Utterly Contemptible

LA - First impression: the city is crowded, colorless (except for that of concrete and sand) and furious. People are high strung, loud and seemingly self-serving. Drive crazy - NH's worst on a grand scale. People I've met/seen seem fake, hard to tell who is genuine. Billboards and ads litter the surfaces of everything, from cars to buildings; the lack of billboards is something one tends not to notice in NH and VT. Their absence just seems right. The smog hangs over the city and the airport. We hear about the smog, but it's nothing until you see it. The Hollywood sign, an American icon, sits barely visible on the distant mountain, shaded grey. Even The Sign is suffocating.

The people are immersed in the consumer culture. Logos blazoned on everything they wear, prominently displayed for all to see and worship. Actors and actresses are frequently the topic of conversation along with their adulterous lives and their up coming films. Actual conversation is nothing more than a few words as they quickly check their phones for the latest gossip and entertainment news. A fifteen year old girl argues with her mother in the hotel lobby over the fact that she cannot get her own hotel room, only a cool $169 a night, because every upscale hotel in Pasadena is booked solid due to numerous goings on, including my conference. I smile and chuckle at her sorrows...

I must only be seeing the worst of the city. The run down houses next to the highway. This surely can't be a snapshot of life in LA. What is? The affluent homes on the mountain? I can't blame the people who live next to the highway; for all I know they don't have the means to live anywhere else among the over-inflated prices, over-taxed populous of this city.

My first glimpses of the city made me feel disgusted, appalled, and even a bit queasy... but this can probably be written off as an effect of all the exhaust fumes I inhaled on the 40 minute trip to my hotel. You've caught me by now. Call me out. I am an elitist from the Northeast taking my $25 shuttle ride to my hotel with 5 other people entering into a city that is presenting me with a wealth of options for entertainment and fun, if I'm willing to pay. I am the elitist who would rather canoe with a rented canoe on a lonesome lake or who would rather go for a hike, hell a walk, instead of paying some astronomical amount for a movie ticket for the privilege to lavish the Hollywood folk with praise; the elitist who would rather make a $5 dinner with food from the local market instead of indulging myself by dining at a $100+ restaurant the "stars" eat at. They probably shit in the bathroom too, see you there. Bring a quarter for admission. I'm the elitist?

Physics Question #5

It has been a while since I've posted an interesting physics problem and I have been thinking that it would be good to post a new one. I just ran across this problem while familiarizing myself with the fundamentals of dynamo theory.

Imagine a copper disk rotating about its axis in a uniform magnetic field, H. The disk has a radius a and has a tangential velocity v at its periphery. A conducting brush is simply connected to the disk and the disks axis and has a negligible effect on the system. Will a current flow through the system? If so, what will be the value of this current?

Good luck and, as always, no searching Google or Wikipedia for the answer!

Twins!

Let me first just clarify, no kids are on the way! No, in fact, the title refers to a freakish occurrence that took place last night. I have recently (in the past couple months) been playing in a mens league in the nearby town of Woodstock, VT and the games are, typically, later in the night. This means I generally do not get home until at least 10p and after an hour and a half of hockey, I am starving!

As one would imagine, not much is open at the 10p hour. Gas stations are either closed or have long since packed up their supply of gas station hot dogs. You know, the gross ones on the rollers that are just supremely delicious?! Take a moment... get your mouth to stop watering... and continue. Last night just happened to be hockey night in Woodstock and I found myself to be extremely hungry, post-hockey. First stop was the gas station, but nope, no hot dogs, darn. Continuing home I realized that eggs might be a good option for a post-game meal seeing as Teddy Grahams were not going to be substantial enough. "And you can have cheese!", exclaimed my better half. Good call! After some more discussion it was decided that I had all of the fixings (minus the sausage) for a breakfast burrito! What a delicious option!

Upon arriving at my apartment I began assembling the necessary things for a breakfast burrito (eggs, milk (for the eggs), cheese, salsa, tortilla) and threw the pan on the stove. Here is where the story gets interesting... the first egg went into the pan, no problem. The second egg went into the pan, no problem... waaaaaiiiiit a minute.... I put two eggs in the pan and there are three, yes THREE, yolks! Seriously!? Three!? Inspection of two of the yolks confirmed the hypothesis that two yolks came from one egg. I had not somehow pulled a fast one on myself and put three eggs in the pan, phew! They were slightly smaller than the single yolk from the other egg and were both sitting in the murky goop (is it the egg white at this point? Technically it's milky/clear). Twins. I'm about to eat chicken twins... or what would have been chicken twins. Really brought home the whole "life" thing and that, had this egg not been taken from it's Mama, there would have been twin chicks! Oh well. They were delicious. Great burrito. Thanks guys.

