The Exploits of a TurboGeek!

I don’t have it… In fact, I pride myself in having no phobias. I think phobias are silly. I appreciate them, as they have a profound ability to overwhelm the reason and control of those who suffer them. I wonder what it would be like to be petrified like that, once, just to try it out… Then I’d like it to go away.

In fact, I try to be fearless as much as possible. Generally, when I find myself feeling fearful, I try to address the fear, to understand why I feel that way, then to overcome it by experiencing whatever I am fearing as directly as possible. I’m particularly fortunate to have not developed a fear of death, as my paradigm for fear busting might not work out so well.

I am not fearless. If I were fearless, I’d not have anything to overcome, so my mock fearlessness is not bravado, it is just… mock. In any case, I’m not afraid of spiders, I think they’re cool. So, when spider took up residence outside my front door, I welcomed this. I have many spider stories, it will be hard to keep this entry short.

Early on, my spider made a mistake. She built her web in the upper right corner, as she is wont to do, but she included a gigantic support web from the corner to near the door knob. Thankfully, I noticed this, and carefully broke the web, and reattached it somewhere else (not very well, mind you.) Then, using the same tones I used while talking to the world’s smallest grasshopper, I informed my spider that she is welcome to stay as long as she may like, provided that she does not obstruct the doorway. We’ve not had a recurrence. It occurs to me that I failed to tell the story of the worlds smallest grasshopper… Another story for another day.

Here is a picture of my spider:

I’m going to toot my own horn… That is a cool picture. I didn’t edit it or anything, I just used my pocket LED flashlight and my camera. I like the shadow effect!

Sometimes bugs fly into my apartment. Normally, these bugs are killed on sight. By “on sight”, I mean after I spend some time seeking a suitable swatting implement, and then the amount of time it takes for me to relocate the bug, and all the time I spend swinging at it, in vain. For fun, I like to catch the bugs, and throw them into my spider’s web (it is less wasteful). She is quick and merciless, usually attacking and killing the bug, on sight… Truly so. Though sometimes she gets scared because she sees me throwing the bug, and then she hides in the corner, and the bug gets away.

Anyway, my spider has gotten to be quite large, as evidenced by my spooky picture. Two nights ago, while admiring my spider, I noted that there are more spiders living in my doorway. I counted five, in addition to my first one. They’ve covered all the corners, and the light, which has since burned out, offering them less in the way of bait for wayward insects. Yet, they flourish. I think I may have to do something about it, but it feels wrong to get rid of the other spiders and just keep my one. However, she and I had an agreement, and I’ll not breach it.

Today, I was running late for work, and I didn’t have any undershirts. So, I ran out of my apartment without my shirt on, to get an undershirt from the laundry. When I opened the door to the laundry and blundered in, I caught a full spiderweb square in the face. This was a different spider who had made a particularly large and elaborate web, fully in violation of the non-obstruction pact my spider and I had entered into.

There I was, naked from the waist up, and fully entangled in a web. It could only have been grosser if I had been yawning at the time.

So, while not afraid of spiders, I don’t particularly relish the thought of them roaming my bare body. It was morning, so I’m confident that the offending spider had already curled up in the corner, awaiting the warm morning sun. I got no bites or anything, just a renewed desire to clear out my doorway denizens.

Anyway, that is my tale.

P.S. I tried to comment on krissythang’s blog, but I couldn’t,
since myspace is patently evil, and if I ever meet someone who
writes code for them I will punch them square in the face,
on sight.

Once, while returning to LA from Virginia, my flight was canceled.
Trying to reschedule, my agent was ticking off options, and I was
trying to mentally track them, and choose the shortest one, or the
one with the “best” layover… Then she mentions that I can take
a flight that has a layover in Logan… Logan, I thought… That is
in Boston, right? I’ve never been to that airport before. Only a
75 minute layover? That could work…

Yes, I contemplated flying an additional 4 hours, to have a longish
layover in an airport, just because I’d never been there before…
Not Boston, I’d only get to see the air port. Luckily, my reason
returned, and I opted for the 45 minute layover in DFW.

Yes, I had been flying too much, but it was worth it, overall

Well, I just stated I had nothing to say, then I realized that I was overdue in writing an email to a good friend of mine. It came out pretty good (in my opinion) so I’m posting it here…

Mr. Fasolo had asked…

Theoretically does/can all time exist at once? Past/present/future at the same time?

From what I understand, Time is not linear. We make it linear because it’s how we exist and what we can understand.

