Just My Imagination

So. You can mix teabags in a single drink: earl grey and peppermint with honey is delicious (I like how that sentence implies this was in question). I want to try that chili tea with something else, it's too licorice-y as is. The site I linked to uses Flash so I couldn't link directly, but the keywords are "feisty," "exotic," and "spicy." Cute.

LaTeX is lovely. I think I'll practice on my linear algebra homework, although by the time the program downloads I will probably have lost interest. 58%...hmm.

It's been a fun week, actually. I think it's partly because I've spent it flitting from topic to topic. I'm now reading Chaos: Making a New Science, by James Gleick. I love the concept of self-similarity at every level; it's beautiful, and I like thinking of the universe as being that clever. (I mean that last word in a sense that doesn't denote intentionality, can it do that? Hey, my use of "it" as the subject just now was doing the same thing). Self-similarity is also very GEB-ish. My stance on determinism has finally been revised; I shall have to get around to posting that soon (now that I've said that, I totally won't).

What else have I done recently that constituted this flitting? "Gotten excited about" would be a better term that "done." I got my first issue of Make in the mail, which led me to browse their website and discover the very cool material that can be made by melting eight layers of plastic grocery bags together with an iron. I tried it with my straightening hair iron and a Target bag, and it works remarkably well, though I'd need a regular iron for larger pieces. I think I may have to invest in a cheap iron, because despite the fact that there's very little risk to the iron--you cover the bag with parchment paper so the plastic won't stick--I suspect it's a bad idea for me to borrow one. See, most people are careful with their things and don't take them apart on a whim or use them for unintended purposes, but I currently have a box full of the miscellaneous severed limbs of previously functioning flashlights, musical greeting cards and tiny motorized fans.

I picked up my guitar again yesterday, and asked Marie to send me the music we used to play (South American folk music of some kind, to be extraordinarily vague). I remembered just a little of one of them, but am still incapable of tuning. I believe I got curious about trying it again because of a music theory 101 lesson my future music teacher roomie gave me a few nights ago. I can't remember how we got on the topic, but she explained some of how the major and minor scales work. It's like math with an artistic application and requiring serious specialized technical skill to execute. (Ha! I think Erika must laugh every time she talks about her major and I respond by going off on one of my tangents about the complexity of neural networks that could process such sensory input or some other such silliness. I've tried to explain to a few people that analyzing life is my way of living it. Sure, but I also know full well I'm missing out on something. It's like I deliberately set out to make nothing unknown by overconceptualization, reductionism, or simply dismissal. I do take myself way too seriously!) Anyway, my fingers do feel good back on those strings, so I guess we'll see.

So: LaTeX. Chaos. Plastics. Guitar. See? Flitting! And there's more: robots for kids, kickboxing, t-shirts for WCS (and recruiting people as the new outreach person), electric skateboards, practicing writing. It's not that I did that much of them, but that I got super excited about each one and spent a few hours obsessed on each. It would be interesting if this was actually an effective way of learning for me... Doubtless I'm just too relaxed because school hasn't quite gotten intense yet. And I need to get some real work done at the lab. I did some today, but got a bit distracted by vi fun. Text box selection (try visual mode + ctrl-v) is very nifty. There I go again.

And my download's done, so I'll see all you nonexistent readers later. :)