Tag: science

Random Thoughts

The last few days have put me into a prolonged, slow burning state of freak out. Fun.

My friend’s father passed away on Monday. My father went into the hospital on Tuesday. No details on either situation will be forthcoming. We just got clobbered by a thunderstorm which, it turns out, was rough enough to knock out the power in the hospital. The backup generators kicked in a second later, but woah.

I am planning to go to the hospital after work tonight. I need to make dinner first but then I’ll go for a quick visit before visiting hours end. Tomorrow morning is the funeral. I’ll go to the hospital afterwards. How’s that for a tough day? The last few days have been bad, but tomorrow… woah.

On less important (re: not important at all) topics, I have one more episode of The Umbrella Academy’s final season to watch. I strongly suspect that once I finish that final episode I will immediately start a rewatch of the entire series from season one episode one. I think that is going to happen.

Earlier today I was looking at Threads (the twitter alternative social network made by the same assholes who make instagram and bookfayce which begs the question why the fuck am I giving this new social network site the time of day) and I posted that musically speaking, today is a Porcupine Tree kinda day (from a mental health standpoint, of course… meaning heavy and complicated and confusing if you’re not paying close attention). TWELVE MINUTES LATER I got a notification that the Porcupine Tree instagram account had been ported to Threads. They haven’t posted anything yet but I guess I should say you’re welcome?

I don’t know what the dad situation is going to be like this weekend but I do know that Bellana, my step daughter, is coming over for a visit. All the bad, scary stuff going on feels a little more bearable when the kids come by. I am really looking forward to seeing how she did at her conference this week. I want all the sciency details.

Speaking of science, from a nutritional standpoint I screwed up yesterday. I spent the whole day at the hospital with Dad and when I left the house I forgot to take my pill case with me. I took my breakfast vitamin pills before I left, and took my lunch vitamin pills when I got home for dinner. I was going to take my dinner vitamin pills before I went to sleep, but I fell asleep earlier than expected and missed that dose. Dummy. Note to self: bring the friggin’ pill case tomorrow. Dumb ass.

What else? Word from the hospital this afternoon is that Dad is starting to show early signs of coming out of whatever was wrong. My fingers and toes and eyes are all firmly crossed. Again, I am not sharing details beyond a small hint of optimism. Enjoy it while you can.

Okay, Robert. Stop stressing and get back to work. You have stuff to do. Do it.

Kids Meal

Fact: The cheese pizza from the kids meal at Chili’s is simultaneously revolting and AMAZING.

It is a marvel of modern culinary science.

You (probably) heard it here first.

Also, for the gastric bypass crowd: 23 grams of protein in that little sucker? Nice.

Welcome to the Moon

The Odysseus lander is on the moon! Nice job, everyone!

Granted, according to the article I just linked, there were issues. The system that was meant to determine if the lander was right side up or not failed and they had to improvise an alternative. It might have worked, but as of the posting of said article, they aren’t sure if the lander landed on it’s feet or fell over onto its side or what.

We’ll find out soon enough. Here’s hoping we get good news. Also, here’s hoping we get pictures. It’s been a long time since we’ve had new pictures from the moon. The last US lander was in 1972, but there have been others since then. Other countries have had more recent successes. I think India sent the last lander to land near the South pole. They were 600 kilometers away and this new one is shooting for about 300 kilometers away.

Pics or it didn’t happen, right?

Moon Landing: Imminent?

There is about to be an attempt to soft land a lunar lander onto the moon. 300 kilometers from the South pole. If it is successful it will be the first time a private company pulled it off, and it will also be the furthest South anything has landed. Given that there appears to be ice in a crater at the South pole, that’s pretty gigantic in its significance.

The lander was sent up by a company called Intuitive Machines and of course it will be timed to happen while I am stuck in traffic on this evening’s commute so I won’t be able to try and follow it live.

Here’s hoping that when I get home I will learn about the first USA based craft to soft land on the moon since the last Apollo mission back in 1972.

Fingers astronomically crossed.

Where is Artemis 1 Right Now?

Yeah yeah yeah, I said I was going to stop using twitter, but sometimes I just want another app to format a link for me and CounterSocial isn’t working with WordPress.com yet so twitter it is.

Artemis Looks Back

Did you all wave when Artemis 1 took your picture?

Artemis I: Scrubbed

I’m pretty disappointed. NASA was supposed to launch it’s first Artemis mission today. It was going to test the Orion capsule and the SLS rocket (I think I have those titles correct, but I could be off somewhere) by launching it into lunar orbit and bringing it home. It is an unmanned mission, apart from a few mannequins, but it’s the first big test for the setup that should eventually put people back on the surface of the moon.

No dice though. No launch today. Hopefully they’ll have their issue (something to do with fueling, I think) sorted out soon and we’ll get our test. Fingers crossed, NASA.

The Downside of Blocking People

I think I just found the downside of blocking people on Twitter.

A couple of weeks ago I was being very petty and picking on a creationist who was insisting that the Big Bang and Evolution were fantasies because the sky daddy who is his own father told him so. I got into the discussion because he claimed that no one could tell where rocks came from and I responded that every high school kid who takes a basic science course will get a Geology segment that will clearly teach them where rocks come from. I asked him why he didn’t take that class in high school and, predictably, he said he went to a christian school that taught the truth.

After having fun with the idiot for a little while I did the smart thing and blocked his idiot ass.

Now today I am suddenly getting mentioned in posts that I don’t seem to have anything to do with. A little digging shows that apparently the blocked idiot user has fired up the conversation again and other non-creationists are getting involved and tearing him a scientific new one and including me in the replies.

Well… it’s nice to be mentioned and all, but I can’t really follow along unless I unblock the idiot. There’s a little part of me that wants to do it. There’s a much bigger part of me that thinks better of it. Let the ignorant-by-choice fool stay blocked.