Okay, for your question… In physics, we have the concept of “The arrow of time.” Essentially it is just a dial that tells us which way time flows. The reason we have this is to make sure we’re properly analysing irreversible situations. Consider the following. You fly to the moon, throw a ball straight up, and then catch it. Meanwhile, I video tape the flight of the ball.
If we were to somehow get mixed up when we got back to earth, and couldn’t remember which way to play the tape, we might not be able to figure it out just by watching the video. It would look pretty much the same played forward as it would played backwards. The arrow of time in that video isn’t readily apparent. It is a reversible event.
By contrast, now consider this. I video tape you at your birthday party. Just as you’re about to make your wish, a balloon drifts down from the ceiling, is heated by your numerous candles, explodes and blows them all out (and splatters you with icing). No matter what happens, we’ll always know which way to play that tape. The arrow of time is readily apparent because the balloon exploding and the candles being extinguished is irreversible.
An irreversible event occurs only flowing in the direction of the arrow of time. Balloons never unexplode, candles never unextinguish…

Now, remember in the first example, we had to go to the moon. In reality, almost every event is irreversible. Had we done the ball video on earth, wind resistance would have made it possible to determine which way to play the video. On the moon, that is much less likely. Now, for the most oft misquoted rule in physics… I’ll paraphrase The Second Law of Thermodynamics:

For a given system, entropy always increases or stays the same.

The part most often omitted is the bit about “For a given system”… What it says is, if you look at a set of things interacting, in their entirety, the entropy for the whole system never decreases. It does not say that entropy always increases, only the sum of the entropies for a whole system never decreases. Entropy is just randomness. A balloon isn’t very random. When it explodes, it becomes more random as pieces of rubber and gasses go everywhere. A balloon exploding is an example of increasing randomness.
Raking leaves in your yard is an example of decreasing randomness. Clearly one can do this, so entropy can decrease… For the leaves. However, you generate heat while raking, as well as breaking leaves, breathing heavy and an assortment of other entropic events. Overall, everything involved in the interaction involved in raking leaves is subject to an increase in entropy. More about Thermodynamics…

This is related to your question in that you asked about our perception of time. Essentially, we perceive time in the sense that the arrow of time always points in the same direction; toward increasing entropy. One could argue that our perception is by choice, but really we’re slipping from physics into existential philosophy then. If we assume that people exist, and that we experience the universe together, we also must concede that no one appears to perceive the universe with time running in the direction of entropy constantly decreasing.
One could then argue that we wouldn’t be able to interact with any being that viewed “the other way”, but I’d personally disagree. If said being witnessed our universe on the same terms as us (seeing light and hearing sound, etc) then that being would be interacting with the same “stuff” as us. If that is the case, there is no reason we couldn’t interact with one another using our shared perceptions as a proxy.
Since we observe no phenomena that run backwards, nor do we have any input from anyone who claims to witness such events, we have to agree that there is at least a direction for time. Balloons explode. Period.
We don’t need to observe the balloon for it to explode. Lots of stuff happens that we can observe evidence of, and conclude that the Second Law has not been violated. So it isn’t a case of our observation defines the time frame. If this were the case, there would be lots of unexplained phenomena, whose evidence wouldn’t fit the Second Law. Since the arrow of time is consistent despite our observation, or lack thereof, we have to assume that it isn’t a human creation.
Finally, one could argue that perhaps time does run both ways, but we have other rules that account for everything running in the same direction. None of our observations support time running backwards, and the amount of rules and supposition required to define the universe that way is unwieldy and incomplete. It is more likely that the simplest explanation is correct (Occam’s Razor). Time runs only one direction.

I think that answers your question. There is a whole world of discussion concerning the human perception of time. However, that isn’t physics, nor is it something I’m particularly well versed in, so I’ll leave that debate for a wiser commenter, or until after I’ve had a few beers and I get rowdy showing off my Beer Neurons…

Oh, for the record, the Second Law allows entropy to remain constant. In truth, it is hard to find a good example of a real world event where entropy appears to remain constant. Electrons orbiting a nucleus might qualify, since they don’t appear to lose energy or change state. However, it isn’t a great example, if only for sake of the fact that one is tempted to invoke Quantum Mechanics at that point, and things get a bit complicated. Regardless, if we look at a short enough time frame, say one full orbit, entropy doesn’t appear to increase. The Second Law is still inviolate.

Okay. Must write more. Must write more. I don’t have much to say today. The water/heater guy came by this morning. He increased my hot water pressure a bit, and certified that no noxious gasses were emanating from my heating units. That is good to know.
Also, the my new cleaning lady visited today. She doesn’t like my selection of cleaning supplies, or my vacuum. She did clean really well, however. I’ll try her for another day and see how it goes.

In other news, all sorts of exciting stuff happens in LA after I leave! First, there were a few good earthquakes, now here are two other news stories…

A Power Outage.
and
One about an Alligator.

