Caw-ledge

I decided to post. I felt it was appropriate, since the football team is losing and it seems like it is about to rain, which is awesome (on both counts). Don't get me wrong; I root for UT, except in sports, which are generally useless.

I think, for many people, the meaning of attending college is lost. Don't come to a research institution and then complain about going to class, which means that you're in college for a degree (and to make more money in life) but actually don't want to put in the work to get there, meaning you're a freeloader.

In fact, it would be safe to say that people who regularly shun class are archetypal freeloaders. It's sad, because there are a lot more freeloaders than hard workers, so industry and politics inevitably are chock full of them.

Moving on.

Contrary to popular opinion, I some times do support the fine arts. I especially like some neo-impressionism styles, particularly pointillism. It's pretty awesome to see paintings constructed not out of hippie strokes, but rather a very mechanical, dot-matrix style process. I like things that actually took some effort to create.


Like this thing. I could draw better than this. Useless! Who cares how much time you spent studying the other art forms? Make something useful, plz.

OK! The game is over and the longhorns lost. Actually I'm a little bitter because someone took my parking spot, so I have to study in a hippie coffee house. Maybe now that the game is over I'll get a parking spot when I drive back.

Sometimes, the whole premise of football seems hypocritical. The rules allow for tackling, which can be dangerous (-5*), but they allow pads and helmets for protection (+5). So it averages out to 0.

I have an idea. How about they allow anything, and an appropriate protection. For example, they could allow M16's (-90) but provide kevlar (+90). Much of those players will never contribute to society as much as they detract from its value, and that would be much more interesting to watch. I bet a bunch of physicists and engineers would join and build rail guns or something.

Enough. Time for some pictures. You guess the place/time/occasion/reason!







Enjoy


*: Assigning arbitrary good/bad points.

!!

September 2nd? What am I doing these days? Time for a post.

Secondaries. That's what. Each school, a different essay. In fact, I've reused so many phrases over and over, I feel like I'm beating a dead horse. Moving on to more interesting issues.

I read about these 'Jena Six' recently, and I couldn't stop laughing. Unbelivable! People are still so racist these days! There's a lot of fuss about whether some of these kids should be tried as an adult or not.

I really don't care who you are. If you have a record of violent crimes, you should be locked up, permanently. I like zero tolerance, especially for violent crimes.

For other things, like drug offenses, I have ideas as well.

James Henry - Obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence.
Tyrell Gatewood - Drug possession
Ben Wells - Possession of drug paraphernalia
Henry Melton - DUI
Sergio Kindle - DUI
Robert Joseph - Aggravated robbery
Andre Jones - Aggravated robbery

See any familiar names? They all, at one point, used to be members of the Texas football team. I especially hate drunk driving. Often times drug possession doesn't pose as great of a danger to other people as drunk drivers. Drunk drivers turn lives upside down.

Let's look at what their coach, Mack Brown, had to say:

"Young people who do not obey the law, university or team rules will continue to be disciplined with a stern hand and we will move forward. We will continue to have a zero tolerance policy in that regard"

and

"In the case of Sergio Kindle and Henry Melton, we seem to have taken a 'negative' and turned it into a 'positive.'"

Wait a minute. Negative to postive? That's not zero tolerance, jackass! Neither are suspensions! Thanks for implementing a policy so late, and not even acting on it.

"So to (many outsiders), they’re guilty because they were charged, before they even have a chance to have a legal process. Austin’s as hard on people and this state’s as hard on kids as I’ve ever seen. It’s amazing with the ... coverage that you all give kids that have a supposed problem."

So you're defending them now? You don't get charged for standing around streetcorners, you imbecile.

But I believe in second chances, and that everyone should have an opportunity to contribute to society.

Here's my plan.

1st major offense - Kick off team, revoke scholarships, and make player go back to school, maintain GPA above 3.0, else get kicked from school.
2nd major offense - Get expelled from school, have academic credits expunged, get blacklisted from accredited U.S. colleges.
3rd major offense - 20 years in prison. No bail.

I really like California's three strikes law, it seems to be pretty effective. This one emulates a similar principle. It's not crazy (Sharia) or wussy (Mack Brown).