RIP: Stitch the Fish

Won from gypsies at Harbor Fest: August 2006 - Died: January 2010.

Favorites

I don't know about you, but I go through these phases every couple of weeks where I am totally hooked on something and then, for some unknown reason... possibly global warming or the presence of new sun spots, it changes abruptly and I find myself hooked on something else. I generally don't give this phenomenon any thought, so I won't. Here is a current list of things I am hooked on:

1) Price Chopper Crunchy Raisin Bran:



This has been more than a phase. In the past month I've gone through 7 boxes and it didn't just start a month or so ago, it has been going on since the summer, save a brief stint where Price Chopper didn't stock it, for some crazy reason! Also, I should note that due to reasons beyond our comprehension, they switched the color of the box from a dark purple to a light purple and then back again. I'm not going to analyze it. I'm just happy the dark purple is back and hopefully here to stay.

2) Cheesy Power Metal:



Notable bands making this list: DragonForce, Rhapsody, Avantasia, Dream Evil, etc. I have nothing against power metal and do quite often enjoy listening to it, but recently, I have been listening to DragonForce daily. I'm not their biggest fan, usually. I enjoy the speed, but it gets boring and tiring quickly and I cannot normally listen to them as much as I have been this past week. For some reason DragonForce makes doing Quantum homework easier.

This doesn't mean I'm exclusively listening to power metal. I still find time to enjoy other goodies like Cradle of Filth, 3 Inches of Blood, Nightwish, Therion, Sonata Arctica (still power metally), Fragments of Unbecoming, and many more, but overall, my headphones are pumping out solid, cheesy power metal.

3) Tea:

I drink about 3/4 of a pot of coffee a day. Not much by some people's standards, but I'm a coffee guy all the way. Still, a cup, or two, of tea has been a ritual at night before bed.

4) V8 Fusion:

Yeah, the fruit+vegetable drink. One or two bottles a week. Why? It's delicious.

5) Steep and Cheap:

http://www.steepandcheap.com

WARNING: Click and you will get addicted. Don't blame me for the sudden drop in size of your bank account.

If it looks like crap...

Smells like crap, and (while I did not taste it, I can guarantee you it) tastes like crap, it must be crap. Thank you anonymous person walking their dog without a baggie, my shoe is very grateful for the mess that now rests upon its sole.* I suppose it is just as much my fault for running well after darkness had settled in, but for the life of me, I can't figure out where along my trek I managed to squish in a pile of crap and not notice! Along the nearly 4 miles which I ran tonight, not once did I see a pile in the bit of light provided by street lamps, nor did I feel a squish! There are only a couple remote places where light from the street lamps does not reach, but when running on the road or sidewalk I can hear the padding of my feet on the ground; I'd notice a moment of silence which was simultaneously occurring with a squishy, soft landing. Ah well, the run was fantastic, dog crap included.

* A friend has mentioned to me that blog posts, in general, should be accompanied by pictures; it makes them more entertaining and just straight up better. This is not one of those posts.

UPDATE: I have decided a picture may be appropriate for this post. I feel the need to warn others about the theorized locations of a now squished pile of pooh. Each red "x" marks a theorized location which was selected based on several criteria: Amount of time spent not on a sidewalk or road, amount of leaf cover/grass, the amount of light provided from street lamps, and the allowance for making contact to the ground with my heel (location of pooh on shoe). Thus, the Highland Ave. "x" is only valid for a downhill decent at the beginning of my run, since I run on the balls of my feet going uphill. No heel contact whatsoever. So, pedestrians, beware!

Flickering

I often find myself staring absent-mindedly into the flickering of a flame. Whether it be the single dance of one lone flame atop a candle or the ballet taking place inside a roaring wood stove, I continually find myself captivated. My mind slows, my thoughts clear and this amazing feeling of relaxation takes over. While I know there is some complex science taking place in front of my eyes, I care not. I don't think I ever want to know all that is going on in front of me, some things are better left unknown in my mind, this is one of them. It's an escape, I suppose, a place of retreat where I can go whenever and just unwind, let the events of the day unravel in my mind so that I am ready to go for the next. I guess it's a place I've known about for a while, mainly around Christmas time, sitting in front of the wood stove with a pup snuggled up next to me, the tree lit and Christmas music playing softly in the background, but a place I've never put too much thought into outside of the moment. Tonight was different. I'm not sure why, but as I stared at the newly lit candle, I felt as if I were there in front of the wood stove with Sammy... relaxed. Relaxed and completely content.