I keep telling myself that I am going to post, but I have been so preoccupied lately, that I just never seem to get around to it.  I had so many ideas for posts a couple weeks ago, but it would seem that my train of thought has derailed.  At any rate, there is always stuff floating around in my head so lets see whats hiding up there today.

Mostly, my thoughts have been occupied by Yoseikan.  I don’t know why, but lately, any time that I am not actively engaged in some specific line of thought, my mind wonders to Yoseikan.  I am getting ready for my next belt test, which should probably be sometime soon, so I have been going through techniques in my head a bunch.  I am only taking one class this summer, and it is so boring that even in there more than not I spend my time in there thinking about my techniques.

While I have talked to many people about Yoseikan, a few have voiced concerns that it is not practical to study martial arts.  There are two primary arguments.  The first is that most people tend to forget it in a real fight.  The second is that it really isn’t that effective.  After much thought, I have reached a couple of conclusions about these arguments.

Will I forget my training in a real fight?  Honestly, I hope that I never find out.  I have never really been in a serious fight.  I don’t hang around places where fights tend to break out.  I generally try to resolve issues before they reach fight status.  So really, I don’t know that I will ever need to fight anyone.  That being said, if I ever get into a fight, even if I forget 95% of what I have learned in Yoseikan, I will still have that 5% that will be more than what I had before.  Something is better than nothing.   I have noticed, however, that the more I do stuff, the more it happens without thinking.  I have a feeling that in a fight, more stuff will come natural than most people realize.

How effective is what I am learning?  How effective are martial arts in general? I have watched the videos online.  I have seen a handful of the MMA fights.  I know that I am by no means the greatest fighter on earth.  But the reality is that I am better than I was.  Is my Yoseikan training going to to be effective against a marine who has killed people with his bare hands?  Doubtful.  Will I be able to take down UFC fighter?  Probably not.  Does that matter?  Not really.  Chances are I will not be fighting people of that caliber.  The reality is that I don’t have to be the best for it to be worth while.  I have learned a ton.  I am way better off than I was.  That being said, I think Yoseikan is more effective than people realize.  Most of the people who have questioned its effectiveness have done so on the basis of what they have seen.  Since I have been working at it for a year and a half I have a different perspective.  What many people have only seen, I have experienced.  That throw that looks like two kids play fighting, yeah, I know what that feels like.  It hurts.  That’s why the other guy isn’t resisting as much; he has learned that if he does, his arm will be ripped out of his socket!  What we do is dangerous at times.  It is a lot of fun, but we have to be careful, because we can hurt each other.  Several of the techniques I have learned could easily cause permanent damage.  Would I be able to use them in a real fight?  I don’t know. But let me tell you what I experienced during one of my training sessions.  I was working through a technique and my mind went blank.  So I just did what was natural and then, BAM, there was the opening.  I think that is what it would be like in a real fight.  I may not plan out every move, but the more I know, the more openings will present themselves. “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” I think that is similar with martial arts.  The more you prepare yourself, the more likely you will be able to use what you know.  If I only remember 5%, I want to know as much as possible so that 5% will grow to be more and more effective.

All said and done, I love Yoseikan.  Of all the martial arts I have seen, it is by far my favorite.  I love the fact that it brings in so many elements from so many other sources.   It is fun.  That’s why I do it.  I get more exercise than I would otherwise and I have fun.  What else matters?

So I must start off saying that I absolutely love living in the DC area – there is so so much to do!! I am beginning to worry that I will come up with more things I want to do than that which I have time to actually do.

So this past weekend a friend of mine, PC Boy, came into town to sorta show me the ropes, and oh boy did we have a blast! So on Friday evening I went to go pick him up at the Reagan International Airport which is the closest airport to the actual district, just across the Potomac into Virginia – so I had to drive through DC to get there. I really cannot say enough about how crazy it is to drive inside the district. I am surprised that my car and I made it out in one whole and sane piece. But then after I got PC Boy loaded up into my car we headed back into downtown DC to see Carbon Leaf in concert at the 9:30 club. THIS WAS BEYOND AMAZING!!! See PC Boy and I have a “song” (I do not think he knows about this unofficial song that I made up for us a few years ago) entitled “Life Less Ordinary” by Carbon Leaf – this song will forever and ever remind me of PC Boy!! And Friday night I had the amazing experience of hearing that song performed live!!! This band in general is pretty awesome; in the hour and a half that I was at the concert I saw them play the usual instruments like the drums and varying types of guitars but I also got to see them play an upright bass, a ukulele, a recorder, and a penny whistle.

