Secants and Tangents

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Another Sinusoidal Day…

Filed under: General — Ryan @ 10:59 pm

Well, the Physics midterm was…blah. It figures that the dumbass TAs did not make enough copies so we lost 10 minutes because of that. I just want to get this stupid class over with so I can hopefully become a department scholar, or double major in statistics. I waited until tonight to work on my Psychometrics homework…dumb choice.

On a lighter note, I got some great news. I got an RA/PA interview! Yay! I feel like the ball is in my court now. I know that there is a lot I can do between now and the day decisions are made. I have practice interviews coming up, and am aware of my options. I feel very good about this.

Sadly, there was a train crash in Glendale. Some selfish asshole decided that he would park his car on the railroad tracks and commit suicide…but then at the last minute he decided that his life was more important than the 100 lives on the train so he bailed. The train derailed, hit another train, and hit a parked locomotive carrying hazardous waste. My dad was there helping recover the victims. He was interviewed for the 10pm news on Fox and the 11pm news on NBC! He got very choked up, as I imagine anybody would be in that situation. I am very skeptical of the suicide theory. At first it made sense. But apparently the man had “superficial” self-inflicted wounds, suggesting that he was not seriously trying to commit suicide. They interviewed some idiot earlier today that said, “Oh yeah about two weeks ago he told me he was going to commit suicide by parking his car on the railroad tracks, but I didn’t think the train would actually hit him.” What a dumbass. I swear there is something seriously wrong with this world if there are people like him around. It is very simple: park car on the tracks, train goes choo-choo toward the car, the train collides with the car. What the hell was that idiot thinking??!! And why he didn’t report it is beyond me. Suicide is nothing to play around about. As idiotic of a comment as it was, it seems like the only thing that makes sense in this whole case. I mean, WHY was the place swarming with FBI agents?? Yes, it was a terrible tragedy, but if it is such an open-and-shut case why the need for such law enforcement? Tomorrow 200 NTSB investigators will be in the area. If I remember correctly, the number of NTSB investigators at the TWA flight 800 crash site was in the 200-500 range, but the culprit was a huge B741 and 230 people died. So WHY are so many coming for a dinky little train and 10 deaths? This was not the fault of the MTA. Or was it? At first I believed the suicide story…now I think we may have been attacked. Nothing makes sense…of course these days, nothing ever makes sense.


Tuesday, January 25, 2005

White Noise…

Filed under: General — Ryan @ 12:48 am

Some of the strangest things have been happening at my house lately. Today I received the most bizarre phone call about it around 9pm. Apparently the intercom/doorbell system started playing an eerie chime at 7pm. I heard it for myself over the phone. It sounded like a strange version of an old Atari game theme music. A doorbell does not typically sound anything close to this. So you would figure, no big deal, just shut off the system. One problem…it won’t turn off.

The chime/music continues while my dad tries to dismantle all of the panels and figure out what is going on. My grandmother has now entered the house crying out of fear that she was having a stroke or going delirious. After hearing all of this, I think this is all too weird. I don’t know if it was fixed, or how it happened. We think that perhaps the doorbell can change its chimes…but why the hell would it sound so…weird?? The chime had been playing over and over for 2 hours straight when I last called home. I told my parents that I would call again at 11pm after I have settled in for the night.

Now nobody is answering the phone… What the hell is going on???


Saturday, January 22, 2005

Just Another Saturday…

Filed under: General — Ryan @ 2:51 pm

Today was a pretty productive day I must say. I got a lot of work on the site done. I can’t believe I already have a midterm this week…and in Physics to boot. I friggin hate that class. It is ridiculous…on Friday we talked about PDEs. Ughh…so yeah, I started studying today, but I can’t seem to get a hang of coverting units again.

I got my haircut finally!! Now I won’t get so hot just trying to walk from my room to the front door. We stopped for chili dogs afterwards (at the one Wienerschnitzel in the entire county it seems) and then went to no other but Starbucks. Just another Saturday, but I am looking forward to the premiere of Numbers tomorrow night!!!