Surreptitious Opinionation

So, my mood has a pretty regular pattern to it, it seems.

At about 15 minutes into a cardio set, I am reborn, fresh, optimistic, and relatively happy. It takes 3-4 days before I am a grumpy, cynical, pessimistic whiner. The clear solution to this a regular workout schedule. But that would interfere with my regular MMORPG schedule (which, to be clear, does not have these aforementioned benefits… =)

My Personality

I have a scientific/engineering background, and I don’t understand radioactivity. So, I’m writing up this little thing, summarizing wikipedia entries, etc.

Thanks to the weak nuclear force, splitting atoms = mucho heat. Neutrons spread out from the split atoms, and bust up other atoms that aren’t all that stable to begin with. The whole process starts by putting atoms that “leak” neutrons with a bunch of other similar atoms, and depending on the density of those atoms, you get nuclear reactions suitable for generating the heat which lets us light a city, or reactions which obliterate one.

Extra neutrons floating around, also bad. Leads to cancer, death, and (rarely) glowing in the dark. Check.

Okay, so the extra neutrons flying around all over the place don’t just split other atoms. Sometimes, they incrementally increase the size of an atom, creating plutonium or other elements which stick around for very short periods of time, unlike plutonium.

• Radiation.
  • There are three forms of radiation that we get taught about. Alpha, beta, gamma.
    1. Gamma is high frequency electromagnetic radiation.
    2. Alpha particles are helium nuclei, and
    3. beta particles are electrons.
  • Gamma rays travel, like light, or radio waves, and are harder to block (lots of lead required). But they also don’t stick around, so they aren’t responsible for the bulk of the danger from radioactive wastes.
  • Beta particles are slower, and tend to stick around more (blockable by thin sheets of metal)? (but we have dislocated electrons in batteries around us all the time, so how would this be a major problem?)
  • Alpha particles are downright pokey by comparison, and can be blocked with thin sheets of paper. They tend to stick around. But once again, helium is around us all the time. Assuming these highly positive helium nuclei manage to swipe some innocent atoms’ electrons, where’s the problem?
• this is the part I didn’t get:
  • Spent fuel rods contain radioactive isotopes of several elements. When uranium splits into other things, the other things stick around. Many of them absorb neutrons, and start radiating (while also inhibiting the reaction of the fissile elements through that absorbtion.) This is why spent fuel rods are dangerous, still contain material that can be reused, and yet will not continue to react.
  • Nuclear explosions are a different story. They release vaporized radioactive debris (which turns into nanoscale dust). That debris spreads on the wind through rain, etc. (didn’t read as much on this one, because it wasn’t my main interest).
  • A passing exposure to some level of radiation isn’t so bad. It’s ongoing exposure to a source of alpha, beta, or gamma radiation. For instance, radioactive iodine (like non-radioactive idodine) gathers in the thyroid, where its radiation destroys tissue in the area and increases the risk of cancer.

So much to know…

I gave up on veganism here in chicago, when out with others because it was causing a serious crimp in my social life. Or so I felt at the time. Funny thing, now that I’m vegetarian out, I have developed other barriers.

To be fair, I have a job that demands 8 hours a day, with a mandatory, doesn’t count for hours, 45 minute lunch. Add in a nearly 1 hour commute each way, and you have 10+ hour day. I can do sudoku and crosswords, catch up on my Collapse reading on the train, but it’s still 8-9 hours/week sitting on the train (assuming I don’t stop anywhere interesting along the way. Significantly longer if I have any evening activities south of home. Hint, that’s where most of the interesting stuff happens. Not to mention the 2+ hours/weekend spent traveling (assuming I go anywhere). But I still feel like my entire life outside of work plunged into well chilled molasses.

Have I thought about moving to reduce the commute? Hell yes. My roommates are good people, but they have different interests and different values. And if I last a year here, that’s all I’ll last. Because I said I would. Because I don’t want to pay to move again. Because I don’t have the time to search for a good place. Because I’ve tried finding myself through changing apartments in chicago in the past, and it didn’t work.

