minus twelve

field trip to soudan mine today to see the infamous minos and cdms. how was it? simply put, aside from the team america along the way and the nice seven-hour nap (total), it was a complete waste of time.

i'm beginning to realize that experimental physics is just not for me. some people consider it fun to fiddle around with shit, but fiddling around with shit that takes about a good fifteen to twenty years before it is up and running is just not fun anymore. and the scope of knowledge one would need to have is ginormous. a high energy physicist would have to deal with more than just simple quantum mechanics and high-energy related stuff; he would have to know error propagation shit, how the detector materials react, whether they would buckle, expand, contract, gets annihilated by anti-matter, which material is best for what process, where to build, who to ask funding from, and after all these and many more other things, then he would have to wait for a good five to fifteen years before this thing is built. at this point, the physics is lost, and it's mostly engineering.

but that's just me.

of course, one can always pick up side projects to do while waiting for these massive, gazillion-dollar projects to get built, but my brain can't function that way. i am not a woman, so i have a pretty darn good excuse not to be able to multi-task. i don't know how a theorist life would be YET, but i think he would be able to focus on something that he would like to figure out and then spend years on it until he finally figure it out or just give up on it. of course giving up isn't a good option, because then he would never get tenured, but at the very least he would not have to wait fifteen years to finally do what he wanted to do without having to first do the preliminary work.

procrastinator's creed #11: i obey the law of inverse excuses which demands that the greater the task to be done, the more insignificant the work that must be done prior to beginning the greater task.

yeah, i think that would suit me better.

it's not ignorance if i don't care how the electronics work. my brain is just not good enough to handle all the information. like i've said many times: i decided to do physics not because i'm smart enough for it, but because 1. i suck at everything else, and 2. it is somewhat enjoyable, to a certain degree. i am not one of those smart-ass that everyone envies. i'm just your average joe trying to survive in a field that i think is survivable. it's like back in high-school. i only took two AP classes and two AP tests because i know for sure that i will be able to pass them. i'm not one of those smart-asses who would take a classes without knowing with any certainty whether or not he would pass it, and then either drop the class or put in a lot of work to survive.

i am a lazy-ass. i am in physics because i know it is the only survivable field that requires the LEAST amount of work. can you imagine how many hours i would put into studying if i were to be a chemistry or a biology major?

none. because no matter how much work i'd put, i'd fail anyway.

mr. dent, have you the slightest idea how much damage this bulldozer would have taken had i just let it run over your body?

how much?

none at all.

wittiest book ever. i thought my rants are long enough, but douglas adams is just amazingly brilliant for being able to rant about a towel for a good page-and-a-half.

i have the small hardcover version of the first of the series. anyone wants to get me the other four for independence day gift? they would have to be the small hardcover version though. i don't like reading big books, feels like reading a textbook.

and a textbook is something that i could do my summer withOUT.

wontons are here, time to enjoy.