DAY 30 - WHATEVER TICKLES YOUR FANCY

The last day of this thing...Finally.
And how awesome is it that it's "whatever tickles my fancy"? So, for Day 30 I choose:

Nothing.

Nothing is what suits my fancy today. I am using the power of today's choice to simply not choose and finally lay this meme to rest.

Fin

(originally posted in That Other Journal on January 16, 2010)

DAY 29 - HOPES, DREAMS AND PLANS FOR THE NEXT 365 DAYS

Is anyone still reading this?

My hopes are that my life will continue to improve. I've been talking to more people my own age which I hope will lead to actual hanging-out type friendships. I hope I will make more money this year than I did in 2008 since I had my first year-over-year decline in income last year (-7.6%) since 1997-1998. It was mostly interest income that was lost, but I even lost money at my primary source due to them nibbling away at my hours (15 minutes each day of the weekend and a whole hour on Friday) which was a first since I started working there. I'm not happy about that. I continue to hope that somehow a girl I like will actually like me back. I have been officially chosen twice back in 1998. I've been suspicious of a couple of others, but otherwise I have been drawing from a very dry well for a long time now. Can I be right about someone just once?

I don't know what my dreams are as I haven't dreamt them yet. ^_^

My plans are what they have been. So long as my life continues on the course it has, there's no need to change them. :-/

(originally posted in That Other Journal on January 15, 2010)

DAY 28 - THIS YEAR, IN GREAT DETAIL

Is this thing over yet? Geez...

As for my year in detail, I again refer you to my That Other Journal for the majority of it. Y'know, the frustration of finding out who sang that song, random memes including this one, miscellaneous audio and video posts, my heart tearing itself apart over Digby, my trials and tribulations of living with Best Friend, and my moving in with Roommate. The big event, of course, for 2009 was my Dad dying. I'm still putting all that into perspective so I'm not too keen to write about it just yet. I'm tired of this meme already. I've been tired of it since it got to this "great detail" section. Hell, even the one I stole it from (McLittleBitch) hasn't posted since Day 9. Fuck it. I'm done.

(originally posted in That Other Journal on January 14, 2010)

DAY 27 - YOUR MONTH, IN GREAT DETAIL

I'm not posting my month in great detail. I instead, refer you to my That Other Journal for shit like that. Cheating? Sure. But let's face it, my memory is not so good. My memory is more behaviorally oriented than factually oriented. I'm not so much about the what than the how. *shrug*

(originally posted to That Other Journal on January 13, 2010)

DAY 26 - YOUR WEEK, IN GREAT DETAIL

Now it gets longer, and far less desirable to complete this meme. Today is the week, tomorrow is the month, and finally the year. If I violate the spirit of the entries, the month and year could be the same entry. Instead for the next two days, I will direct you to review any entries I have made in That Other Journal over the relevant period. Much of my life is similar on a weekly and even monthly basis so remembering particular details is difficult to me.

As for my week... I define my week from Wednesday to Tuesday given my work schedule. This week was defined by it being rather cold so I had to walk to work wearing my pajama pants over my work pants to protect against the wind. I failed to do that one day last week and suffered for it but not as bad as last year when it was in the low single digits and I had a longer walk. My thighs were showing the earliest signs of exposure that day. Walking isn't that difficult in the cold until I hit that last street before work. For some reason, that road is a wind tunnel and even though I'm less than ten minutes from work at that point, the winds do a number on me and on colder days, it feels as though my life-force were being taken from me. It can take hours to recover from that shock fully. Usually on Thursday, I'll see my friend Shortii who gets out of work when I'm going to work. She'll pull over and take me the rest of the way, but I didn't see her this week.

Work was uneventful until Saturday. I had a lot of shopping to catch up on. I was somewhat sick the week before so I had been putting it off. I normally do it in pieces and am limited to about eight pounds so I don't hurt myself. However, I got a ride home one day from Twin so I was able to buy soda, milk, and other heavy items. Security Guard had been giving me rides most days but he has been out of work with a broken ankle so it's been like old times for me. He should be back soon which really, can't be soon enough since it's been boring at work without him.

