Dear The Internets,

Please be advised that, although the Large Hadron Collider will be powered up on Wednesday, no high-energy collisions are scheduled until November.

It really upsets me to see people, including the news media reporting tomorrow’s initial power-up as “the most complex scientific experiment ever undertaken” (from the first link) when in fact it is not.

The claims that the LHC will destroy the world are pure lunacy. But please, all you crazies out there, if you’re going to get all het up about the end of the world, it is very important that you get your dates straight.

Lovies,

~Qwertz

EDIT: To those who subscribe to the feed, I apologize for botching the URLs. I will try to remember the correct syntax in the future.

I got a letter today from the City:

Click to read it. At the bottom of the page is a tear-off form that I’m supposed to fill out and sign in order to opt out of the program, but my scanner won’t scan legal-size paper, so you don’t get to see it. It’s not all that exciting; you aren’t missing much.

Apparently, before I moved to Lesser Northeast Key Midwestern Swing State City (just 20 minutes South of Greater Northeast Key Midwestern Swing State City), the city residents voted to do this aggregation thinggy to, allegedly, get cheaper electricity. From what I gather, the government picks which electricity generator will sell electricity to the people who are part of the program, and uses the size of the group (and probably a little of its heft as a government bully) to get lower prices out of the chosen utility. Sounds a lot like a fancy way of dressing up an old-fashioned municipal utility monopoly to me.

My current generator is also the company that maintains the lines and delivers the electricity — KMWSS Electric — and I’m happy with the service. Under the new program, KMWSS Electric would still send me a bill for line maintenance and delivery, but the bill would include charges from this new company, PremierPower Solutions, for generation.

The fun thing about this whole nonsense is this: because “the voters” elected, in 2001, to allow this program, I will be bound by the new contract unless I take action to opt out. This is the exact opposite of how contracts are supposed to work. They’re supposed to bind only the parties who agree, not the parties who fail to disagree.

I am disinclined to do this aggregation thing, but I’m also not the sort of person who does a lot of shopping around for lower electricity prices. My initial reaction is to not like the idea on principle. Does anyone have a relevant argument for why I should not opt out of the aggregation program?

That’s the noise I just made when I realized all the stuff I need to do. In no particular order:

1. Explain my position on the death penalty (including my analysis of Kennedy v. Louisiana)
2. Post my analysis of District of Columbia v. Heller
3. Finish my critique of “gay culture”
4. Write a formal review of Gattaca (I can’t believe I haven’t done this yet!)
5. Write big memo for Job #1
6. Write big memo for Job #2
7. Update my resume (Why does this always take so much work?)
8. Apply for Federal judicial clerkship
9. Continue research on Sundae Specials
10. Start research on the impact of gay marriage on the spousal privileges
11. Finish uploading latest Rosebush Watch videos to YouTube!

Gak indeed. I’ll get to it all eventually.

I have a rosebush.

It is a floribunda with deep red–almost maroon–flowers. I’ve been working on it for a few years now, and I prune it when it needs pruning, and I water it every other day, and I feed it and rotate it (it is in a large pot) and clip off dead blooms and whatnot. I care for it, rather like some people care for pets. It is a thing that I am proud of. Proud that I have kept it alive (I have a bad track record with plants); proud that I have been able to transform it from the scraggly little runt I bought at a Home Depot somewhere into a big, beautiful, healthy bush; proud of the time and money and love I’ve put into it. It has been getting ready for its first bloom of the year, which I expected during this first week of June. It had produced more flower buds this year than it ever had in years past. I was really looking forward to it.

This morning, I discovered that some merry prankster had come by and chopped off all the new buds.

Attached image: Rosebush 1

And left the buds strewn all over the porch.

Attached image: Rosebush 2

Thirty-two in total. I collected them and put them in a Ziplock in my freezer. When I find out who did it, I intend to present the rosebuds to that person and ask that they pay for them.

The culprit left four buds uncut, all of which are difficult to find as they are hidden among the foliage.

My leasing office seems to know exactly who did it. Because they have received numerous similar complaints of property damage from other residents. I have no personal knowledge, however, of whodunnit, so I shan’t go about casting aspersions I cannot back up with the photographic evidence.

Hence a new acquisition.

I shall set up the camera to watch my rosebush from now on.

The office seems to think it is a particular young person who lives a few doors down. If it is indeed this particular young person who is responsible, I should be very, very worried about her sanity. Someone as young as that, able to form the necessary malicious intent to cut of just the buds of my rosebush, and without any prior contact with me, may have the early makings of a sociopath.

Or maybe it is just that young people these days have no concept of property?

My rosebush will recover. But it will take another month before it is able to fully bloom.

This is a gross post.

I do not often get sick. In fact, in the past 3 years, I have been sick exactly 3 times. Fortunately, they have all come at the least inopportune times – during various breaks. I got sick two Christmases ago, and then again last Christmas, and now I’m sick again during summer break.

All three times have been really insanely awful sinus infections. I’m not the sort of person who gets sinus infections with every cold. No, I only get sinus infections when I get something–we’re talking about foreign bodies here–stuck up my nose.

I don’t go around putting things up there deliberately. Christmas ‘07, I sneezed with cheese in my mouth and got a bit of cheese stuck up in the back of my nose. Raging infection. Christmas ‘08, it was same show, only with cauliflower. Really awful.

This time, I got it from a book.

I’ve been reading Agatha Christie’s Poirot novels, and checked a few out from the university library. The offending book was The A.B.C. Murders. It had been water-damaged and was quite moldy and dusty. Nonetheless, I stupidly insisted on reading it, as it was the school’s only local copy. Well, I got a fragment of brittle paper, complete with mysterious, unknown, and probably highly dangerous black book mold, stuck up the back of my nose. I must have breathed it in. I felt it immediately and tried to get it out, but no go. Twelve hours later, I’m a pus-filled, mucus-spewing, 101.3-fever-running mess.

I’m returning the book in a bright orange ziplock bag with a biohazard logo on.