Hi There! Here are the details from my most recent trip to London! To start with, I had a blast! I was pleasantly surprised to find that a flight to London is less than an hour in duration, and that getting from Stansted Airport to London is an absolute no-brainer. They actually sell discount tickets for the train on the plane, and the platform is right inside the terminal. Wonderful!

The first night and evening, I just wandered around somewhat aimlessly. Many of the London museums are free of charge, requesting a donation for visiting. This is nice, since it gives one (me) an incentive to just poke my head in and sniff around for a while, then plan a longer trip on a subsequent day, which I did. I first visited the National Gallery, outside of Trafalgar Square, and learned that there was a special Exhibit on “Stubbs” an 18th Century anatomist/artist, who specialised in painting horses. I arrived bright and early the next day and enjoyed the exhibit immensely.

I also found myself with the opportunity to visit the British Museum, which is immense and impressive. I’ll be honest, I wandered around somewhat aimlessly there. I only had one goal: The Rosetta Stone. There are few objects in modern history that have a similar significance. For those who don’t know, the Rosetta Stone was discovered first by the French, and then retrieved by the British after they were able to force the French from Egypt. The stone is important as it provided the key decryption element in understanding the ancient Egyptian writings, or heiroglyphs.

What impresses me more, is that after tens and hundreds of years of indecypherability, the Rosetta Stone provided the means to further explore and understand the Ancient Egyptians. Further, the Rosetta Stone wasn’t “discovered’ by scientists searching for such an artifact, but by soldiers and military officers, colonizing a foreign land, and combating the troops of another colonizing force.

Wandering the British Museum, it is hard to overlook the breadth of the British colonization. “The Sun never sets on the British Empire.” is the saying, and it was, at least once, true. Remember: America, Hong Kong, India, and Australia were all once, at least partially, British colonies. They sent their explorers far and wide, and brought home treasures that boggle my imagination. Part of me is sad that natives of a given land now lack these treasures. However, having lived several months in Cyprus (yet another former colony), I found no museums or evidence of the preservation of similar treasures. So, while many of the national treasures of foreign lands were carted back to England, that theft acted as a more profound safe-guard than many developing nations could then (and in some cases now) afford.

Speaking of theft, I lost my sunglasses in London. That made me sad. I had purchased those sunglasses, breaking my long standing trend of spending 10 bucks on cheap glasses and breaking them in about a year. These sunglasses had not yet managed to last a sufficient number of years to have proven a more worthwhile investment, so I was sad to have lost them before having the chance to break them.

Soss (my friend from HS) and I were at a cafe for drinks, after riding in the London Eye, and when we got up to leave, I noticed my glasses were gone. So we went back to the table, and they weren’t there. Next we went inside and I asked if anyone had found any glasses. No one had. “Perhaps someone nicked them.” the owner offered. Now I was doubly sad, not only did I lose them, they were stolen.

So, we wandered across tower bridge, and I pondered how someone could have nefariously snuck up and swiped my glasses. I didn’t notice anyone suspiciously tailing me, and I try to be cognizant of such things. I couldn’t let the matter rest, so I asked Mike to humor me and head back to the Cafe to check again. Maybe they fell out of my pocket and were yet in the chair? We were delayed on our return since a boat required the bridge to be raised, and then it started raining. We were soaked when we got back to the Cafe, and my glasses were still gone. Now I was trebly sad.

I wandered into the Cafe, and verified I hadn’t done something stupid like leave them in the beverage case when I got my Iced Tea… Or placed them upon the top of a counter or case somewhere. No luck. So we decided to go get lunch, and as we wandered past the Cafe, I looked once more, forlornly within, and then I spotted them. They had fallen on the floor and were under the counter, visible from the sidewalk. So, I ran in and was reunited with my wayward glasses.

My faith in humanity was restored. I wasn’t the victim of a crime, I was just careless. I’d rather be a Loser than a Mark, I guess

That’s all for now. I’ll post some photos once I have them developed. Ciao for now!

Okay, so here I am writing about Saturday in Cyprus again. Saturday, as I previously alluded, was the big party day in Cyprus, so we ended up driving to Agia Napa… This isn’t a big deal, as Cyprus is a small island, and one can pretty much traverse it long ways in about 3 hours. Agia Napa is one of those places which almost defies description, but I’ll do my best to paint a pretty picture.

Picture your typical college bar, with some sort of theme… You know, the Flintstones, or a giant car wash or something. Now, picture that bar on a Friday night. Now pretend that earlier that same day, the college in question announced that, due to a computer error, finals would be canceled, everyone would automatically receive a 4.0 GPA and a refund on the previous year’s tuition. Madness, you say? Madness, I agree.

