classes, and so Andry and I didn't get our scedules because a certain irate physics teacher wanted all his students in class imediately.

It has also been raining. To all you non Arab/arab afeliated types out there, in Yemen, this is viewed as a good thing, a blessing, because it happens so infrequently, and the land needs it so badly. It looks like it might even rain twice today! Once before school this morning, and the skies are gray and it smells like rain again now.

Explosions and Such Like

Well, our trip back from America was exciting! We were three quarters of the way over the Atlantic when the port engine burst into flames! Fortunately for us, we had a brilliant pilot and there was a aircraft carrier directly under us, and we crashed into the water and they pulled us out (those life jackets ARE hard to take off...) and then, to get the rest of the way, we went jetskiing...
you can't see it, but all our bags are tied on in the plume behind the aircraft. After that daring (and very fun (well, mom didn't like it)) adventure, we had very little layover time in Germany, but the next airplane also had issues, and we wound up splashing into the red sea, and were attacked by pirates! But, living in the ends of the earth, they fell off the edge:
I am not quite sure how we got out of that one, but mom is really quite good with her camera. Then there was a forty day hike over the mountains of the west side of the Arabian peninsula with nothing to eat but airplane food. (I hope this paints a dire enough picture for you...) before we made it back safe if not quite mentally sound.

U want the really story? Well, that one is much more boring. We got on an airplane flew to Germany, had a 6 or 7 hour layover, flew to Cairo, and then here to Yemen. No pirates, no jetskiing, no edge of the earth, but it is good to sleep in my own bed and use my own amp with my guitar.

The Twenty First

At least it might be. What month is it anyway? Moving on, I became a chimney sweep today! Sounds exciting, right? Well, folks, hate to break it to you, but its pretty dull. Basically, there is a mess in the chimney, so you knock it out by beating a heavy chain around on the inside of the chimney for 10 minutes or so to knock all the soot and gunk out, but, you guessed it, the mess is not gone, it just moved. Now it is in the fireplace and you have to clean that out, and you have to fool with the thing halfway up the chimney that controls airflow and all that, not a lot of fun. Then, you have to get the broom out and sweep it all out of the fireplace, and it can't touch anything, cause it will get black gunk over it, but supposedly it is now good luck to either shake my hand or to have me blow you a kiss, but the latter haven't been acquirable, even on the black market, for the past several years or so...

At any rate, I think that Andrew and I managed to deduce not so mathematically and logically that the fifth dimension is the multiverse, but that leaves very little for the sixth... And the multiverse is so two dimensional, but to understand it, you have to know just enough quantum mechanics to confuse you, and we know less, so we don't get it either.

Hey, if you guys want cool backgrounds for your computers, go to google images, and type in fractal flames and see what you get.

Ill-M-I

Jeremy, this song goes out for u man! (I am not sure that it uploaded right, I am on dial up, I'll check it when I get on a beter conection)

Lafayette

I just finished a many hour long car trip from Lafayette to somewhere in the middle of a retirement sector in Tennessee. However, despite the dull drudgery of that statement, the last three or so days have been undiluted, unadulterated, pure, fun. (Whether or not Andrew echoes this I know not, suffice for the moment that I enjoyed it) We played music, blew digital enemies off the face of digital never-never land into alternate realities, discussed possible science fiction tales, watched Pirates II, went bowling, and got ice cream. Day one was a church dinner, and I got to see friends one last time before we left, while eating very good food. Day two, we fooled with each other's musical compositions, (or rather, Andrew fooled with mine, his were slightly more complex than my prehensile grasp of music, so I left them...) We blew digital bad guys into digital astral who knows where on the computer, and then watched pirates II late at night. The next morning, we got up at the crack of noon, or rather, the crack of 11:00 or so. I think I am a minute or two off, but that matters not in the cosmic swing of the multiverse...(hopefully) and went out to Taco Bell, which was a first for me. I had never had whatever I ate at that place before. It was really good though, reminiscent of a creation in Yemen know otherwise as a Shwarma. (Semitic languages don't sound so good to English ears...) We got back, went to Paul's house, and played music Andrew did piano, Paul did base, and I of course played my beloved Kiara who is NOT named after the actress. (things I discovered while watching pirates II a second time. Needless to say this caused some amusement with certain more culture versed individuals, and will probably continue to do so...) I could play music forever... Maybe I should be a rock star... nah, mom would kill me...Just on the side? No, she will kill you! Hmm, maybe this shirt is having an effect on me...(it says "demented" in large letters across the front...) Anyway, that was three days in 77 square inches.

any ideas, concepts, or implied affiliations are copyrighted, but I won't take any responsibility for them either, so they are probably just going to sit here as a result of my irritation with the crazy legal system in the aforesaid country...At least, I think it was aforesaid...I had to have mentioned the US somewhere on this blog...

Glorious Ping Pong

Today Mom and Peter and Lydia all went to Tennessee or somewhere thereabouts. Yesterday, Dad went to Yemen, and that left Abraham and myself at my grandparents, and they felt obliged to entertain us for some reason, so they took us to the library and I finally got Dune Messiah, by Frank Herbert, a book I have wanted to read for the past year and a half. (So far it is living up to its predecessor: its loaded with subtlety and complexity in a speculative fiction matrix: what could be better?) After that, we went to a fitness center which had, glory of glories, a ping pong table I played my second sport this summer. The first was ultimate Frisbee out at the Kesslers, and this was the second. (very sad showing, I was hoping to play American football and some other things as well, but all the respectable teens have all gone off and gotten jobs, and the rest sit entranced in front of their Xbox.) Anyway, I played for an hour and a half or so, and I feel great. I had to play with standard American paddles which are like wood. No good, considering that I had one of my now three paddles, and Abe had his at our grandparents house. (one of my four paddles broke. Horrible.) But I got on, and I realized that I am out of shape. Very out of shape. Not a surprise though, considering the amount I have not been exercising. This was kind of a random post, but hey, I guess we are all allowed a small amount of insanity at least.

The Beast Within...

Recently, I saw a car that had a sticker on the side of the door that read "When all else fails, READ INSTRUCTIONS" I discovered certain reasons for the sticker as well. As repulsive as the idea is, there are reasons for it: it works. I have now had my Digitech RP 80 for a year, but I only used the factory presets that it had, oblivious to the wide range of wahs, flangers, amp models, pickup simulators, expressions, reverb settings, noise gates, and choruses available to me at the touch of a button or three. Presently, I have designed several settings, but I don't really like any of them, but the wahs are fun... very fun.