Gravity is cool!

So we were doing a lab in AP Physics today.  It involved two different masses hanging side by side from a pulley, and then letting it accelerate and timing how long it took, then calculating the acceleration.  That may not have made sense, but the point is, we got a percent error of about 27%, which is not very good.

So we started brainstorming what could possibly have caused this error.  It's not the mass or friction of the pulley, because that would skew the results in the other direction.  It was probably due to human error in timing the experiment, but our eventual conclusion is way cooler.

I came up with this.  See, all masses create a gravitational field.  The more massive an object, the greater the force exerted by its gravitational field on other masses.  That's why the Earth, which is very massive, can exert force on us when we are so far away from the core; whereas we don't feel inexplicably drawn to, say, a bowling ball.  (Though if you feel an inexplicable attraction to a bowling ball, I'm not judging you, don't worry.)

So therefore, the most massive member of our lab group must be exerting gravitational force on the masses in the experiment, and causing the results to be screwy (because when calculating our theoretical value, we only took account of the Earth's gravitational force.  Adding another force on the system would change the results).

Someone proposed measuring the masses of each group member and banishing the most massive member, but they were overruled.  Unfortunately, the period ended before we could try the experiment again, this time standing several meters away to prevent any gravitational interference.  Oh, well.

For those who don't do physics, let me clarify: this is entirely preposterous, because the amount of gravitational force caused by a human would be incredibly, incredibly small.  We can even calculate the force between, say, a 60 kg person and a 1 kg mass that are 1 meter apart.

F = GMm/r^2

Where G = 6.67300 × 10^-11 m³ kg^-1 s^-2

So we plug in the two masses for M and m, and divide by 1 sqaured, which is still one, and get that the force exerted by the person on the mass is 4x10^-9 N.  Which is very very very small.  Negligible.

....I just realized that this was probably not at all interesting.  I apologize.  I promise, no more equations.  I just find this so COOL!

Well, actually, this concludes this post.  I was gonna say one more thing about our Science Olympiad team, but I just realized it involves equations.  I'm already gonna lose all my non-science/math readers, so I'm not going to push it.  Over and out, yo.

P.S. Your computer is probably pulling you towards it right now, with a force of somewhere around 3.2 x 10^-8 N.  Don't let it get you!

P.P.S. This is Bill Amend drawing for xkcd.  The second comic is related.  The others are also funny.

The nerdiness of this post is slightly overwhelming

So I'm at a program at WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute - college in Massachusetts) and it's pretty freaking awesome.  Just thought you should know.

So here's how this goes down: 200 nerds from across the globe gathered together to be awesome and learn things.  I'm in physics, so we're learning about astronomy and black holes and quantum mechanics and special relativity and all that mind-blowing theoretical craziness.  I'm also in creative writing, since we're required to take one main STEM class (physics) and also one Humanities and Arts class, for this camp that I'm at.

Basically, it's amazing.  We've played countless games of Magic the Gathering and Settlers of Catan and Egyptian Rat-Screw.  We've held many Rubik's Cube competitions.  We've broken out into Disney medleys on the bus.  We've had light saber duels on the quad (nerf guns are, quite unfortuantely, forbidden at WPI).  We've played Ninja, quite a bit.  We've had multi-hour-long debates about quantum physics and how one would survive the eventual collapse of the universe (including detailed plans on how to become a cyborg-human and create an alternate universe within a quantum computer).  We've eaten ice cream cake at 8AM. 

The best part is, we're all crazy nerds here.  Not only do they understand my nerdy t-shirts, we can have awesome debates about Legend of Korra or Death Note or Nerdfighteria.  We all understand the internet jokes that everyone makes.

The funny thing is, every morning, the Program Assistants slip an announcement sheet under your dorm door, listing out the day's schedule and announcements.  And on the back, they put a comic.  For the past three days, its been an xkcd comic, and about 80% of the camp was talking about how they'd seen that comic before.  It's great.

