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Today is a mixed day.
Oct. 4th, 2004 10:44 pmFirst, this morning, congratulations are in order. SpaceShipOne made a successful second flight today, capturing the very first Ansari X Prize of $10 million (US) for building, flying, and succeeding in putting the equivalent of three people beyond the threshold of space twice within the span of two weeks. Congratulations, and may you refine your designs well enough that I can afford a trip to space sometime in my life.
Second, on a more somber mood, a friend's cat had to be put down today. The Messenger of the Gods was recalled for a rest just before I went to band today. We hope that he does well in his next life.
But under the rubric of "teh silly", there's this. And this.This, too.
But the real geek-like "Whoa" goes to Mechanical Pong. Someone built a Pong machine that used zero transistors. Looks and sounds pretty cool. I'll admit to possibly wanting one. For the sheer geek factor.
Have to compile some bibliography for next Monday, for the thesis class, and then from there, a topic statement. I'm slowly spiraling down towards crystallizing my topic. This is okay, since I think I have a pretty good handle on what I'm going to talk about. I'm just worried the source materials won't be there. It's quickly being proven that the trick will be to find the right source materials, not necessarily that there is a lack of them, but I never know until I hold the books in my hand. The topic may have to shift a few steps in one direction or another to accommodate the sources, but I think I'm close to actually striking ground on the work. How I'm going to squeeze the reading and writing I'm going to have to do is still a mystery to me, but I somehow think things will open up for me when they need to. If all else fails, I can start doing work when I'm apparently doing other work as well. Now would not be a good time to have other writing assignments start appearing.
I am going to survive this, right?
Second, on a more somber mood, a friend's cat had to be put down today. The Messenger of the Gods was recalled for a rest just before I went to band today. We hope that he does well in his next life.
But under the rubric of "teh silly", there's this. And this.This, too.
But the real geek-like "Whoa" goes to Mechanical Pong. Someone built a Pong machine that used zero transistors. Looks and sounds pretty cool. I'll admit to possibly wanting one. For the sheer geek factor.
Have to compile some bibliography for next Monday, for the thesis class, and then from there, a topic statement. I'm slowly spiraling down towards crystallizing my topic. This is okay, since I think I have a pretty good handle on what I'm going to talk about. I'm just worried the source materials won't be there. It's quickly being proven that the trick will be to find the right source materials, not necessarily that there is a lack of them, but I never know until I hold the books in my hand. The topic may have to shift a few steps in one direction or another to accommodate the sources, but I think I'm close to actually striking ground on the work. How I'm going to squeeze the reading and writing I'm going to have to do is still a mystery to me, but I somehow think things will open up for me when they need to. If all else fails, I can start doing work when I'm apparently doing other work as well. Now would not be a good time to have other writing assignments start appearing.
I am going to survive this, right?
