Name:matt Country:United States State:Georgia Metro:Columbus Birthday:9/9/1986 Gender:Male
Interests:eh music? sleep? Expertise:I like to think i know a lot about music. Also i am pretty good at academic bowl stuff. Occupation:Supervisory Industry:Business
Physics 3990 Electricity & Magnetism (tentative?) (I suppose the question mark there is redundant, unless I mean to imply that it is tentatively tentative. That requires a lot of tenacity though)
15 or 18 hours.
reading list: over christmas break I read the following:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Shining
North and South -Civil War novel. I'm a sucker for this genre. First in a trilogy, next two are Love and War and Heaven and Hell
Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (so far) -read most of it, then had to gift wrap it
the following are in progress, or on the list:
The Portable Atheist
A Confederacy of Dunces
The Road to Serfdom
Love and War
Heaven and Hell
Will in the World -a Shakespeare "bio", more about England in his time, I think
The Stand -supposed to be a masterpiece, by Stephen King. I read The Shining to get primed for it.
Thirteen Moons -Charles Frazier's second novel, after Cold Mountain (itself a terrific Civil War book). looking forward to it
The Broker -Yes, a John Grisham book. Like Stephen King, I had to find out for myself how he is, considering all his books are so popular. Didn't pay for it, found it at my grandparents house.
Life of Pi -Was recommended long ago by a friend, haven't read it yet. Found it at my grandparent's house
Into the Wild -Was a good movie. Received this as a gift
I think I am very good at making eclectic CD mixes. Here's the one I made for driving back to Athens yesterday. I'm particularly happy with this one. It doesn't really let up on good songs, and the shifts in style keep you interested. Notice the emphasis on Queen:
Queen - The Prophet's Song
Led Zeppelin - No Quarter
John Lennon - Instant Karma!
OMC - How Bizarre
CSNY - Helpless
Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris - Love Hurts
Queen - Good Company
Ringo Starr - Photograph
Rockapella - The Longest Time
Notorious BIG - Mo' Money, Mo' Problems
Trentemoller - Sunstroke
John Lee Hooker - Baby, Please Don't Go
The Kingston Trio - Wreck of the John B
The Who - Baba O'Riley
Queen - Keep Yourself Alive
Lipps, Inc. - Funkytown
Dave Matthews Band - The Christmas Song
Jobs.
The Campus Word. I'm a politics writer now. These people actually pay me for my thoughts.
The Red & Black. Still on editorial board. I don't think the people at job #2 are supposed to know about job #1.
Math tutor. I tutor privately, UGA students, and area high school students through a company. Good $$. Now if only I can just save some.
All told, looks like it will be a good semester, hopefully not too busy.
I've been requested to write more on here. So here's something. Just finished my physics final in Classical Mechanics. Professor Mon makes the tests pretty easy--much easier than the homework. In fact, I got a 100 on the last test, of which I am very proud, even though the questions weren't very tough. Because of that, I was not worried about this test, so I did not study, and I realized by this morning I had really not prepared myself for it adequately. I did some minor brushing up on all the old concepts (it was comprehensive) and went in just ready to take what was coming. Question 4 was about a planet orbiting a sun, at a given linear velocity v, and therefore, a momentum p=mv. Part (a) asked for the magnitude of the linear momentum, which I by some happenstance remembered to be This is simple, it means ℓ=rpsinθ=rmv, and sinθ=1 since θ=90. I got this quickly and easily, and this momentum propelled me through the rest of the problem quickly. Part (b) was something I don't remember, and then part (c) was just asking for the magnitude of the torque the sun exerts on the planet. I recalled from somewhere that and hence, Once again, I just automatically wrote T=rF (he allowed us to just give the force as F) and moved on. Happy me, problem done.
I finished all the questions, and decided, since I had two hours left, to just look it over again. This is almost unheard of for me. I just don't check my tests. It's never been in my nature. I came again to problem 4, and was looking over my clean, easy work. Then something about part (c) looked wrong to me. Perhaps the ambiguity of the torque's direction leapt out at me, I'm not sure. But I looked at it closer, and realized the mistake: r and F are parallel, so θ=0! An easy mistake: after the first part, I was just in the mindset of thinking the angle would be 90. I corrected my answer and moved on. I'm sure other people got it wrong, it was an easy mistake and I'm sure an intentional trap. I was lucky to catch it, and now feel rather heartened about it. That's all I had to say. This was fun to write, because of all the math formatting.