Anyways, just letting you know that I'm not dead, and that I'm actually being awesome, just not online.  I have real-life nerd friends too!  Be proud of me.

I cleaned out my backpack today

My mom always nags me about how heavy my backpack is, and I always insist that I need everything that's in it.  Well, since school's over tomorrow, I cleaned it out today.  Here's what I found.  You can tell me if you think I really need it all, but I swear: it's all necessary.

Things I Found In My Backpack (Besides, you know, actual schoolwork and things)

• 2 books (I, Lucifer and Virals)
• 1 planner (unused since February)
• 3 Rubik's cubes (one normal, one from the Mathworks, one hell cube)
• 1 Book Sock (cupcake design)
• 1 HUGE binder clip (like three inches wide)
• 10 erasable gel pens (my favorite things in the world)
• 1 bottle of White-Out
• 2 calculators (scientific and graphing)
• 2 zombie finger puppets (necessary-I swear)
• 1 school ID card (squashed beneath my math textbook)
• 1 Vera Bradley change purse
• 1 yellow highlighter
• 1 silver Sharpie
• 1 dinosaur rubber ducky (Again, this was completely necessary to carry to school every day)
• 18 buttons (like the pin type that I stick on my backpack)
• 2 CDs
• 1 DVD (thankfully in a case)
• Approximately 400 vocab notecards (I didn't count, sorry)
• 5 chopsticks (not sure where the 5th one's partner went)
• 1 tube of body lotion (made everything in my backpack smell like pomegranate)
• 1 hairbrush
• 2 necklaces

You never know when you might need these things, okay?  I like to be prepared!

Trust me, I have an excuse

Once again, I'm doing my "Friday" 56 on a Saturday.  But wait!  It's okay!  I have an excuse!  I spent the day getting stitches.  Yeah.  Feel sorry for me.

I have this freaking epic scar on the side of my lip now.  Why, you ask?  Oh, I was just practicing my French kissing.  With a shark.

Kidding.  I was in a knife fight.

So I took the ACT this morning (running on very little sleep, having spent Thursday night in the ER).  I'm hoping i did okay.  I forgot my calculator, so I did the whole thing using just a four-function calculator that they loaned me.  Ick.  I've mentioned my rampant love for my scientific calculator in the past, so leaving it behind for this important test was kind of depressing.

But anyways, on to the Friday 56.  You guys are going to be kind of disappointed this week.  I have two books sitting in front of me, and I'm too lazy to go find another one at the moment.  I have my AP Psychology textbook, and Webster's New French Dictionary (does that mean that they have words in New French, as opposed to Old French, or that it's a New dictionary?).  And for a double-whammy, I'll give you a sentence (or, in the dictionary's case, a word) from each!  Think of all the things you'll learn about Psychology and French!

"Tens of billions of neurons, each communicating with thousands of other neurons, yield an ever-changing wiring diagram that dwarfs a powerful computer."
--"Psychology" Ninth Edition by David G, Myers


"Cantankerous [kæn'tæɳkərs] adj acariâtre"
--"Webster's New French Dictionary"


There you have it.  Now you know how to call someone cantankerous, in French!  Use this knowledge well.

There has been too much action in reaction to political scandals. Please write to your congressman to repeal Newton's third law.

Ahh, physics.

So, I have a physics project that I have to do.  It's meant to help us learn about torque.  Basically, we have to make a mobile.  You know, those things with sticks and objects hanging from them, most often seen above baby cribs?  We have to use the laws of torque to create a mobile out of any objects we want, and make sure that it balances.

So originally, my friend and I planned to use fuzzy dice (those things people hang from their rearview mirrors) as our hanging objects, because fuzzy dice are sort of a running inside joke in our physics class.  But I told my circus teacher (yeah, I take circus classes) about the project, and he suggested that I make my mobile out of people.

It was great.  We had these 20-foot metal Chinese poles lying around, and we weighed everyone, and did the calculations, and spliced ropes, and constructed this enormous mobile.  And we put people on it.  The surprising part was that it actually balanced, and we didn't all die.