Now, pretend that you and 50 friends each managed to pick a different theme when I asked you to imagine one. Pack all fifty of those bars into one square mile, and place that square mile of bars a stone’s throw away from the Mediterranean Sea. What you’re envisioning now, is a pretty good description of Agia Napa on a slow night.

Agia Napa is a fun place to be, and in addition to that, some of my very good friends from Poland were currently living there, so I was naturally eager to visit them. We had a big night of partying ahead of us, and everyone was excited to go have some fun! For Tim and I, the first order of business was finding a hotel room, since we were pretty sure that his fiance would kill him if she found that he’d spent the night in a studio apartment with four gorgeous Polish women.

Our plans were thwarted, when all the hotels were booked due to unforeseen circumstances. It turns out that there was a concert playing on Saturday night, and the town had nearly sold out! We spent an hour driving around, marveling that one concert had managed to overflow the available accommodation, and ended up in a fairly nice hotel, fairly far from the action. No worries though, that is what taxis are for

We started out at a bar called the Black Hawk. The special that evening: Buy one drink, get two shots free. The four of us (Tim, Kai, Zuza and myself) began drinking with no particular goal in mind. Our pyramid of shots continued to grow, as our server, perhaps inspired by some high quality flirting (by yours truly) bought us all a round of drinks. Next time around, she took all of our glasses away, because the bar was running out. At the time, none of us was capable of tallying the number of glasses, but the following day, we pieced together from the structure of the pyramid and the drinks purchased, that our pyramid was 41 glasses tall (4 rounds, X 4 people, X 2 glasses per round per person + 4 extra for Kai’s special drink, + 5 for the round the waitress gave us).

I made a miscalculation somewhere along the way, pacing my consumption on the number of drinks I ordered, instead of the number of drinks I drank. Tim, for reasons unknown decided he wasn’t in a “shot” mood, and gave me all his drinks, so I was responsible for just about half of the pyramid. Things went downhill from there…

Later, as I vomited off the balcony at the girls apartment, I had enough sense to marvel at the amount of puking I’d done this trip (See Day 1). We eventually piled into the cab and retired to the hotel room.

You may wonder what might have distracted me sufficiently from my drink tallying to allow me to become so inebriated. Well, a lot of things, not the least of which was the concert in town, that we didn’t go to. Though we weren’t there, we still needed to try and sing as much of the songs that we could, that we anticipated being performed. We also had to goad passersby and waitresses to sing with us, which meant more drinks.

What were we singing, you ask? Well I’ll tell you… We were able to recall the lyrics to Holding out for a Hero easily enough… Well, mostly we just yelled “I need a Heeero!” periodically, but it got the point across. Our server at the Black Hawk was able to remind us about Total Eclipse of the Heart which somehow escaped us until then. So now we were yelling “HEeero!” and quietly lyricising “Turn Around” whenever the situation warranted.

Yes, you guessed it. Bonnie Tyler is still touring. (Two links there!). In fact, she’s recently released a CD!

Sunday morning, I woke up at 8am when my phone alarm went off. I turned on the TV shortly after that, to find that a Cypriot plane had crashed in Athens. My hang-over didn’t seem quite so bad in retrospect, yet I stayed in bed. Eventually we all met up for breakfast, where the Polish girls ordered Shandy’s (Beer with Sprite) and the boys struggled to eat anything. At one point I had found myself chewing my food some 275 times, simply because I could force myself to take a bite, but was still reluctant to swallow. After lounging briefly at the pool, it was time to go home. Tim missed Maggie, and Zuza had to work. I just needed to get some sleep… Sadly I was the driver.

Oddly, though I was the sickest of the crew on Saturday night, everyone else was sick for days to come. I guess my personal defense of drinking too much inspired me to get rid of what evil substance lurked in our drinks. Even those who drank comparatively little were ill… Go figure.

Tuesday was a fun day. I relaxed and prepared to have a nice night out. I was able to spend some time with Christian, the Karaoke guy from my favorite bar, and also the British family I met last year. We had an awesome time, and it continued on into the night, most of which was spent at the Welcome Inn.

Inevitably, I ended up singing again, which is fun, but perhaps unfairly painful to all those who must bear it witness. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I can play the video of my singing right here, for you. Thanks to the wonders of common sense, and personal censure, I won’t provide a link to such a bizarre spectacle.

So, that is pretty much it. Now, here are some stories about the time that elapsed while I wasn’t writing this entry. I owe you stories about Stuttgart, Zurich and Amsterdam. That won’t happen until the weekend though. Tomorrow I’m off to visit a friend in London.

Yes, I’m settling into Europe quite nicely. Safe travels, and I’ll talk to you all again soon!