Yesterday I found out that Madeleine Peyroux was playing in my school with Martha Wainwright as her support act. At the time I was so excited to buy the tickets, and then today I almost backed out because I just learned that there might be something pretty bad going on with the airbag of the Subaru. My mechanic Mr. Chen's guys couldn't fix it and they told me to go to--gasp!--the dealer, where it's going to cost me $94 just to have it diagnosed, and then repair costs shall thereafter be added. Yuck.
So earlier today I begrudgingly decided not to buy the tickets. The idea didn't sit too well with me though, and I figured if I didn't go, I'd regret it like I regret not seeing Sonic Youth or John Cale or Martha W's bro Rufus, or even Billy Corgan when he read poetry in the area recently. I changed my mind this afternoon and went to school and got the tickets. They weren't that expensive, since GW students get a huge discount, but we have to sit far so in effect we kind of don't get a discount. I'm happy I bought the tickets. I don't really get to do anything I want while school's going on, and I figure that this just might be my last concert of the year.
Today was also Sophie's second birthday. Happy Birthday, Soph! Pictures to come up pretty soon.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Sharing Time
Yes, it's sharing time once again, boys and girls. It's time to share what we have learned in school today. Let me go first:
As you all know, when an airplane flies, air pressure outside the plane is so low. As the plane keeps making trips--flying, landing, flying landing, etc, etc, the on-and-off force applied on the plane when its cabin is pressurized eventually causes little cracks and imperfections in the plane's fuselage grow little-by-little. Eventually the fuselage becomes fatigued and these little cracks get too big and a fracture occurs.
It's kind of like a balloon. There are always tiny holes on its surface that a balloon manufacturer cannot avoid. These holes are more likely to make the balloon pop when there is more air in the ballon, i.e. there is more pressure being applied on it.
The surprising thing is that the ratio of pressure on a balloon to the thickness of its surface at full inflation is greater than the ratio of cabin pressure to the thickness of the plane's walls.
I hope I haven't scared you from flying. Airlines have people to inspect things like this.
That's what I learned today. What have you learned?
As you all know, when an airplane flies, air pressure outside the plane is so low. As the plane keeps making trips--flying, landing, flying landing, etc, etc, the on-and-off force applied on the plane when its cabin is pressurized eventually causes little cracks and imperfections in the plane's fuselage grow little-by-little. Eventually the fuselage becomes fatigued and these little cracks get too big and a fracture occurs.
It's kind of like a balloon. There are always tiny holes on its surface that a balloon manufacturer cannot avoid. These holes are more likely to make the balloon pop when there is more air in the ballon, i.e. there is more pressure being applied on it.
The surprising thing is that the ratio of pressure on a balloon to the thickness of its surface at full inflation is greater than the ratio of cabin pressure to the thickness of the plane's walls.
I hope I haven't scared you from flying. Airlines have people to inspect things like this.
That's what I learned today. What have you learned?
Monday, September 12, 2005
Carpentry Kind of Sucks
My hands have been painful today, and, for a change, it's not due to excessive masturbation. Yes, I was master of my domain this weekend, but on Sunday I had to build three pieces of furniture--a large TV tray, a much larger kitchen island, and an even larger armoir. Driving all those screws, locking all those cams, pounding on all those nails--it can really give your hands a hard time the day after. I will not even mention how my back felt on Sunday after all that lifting that came with all that assembly.
The rest of my body hurts too, thanks not only to all that large-furniture-building but also to having classes so far away from each other. It's so strange to have all my classes spread out around campus while there are so many non-engineering classes going on in the engineering building. Bit unfair, that. So earlier today some of us CE seniors were at one of our apartments working on our Environmental Engineering homework. It felt like this guy's place was at the opposite end of DC from where class was. We were walking briskly in the sweltering heat for around twenty minutes. Then of course we had to walk back after class, and then I took the early bus home which meant I had to walk another twenty minutes from the bus stop to the house, mostly uphill. Yes some exercise is good but youch it hurts sometimes. Fortunately, all my 'work' for the past two days has been tempered with utter slacking this afternoon.