But yeah.  I wasn't sure how my teacher would react to my, erm, creative project. (Especially since the assignment sheet said a) that the mobile should be less than 100 cm tall and b) you should not use fragile or valuable objects.  I'm honestly not sure whether humans count as valuable or fragile.) But I showed him the video and he freaking loved it.

Here it is.  I'm the one in yellow, though I'm sure you didn't need me to tell you that.  It's obvious that I'm the awesome one.

That's all, folks.  May the mass times acceleration be with you.

I'm a sucker for nerd jokes.

The urban dwelling resembling the village of York in England (and SCIENCE!)

My title is a cryptogram.  Can you solve it?

(Hint: It means I went to New York City.)

Didja figure it out?  It means "New York City!"  You must be so smart.

It was pretty darn epic.  I mean, it was a school trip, to go to Columbia University for a publications conference. It was a school trip, and they basically gave us free reign to wander anywhere we wanted in Manhattan.  Crazy fun things went down.

However, as cool as it was to watch my English teachers sing karaoke to Lady Gaga, I doubt it interests you.  And I would like to keep you interested.  I think the most interesting thing is my Science Olympiad competition on Saturday.  I mean, New York is way too boring.  But science?  Now THAT'S exciting.


 I mean, you can even write "science" in a science-y way:

Sorry it's blurry; it's my friend's cell phone camera.  I wrote it.  I'll tell you what each letter is, because I'm REALLY proud of this thing.  Took me ages.
S - DNA strand
C - magnet
I - test tube
E - It says mc^2 because E=mc^2
N - a bunch of rulers
C - It says 3.0x10^8 because that's the speed of light, represented by "C"
E - Not sure what the name of this molecule is, my AP Chem friend made it

O - gear
L - fingers (you know, physiology!)
Y - inverted lungs.  Yes, inverted lungs.  Quit laughing, it was hard to draw lungs upside down.
M - triangles with angles
P - phosphorus
I - rad -1.  i
A - deathly hallows symbol.  This was an object of controversy, but my argument was that it related.  Harry Potter is geeky, science is geeky.  It works.
D - atom. In a D shape (I was running out of ideas by the end)

You'll notice that we had a chalkboard in our "home base" classroom, where we relaxed between rounds.  So what did we do? Play games!

First, chalkboard chess.  This was easy, we just made up symbols for each piece (pawn was circle, bishop was triangle, etc).  I was shaded, my friend's pieces were open.  And we erased each piece and redrew it to move.  Simple.  I won after an hour, when I cornered her king and she had no more moves.

Second, chalkboard Monopoly.  This was far more complicated.  First, we redrew the board and simplified the rent amounts and property prices.  We used the random integer function on the graphing calculator as dice, and kept track of money on the side.  It was really complicated.  For chance cards, we had a friend make up things to say.  That was how I ended up losing $2000 in one turn.  The chance cards were all mean.

Third, Pictionary.  This was exciting because I instituted the rule of "abstract Pictionary," stolen from the idea of Metaphysical I Spy in Paper Towns.  Basically, it had to be abstract.  No physical objects allowed.  That's how we ended up trying to draw things like "Neo-Confucianism," "schizophrenia," and a "Mongolian Death Worm."  Yes, we are awesomely nerdy like that.  Let's see YOU draw the "Harvard Sailing Team."

It's a nice thought, but...

So I happened upon this comic:

It's a nice thought.  Aww, how sweet.  Math love.  The only problem is, it's a nerdy joke that wouldn't actually work on real nerds.  I read it, and I couldn't help visualizing the scene that would play out if anyone ever tried this trick on me:

...Yeah.  Not quite the intended result.

In other news, I spent the weekend on a ski trip in Vermont.  A great deal of the weekend was based on this comic, which I find hilarious:

So my friends and I would break out in song on the chairlifts (often freaking out the strangers riding with us) and throw our palms in each other's faces.