At home, I just spend my mornings listening to Opie and Anthony and bantering with Mystic on Facebook. I make dinner after the show ends. I had pasta one night, a T-bone steak over two days, and a baked hunk of turkey breast for Sunday and yesterday. For breakfast, I'm supposed to switch between cereal and oatmeal, but I have been having trouble waking up on time and cereal can be made without delay so I only had oatmeal once this week.

I talked with Bronx last night. It was a good call. She's very down-to-earth which I like and there's something about that Bronx accent that I must admit I'm digging.

Otherwise I just waste far too much of my time dicking around on these social networking sites and spent every day waiting for the U.S. Mint to post its production report for January-December 2009. It posted yesterday, but a quick check of the numbers showed the numbers were the same from January-November 2009 which either means the numbers weren't updated or that no coins were produced in the month of December which would be a first for a long time. I'm waiting for another site I check to corroborate this before writing the totals in their respective Whitman folders. Production was WAY down from past years due to the recession. Recessions usually cause a drop in production but they've been more like dips in the past. This has been a wholesale drop. In 2007, about 14.4 billion coins were produced. In 2008, it was about 10 billion. For 2009, it looks like it's gonna be 3.55 billion. A lot of individual coin totals are numbers that haven't been seen since the 1950's. They'll never be valuable, but finding them will be difficult and I think a good thing for future collectors trying to assemble sets from circulation.

I just received my 1978 Canadian mint and proof sets in the mail. I find Canadian coins frequently in my coin rolls and have assembled a nearly complete set of Canadian small cents from 1937 to present. I don't expect to ever get the ones from 1920-1936, but I got a 1933 recently so I guess it's possible.

I'm listening to the Opie and Anthony Show now and will likely be cleaning my room later today (it's way overdue) and the kitchen (that oven needs a scrubbing). We'll see.


Bored yet? :-)

(originally posted to That Other Journal on January 12, 2010)

DAY 25 - YOUR DAY IN GREAT DETAIL

I can't say I'm looking forward to the next few days of this meme. I really don't feel like describing any length of time in my life in great detail. But whatever...I can humor this meme for one day at least.

From my perspective, my day isn't over yet. I went to bed at about noon which has been normal for me the past few months and got up begrudgingly at eight. Again, I was feeling sluggish upon awakening. This has been the case for the past week. I'm getting enough sleep but I wake up feeling decidedly uncharged. I ate a bowl of Cheerios and a bowl of Trix before making my lunch for work and taking a shower. I got dressed, wearing my pajama pants over my work pants for insulation from the cold and set out walking the two miles I walk to get to work. Even though it was my Friday, I didn't feel it. I felt like I was in the middle of my work week rather than at its end which I suppose will have me feeling good when I get up tonight not having to go to work.

Sunday nights at work are very slow and the remaining second-shift people are unfortunately far too eager to help on nights like this leaving Twin and me with virtually nothing to do for the night. I count in on Sunday nights for the week. I was 1¢ short...oh no! :-p I brought in my usual $5 in half dollars but I don't give them out in change on Sunday night because the Shop Steward likes me to sell them to her when she arrives in the morning. Normally I give them out (to non-employees) when the change is at least 60¢ and have had no trouble in doing so. The rejection rate is about 2% which, quite frankly, is about the same for all denominations (like someone wanting two fives instead of the ten I gave them for example). This started over six years ago when another cashier said that customers don't want half dollars so I started giving them out to see. It turns out people either are delighted having seen them, don't care, or don't notice. The remaining 2% ask for two quarters instead and for some reason, feel compelled to tell me why. It's usually a vending machine excuse which doesn't hold water for me considering that they have fifty dollar bills in their wallet and I've yet to see a vending machine take one of those. I don't need a reason: if you don't want one, then just ask for something else. I don't actually care. And the trick for any of you cashiers out there is simply not to ask, but just to give. I also have no problems ridding myself of two dollar bills either. Anyway...

