So I dont think I have shared that I have stared classes again (this would be second semester “sophmore” year for me). Something that I realized that I have been missing was sitting at my desk on a Saturday morning-afternoon-evening with a cup of tea, and writing line after line of code until I have that week’s assignment finished. Today is the second Saturday of the semester, and I have no code to write. I’m kinda sad….
This round of nibbles is brought to you by the band Dream Theater and the number thirty-twelve.
1. When I see an umbrella handle I cannot help but think that it is a sword handle.
2. “Flaming blow gun darts” ~Wickle
3. “I organized the batteries by how much they make my tongue twich” ~ESJ
4. I like to mispronounce bologna
5. And no, as it happens, I’m not wearing pants. This is youtube, not a country club. ~John Green
6. This is a fire truck, and thad is a cucumber, and that’s Josiah. ~S. Torrey
7. Bag of Ponies (Pennies) ~S. Torrey
8. Wolking Chair (Rocking Chair) ~S. Torrey
9. Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, fou you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup. ~Bumper Sticker
10. That’s not hyprocacy, that’s humanity ~Someone
The book “Ender’s Game” is an amazing book. Wickle said once that: “The end was not quite what I expected.” Anyway in this book, and later in the series, humanity “advances” in leaps and bounds from here we are today, as far as technology. More or less humanity was at the point of having massive population centers on several hundred planets. What I am going to discuss, in all seriousness, is the five inventions that would push us from where we are today to having colonies on several planets and the ability to sustain them.
1) High efficiency, renewable power. I’m talking about the “ZPM” and the “Naquadah generator” ideas from Stargate. This invention is the foundation for everything else on this list.
2) Instant communication. It takes 4 minutes to talk to a robot on Mars. It takes 8 minutes for light from the sun to get to Earth. The closest star is 4 lightyears away. Communication would be horrible at those speeds.
3) Faster than light travel (FTL). As I said, the closest star is 4 lightyears away, and it doesn’t have any planets (that we know of) for us to colonize. Oh, and we also don’t know of any planets that exist that could support life beyond our system, so we are going to need to explore for a while. The Milky Way is 100,000 lightyears in diameter (cite Wikipedia). That would take a very long time to explore if we can’t go faster than light.
4) Terraforming. The odds of finding a valid planet that can support Terran based lifeforms is very slim. We would need a way to create an breathable atmosphere, and build an ecology like we have here on Earth. While discussing this with my family my mother pointed out that this is really a bunch of inventions. Then while discussing it with Wickle he said something to the extent of “I would add agriculture, but that kinda is wrapped up in terraforming.”
5) Artificial Gravity. If the gravity of said planet to be colonized is not close enough to that of Earth, it may be difficult for the planet to hold an atmosphere, or impossible for humans to survive.
Discuss (for those on facebook, please head over to my blog to discuss):
So I’m sure that you all are familiar with the multitude of online forums that exist out there. If you don’t know what I’m talking about here, don’t worry. Anyway, these online communities that exist are often a breeding ground for a lot of trouble out there on the nets. 4chan for example (please don’t go there, it’s NSFW) was the origin of the idea of LOLCats, Rickrolling, and a bunch of other things that should not be as big of a deal as they are.
So on these forums there are a bunch of acronyms. NSFW, ROFL, TL;DR, etc. The one that has got me thinking the most is the horribly obnoxious TL;DR. Too long; didn’t read. This is found usually following a rather long, wordy, poorly formatted post.
Lately, I have found myself TL;DRing emails that I get. This has made me realize the importance of communicating in a manner that, while still conveying your thoughts, is easy to look at, and easy to follow.
I have found that a paragraph more than 4-5 lines in length gets breezed over, or requires multiple readings before I can follow what is being said. Poor grammar makes me want to skip over selections of text, so do big words.
So, what should you take from this? 1) use small words. 2)pay (more) attention to your grammar. 3) one thought gets one or more paragraphs. Don’t worry, you aren’t wasting paper, and most email providers provide several gigabytes of space. I have saved all my emails on my gmail account, and 7735 emails is only using 5% of the space I have.
(Wickle, Milkman, anyone: if you comment TL;DR, I will hurt you =p)
Funny things happen when you sleep. I think XKCD put it well here. In any case, I had several dreams last night, two of which I remember and have got me thinking.
In both dreams, I did something, or had done something that: 1) Is not pleasing to God, and 2) I really don’t think I would do in real life.
I have always been of the opinion that your dreams are a window into how your mind ticks, and to your soul. So, I pose the following question to you: Does a person need to ask for God’s forgiveness for sins committed while dreaming?
(For those on Facebook, please head over to my blog to leave a comment.)
This set of ten nibbles is brought to you by Cafe on the Corner and Losing the game.
1. Sunday September 15, 2009 was a no caffeine day.
2. The screen on my laptop is sometimes way too small
3. “Orientated” ~Milkman
4. The chocolate shake I got at Burger King did not look like chocolate to me. But it sure tasted good.
5. If you ever find yourself wondering why I am doing something. Just remember, I’m Jonathan, and that’s why you love me.
6. “Mini-blinds… for a mini window” ~anon
7. “This ketchup packet is cold” ~me
“Do you want it?” ~Milkman(I give Milkman the “four head” look)
“No?” ~me (followed by rambunctious laughter)
8. If one should lose a member of a pen/pencil set, then the total loss is equal to the cost of the entire set, not half of the cost. This is due to the fact that the entire set must be replaced.
9. Clowns are creepy. Good music is good. Cirque du Soleil is amazing. Cirque du Soleil combines both of the first two.
10. The desk in my music class makes my handwriting terrible.
Today’s post is brought to you by the (Greek) letter pi and the 94th and 95th digits of pi: 42.
This post represents a week or so of the random thoughts that pass through my head, and would usually become a Facebook status. Please do not try to read anything deep out of these random nibbles of randomness. I don’t want you to get hurt trying.
1) Blacklights are an amazing thing.
2) Listening to a song by a band does not give you a proper insight to the minds of the members of that band. To truly KNOW the band you must watch a recorded concert multiple times.
3) “WHY SO SERIOUS?” ~Heath Ledger
4) Chris Torrey’s new album “(the offset)” is pretty epic. (I’m a fan of track 5 “Tension”) You can find it here.
5) If violence is not the answer, then the question was not worth asking. ~someone
6) Crossbreed holsters (link) are truly the ugliest, most comfortable holster I’ll ever love. (I love my Crossbreed SuperTuck)
7) “College is about learning to think for yourself.” ~G. McMahon
Enjoy!
So today, November 12, 2009, is the day of Facebook viruses. It starts the same every time. A mass message is sent, saying something along the lines of “Is that you in this video?”. Only for some reason, the link is not a video, and none of the ~30 from the message are in it. I have been hit three times today. Every time it happens i check my sent messages to make sure that I have not accidentally been part of the problem.
So, what needs to happen now? If you get this message you need to respond immediately. Tell them that it is a virus (everyone). Tell them to do a virus scan. Tell them to change their password. And don’t click on the link!!!