Then on Saturday, I began the day by helping PC Boy’s father rack up some good deals at a REI Attic sale where I even scored an awesome pair of Keen hiking shoes for only $20!!! And then we went to Tyson’s Corner Mall – which is literally the biggest mall I have ever seen! Then PC Boy drove me around downtown DC so that I could capture some images with my camera (if I can figure out how to post multiple pictures I may post a few in a couple of days - but for now I shall post one!).

On Sunday we began the day by leisurely kayaking around on the Potomac River. We saw many really interesting sites from the water: Georgetown, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial (the back), Watergate, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Arlington Memorial Bridge, motorcycles for Rolling Thunder, water cops, military helicopters (even those that decide to fly perpendicularly to the ground!) and the landing pattern for Reagan International Airport that followed the Potomac over our heads!! I also got to see some interesting wildlife: a crane, a male mallard, a female duck, a big sunning turtle, and a really large fish that a man had just caught. Then PC Boy and I went and watched the movie “Angels and Demons” – which I thought was pretty good even though they left out interesting parts of the book and the movie made the whole plot seem even more sadistic then I had imagined when reading the book!!

We also went and watched the new “Night at the Museum” movie on Monday and it was FABULOUS. It was incredibly funny and kept my rapt attention the whole time. And now I want a bobble head Einstein and a larger than life bouncing balloon dog!!! Oh and not to mention how awesome it is that Lincoln comes to life!!!

Well that is all for now on my amazing welcoming weekend in the Nation’s Capitol – there will be more to come. Be on the lookout for my next post on my opinions concerning recent NASA news.

My high school physics class was a joke, I math at the pre-cal level, and I’ve never seen more than snippets of anything Star-Trek-related. I realize that I have no authority to critique the physics of the movie nor its Star-Trekiness like my fellow bloggers have. However, now that I have seen the new Star Trek (which I found very entertaining), I have some rebuttals to a couple of their objections.

(Warning: Here be spoilers.)

First, I’ll address Hanavi’s concern with the galaxy-destroying supernova. This, I believe, is a matter of words, not numbers. If I remember correctly, and I usually do, Spock said that the supernova was “threatening the galaxy” (Rhodes quotes it as “threaten the entire galaxy,” but I don’t believe that’s correct either). So, no one ever said the supernova was going to “destroy” the galaxy. Moreover, “threatening” the galaxy doesn’t necessarily mean physical destruction. Trekkies especially should agree that a galaxy is more than the sum of its matter, and a supernova could disrupt the interconnected culture, politics, and overall galactic well-being. After all, Spock cared enough about Romulus to go out there and try to red-matter that sucker. Therefore, I find no problem with the whole “supernova that threatened the galaxy” thing.

Second, I’ll disagree with Rhodes’s problem with the planar black hole. “Oh snap!” I know, I know. I have no idea who Schwartz’s children are, and the first thing I think of when I see the words “supermassive black hole” is the Muse song by the same name. But when I saw the scene with the flat black hole, through which Spock and Nero travel to the past, I did think, “Whoa, a flat black hole?” It occurred to me, though, that we’re watching travel across 4 dimensions, with the camera following the motion of Spock and Nero through time. Since we can’t really film Romulans chasing Vulcans across time or visualize things very well past 3 dimensions, we have to scale down the space. So, a 3-dimensional black hole (dimensionless in time) would appear to be on a 2D plane while the z-axis becomes the time traveling path on which the camera tracks the action. Voila. Unless, of course, black holes have weird 4th dimensions I don’t know about and can’t fathom, which is entirely possible. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Though Rhodes says that the past (er…future) Star Treks have been invalidated by this movie, what I find strange about it is that things aren’t so different despite all that dad-killing, planet-destroying, and general mucking about in space-time. A butterfly flaps its wings in Mexico, there’s a hurricane off the coast of Africa (hey, another Muse song!) and everyone ends up together almost the same as if nothing happened (minus a home planet, a mom, and a dad, of course).