Mack Brown has got to go. There should be a rule that if a certain percentage of your team behaves like complete idiots, you're fired, because naturally, you must be an idiot for recruiting them.

Next time you watch a UT football game, or cheer for your team, just remember: You're supporting a team and a coach that is lenient on drunk driving and felonies. I bet you won't be cheering when one of those drunk drivers plows into your car at a breakneck speed.

All good things...

So school has started, and it's pretty awesome. Except for one thing.. I was in Thermo and I realized that this was one of my last physics classes. I'm down to three left to finish.

Of course, I only had to take 7 upper division ones to begin with, but it's still sad. There is a very unique element about physics, and hopefully I'll capture the essence of it in the next few lines.

Let's take a question in biology - How come highly charged molecules can't cross the cell membrane? Well, it's because there is electrostatic repulsion. Why is there electrostatic repulsion? [This is now a chemistry question] - Well, it has something (or everything) to do with Coulomb's law, which is now physics. Why do like charges repel? Well it has something to do with the characteristics of subatomic particles... (and I'm not completely sure of this answer). Why do these subatomic particles have this property?

At this point, people are often at an impasse. You can either go the atheist way ("I don't know") or you can be religous and say "God".

Pretty soon, it becomes obvious that all the Why? questions lead to physics, and many Why? questions in physics lead to one of two dubious answers. Take it as you wish. I'll flatter myself and giggle in a corner like a maniac.

Let's talk about something more interesting - how about THE MOST TERRIBLE GREYHOUND BUS RIDE EVAR. Yeah. Sounds like a plan.

Let's start with.. tutoring. I finished tutoring at 6pm and by the time I was done explaining DIT and walked back to Wankthorpe*, it was 625pm, with the Greyhound bus leaving at 750pm. I rested for a bit until the 800lb gorilla woke me up and it was late.

So I mooched a ride off Robert and arrived just in time to stand in line for 25 minutes to realize that the 750pm bus was full, the next one was at 1015pm. OK. Whatever. I don't really mind waiting somewhere as long as I can do something (electro homework), but what bugs me the most is that I kept having to guard my stuff. Almost everyone looks suspicious there.**

1015pm. Woohoo! The bus is here, 2.5 electro problems are done and I can finally get some rest, with a deathgrip on my laptop bag, of course. Fate hates me. By the time I got on the bus making sure my check-in luggage was actually under the bus and not in some dude's trunk, the only seat left was in the back, the three seater, wedged between two people.

Whatever. I can deal with that. Deathgrip + Eurobeat should keep me hibernating until 130am. Not so. In the darkness, I heard a voice*** - "So where you headin'?". I'll be painfully obvious, I thought. "Dallas. You?". "Colorado, gonna stay wit my bro for the week".

Undoubtedly, my first mistake of the night - asking him where he was going. I told him I was going back for a bed because I didn't want to sleep on the floor. Then he says "Heck. I'd rather sleep on a floor than jail anyday".

ONE MUST NOT JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS. I thought of that one office episode, with Prison Mike. HEY! He could be in jail for insider trading.

Someone else asks - "Why'd they put you in the job, yo?"

Then he recants his story. He's 20, separated from his wife, who has both of his kids. He used to have an apartment where they were staying, but his wife's new boyfriend (who is 16 years old), decided to move in and "tell him how to run the place", so he "put a gun to his head". The arresting sheriff put him in handcuffs, but he struggled, and apparently beat up the sheriff.

Yellow Alert!

The he shows me his handgun, which.. he had on the bus, for some reason. By this time, the klaxons were already blaring and the council had evacuated through mini escape pods to a nearby support vessel.****

I was practically lifeless after that, minimal control. Only saying the right words so I don't get shot or something.

Oh and, the two drunk women throwing up in the bathroom created a pleasant aroma in the back of the bus.

It's just a forceful reminder.

All good things must come to an end. Like Physics! :'(
Crappy things linger. Like Greyhound.

*: I literally googled "a s***** place" and found this. Sounds aweseome; I'm sticking to it. It's my apartment. Or... is it austin? Both.
**: I often imagine families being part of a conspiracy to steal my stuff.
***: Sounds like a batman trailer.
****: There is always a support vessel when I travel, usually anchored to the side of the vehicle. No more details. This is somewhat classified (embarassing) to talk about.