Um...Yeah...

I SET FIIIIIIIIRE TO THE RAIN, WATCHED IT POUR, AS I TOUCHED YOUR FACE

*virtually touches your face*

Just going on a tangent (pun intended)

Since when do they even give you projects in math?  I think my last one was in 8th grade, but that wasn't a project.  We had to make a kite (my group won Best Design: it was an Escher lizard tessellation).

But basically, we have a Pre-Calc Project.  We have to choose an island, find its tide information, and graph it as a sine or cosine wave.  Then, do this stuff involving slope and wheelchair ramps and other things that I won't get into.

I have a group of three.

Theoretically.

In reality, it's a group of me, except there will be three names on the final project that we hand in.

New favorite Greek letter

It used to be pi, because it was cool and you could memorize it and all, but pi ain't got nothin' on phi.

No, not because it is the golden ratio (1.61803399...) or anything.  For something far more exciting than that (at least to me.)

Consider the following:
See that thingy over to the side there?  That's phi.  It's nice and Greek-looking, correct?  Well, it's better than what your first glance may let on...

In physics, we used phi to represent angle measure (for when we have multiple angles and theta is already taken).  So, please note the fantastic things that can be done with phi:

Phi, plus the crappy triangle (I'm not very good with straight lines).

What does this equal?  No, not phi-delta.  It equals....drumroll...

I hope my teacher doesn't mind that I replaced all the phis on my quiz with Deathly Hallow symbols...

MIT is surprisingly surprising

Taking classes at MIT is fun, but roaming around campus for a while, exploring?  Even better.

First, my friend and I climbed every abstract/modern art sculpture we could find.  Yeah, there were a lot.

Next, we climbed a wall outside a building and, using the foor-wide edge along the windows, around twenty feet off the ground, walked around the entire building peering into window and freaking out the students.

Yes, Mr. Professor, I was looking in your twenty-foot high office window and watching you on Facebook.

That sounds extremely creepy.  But it was fun when the teachers were facing away from the window, so the students saw us and pointed, and when the teachers turned, we were gone.  Good times to be had.

Next, we tried to find a way onto the roof from one of the inside staircases, but all the doors were locked.  Bummer.

Next, we found a staircase that led into the "secret" tunnel system between buildings, and had good fun poking around.  I kept count, and ended up with 16 doors marked with a sign that read something along the lines of "DANGER: Radioactive materials.  You will likely die if you open this door."

Finally, I'd like the summarize the awesomeness of MIT by simply listing three acapella group names I found on flyers:

• Logarhythms
• Chorollaries
• Asymptones

And, last of all, one completely unrelated image that I felt like sharing:

I forgot to title this. Fail. VELOCIRAPTORS!

My physics teacher is epic.  In addition to making 7th period the most hilarious and memorable ever, showing us amazing things about picking up chairs, his leaky car, and the trick about ripping a tablecloth out from under a dinner setup.

And this quote from yesterday:

"In math, there's a word for two lines that are perpendicular to each other.

[gives us a moment to let us think]

...and that word is 'perpendicular'"

It may sound stupid but it was hilarious.

And I leave you with this picture.  Because I guess today's theme is lines?

What happens when you put tomatoes in a blender?

You get a smoothie.  Tomatoes are a fruit, and fruit in a blender makes smoothies.

I would display lovely pictures of me attempting to make a tomato smoothie, but a) I don't like tomatoes, b) Our blender is broken, and c) Wouldn't it just be tomato sauce?

This doesn't have anything to do with anything except a way to transition into blathering excuses.  Basically, the reason I haven't posted in a while is sort of like putting tomatoes in a blender.

(Pauses a few seconds to let that sink in.)

My head is a blender.  This year I've thrown a good many more activities, classes, and general things that now my tomatoes are spewing out the top (tomatoes in this analogy is my brain.  The first to go will be my cerebral cortex.  Then the bottom will split open and spill out my cerebellum.  We're studying the brain in AP Psych).

Basically, I have no free time.