Yes, I did keep an eye out for those two girls again. They didn't show. I also kept an eye out for other regular/semi-regular customers whom I like but saw none of them either. I saw the family that makes me feel old. They have four children now. When I started, they had two. Their little girl is in high school now. Ugh... Digby was there, but I wasn't able to say hello as she was busy and I had to get ready. She left at ten that night when I started. But I continue to not feel longing when around her now so I'm good. My heart is out of that fight finally. My pride is still convinced that I'm "right" about her, but without my heart as an ally, my pride can't do anything about it. It's been effectively neutered. :-)

I didn't have to get paper and plastic bags from the cold back room tonight since someone was kind enough to have gotten them before I had arrived. I took what few customers we were getting and basically stalled until 1 a.m. before clocking out for my lunch of Goober Grape on wheat bread, five oatmeal cookies, and a Ssips fruit punch. I ate these things while reading the Week in Review section of the New York Times. There was a funny joke from Conan O'Brien that I can't remember and an article on the increasing likelihood we will have no champion like Ferdinand Pecora to punish those who were responsible for this latest financial panic and bully Congress into passing the necessary legislation to prevent this shit from happening again in the future. I still don't get why we bailed these assholes out to begin with. We were sold on the lie that somehow the whole system would collapse if the big banks failed...as if there were no smaller banks that handled themselves legitimately who weren't salivating at the chance to become one of the big boys. They're dinosaurs...let them go extinct so that the current generation of mammal banks can shine. Ugh... Nothing else really held my attention this time around in that section.

I came back from lunch to put up the plastic and paper bags, cut up the leftover newspapers for credit, and change the liners on the debris catchers on all the registers. I keep an eye out for dropped change and the occasional dropped dollar bill. No currency this time, but more change than I consider usual. I got over 80¢ last night when I usually only average 30¢. The change in my opened rolls yielded nothing unlike yesterday. I got a 1945 Mercury dime and in the same roll, my first 2009 dated dime (2009-P). I hoard coins dated 1978 (my birth year). I got two dimes and a customer later paid me with a quarter. I have a water cooler jug about one third full of 1978 cents, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half dollars. I've never received a 1978 dollar coin. A customer paid me with a silver Roosevelt dime (1964) before I left. That's two silver dimes in two days. I consider that a win of sorts.

I spent the last two hours of my shift basically standing around and flipping through Time magazine. It reminded me of the recent airport shutdown over that guy giving his girlfriend a last kiss. I "like" how that caused an entire airport to shut down and innumerable delays. There are politicians calling for this man's deportation and not once have I heard anyone ask if shutting down an entire airport for something as minor as this was not an overreaction. I don't wanna hear how this "could have been" another 9/11. A lot of things "could have been" but it's not. We really need to calm down and stop this de facto police state shit. America is supposed to be about individualism, not paternalism; and yet, we're expected to be babysat now. There are reasonable precautions and there are unreasonable ones. It really fucking annoys me. We need our balls back...seriously. The same thing when a kid calls in a bomb threat to his school. There's no bomb. Just go to class and stop worrying everybody over nothing causing unnecessary panic and overreactions like "zero tolerance" giving principals and police and any other people who are "in charge" to have an excuse not to exercise their judgement. Clearly, this kid is just being an ignorant jackass but the rules say...so my hands are tied. Motherfuckers...

I clocked out for my shift and bought pasta and mouthwash before heading home. The wagon wheel pasta I wanted's package was covered in oil so I had to settle for ziti. My walk home was uneventful.

