Reasons I am not good at blogging
by Joseph on Jan.22, 2010, under Main
I am good at making unordered lists, however. Onward and twirling!
- I don’t have much to say. Um, yeah. Except in some cases…
- I have too much to say. When I really get going on a subject, I’ll end up with walls of text about space probes or megabytes or hamburgers. tl;dr
- I lack focus. My blog is too general to even appeal to me.
- I’d rather do than write. I’ve tried to write about my interests, like astronomy, video games, and even NASCAR, but writing about them necessarily takes time away from doing them.
- I lack the ego. It really takes the wind out of my sails when there are hundreds of millions of blogs and there is literally no reason for anyone except the people I know to read mine. Besides, I could just tell them what I want to say directly. But then they don’t get deal with my superfluous italicizing.
- I never know how to end a post. Um, yeah.
All hail Sir Patrick of Stewart!
by Joseph on Jan.01, 2010, under Main
Let us ring in the New Year with tidings of knighthood for tea, earl grey, hot, drinker Patrick Stewart! From now on if you get caught calling him “sir,” it’s not some Star Trek fantasy, but the Right and Proper British Thing to Do. I’m pretty sure all he needs now is double-0 status and a license to kill, and he’ll be invincible.
Knighthood for Patrick Stewart? Queen says make it so – CNN.com.
Only 49,750 words to go!
by Joseph on Nov.21, 2009, under NaNoWriMo
As you may have deduced, NaNoWriMo is not a thing that I will be finishing, or for that matter, really even starting. Turns out that school is a rather time-intensive endeavor, one that does not lend itself well to flights of writing fancy! I do like the idea of writing some short stories, though, so all is not lost. Just most of it. Maybe a mid-Summer WriMo is in order.
Time for a “coffee” category maybe
by Joseph on Nov.19, 2009, under Main
It’s almost a shame to drink it.
via Cosmospresso | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine.
Domo-Coffee
by Joseph on Nov.18, 2009, under Main
Somehow better than regular coffee.
Just make some black holes already
by Joseph on Nov.07, 2009, under Main
Time-traveling bosons can try as hard as they want, but the Large Hadron Collider’s real Achilles’ Heel? Bread. And birds, apparently.
A bird dropping a piece of bread onto outdoor machinery has been blamed for a technical fault at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) this week which saw significant overheating on parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the spike produced so much heat that had the beam been on, automatic safety detectors would have shut down the machine.
I admit there are some eventualities you just can’t plan for, but come on! How are you going to destroy the world if you’re thwarted by bread?! I mean… no.
(via Universe Today, Bread Dropped By Bird Causes Problems for LHC.)
Terrible Decisions Since 2004
by Joseph on Oct.30, 2009, under NaNoWriMo
I almost can’t believe that I’ve had this blog in some form or another for 5 years now. The sad thing is that I don’t have more content to show for it. Outside of some science puns and NaNoWriMo 2004, it’s pretty bleak. Well, might as well stick to what I know. This year I am fully intending, despite distractions like “work” or “school,” to participate in NaNoWriMo. And oh yes, there will be science puns.
Instead of writing one novel, which can really wear a person out, I want to write a bunch of short stories. If a NaNo attempt is partly a terrible decision, here is the other part: I want your suggestions for titles of stories. Not plots, just titles. I already have a few titles in my head, like the following which I found while cleaning up some old documents (and can’t even remember writing).
JT Admiral Makes a Sandwich
“I’m hungry,” JT Admiral announced to his empty office. The office, unsurprisingly, did not respond. Satisfied that the room hadn’t gained sentience when he wasn’t looking, JT set out to make a sandwich. His quest was quickly curtailed by the fact that Omega 12, the curiously shiny space station he called home, was under attack by an unknown force.
“Egad!” he exclaimed.
“Admiral!” a nearby crewman of some sort shouted, “The station is under attack by an unknown force!”
Having recently used ‘egad’ to express surprise, the Admiral needed to choose a backup interjection. “Gadzooks!” he exclaimed.
It’s sort of cheating since there’s a bit written already, but I just won’t apply it toward my word count. So then, dear readers, toss a few titles my way and we’ll see what sticks.