Back during the Jane Kidd campaign (gosh, was that really over a year ago?) I obviously spent a great amount of time with the campaign managers Mike and Ted. It was cool to discover that Ted was a big fan of folk music, much like myself. He let me borrow a couple of CDs, including one of Woody Guthrie songs. I had never listened the whole way through, but tonight with my itunes on random, one charming little song called "Why Oh Why" came on. It surprised me, seems to be one of Woody's later era children songs, and sounds like the American, 1930's forerunner to Paul McCartney's "Hello Goodbye."
Why
can't a dish break a hammer?
Why oh why oh why?!
'Cause a hammer's a hard head.
Goodbye goodbye goodbye.
Why,
oh why, oh why oh, why?
Why, oh why, oh why?
Because because because because
Goodbye goodbye goodbye
Why
can't a bird eat an elephant?
Why, oh why, oh why?
'Cause an elephant's got a pretty hard skin.
Goodby goodbye goodbye.
Why
can't a mouse eat a streetcar?
Why, oh why, oh why?
'Cause a mouse's stomach could never get big enough to hold a streetcar.
Goodbye goodbye goodbye.
Why
does a horn make music?
Why, oh why, oh why?
Because the horn-blower blows it.
Goodbye goodbye goodbye
Why
does a cow drink water?
Tell me why n why?
Because the cow gets thirsty just like you or me or anybody else.
Goodye goodbye goodbye.
Why
don't you answer my questions?
Why, oh why, oh why?
'Cause I don't know the answers.
Goodby goodbye goodbye.
What
make the landlord take money?
Why, oh why, oh why?
I don't know that one myself.
Goodbye goodbye goodbye.
Why's
there no pennies for ice cream
Why, oh why, oh why?
You put all the pennies in the telephone.
Goodbye goodbye goodbye.
Why
can't a rabbit chase an eagle?
Tell me why, oh why?
'Cause the last rabbit that took out and chased after an eagle didn't
come
out so good and that's why rabbits don't chase after eagles that's
all I
know about rabbits and eagles?
Because because because.
Why
ain't my grandpa my grandma?
Why, oh why, oh why?
Same reason your dad's not your mommy.
Goodbye goodbye goodbye.
Why
couldn't the wind blow backwards?
Why, oh why, oh why?
'Cause it might backfire and hurt somebody and if it
hurt somebody it'd keep on hurting them
Goodbye goodbye goodbye.
Far between sundown's finish an' midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An' for each an' ev'ry underdog soldier in the night
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
In the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden while the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin' rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an' forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin' constantly at stake
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
An' the unpawned painter behind beyond his rightful time
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an' blind, tolling for the mute
Tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an' cheated by pursuit
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
Even though a cloud's white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An' the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An' for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
Starry-eyed an' laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an' we watched with one last look
Spellbound an' swallowed 'til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an' worse
An' for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
So. That Republican debate tuesday was interesting. Of course, Dr. Paul had all the best answers. I don't know how people can disagree with what he says. Most Americans, unfortunately, have this quasi-religious faith in the state to act in their favor, and in its actions to always have the intended results. But that's simply not true. Minimum wage, rather than helping the poor, hurts them more than anyone else. Companies have to fire workers and cut back on hours, so you wind up with more unemployment. Eventually the price of their product or service goes up to compensate for the raised price of labor, and while higher prices affect everyone, they hurt people the most who don't have money to spare. It's exactly the same with Social Security, a harsh critique of which I am publishing in tomorrow's Red & Black. Though it seems Ron Paul's having a hard time breaking out into the "lead," he's definitely influencing the debate a lot. Go here and see how Giuliani, Romney, Thompson, and McCain are all now talking about free markets and low spending, as if they've acted that way all their lives. Candidates are now talking about cutting taxes and following the Constitution like it's a revolutionary new idea. I think it means they've noticed. Finally, I already posted this on my facebook, but it's well worth posting again:
