Chain Mail

Today I decided I wanted to make authentic chain mail armour. Why? Because it's awesome, that's why. It's something I'm adding to my list of stuff I want to do over Xmas break. Even though my DnD character isn't a melee class I think I was partially inspired by all of the combined geek auras in the room.


ThinkGeek.com (one of my favorite sites) also sells chain mail shirts, but I think it would exponentially more awesome to make one.

Waloon Hamlet

Today we started playing DnD. Our party is bunch of misfits from a city called Triton. We were sent to a small hamlet called Waloon so investigate mysterious activities around it's mausoleum. After meeting some of te townsfolk and buying supplies, we entered the crypt. It's infested with graverobbing goblins. We slayed a few and got out by the skin of our teeth, each earning 525 experience points.

I've got to say, Dungeons and Dragons deserves more credit than people give it. We were sort of playing impromptu also, without any manuals. All we had were penicls, paper, dice, and a lot of imagination. Awesome.

Silent Hill and Fear

If you've never played a Silent Hill game before, I suggest you go out and rent one right now. It's one of the few survival horror games that are actually good. My roommate mentioned something about it to me today while I was in a half asleep stupor. When I got up I thought of how much fun it would be to play them again. You can get some good prices on used PSX and PS2 games on half.com. Most of the Silent Hill games are out for PC too I believe.


So anyways, what I want to do over Xmas break is buy at least one of them, if not the whole series, and play them at 3 in the morning, in the dark, volume turned way up, while wired on caffeine or maybe ginseng. My goal is to scare the living hell out of myself.

I don't know about you, but movies never seem to actually scare me. Every now and then I'll jump at those "cheep shots" the film directors make, you know the real quiet, innocent scene and then a sudden loud noise that turns out to be nothing anyways. That isn't being scared, it's a natural reaction. Now I remember the one time I played Silent Hill 3 in my room by myself. I think I was roughly 15 at this time. Well, after playing for a while I was literally afraid of being alone in the dark in my room. Luckily, it wore off after a few days. That is being scared.


I feel like I haven't been genuinely scared in a long time. Usually fear is thought of as something negative, but I think the only thing that's negative about fear is the actual danger that it is often accompanied with. Think about it, I would be scared of a gun is pointed to my head because of the possibility of premature death. That's dangerous, so it's bad. Going into a (good) haunted house would scare me, but there's no real danger, so it's good, kind of like eustress. It's good provided it's not a permanent fear and doesn't develop into some kind of phobia.

So my goal is to scare myself silly in a safe environment. Besides, what's better than getting to play a cute blonde chick AND kill zombies. Nothing probably.

Half-Elf Wizard

Recently, I realized that there was a large area of geekhood that I've never explored. That's right, Dungeons and Dragons. Perhaps one of the dorkiest games ever created. Stereotypically dorky that is. I've played fantasy type games before, but never a hardcore pencil and paper, dice rolling rpg. It turns out a few people in my dorm, whom you would never suspect, used to play it quite a bit. We all made character sheets and will hopefully get a game started tomorrow. This is going to be ridiculously awesome.

My first DnD character (I'll just put the basics)

Name: Daynor Silverbeard
Race: Half-Elf
Class: Wizard
Alignment: Neutral Good
Sex: Male
Lvl: 1
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 125 lbs
Age: 25

Stats
Strength: 6 - 2
Dexterity: 14 + 2
Wisdom: 12 + 1
Intelligence: 16 + 3
Charisma: 14 + 2
Constitution: 12 + 1

Chem Lab Practical

I just completed my lab practical for principles of chemistry. Not trying to brag or anything, but it was really easy. I could see how it would be difficult for people who aren't comfortable with doing laboratory stuff, or for people who aren't as big a dork as I am. =)

Here's what they make you do:

1. Gravitational filtration, i.e. pour something into a funnel with a piece of filter paper in it.
2. Vacuum filtration, same thing only with a Buchner funnel and a water faucet set up.
3. Light a Bunsen burner, adjust it to a luminous/"cold" and a non-luminous/hot flame
4. Read a barometer, buret, graduated cylinder, and thermometer.
5. Weigh a flask, put 10mL of a liquid into the flask with a volumetric pipet, weight the flask + liquid
6. Calculate the density of liquid from the measurements.
   

I'm guessing upper level chem labs will involve more difficult processes. It's still a relief to know that I'm done with it though.

80/20 Principle

This is one of the most interesting things I've even learned from a book (The 4-Hour Work Week). The 80/20 principle, also known as Pareto's Law, basically states that you get 80% of your results from 20% of your work.
Pareto was an Italian economist, but what's cool (and useful) is that you can apply 80/20 to practically anything. The reason I'm writing this is because of a score I received on my last comp paper. I scored 115/125 which is 92%. Pretty darn good, especially considering I didn't fully read any of the literary topics I discussed. I wrote my rough draft in about two hours, and it was awful. The thesis didn't make sense with what I wrote about. I revised it to make sense the day (more like the night) before it was due, about another 2 hours of work. Not counting goof off time, I spent about 4 hours total, with only mild interest in the subject and somehow pulled off an A.

Now this teacher isn't an easy grader, though I feel she is fair, and English papers are certainly not my forte. I think it's a good example of the 80/20 rule at work. Instead of submitting my 4 hours of work for something that's 92% correct, I could have put forth twice as much time and effort on the paper to get it 99% correct. I don't know about you, but to me that last 7% is definitely NOT worth an additional 4 hours of my time. Looking at it mathematically it's not worth an additional 1 hour. Maybe it's just because I'm a type B person, but I say screw those last few percents.