I arrived at the apartment, said hello to Roommate, got dressed in my bedclothes, made some Totinos, got a Pepsi, and settled in to listen to the Opie and Anthony Show. I sorted through the change rolls I brought home from work. I got a 1999 Canadian cent...whatever and two 1978 cents. The dime and nickel roll yielded nothing. Ugh... I turned on my computer and was again greeted by DopeStarAngel saying my name and the wallpaper image of one of Vegan's nearby pines covered in snow from last winter. My social networking sites are again, virtually devoid of any activity for me. I get so few comments overall. But it's a weekday, so I'll be checking back to Facebook soon to see what Mystic is up to. She likes to "play" with me there and we have our back-and-forth banterings which I like a lot. I knew Mystic ever-so-briefly back in 1987/8 when we shared a babysitter. She graduated from the same high school as me after spending many years in a private school, but I never spoke to her while she was there for her Junior year. We've reconnected via Facebook. We've exchanged numbers and addresses. She has even offered to take me clothes shopping which I'm sure many, if not all, of you would agree I am in desperate need of "fashioning". I've had this offer before...they have all failed to pan out, but we'll see. I just have to remember to call her...I keep falling asleep when it would be a good time for her. I have to call Bronx back too. She called while I was sleeping. We met via MySpace...or rather, she met me. We've started calling each other. She just wants to be friends. I'm okay with that. It's just nice to have someone who both likes talking to me and actually calls. I'll be eating the leftover turkey breast I baked yesterday later this morning along with the other half of the potato, some stuffing, and corn. It actually came out pretty good for my first attempt.

My day continues...

(originally posted to That Other Journal on January 11, 2010)

DAY 24 - WHATEVER TICKLES YOUR FANCY

I re-upped on my college nickname today.

At work last night, I had two rather attractive girls come to my line buying Coca-Cola products and fruit. As they were leaving, Twilight [Twin's friend] pointed out that one of them was checking me out. I did not notice at all...too busy focusing on the task at hand which was trying to figure out which actress the other one who wasn't checking me out reminded me of. I settled on a young Lisa Edelstein.

Now I feel bad and by bad, I mean stupid. I would like to say I'm out of practice with these things; but really, how can one be "out of practice" when his last two confirmed "being checked out"s were in 1998? And even then, I caught on to neither Visa nor Vegan right away...thus College Nickname I suppose.

And my heart had finally let go of Digby just two months ago too and now I have something new for my low self-esteem to sink its hooks into. And no, "there's always next time" doesn't work for me when "next time", as far as I am concerned, will be another twelve years from now. This is gonna bother me for months. I can already feel my mood has destabilized. My thoughts feel as though they are aligning, but whether they'll start "spinning" into a vortex...I don't know yet.

I picture my thoughts and emotions like currents and ideas like masses which draw on those currents. Strong ideas [both good and bad] take what would normally be essentially randomized thoughts and feelings and put them on the same page...the same alignment...drawn to that idea. And like water flowing down the drain, when conditions are right, they form a whirlpool and dominate my mental landscape until it dissipates or gets disrupted. Depressions feel like vortices that draw those currents inward, shedding energy to do so. What's the opposite of depression? Euphoria?...eh, Euphorias feel like vortices whose currents are being spun outward leaving me feeling more animated. I suppose the same could be said of nervousness/wrath and longing/lust and gluttony/greed and so forth like that.

I do feel like I will slip into a brief down-period as my mind learns how to use this newfound disturbance against me and links the feeling to other things which I don't like about myself.

(originally posted to That Other Journal on January 10, 2010)

DAY 23 - A YOUTUBE VIDEO

"Spinnerlied" as performed by this kid
Mom used to play this for us whenever she'd practice on the piano at Nan's house.

(originally posted to That Other Journal on January 9, 2010)

DAY 22 - A WEBSITE

Perfectly suitable-for-the-work-environment site I use to keep up to date on the latest news from this particular what-not
(originally posted to That Other Journal on January 8, 2010)

DAY 21 - A RECIPE

ZWIEBACK CAKE

3/4 cup sugar

6 eggs (separated)

1/4 lb. grated almonds

2 tbsps. lemon juice

1/4 lb. of grated zwieback

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

2 tsps. baking powder

Mix egg yolks and sugar until very light [goes from dark to light yellow]

Mix the dry ingredients and add them gradually to beaten egg yolks and sugar

Beat egg whites until stiff

Fold beaten egg whites to cake mix

Put in spring form pan into an oven heated to 350°F for approximately 45 minutes

Separate the baked cake into two pieces using a thread

Liberally apply homemade whipped cream. [use a pint of heavy cream with 2 tsps. of sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla whipped up with a blender]

I've eaten this cake (properly a torte) every year of my life for my birthday. Locating zwieback has unfortunately become more difficult. For my 31st birthday, I had to order zwieback from FAA Imports since Nabisco decided to quit making its product after all these years.