I’m also not liking the whole gay chat medium experience. Yes, Virginia, I’ve dipped my foot back in the pool. Same shit, different services. Mixed motives. Hell, I know all about mixed motives. I want a good circle of friends. I want some sense of community involvement. Actually, as I’ve alluded to, my order of preference is probably activists, gamers, then homos (all 3 would be rockstar). And I’d still like to date and get laid, thanks. Broadcast culture, whether it be tv, theatre, radio, whatever, leaves much to be desired. Feedback, interactivity. And richer dynamics than one-on-one interaction affords. These are things I’m lacking in my life.

I want activists, because these are people who believe in something and work towards it, frequently sacrificing extraordinary quantities of time, energy, and potential salary. Mad props to for her activism. On another level though, getting involved with activist communities is problematic, because I can’t wave signs due to my position. (though I can attend rallies, just not hold banners. I shit you not, welcome to the logic of bureaucracy. It’s not that particular restriction, but how everything becomes a minefield of what I’m supposed to do and not supposed to do.)

Gamers are a little trickier. Most notably, finding them, in a working town known more for its union laborers and baseball stadia than its computer scientists and nerd culture.

I feel like I’m losing touch with the things that make me happy. Like I couldn’t even tell you what they are any more (this post was partially to think about what it was, so that I could get back in touch with it). I mean, I can and do make nice with the gaming disdaining bar sitters, sports fans and reality tv watchers who don’t bother to get off their ass and do something about the causes that they claim matter to them. But I don’t connect with them in ways that either of us cares about.

Those who haven’t seen this yet, need to.

Okay, so my “sick and tired”ness of travel has worn off. Woe for my budget.

I’ll be going on a family trip to Hawaii the week of Columb^W^H Native Peoples Day, (October 10-14 to be precise). On the way there, I will likely have a 3 or 4 day layover in ye ol’ bay area. On the way back, I’ll have an 15-18 hour layover in the LA area.

Also, southwest tickets are pretty damn cheap. (8 round trips to a freebie).

web browsing: I need to get out of the habit of using tabs and not using bookmarks.

social life: Yeah, I need a social life I’m content with before I start dating. And I can’t let hot guys and amazing sex sway me from that judgement. Okay, maybe I can. But I still need a social life. Maybe I need to stop meeting people in sexually charged environments? I dunno. Nerds and environmentalists need to establish meeting spaces. Homos are easy to find. Quality people are always in demand, and thus harder to reach. Despair is not an option. Choosing not to accept anything less than perfection means there will be very little one accepts in one’s life.

So, my folks are heading out to see the extended family in southern illinois this weekend. I would like to join them, but, it’s just not accessible. I’m saving up my spare time to join them (my parents) for a week in hawaii in october (and I still need to pull an extra day’s worth of work time out of some extradimensional orifice to make that one work).

It’s either a ‘5 and a half hour’ each amtrak trip assuming nothing breaks (approximately akin to assuming 2 inches of rain on any given day in AZ). or a 10 hour greyhound trip each way. Either option costs about 120, and spends 2/3 of my weekend getting from point A to point B. If I could take off an extra day or two for the travel, I’d probably do it. But I really don’t have the time to spare.

Otoh, there are some tempting looking e-saver flights. Like $202 to burlington, $160 to NYC, $250 to SFO, $200 to toronto, or $150 to dc. Except I’ve been to all of those places recently. No esavers to seattle, portland, or vancouver, the next places I’d really like to check out. Maybe I should just hang out and do something in town. Ah, but what to do, what to do? =)

So, hitting IKEA last night, I checked out the apple store at the nearby mall. There I (and Terry, who was driving me) got prompt service. The service itself was a gfy (the only things covered under warranty with the ac adapter is the transformer. The rest of it is too subject to user mistreatment, or so they say. He once again informed me of my buy option, then openly pointed out that there are non-apple retailers which sell ac adapters that work with iBooks, for less than half the apple store price (as phramok had in this very blog).

And that’s precisely what I’m getting.

Also, the genius on staff specifically steered us away from the sole store within chicago’s city limits. The only one readily accessible by L, pointing out that the place can’t handle its tech support load promptly.

Probably because it’s the only mac store accessible by L. And it’s more than up to handling the pace of selling new units, so they “clearly” don’t need to build a new store.