The rest of my body hurts too, thanks not only to all that large-furniture-building but also to having classes so far away from each other. It's so strange to have all my classes spread out around campus while there are so many non-engineering classes going on in the engineering building. Bit unfair, that. So earlier today some of us CE seniors were at one of our apartments working on our Environmental Engineering homework. It felt like this guy's place was at the opposite end of DC from where class was. We were walking briskly in the sweltering heat for around twenty minutes. Then of course we had to walk back after class, and then I took the early bus home which meant I had to walk another twenty minutes from the bus stop to the house, mostly uphill. Yes some exercise is good but youch it hurts sometimes. Fortunately, all my 'work' for the past two days has been tempered with utter slacking this afternoon.
Sunday, September 04, 2005
The 21-Year-Old Virgin
I watched the 40-Year-Old Virgin today, and I liked it. It was silly and heartwarming at the same time, and while it would be easy to ridicule the title character throughout the film, the writers, thank God, refrained from doing so and were sympathetic to him. I'm not sure why, but sometime during the movie I was reminded of Rushmore, and that can never be bad. Anyway, it was a great movie, as one might expect from the people behind Freaks and Geeks.
I was very pleasantly surprised to say the least to see Catherine Keener in the flick. Let me right now declare my undying love for the beautiful Ms. Keener.
*Sigh* Ms. Keener, I salute you!
I was very pleasantly surprised to say the least to see Catherine Keener in the flick. Let me right now declare my undying love for the beautiful Ms. Keener.
*Sigh* Ms. Keener, I salute you!
Dusting the Shelves
I was looking at my first few posts on this blog and I realized that since I somewhat recently changed my template and had to re-add Haloscan, all the old comments have been lost. I'm saddened to learn that I can't look back on the witty comments friends have left about my not-so-witty entries.
If anyone knows how to recover that stuff, holla back.
If anyone knows how to recover that stuff, holla back.
Friday, September 02, 2005
The Early Morning Phone Call
I had a dream at 1:30 this morning. I can't remember what my dream was, but a phone was ringing in it. Just as in the movies, I awoke with a start when I discovered that the phone was really ringing. Because I initially mistook the ringing phone as part of my dream, about a minute had passed before I got to it. When I lifted the receiver, the mystery caller had decided to hang up.
Obviously, this kind of call is disconcerting because whatever reason the caller had for, well, calling, it could not wait until morning. As such, a call of this--er--temporal nature is almost always, at least in my experience, an emergency of some sort.
I immediately thought of the parents, who are the only ones, I imagine, that would call here if there was an emergency of some sort. Thankfully everything was fine in Manila. So I went back to bed, where I wondered about the mystery caller. Who could he be? Was his call as important as I'd imagined? Had someone gotten hurt? Died? Was it all a prank? It was bothering me. I couldn't sleep. The tick-tick-ticking of the clock had become as loud as the footsteps of an Apatosaurus. I said a prayer and eventually fell asleep. I found out in the morning that it was, of course, nothing.
Obviously, this kind of call is disconcerting because whatever reason the caller had for, well, calling, it could not wait until morning. As such, a call of this--er--temporal nature is almost always, at least in my experience, an emergency of some sort.
I immediately thought of the parents, who are the only ones, I imagine, that would call here if there was an emergency of some sort. Thankfully everything was fine in Manila. So I went back to bed, where I wondered about the mystery caller. Who could he be? Was his call as important as I'd imagined? Had someone gotten hurt? Died? Was it all a prank? It was bothering me. I couldn't sleep. The tick-tick-ticking of the clock had become as loud as the footsteps of an Apatosaurus. I said a prayer and eventually fell asleep. I found out in the morning that it was, of course, nothing.
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