(originally posted to That Other Journal on January 7, 2010)

DAY 20 - A HOBBY OF YOURS

I only have one major hobby now that I devote much of my free time to. It's not one that I like to talk about but I will do so here because of my account's limited reach. All of you should know by now that I collect coins. I have invested money in a telescope and its paraphernalia but have devoted little time to Astronomy.

Coin Collecting is not something one should brag about because it makes you a target for robbery and while that comes across as paranoid, one should bear in mind that coin collecting is basically the assembly of spendable coin and currency which have known and accepted values unlike heirlooms making them easy to fence. That's why I ask you not to go about casually mentioning that I even have a collection to begin with and why at work I play down what I'm doing to just state quarters and coins with my birth year.

I started collecting briefly when I was in the second and third grades. Money is tight for seven-year-olds so once you've gone through your parents' jars of coins, you really get nothing after that. And even though our money back in the 1980's was about as worthless as it is today, having folders devoted to dimes and quarters would still have been an expensive undertaking. I abandoned it for a long time afterwards but saved the folders. I remember Nan giving me old cents from Poppy's collection to help fill up my old 1909-1940 Whitman folder and Mom buying me a roll of wheat cents seeded with a 1909 VDB cent but that was basically all I would ever have.

I came back to collecting in 1999 when I got a job in a supermarket. It was there I would occasionally get a silver dime that I would take home. It was around then that Dad gave me his collection rather unceremoniously: He just plopped the bag on my desk. So with a loud thud, I was up and collecting again. The following year, I would start pulling older nickels from my till a different job and at Christmas 2000, Poppy gave me that collection of cents which he had assembled for my Uncle Tetris back when he was a child. I also started subscribing to a coin magazine and began buying stuff in earnest after that.

I've learned a lot over the past ten years. I've made several, costly mistakes. I've read a lot about the subject and am thus considerably more competent at it than I was when I was 21. I focus on American coins of the 20th century but will collect those series which bleed into the 19th. I started dabbling in paper money too; but since moving out, money has been very tight so I've been limited to adding to my collection based on what I find at work.

I learned several years ago that you can sometimes find silver half dollars in rolls because people so rarely spend them. I've been buying $200 worth of halves every month from my bank since 2003. It's been frustrating lately as I haven't gotten anything in almost a year-and-a-half but I did get almost $40 in silver halves back in 2005 which was really cool. When silver hit $20/tr.oz. back in March 2008, I sold a lot of my common-date junk silver at 10x face. You don't often get opportunities like that so it felt good to profit so handsomely on stuff I acquired at face value and that I bought when silver was $5/tr.oz.

I can answer your questions on this stuff if you have them.

(originally posted to That Other Journal on January 6, 2010)

DAY 19 - A TALENT OF YOURS

Do I actually have any talents? I'm not so sure. I have things that some might conclude are talents though I have largely abandoned them. I'll post examples of those; but I also ask you, my friends, what talent(s) do you think I have?

In high school, I used to create/draw planetary systems. I have long since become too critical of my drawing to be able to pick it up again. And on top of that, I look at a drawing like this -- the one I consider my best -- and become frustrated at my inability to replicate it because I remember in my mind what I am supposed to do but my muscles don't cooperate. Anyone who hasn't played an instrument for a while I'm sure shares this frustration. The planet shown I named Lasna, the sixth planet orbiting a star called Casil. It's a mid-sized gas giant [about Neptune-sized] with a naked-eye visible faint ring with obvious homages to Jupiter in its appearance. It hosts several moons, only one of which I got around to naming.

