stuff I've been writing on and off, in between studying

Just taking a break to flush my brain a little - velocity space may sound cool, but it's a bitch to try to think in, and I can't, so I'm doing this instead. I have a sgwun characterisation rant percolating, but it's not really much at all yet, certainly nothing original, and anyway I want to get this down, so - Sands from OUATIM.

Sands.

He's a lunatic. He's a danger to anyone and everyone. And yet... and yet.

It's not just that he's played by Johnny Depp - though that helps, because omg teh pretteh - and it's not just that he's played well. It's that he's got the best lines all the way through. It's that he's just the coolest character in the film, even wearing those ridiculous disguises. It's the joy he has in life, and the conviction he has that what he is doing is utterly reasonable, a conviction which carries over to the viewer during the film - it's only afterwards that you sit down and say, hang on a minute! He was a fuckhead! And he was indeed a fuckhead, but I for one can't help but adore him.

Also, I think the way the film shades towards fantasy helps me ignore my myriad ethical problems with the violence etc. Which is nice.


Also, pdfs piss me off, in that they do not scroll smoothly. Bastard things. However, said pdf is the notes on which the course I'm being examined on in twelve hours was based, and is far more understandable than my notes from the lectures we were given. This is because it actually has words in. Some of these words are long (my current favourite is cosmochronology), and some of the sentences don't make sense unless you sit and think about it, and happen to be very clever and know lots of physics, which I don't (because I've forgotten most of it), but at least there are words, and sentences, and paragraphs - paragraphs! in scientific lecture notes! the horror! - and I feel like I at least understand a little of it. Which is nice.

I probably shouldn't have reconnected to the Internet, but I felt the need to post. And I'm just going to catch up on my flist and then go get my laundry and then finish reading these notes and then write out the key equations and then go to bed and get at least eight hours sleep. Which will be nice.

(no subject)

I'm going to copy out equations, sort out my laundry, check I have requisite stuff for exam, change my sheetss then collapse. Yes. Shouldn't take more than an hour including procrastination. Then I can get up in time to have a shower and... oh, balls, it's in the sports hall - i.e. far away, so I should leave here by quarter past one. I can do that.

some stuff:
Our lecturer referred to the Cosmic Microwave Background as, "the fingerprint of our universe painted on the sky," which I thought was oddly poetic.
In the notes I was reading, there are mentions of momentum space (don't ask) and matter-antimatter asymmetry (factor of 10 to the negative 9 - very small - one more proton than anti-proton per thousand million). Also tells us, "it is not even possible to get to zero time without adding new physical laws," because there's stuff like quantum gravity, which is when particles collapse in on themselves to become eensy little black holes - which I think is damn cool, but it stops happening 10 to the -43 seconds after the big bang. If you believe in the big bang, which some scientists still don't.

10 to the -43. That's a tenth of an atto-yocto-second. Or a hundred femto-femto-femto seconds. That's pretty damn short.

And this is me procrastinating. And now I will move.

ETA: a better one. A tenth of micro-nano-nano-nano-nano-second. Because people know nano. Also, it's fun to say.

ETA: *shame* I put in milli instead of micro, which was obviously horrifically wrong. But, y'know, a factor of a thousand out isn't that bad...

one down, four to go

I think I managed to scrape together enough bits and pieces for a pass, but no more than that. Oh well.

I met up with boy-I-have-a-mild-crush-on on the way in, so we walked together and made awkward conversation. Wey. The thing is, though, that he's all quiet and shy, and I'm either quiet and shy or babbling nonsensically, so. um. yeah.

It was very sunny on the way in, and I was annoyed about carrying my coat, but then it rained on the way back, so I was glad I had. Rain = bad. But there was a bit of rainbow over the sea when I got home - pretty!

My phone rang this morning - I assume it was paternal attempting to make sure I got to exam on time, but he didn't know if it was morning or afternoon. But I will call him later and explain forcefully that he should not do that. Ever. I mean, yes, I wanted him to do it last time... um. grr. anyway.

See? Babbling nonsensically! Well, not nonsensically, but irrelevantly, at least.

There is now more rainbow over sea. It appears to go into sea just a little way out, at least from the common room window.

I am wearing my new boots. They are DMs with ten eyelets and steel toecaps. I did not make any of my classmates look at them, though I considered it.

Why can't I have a birthday now? *pouts* Though I would end up having an exam on my birthday, which would suck the suck. I guess I'll stick to October. Still. *pouts again, just for the sake of it*

I really ought to start studying again. I just can't be arsed. Maybe eat first, then work. Sounds... almost do-able.