spectastic

the times I've been in danger on a bicycle, it was the driver(s) who were out of compliance. I breaks the rules a lot, but have had enough trial/error by now to do it safely for me and everyone else.

I have to show up to court, with a jury..... I don't know what to say, I really fucked up this time..... a few weeks ago, I was riding my bicycle towards campus, and ran a stop sign. *breaks down sobbing* the cop saw me, and chased me down on his motorcycle. I had to schedule an appointment to meet with a prosecutor, who said I had to pay the court fees, plus a fine, or plead not guilty, and stand in front of a judge or jury. She basically told me straight up, I don't agree with this bullshit either, but I gotta give it to you. So I chose a jury, because I have slightly more faith in American citizens than the justice system. Plus, I bet these people could use a little insight on how inefficient and wasteful this court system is, and maybe a day off of work. *blows my nose*

m&m's color and sweetness are appealing because they're colorful, and we are evolutionarily (that a word?) Inclined to pick colorful foods because thousands of years of trial and error has taught us that colorful foods fulfill a wide variety of our nutrition needs, and the sweetness appeals to us because sweet = nutrition, for the same aforementioned reason. So now food manufacturers use our biological inclinations to fuck us and our children, in order to make more money. Cant help you with s3qr. I imagine it's a primitive version of c3po

When I was a small child, my legs were short, so when I sat on the bowl, only my toes touched the ground. Somehow, it stayed that way, even though my legs are now long enough

if you're not using it, it's a liability. sell it while it still holds decent value. do consider the alternatives though. i buy food weekly in bulk, so if i sell my car, I'd have to get a bicycle trailer to hold the 40-50 lbs of goodies. but I'm heavily biased against cars in general, because bicycles and scooters/motorcycles are so much more efficient, cheaper, and convenient.

I'm always curious to know how how a diversified background will influence one's merit. I'm sure it varies case by case. In my field, some employers will only hire from a handful of places because would rather pick from a known resource, rather than take a gamble from an overseas institution that could be less well known, and could have totally different set of standards. But then again, I've never really talked to anyone about this type of stuff.

Whats on your mind? I think there may be an ulterior motive for going to Mars. The publically stated reason is to jumpstart the desire to expand the human consciousness as a multiplanetary species. It's a noble pursuit. But if you visualize this colonization, it makes little sense to leave a perfectly good working planet to try to inhabit somewhere uninhabitable. In addition, the ability for people to colonize other planets, even with cheaper rockets, will be restricted to the elites. If the world were to experience a massive extinction event, and you were to put your best people on Noah's ark, where everyone serves a purpose, this would be it. In turn, you end up with a small yet efficient society that is enormously higher in value contribution per capita than what currently exists. Everything that anybody complains about, like inefficient political system, poor education, corporate exploitation, crony capitalism, ignorance, corruption, overpopulation, all the cancer that hinders us as a species, would be trimmed out. Instead of people being hypnotized by daytime tv, each individual serves a purpose in advancing that society, without government, corporate interest, ancient traditions standing in the way of this advancement. What starts with addressing the basic needs like food and shelter soon flourishes, because on earth, we take for granted our god given resources, whereas in space, the need for adaptation is much higher, and this mentality should carry forward to future generations. Earth becomes a human infested dump, and human evolution carries forward in space. In other thoughts, I really hope this new motorcycle engine works, and that I don't fuck it up putting it in. And Bernie lost.

If the opportunity presents itself, I can imagine myself living out my later years in South America. It fits all the criteria you list. you essentially triple your relative wealth and purchasing power. The people are exotic (or so I've heard) at least until it becomes normal. Your skills and knowledge will be highly sought after in a society that's decades behind our curve. Honestly, I'm not too happy about America right now. If I were Canadian, I'd try to seek refuge in Vancouver or something

I would consider Austin a vacation destination. when you get past the honeymoon period, it's just another city. Sure, I appreciate the liberal and diverse culture, and the awesome landscape. But it's a matter of time before that becomes the norm. It's easier to be happier here, than say... anywhere else in texas, but your surroundings ultimately is what you make of it. now i'm contradicting myself with my comments about florida.