I created an alphabet during my freshman year in high school. I still write in it to this day.

In my sophomore year, I began creating a language which I have not worked on seriously for well over five years. It lives on in my head. Maybe I'll get back to it one day, but I don't know.

Le ni cayah eïner morgne xah, ihe ni shaidtser, morfyl cihmm, seen marno dërhenthal rih. ^_^

(originally posted to That Other Journal on January 5, 2010)

DAY 18 - WHATEVER TICKLES YOUR FANCY

I will use today to simply complain about my bank's refusal to bend a little.

Since it somehow worked out where all the peripheral bills are in my name, I just have Roommate pay me his share of them before I go out to the bank. No big deal ever, just one of those roommate things. But being the new year, he did what we have all done: he wrote the check using the previous year. I didn't notice this at the time (nor would it have mattered had I done so as it would turn out) and filled out my deposit slip. It was only at the bank that the teller told me [a good thing for a teller to do if you ask me] that the bank could not accept Roommate's check because it's "too old".

First of all, considering there is no explicitly posted policy at the bank relating to this and also, considering that there is nothing stamped on the check stating that it would be void after a certain amount of elapsed time [like my paychecks which limit their cashing to ninety days after the date stamped on them], I don't see why this is a problem. It's not like it was post-dated.

Secondly, this is not July 11th, it's January 4th. Everyone has made this error at least once in their lives [and you haven't yet, you will]; but for some reason, they would not let it slide. It's stupid shit like this that makes me want to pull my hair out. I'm not supposed to take expired coupons at work either...but I also work the overnight shift. So technically the coupon expires at midnight; but then, I started at ten, so who's to know exactly when I received such coupons since they all go into the same bag that gets handed in with my till in the morning so I take 'em. I don't need to be a douchebag about technicalities.

Thirdly, the alternate solution...alter the date was a no-go either because apparently the bank no longer accepts altered checks. Again, never mind that it's still the first week of the year, that it would be the date, not the amount which would be altered, and there's no explicit expiration on the check. So even had I noticed it and Roommate had altered the date, they still would not have accepted the check. What the fuck? I should have fought it more, but I was tired. It can wait until next month. Ugh...

(originally posted to That Other Journal on January 4, 2010)

DAY 17 - AN ART PIECE (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)

I don't know what it was titled, but here is a sculpture (pictured along with its sculptress) for my Day 17 entry.

Sculptress was a semi-regular customer of mine for some time, always with her boyfriend in tow; but like many of my regular customers, she stopped coming in after a time. I usually remark it to myself after noticing that I hadn't seen a particular person in a while and tend to leave it at that. It was only after I had seen a flier for a "Sculptress Benefit" that I learned that she had died on September 29, 2007. Searching on the internet led to additional information from her friends. It turns out she had committed suicide.

I remember feeling disturbed by that news. I also remember seeming rather odd that her death would affect me at all seeing as how she was, at best, a peripheral character in my life. But I think it was because of her limited context with me that led me to feel her passing so acutely whereas for others in my life who have died, they remain on in memories, in their objects, etc. so that they are never truly, truly gone. She always smiled and said hello to me and was one of the few people in my life who, when she said she was glad to see me or be talking to me again or anything of that nature, I’d actually believe. Not many people can claim such a distinction, especially for someone who was essentially a regular customer. I remember the last time I saw her, she paid with a credit card for "Sculptress Designs". I was gonna ask her about that the next time I saw her but I never would get the opportunity.

It makes me wonder about the WW2 veteran who told us about the tattoo he had gotten the day of the Pearl Harbor attack that I haven't seen in over a year, the cute girl who wore entirely too much perfume I haven't seen since 2003, the old couple who yelled at me when I balked at one of their absurd requests (didn't refuse to do it, just balked), and even the girl with the worst bleach-blond hair ever who bought enemas nightly. ^_^

(originally posted to That Other Journal on January 3, 2010)

ADDENDUM: I actually saw the cute girl (who's actually about three years my senior) just the other night for the first time in all these years.  Turns out she graduated with one of my cousins. Small world. I didn't notice any strong perfume so maybe she had given that up. She was surprised I had remembered her name. I was surprised I recognized her. (March 31, 2014 : I wonder why I haven't been including dates in my addenda? Something for the future I suppose...)