Told in a roundabout way involving tomatoes.

This is a picture of my head exploding (I'm not sure why I look so happy.)

Anyways, this is why I won't be posting as regularly as before.  I'm sorry if that makes you cry.

ANYWAYS

Updates:

I spent the weekend visiting colleges and riding roller coasters.  Guess which one I liked better?

Then I met a famous clown.

Then I went to a math meet (I did pretty well - 11 out of 18 points!).

Then I got a new John Green book.

Then I made an egg carrier.

Then I procrastinated.

And  that's all folks, unless, in the time it takes me to finish this sentence, I think of something else to say.

...Didn't happen.

Over and out.

NO, WAIT!  DON'T GO!

I remembered something whilst creating labels.

So in physics, we're doing projectile motion and that kind of thing, with degree launches, which require usage of sin, cos, and tan.  We're investigating the amazing idea that sin/cos = tan (I never knew that.  I mean, it makes total sense, but still).  So one person says, "I get the whole sin/cos thing, but what does this have to do with solving the problem?"  And my physics teacher replies, "I'm sorry, I was going off on a tangent."

We cracked up for about a full minute.

Nerd jokes <3

Wow, we are so nerdy

As a opener at the Science Olympiad Club, we got a bunch of brain teasers to warm up.  A bunch of standard ones, you know about the farmer crossing the river with the fox and rabbit and carrots and whatever, that kind of thing.  Simple stuff.  But there was one problem that threw us.

"Turn this roman numeral into 6 using only one line."

So we worked on it.  My first idea was something like this:

You will note that it is all one line.  However, it wasn't the right answer (sad face).  So we kept experimenting.  Next came:

That says "- 3" using only one line, in case you couldn't tell.  But, weirdly enough, our amazing solution was still wrong.

We decided that using roman or arabic numerals wouldn't work, so we tried other options.  First: Greek numbers.  Failure.  Then came our epiphany:  maybe we had to write it in binary!  9 in binary is 1001, so maybe if we subtracted a 3 (11 in binary) we'd get 990 in decimal form, which in roman numerals is XM, so maybe if we flipped the whole thing upside down so it looked like XI then turned the I into an M....

We went on like this for a while.  I came up with the glorious solution that 6 was 110 in binary.  So if we let "X" represent 0, then all we had to do was add another line at the beginning.  I was so proud for having figured it out.

I was wrong.

At this point, we'd worked on it for about ten minutes, trying every combination of binary and decimal and roman numerals we could find.  Nothing yielded.  The teacher hinted that the answer was painfully obvious.  And it hit me like a brick wall, disregarding the fact that brick walls are inanimate and incapable of motion, let alone hitting someone.  If I really wanted to be in contact with a brick wall, it's I who would have to do the hitting.  Just sayin'

So the answer hit me (the answer is also inanimate.  See above).  I knew it.  I danced around the room mocking those poor fools attempting to use Braille.  Just kidding.  I politely mentioned that I knew the answer.

Are you ready?  I'll give you time to shield your eyes by presenting you with this picture of Matthew Lewis/Neville Longbottom

Ok.  Are you ready now?

You'd better be.

I kind of love how we spent time converting it to binary and trying to solve that way.  I love being nerdy.  DFTBA <3

The Math of Love (Or is it the Love of Math?)

I have a confession to make.  It has to do with love.  And math.

Which is not such a weird combination.  Famous awesome people think about it a lot.  Like Randall Munroe.

Sure, he couldn't figure it out.  But I have.  No, this doesn't have anything to do with a math geek I might have a crush on, it's about MATH.

Ok.

Confession time.

*Ahem*

I...ummm....I love my calculator.

Yep.  That's it.  I hope that's not too weird.  And I don't mean that I, like, want to do things with it cuz that's disgusting and all you people have extremely dirty minds.  Get your minds out of the gutter, people, and think about happy things like calculators.

