No Poll is Worth Crashing, but It's Still Fun Nonetheless

I've been taking a nice break from science since graduation by laying out next a pool with some friends and reading books from the current events section of Barnes & Noble.

This site which polls people for who they think are the "true patriots" (eg. those who are involved in the political process for their country and constituents) versus those who are "true traitors" (eg. those who are involved only for self-interests) is rather humurous. The humor rests in the irony that the top 10 patriots listed are as follows since this writing:

1. Alberto Gonzalez
2. George W. Bush
3. Michael Reagan
4. Dick Cheney
5. Volunteer Military
6. Fred Thompson
7. Ann Coulter
8. John McCain
9. Dr. Bill Cosby
10. Bill O'Reilly

Quite the funny list. I find irony in listing Bush II and some of his fellow compatirots in his regime since every action can be traced to a personal self-interest and not the betterment of the societal health of this country. This isn't a matter of speaking about policies itself but the way in which policies were enacted and executed, and the overrall general Republican attitude toward the entire political system since the era of Nixon.

Eh, but I am just a recent college graduate with little experience of "the real world". What do I know about our broken government?

This is Quite Foul

I don't know where it's from, but it certainly is quite foul (and funny).

Finals Are Done.

Finals are over. It is now time to sit in front of the television and eat cheetos until something more productive falls in my lap.

A Quote and A Clip

It's finals week. That means I have no life. So here's a motivational quote.

We began with the steam engine... Nature reflects the steam engine, but in a much more elaborate way... We are the children of chaos, and the deep structure of change is decay. At root there is only corruption, and the unstemmable tide of chaos. Gone is purpose; all there is left is direction. This is the bleakness we have to accept as we peer deeply and dispassionately into the heart of the Universe. Yet when we look around and see beauty, when we look within and experience conciousness, and when we participate in the delights of life, we know in our hearts that the heart of the Universe is richer by far. But that is sentiment, and is not what we should know in our minds. Science and the steam engine have a greater nobility. Together they reveal the awesome grandeur of the simplicity of complexity.

~Peter Atkins, The Second Law (1994)

And an unrelated clip, very funny of the Governator.

Learning LaTeX

It's pretty fascinating that I have managed to survive four years of being a physical science major; yet I never learned LaTeX very well.

Now I must learn because I want to use this cool tool to post formulas quickly and easily on blogger. I know LaTeX isn't hard, but I don't think I'll master it until after finals.

The following is just a test of my LaTeX skills. It is the principal equation of the kink-based path integral formulation, and thus is the central equation of my senior thesis.

Q = \int \left(x_0+\frac{\Gamma_0}{1-\Gamma_1}\right)^P dR^N

w00t for being successful! Now to tackle introducing the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics.

Finishing Up My Thesis

I'm finishing polishing my thesis (which is due by 4:30pm today), and I feel like this image empowers me.



Now where can I get a kitty who is good with theoretical chemistry and chemical physics? I want one! Now!