The Christmas Hoe-Down

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Funny stuff. Me, Oliver, and Leah's cat Oscar, barn dancing together. Make sure you get your fix before January 15!

Did you know there is a Dark Doodad Nebula?

It's true. I just saw it online.

It's that dark streak there through the middle of the photo. And you know, looking at that picture, I have to say that "Dark Doodad" is really a pretty accurate name. What else are you going to call it? Black Streaky Thing? Sounds like a longer name for Dark Doodad if you ask me.

How I spent my Saturday

Tada! It took 11 hours, but I made it. This, my friends, is my crankshaft. Built from scratch. are you proud of me? Because I am proud of me! This is the first thing I have ever built from scratch in SolidWorks, and I'll tell you what, it was a doozy (hence the 11 hours). But here it is. And now I am going to bed.

Oh chemistry, how I loathe thee.

Due to long long hours spent studying for the chemistry exam that is finally finally over with, there hasn't been much that is blogworthy going on lately. So I borrowed this from Leah, and voilà! Insta-post! I grabbed the book closest to me, turned to page 56, started with the 5th sentence, and typed a few in.

"Ions with larger mass are deflected less; ions with smaller mass are deflected more. This deflection essentially sorts the ions by mass because most of them have the same +1 charge. The deflected ions pass through to a detector, which measure the ions as a current that is directly proprtional to the number of ions. This allows the determination of the relative abundance of the various ions in the sample."

Unfortunately, as luck would have it, the book nearest me just happens to be a chemistry book.

My greatest accomplishment

This. This is my greatest accomplishment. Well, for today at least. Now, this may look like a simple 200mm long hinge, but I'll have you know that a good 3+ hours of frustration and hard work went into that little pretend piece of metal. And now it is done. And I am proud. The end.

Attention, a tragedy has occurred.

As you may know, the Large Hadron Collider was turned on about a week and a half ago. They were warming it up (and by "warming it up" I actually mean cooling it down to around -460° F) and running a few tests, building up to mid-October when they would actually start shooting those particles at each other at [close to] the speed of light. Exciting stuff! But here's the bad news: A mere 10 days after firing it up, a giant helium leak is forcing them to shut everything back down. AND, since before they can go in and fix it they have to get the temperature back up to, say, I don't know, not absolute zero (and then back down once it's fixed!), it's going to be another couple of months before the masses can really start panicking about blackholes swallowing the world. Blast! Katelan and I were getting so excited about wearing this shirt!

In the event of a velociraptor invasion, I'm doomed.

I could survive for 28 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Created by Bunk Beds Pedia

Great news, guys! If a velociraptor and I were both chained to a bunk bed with 7 foot chains, I would survive for approximately 28 seconds. Okay, maybe that's not such great news, maybe it actually means that I am a tragically wimpy pansy with zero street skillz. But you know what? I'm not really all that concerned about it. There are 2 things factoring in to my unconcerned attitude: 1) The case happens to be that velociraptors are extinct. 2) The Jones Soda cap from the bottle (Strawberry Lime!) I just opened says:

A long time, see? That translates to "longer than 28 seconds." So I feel fairly confident that I won't be encountering a velociraptor chained to a bunk bed any time soon. What a relief.

In other news, the Large Hadron Collider has not yet destroyed the world. Katelan and I will soon be buying this t-shirt and have big plans to wear it the day after they start shooting those particles at eachother. Go science!