Now, explanation.  I've had my scientific calculator since freshman year.  Looks like this: 

And I love it.  It's so useful!  It can solve quadratic equations and systems of equations and simplify radicals and amazing things like that.  It saved me in Algebra II.  And I love it, oh so very much.

So this entire explanation has been so that you can understand the situation in the following awkward story that happened to me:

So I need a graphing calculator for Pre-Calc, so my mom and I go to Staples.  We look at the calculators and try to decide whether or not I need the Silver Edition of the calculator.  Pretty normal.  But then, on the shelf nearby, I spot my beloved Casio calculator.

"Look, Mom!!"  I say, pointing with enthusiasm, "There's my scientific calculator!!  I love that calculator soooo much!"

My mom looks a bit weirded out, but then I notice this random guy who was standing there looking at the calculators.  He was looking at the calculators, but now he's looking at me as though I turned into a velociraptor on the spot.  He doesn't say anything, just looks at me for a long while.  In the meantime, I mutters something like "Umm....sorry...just...ummm...talking to my mom, sorry..." and then pretend to be extremely engrossed in studying the TI-84 Plus like it's the most interesting thing ever.  AWKWARD.

True story.  Now you can see that my love for my calculator has spawned some awkwardness.  Not to mention my friend laughed when I told her the next day and said it was slightly weird that I am unnaturally attached to my calculator.  She's just jealous :P

1 Day Down, 179 To Go

I got a call from our superintendent yesterday.  I had to listen to his whiney voice for no reward.  "School in our district," he drawls, "will continue as scheduled."  That is, no cancellations due to the hurricane like some other schools.  So I listened to this guy's voice for nothing.  Arggh.

So, school.  I'm a junior now!  Honestly, it doesn't feel much different to be an upperclassman.  What's the significance?  Bragging rights, I guess.

Before Homeroom: Meet up in the library.  Discuss the new giant signs, similar to an airport, that tell you where things are.  Make fun of my friend's younger siblings who are frosh.

Homeroom: Get schedule.  Color-code schedule, because I'm OCD like that.

First Period - Romanticism: My teacher is young and extremely socially awkward.  He has no stage presence and can't make eye contact.  It's amusing and a good, easy class for first period.  My friends and I visited our old APUSH teacher right before class, and the new APUSH students have it first period.  Sucks for them.

Second Period - Pre-Calc: I need a $100 graphing calculator by tomorrow.  Plus, we played a name game that involved eating Skittles.  I think that was the highlight.  On the way to class, a frosh asked me where the history hallway was, while we were standing under one of the giant signs that directed you.

Third Period - Creative Writing: We basically spent the  class discussing (read: dissing)the summer reading book, Feed.  The author's going to come talk about it, and the whole school basically hated it.  My friend's sister is planning on heckling him.  Should be entertaining.

Fourth Period - AP World: It's so different from APUSH!!  As in, the teacher didn't spend the first class period trying (and succeeding) to instill fear into your heart.

Lunch: It was fairly lunchy.  Not much else to say.  Frosh #2 asked me for directions.  I was tempted to send them to the farthest corner of the school, but I'm not that mean.

Fifth Period - AP Psych: Soon, I will learn enough psychobabble to confuse my way out of any situation.  Plus, I'll be able to psychoanalyze you all.  I can do that already.  You're awesome.

Sixth Period - Marketing: No friends in this class, I'm lonely.  Frosh #3 asked for directions to the hallway they were standing in.  Do I just look friendly enough not to send them the wrong way?  At least this means I'm tall enough not to look like a freshman to them.  Happy dance!

Seventh Period - Physics: It makes up for Marketing by having 7 of my group in the class.  It's incredible, and I feel really bad for the teacher.

So, conclusion?  I'd rather be sleeping.

The World Explained in Charts (PART II)

I do like charts.  They are a logical, mathematical, way to make sense of this crazy world we call home.  Doesn't life seem so much simpler now that you can assign everything a value and stick it in a chart?