I've never been, but I hear it's a dichotomy of really old people, with small sects of wild party venues, neither of which particularly interest me. It might be a good place to visit. But I wouldn't want to be surrounded by a sea of ignorant, shallow people. hate to generalize, but I hear things, and they can't all be wrong.

yea, never moving back to the midwest. I figure somewhere that's south enough to not experience tornados, yet inland enough such that in 50 years, when florida is underwater, and the coastal dwellers are massively migrating, your property becomes the new coast.

one of the things I appreciate about the south is the higher humidity. I get soaking wet in sweat, but I'll take that than the dry blistering winter I was getting in iowa. the skin on my knuckles would crack when I clinch into a fist. and I remember one time in high school, a friend stayed over. He pinched my nose to wake me up, and my nose started bleeding. nose bleeds were a common occurrence for me too, and I've always been pretty healthy.

anyone engaged in thermostat wars with their roommate(s)? We've been dialing back and forth between 72 and 75F, until I pulled the unit and emptied the battery such that the AC stopped working altogether. but it appears someone has figured that out... must revise war tactics

don't dwell on the past. learn from it and move on. there may still be a place for you in the scientific community. i talked to a random girl who studied journalism. She edits science news articles... articles that require a high level understanding of broad concepts, with greater focus on market and technological trends. The technician in our lab is bummed about studying chemistry instead of engineering, but he's looking into sales positions, which is slightly technical, but nothing overwhelming. At the other extreme, you have the hard STEM guys grinding it out in the lab to make catalyst B achieve a 5% greater product yield. none of these things were taught in school, and all are possible path forwards but take it with a grain of salt, because the title of your degree DOES matter, especially earlier on, and there are 20 other peoples who do have that worthless degree, IN ADDITION to the much needed relevant knowledge and experience. in those situations, it's important to know people

Various people learn differently. the US education system is profoundly inefficient in addressing people's learning styles. What ends up happening is that potentially talented people get weeded out of their beloved topics, because there's always someone else who loves this topic equally, can take tests well, and fill that need in society. So I think the key here, before you completely throw in the towel, is to understand how you learn best, and how that contrasts with how you're taught. I learn best by demonstrations and practice, and I fall asleep at the textbook. Others learn better with textbooks and exams, but they might suck in the lab. I hated electromagnetism in school, until I learned that the left/right hand rules actually come in handy when it comes to electric motors and generators, which I think are really cool. If I were to do it over, I'd get a EE degree... anyway, I think it's wrong to judge a person based upon talent alone; that should be pretty obvious. Many talented people who do well in school don't do well in society, because they don't possess the discipline to coach themselves. The opposite is also true for certain people who might have a slow start, but don't give up, and instead focus on continuous growth. If you're interested in science, I say go and learn it. Go at your own pace. Use open source material or things like Khan's academy, and structure your learning based upon how you think you learn best. Don't be discouraged in your abilities because the school system says so. fuck the school system

my program requires me to pay tuition to be enrolled as a part time student in order to be able to TA. but the TA also waives most of my tuition. go figure... i'm just happy someone's paying me

I wear a watch on my wrist, and I look at it a lot.

Got two rather dashing khakis from goodwill. $8.11 Better than switching to geico

thanks for the suggestions. I realized after I posted how stupid of a topic this is. sorry. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'll just go and get a couple of cheap cargo pants that'll go over my shorts, and keep them on campus somewhere. btw. I would never wear road cycling shorts to school. I don't need that kind of attention. I've got some nice baggy mtb shorts that I circulate, and they're pretty nice.

I think you should find out why the professors advise you to jump into a PhD. Professors are people too, prone to bias. I think the most important point here is that you should strive to further understand yourself, and ask questions like "what do I want to do 5-10 years from now?" "What gets me out of bed in the morning?" "what type of work environment will I thrive in?" "what are my strengths and weaknesses?" These are questions that only you can really answer, and they're important life questions to understand in general, and applies to not only grad school. I'm kind of in the same boat as you, because I'm still trying to understand what's all out there, what life do I want to live, and how will a PhD help me get there? Time is the most important commodity, and the drawback to a PhD is that it's ~5 years straight. Half of the people who come out of a PhD don't end up doing what they had originally intended to do, and that's also scary. I think it's wise to have some reservation about making a large commitment like this. So my advise is to find out more about yourself, reach out to people who live the life you want to live, start your job search NOW to see what's out there, read about different industries. These will help you make a more informed decision.

let me reword the question. Is there a convenient, light and more fashionable alternative to hospital pants?

I was hoping to avoid having to change, but I guess that's the most obvious choice.

the nature of my research and teaching gig dictate that I have to wear pants in the lab. Texas is hot. I bike to campus. All the pants that I have are inelastic (uncomfortable on a bicycle) and hot. Surely, I'm not the first one who has faced this dilemma. What have people done in the past?

it's 2:30 am, I was planning to get up for a 8am group ride tomorrow (or I guess today), but the walls are really thin.. I got one roommate playing video games on one side, and romeo's pleasuring his very vocal juliet in the other. does anybody get any fucking sleep around here?? g-damn.