DAY 16 - A SONG THAT MAKES YOU CRY (or nearly)

"Simple Kind of Life" by No Doubt
This is about as close as I can come to such a song at the moment. It can "destabilize" me a bit, but that's about all. I've never actually heard a song that could make me cry or even come close.

(originally posted to That Other Journal on January 2, 2010)

ADDENDUM:  In the original entry I also offered up "Some Fantastic Place" by Squeeze (a song about the loss of a friend); "Your Wildest Dreams" by The Moody Blues (which I remember for a time caused me to think wistfully about Bar Beauty); "When I Grow Up to Be a Man" by The Beach Boys (which reminds me that my life did not turn out like I feel it should have) --- Today I would add "White Houses" by Vanessa Carlton which affects me in ways I don't understand. (August 14, 2013)

DAY 15 - A FANFIC

(I had links posted to the original entry but the author is identified by name and since I knew him, it violates my personal Blogspot policy of not using real names and posting identifying pictures of actual people in my life --- they were Babylon 5 fanfictions that I found because I remembered Kilrathi talking about them and on a larf went looking for them before composing the original entry. They were written in August 1997 which would be around the time we met but it was his silly ones that stuck with me)

I have only rarely read fanfictions of anything. Whether or not this is any good is besides the point for me. It was posted by Kilrathi. He was someone I knew in my first year at college. We were supposed to room together in Fall 1998 semester, but he dropped out of college by then. He liked doing crossover stuff and this example of fanfiction is no exception. I remember laughing with him discussing one silly fiction he was writing which detailed a series of very bad days for all the various incarnations of the Starship Enterprise in which they were all inevitably destroyed. Please to be enjoying...or not...I just have a meme to fill :-)

(originally posted to That Other Journal on January 1, 2010)

ADDENDUM: One scene I remember from his composite sci-fi universe in which many different franchises were present in the same universe had a Babylon 5-esque station, but gigantic compared to the B5 station which was five miles long. In it a scavenger hunt was taking place sponsored by the humans running the station I guess in an effort to bring the other races together for some fun. While there were creatures from Star Trek, Star Wars, and Babylon 5 among others, the only two species I remember specifically were the T'llyn and Kilrathi (fierce cat aliens from Wing Commander). I remember a jedi using a lightsaber to shave a Kilrathi's fur off and the T'llyn ambassador screaming at someone, "You're behaving like badly trained children!" which I guess says a lot about the T'llyn culture right there.
     Anyhoo, the scavenger hunt takes place and ends up ransacking the station. Ultimately the Kilrathi win and are presented by the captain with a statue of the station with the following exchange:

 KILRATHI (looking at trophy): What is this?

CAPTAIN: It's a trophy in the shape of the station.

KILRATHI (angry): Do you take us for fools? I have studied human anatomy! This is not a statue of the station! This is a giant human p-

COMMANDER (interrupting): Let's hear it for the Kilrathi!

(everyone cheers)

CAPTAIN (to Commander): Does my station really look like that?

COMMANDER (to Captain): Well, the station's architects were all male.

CAPTAIN (to Commander): No wonder I feel so inadequate.

(addendum from August 14, 2013)

DAY 14 - A NONFICTIONAL BOOK

(NOTE: the link to the original image has 404'd and these entries were written before I got into the habit of captioning them so I don't know what book I chose anymore and the entry itself offered no clues, just that it "was a very interesting read". So although this entry was originally posted to That Other Journal on December 31, 2009, my choice will be from August 14, 2013)

The Big Bang Never Happened by Eric J. Lerner

I think it's safe to say that the claims made in this book are not supported by today's science or else we would be hearing more about this guy. However, in my impressionable college days, I found what he had to say interesting even if it's ultimately false.