The World Explained in Charts

No, I swear I did not steal these off some site.  I do have a little bit of wit and awesomeness inside of me, and these beautiful graphs are a result of that.
Surprises you, huh?  I can be cool once in a while, ya know?  So enjoy the fruits of my labor.  If I get any more ideas I might make a second post, if anyone expresses any interest in these graphs that took me make grueling hours to complete for your benefit, I might consider making more.  Maybe.

 YAY!  Charts are fun!

Happy Singles Awareness Day

Ha.  I guess I forgot to put up any sort of Valentine's Day post.  Meh.  Hope you had fun playing footsie or kissy or lovey-dovey or whatever you sickenly sweet couples do on holidays made just for you.

Bah humbug.

Here's a math valentine.  It's called Sierpinski.  I think that is some guy's name.  It's, like, infinite hearts.  Seriously.  Zoom in on the thing if you don't believe me.
Probably symbolism to infinite love, yadda yadda.
Can you tell I'm bitter?
Let's just get this over with.  Here ya go.  Now don't bother me about Valentine's Day.  Maybe someday I'll tell ya why.

I didn't draw this, obviously.  I don't generally sign my pictures with the name of a website, ya know?

 UPDATE:
So I found another picture that I had drawn for my Valentine's Day post while trying to clean up my desktop.  Hope you like it.  Hope I don't have any Irish people at my house with swords tonight because I made fun of St. Patrick's day.  I'm sorry, people, I'm not Irish.  I am, however, American, and I still think Columbus Day is stupid.  Poor guy, he probably thought he was all that.

I hate the Interweb

My plan:

1. Go on computer
2. Go to school webpage
3. Find guidance counselor e-mail address
4. E-mail guidance couselor about schedule changes
5. Get off computer, do homework

What actually happened:

1. Go on computer
2. Go to school webpage
3. Open Gmail and Facebook while school webpage is loading
4. Check notifications, read new e-mails
5. Start G-chatting with friend
6. Get annoyed I can't find my guidance counselor's e-mail address
7. Check SparkLife and xkcd to relieve tension
8. Remember I haven't checked my awesome blog in a few days
9. Notice the tempting StumbleUpon link on my bookmarks
10. I can't believe I just wasted an hour stumbling
11. Go back to school webpage to feign doing work
12. Hey - it's actually right here! The e-mail address!
13. Compose e-mail to counselor
14. Start another G-chat while on Gmail
15. Father threatens to cut internet connection

I swear I'm not addicted. I'm just...distracted easily.

But there is one good thing that came out of it. As a gift to all you excellent readers out there, here are two excellent photos and such that I discovered whilst Stumbling.

 

UPDATE:

It happened again, but here are two more lovely picture for ya.

Ratios and Doctors

I went to the doctor's today. A little while ago, I reported to you all that I'm sick. Turns out I had pneumonia. Don't back away like that! I looked it up on Wikipedia and it's not contagious via the Internet. You're safe.

I'm all good and cured now, so I went back for a follow-up appointment. To check and make sure that I'm not dead or anything. And I discovered something:

I hate waiting in doctor's offices.

First there's all the sick people around you, with germs floating everywhere. I just got better, 'kay? Not to mention that doctors Always Run Late.

So I spent my hour devising a lovely mathematical formula to tell you how competent your doctor office is. Here it is:

   Time spent waiting   

Length of appointment

My appointment consisted of the doctor listening to my breathing for thirty seconds and declaring me cured. So I'll plug in my numbers to show you how this handy formula works:

50 minutes

1.5 minutes

Any mathy nerds like me out there have already whipped out their graphing calculators and simplified this. Or done it in your head. Whatever. The answer, by the way, is 33.3333.

Now look on the chart to see your results:

<1 - That's good! Give your doctor's office an A+++

1-2 - Eh. Not terrible. Depends on how long your appointment is.

3-5 - That's pretty bad.

6-10 - This is the average for my doctor's office.

>10 - Wow, that's REALLY slow.

>30 - FAIL.

Notice which category my wait today falls into?