The same thing applies to social situations. I'm sort of paraphrasing from the book now, off the top of my head that is. If you know 20 people chances are you get most of your social gratification from only 4 of them. That's not to say the other 80% are worthless people you should never talk to, but they generally do not please you as much as the top 20%. Conversely, 80% of your problems and negative social feelings probably stem from the 4 most negative people, the bottom 20%. So by dealing with those 4 people, you can eliminate 80% of your problems. The remaining 20% of your problems would take an exorbitant amount of effort to clear up and would probably result in more stress in the long run. Besides, life would be boring if it didn't have little problems for us to joke about later.

See what else you can apply 80/20 to. It's a great way to prioritize everything and deal with time management.

Unofficial Anti-Fun Week

As the title states this, the week before finals, is my unofficial anti-fun week. I hereby am not allowed to enjoy myself until I finish the mountain of school work I have. Looking at the big picture makes it seem like I have an immeasurable amount of stuff to do, but once I break it down it's not all that bad. I was actually working on a paper (the one I was supposed to be doing in comp class) before I started typing this. Unfortunately, I hit a writer's block and need to fool around a bit so my subconscious can figure out the problem. That is how the creative process works isn't it? Do a little work. Leave it alone. Get inspired. Finish magnificently.

Now that I'm really thinking about it I only have two main things I need to finish. #1, this comp paper, which actually only needs to be a draft and is due Wednesday. #2, a philosophy research paper which is due Thursday. Even though it's only Monday I feel like I have no time. Maybe it's just because today was so crazy and fast paced. Well I'm glad I decided to update and sort out my thoughts a bit.

Tomorrow is also when I'll be doing my chemistry lab practical. Shouldn't be too hard, we didn't do anything ridiculously complicated in Principles of Chemistry.

Being Machiavellian

Niccolo Machiavelli was a 16th century Italian political philosopher. He believes that the only thing people are ultimately concerned with is the gratification of their own personal desires. He is most often associated with his book "The Prince" as it nicely outlines the pillars of his philosophy. I think we're all a little Machiavellian from time to time. Maybe not as extremely selfish and cynical as he suggests, but it's definitely there.

Right now I'm in my composition class "working on a research paper" and playing up my own Machiavellian desires. What's paradoxical about this is that I'm technically goofing off on blogger, but at the same time I'm writing about Machiavelli, which is what the assignment is. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll get any credit for this. Though it may help me sort out my thoughts and eventually start the actual (graded) writing process.

The reading in the actual book is a bit dry, so that's where sparknotes comes in. He's got some interesting views as to how things work so it's definitely work skimming over. It's especially useful if you are planning on managing a principality in Italy anytime soon! What's cool about Machiavelli though is that his principles are not just limited to 16th century Italy, they are applicable even today.

An article I came across, cleverly titled "Fresh Prince" (which is disappointingly NOT about Will Smith's endeavors of the 90s) is about Robert Greene's book "The 48 Laws of Power." It's thought to be a modern day version of Machiavelli's "The Prince." The article itself was kind funny, it talkes about how a bunch of big name rap artists use this book's principles to govern both their businesses and personal lives. I'm thinking about purchasing the book myself, it seems like something that would interesting AND useful, and that doesn't happen to often with things I like. =P

Let There Be Light

Ta Da.
I don't know where to start, so I'll just start here. I made this blog to share some of the things I like with other people. There's a quote somewhere that says the internet doesn't make you stupider, it just makes your stupidity more accessible to others. That's my goal exactly! Except stupid is a rather unpleasant way of describing things. I prefer, eccentric, deviant, idiosyncratic, or just fhqwhgads.

So, the title is probably my creative limit as far as writing goes. I'm more of a scientist than a writer or artist (pronounced "ar-teest"), which leads to my first point:

GEEKS
They are welcome here. I am a geek. I remember one time a friend and I listed things that were stereotypically dorky about me, here's some of them.

• enjoys calculus
  
• wears (slightly bent) glasses
• chemistry major
• computer programming hobbyist
• plays mmorps
• plays Magic: The Gathering
• competitive DDR enthusiast (yes, it is still cool...for some people =P)

Some of my future posts will be about geeky stuff that I, and hopefully others, enjoy. Tech stuff, chemistry stuff, math stuff, who knows.


GREEKS
I am not a Greek. Though they too are welcome here, what I meant by "Greeks" was ancient Greek philosophers. I've gotten somewhat interested in philosophy since college started. It seems like one of those things that have merit, but is hard to actually apply to your life. My belief is that the world would be a slightly better place if everyone took a minute to examine their lives every now and then. What's good about philosophy is that it's thought provoking. So even if it isn't intrinsically "useful" I think it makes me happier, if only for the amusement it gives me.

Another thing I'm associating with "Greeks" is the whole fraternity thing and just college in general. I realize not everyone in college goes Greek, but college is a big part of my life now, and I'd like to see you fit that into the title some other way! =)
I am actually considering joining a fraternity so it is sort of applicable.


SLEEP (or lack thereof)
Yes, I do sleep. Sometimes more than I should. Sometimes not very much.
There's two main things about sleep that intrigue me enough to write blog entries about.

1. Dreaming
I think I have a mild obsession with dreaming. Particularly lucid dreaming. There will definitely be future posts about that, as well as some of my own dream happenings.

2. Polyphasic Sleep
Fancy person's term for "napping." Basically what it entails is getting sleep in more frequent, but shorter periods instead of one big long eight hour sleep marathon (or the "normal" way, as most people would call it). There's a fair amount of detail to this subject that I can get into later.


So this blog will basically be about what goes on in my head: my spontaneously nerdy stuff, my ambitions as a starving college student, and maybe my subconsciousness that is even more confused than I am.