I came across this book in my college's library. I don't remember what made me want to read it. It wasn't an article in a magazine nor was it the kind of book you could read in a day. Nevertheless I read it and was fascinated by it enough to buy it later and even read it more than once (something few books I've read can claim). I guess you could describe the feeling I got from this book as something akin to when college students first encounter things like libertarianism and other idealistic philosophies.

It's been a long time since I've last read the book. One of the claims that stuck with me was the idea that the universe isn't all matter but half matter and half antimatter with the two separated. What we call the Big Bang was in fact in a big bang. It was the coming together of matter and antimatter that produced the Cosmic Background Radiation but the energy of the annihilation would ultimately prevent all the matter in the universe from annihilating. The points of annihilation would provide a barrier that the remaining matter and antimatter could not cross. The visual example was that of a Leidenfrost layer. You see that when a drop of water is put on a very hot pan. The water which comes in contact with the pan immediately boils but the drop remains longer than it would otherwise because it floats on a layer of steam. The annihilations would become that layer of steam that kept the matter and antimatter apart long enough to separate as the energy of the annihilations would reverse their trajectories.
     Modern theory calls for CP-violation (charge parity) which allows for a very slight excess of matter to be created over that of antimatter. Something with the behavior of quarks. I guess in its own way CP-violation makes more sense because matter and antimatter are created in pairs very close together. The book would seem to imply that matter and antimatter could generate very far apart somehow. But at the time, I believed matter and antimatter could only be created in equal amounts so the idea that there could be one extra particle of matter for every million seemed ridiculous. Another reason this book spoke to me.

The book also calls for the universe to be eternal in age and gives a lot more weight to forces of electricity and magnetism in shaping the universe. It also discredits the existence of dark matter citing them as unnecessary or resulting from mismeasurement of galactic motions. He mentions that the dominant phase of matter in the universe is plasma which is atomic nuclei stripped of their electrons because they are too energetic to retain them. The Sun is comprised of plasma. Atoms are electrically neutral whereas plasma is not. Plasma has magnetic and electrical fields and Lerner describes a universe whose large-scale structure is dependent on the infinite fields of magnetism and electricity. Or something like that.

Regardless of the science which comes later in the book, I liked the history lesson in its early chapters. It described that how cultures viewed the universe depended on how well their societies were faring. Societies which were doing well and expanding tended to view an eternal universe whereas failing societies viewed a universe with a beginning and ultimately an end. He posited that the Big Bang is a popular theory because our society hasn't created anything new in a long time. He pointed out the last big creations were things like the internet, landing on the moon, and lasers...all of which were made in the 1960s. You might say cellphones, but cellphones are modern telephones and telephony has existed since the 1870s. Lerner said that since we're stagnant creatively we are imagining a universe which must end but should we break out of this and become ascendant again, we will imagine an eternal universe once more.

I guess I recommend the book if only for that. Yeah, I read it before the internet and Wikipedia so finding criticisms of it and disproving science is not difficult now but in 1998 the internet was still modem-based and limited so I remained a believer longer than perhaps I ought. So read it. Read it like you would read an opinion which contradicts your own in order to better inform your own opinion.

DAY 13 - A FICTIONAL BOOK

:-P

(originally posted to That Other Journal on December 30, 2009)

DAY 12 - WHATEVER TICKLES YOUR FANCY

Another one of these days, huh? Since the past few days have been photographs thematically, I will stick to that. Today will be a picture that makes me laugh:

Absurdity at its best :-)

(originally posted to That Other Journal on December 29, 2009)

DAY 11 - A PHOTO TAKEN OF YOU RECENTLY

(again, the photo will not be included --- it's of me doing putting on that serious look that gets captured when trying to figure something out with your camera and then accidentally taking a picture of yourself)

This was taken on December 20, 2009 right after our first major snowfall of the season. I was trying to set up the camera for a shot that later wouldn't come out right and this was the one I took before I remembered to set the timer. :-)

(originally posted to That Other Journal on December 28, 2009)