Also, I don’t understand the hang-up on red matter. The red matter, to me, is as plausible as a spaceship with artificial gravity (that’s not a centrifuge, of course). When I asked how they’re not all floating around, one of my movie-going companions (a dabbling Trekkie) dismissively said, “They have stuff on there for that…” I’m sure it’s more complicated and detailed than that, but is it really more believable than red matter? If we’re straining out gnats here, I figure we should get the camel, too.

There are some days that I wonder why I spent thousands of dollars on computer books and certifications…. Today is one of those days.  Don’t get me wrong, I have bad computer skills days too.  And I know there are people out there who could put me to shame.  I just thought these were funny.  Here are the big fixes of the day:

1. A user called complaining that there were several viri on her system.  She said that she couldn’t get rid of them and needed me too look at it immediately.  I wandered upstairs to find her browser open to a spamware/malware site that was trying to trick her into buying their software…. I closed the browser.  Problem Solved!
2. I get a call about a user having problems adding student assignments into our grade book application.  I went up and spent almost half an hour going through the software to make sure it is up to date and checking security settings… Finally I realized that she was trying to add a category instead of an assignment, which is not allowed.  She was clicking on the wrong button.  I pointed out her error, and everything worked great.
3. I got another call from a user having grade book errors.  Apparently she couldn’t find the 9th six week grading period…. Since we only have 6 six week periods, this made sense.  I don’t know how she skipped 7 and 8 to try to get to 9 on the last day of the semester.  All better now!
4. I got a call at lunch that a monitor had died.  The call was a little broken up, but I tried to troubleshoot it as best I could.  My first question you may ask?  “Is it plugged in?”  Apparently it was, but then the call quality degraded to a point of useless so I told her I would look at it when I got back.  Quick fix.  The power cord had come loose…..

I was hoping I could hit 5 by the end of the day, but I don’t think it is going to happen.  Some days I can spend hours steeped in problems so complicated that I wonder how they ever survived without me.  Other days, I just wish I could have stayed in bed!

Well I landed myself an internship this summer working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center analyzing galaxies and I just arrived in Greenbelt, Maryland (the city where Goddard is) today after the longest car drive ever.
My trip to Maryland started on Friday, when I left Alabama and drove to my Grandparents house in upper East Tennessee. Usually this trip takes only 4 hours, but due to a few unexpected events it took me 6 hours. First I ran into quite a bit of road construction, including a strip of roadwork that was 43 miles long!! Then I was stuck in a horrible thunderstorm and had to pull over to the side of the interstate for 15 minutes while it hailed like there was no tomorrow!! Thankfully my car wasn’t damaged to much…just a few paint nicks. Then I started my trip to Maryland this morning and it took me a total of 9 hours and 15 minutes to get here (with a 30 minute stop at Arby’s where I enjoyed an amazing Reuben!)…
Now that I am here I just can’t wait to start my internship tomorrow…more posts to come about my internship…STAY TUNED!!!

I realized tonight as I sat down to type out a post, that I have a ton on my mind right now.  I have so much that I really feel like saying, but it is all mixed up and jumbled together.  Contrary to what some of my other posts might imply, I really don’t think stream of consciousness is the best way to write posts for a blog! So, over the next couple days, I am going to try to break it down into bite sized, coherent sections.  I guess we’ll see how that works out.

That all being said, I am happy to say that this weekend marks the beginning of Scuba season for me.  I think one of my goals is to go diving every weekend this summer.  I started yesterday with a couple of dives, and I got one more in earlier today.  Sometimes, I have to stop and ask myself why I do what I do.  Diving is one of those things that I fully don’t understand.  But yesterday, when I got home after diving, I felt good.  There is no other way to describe it.  It just made me feel good.

I think there is something about swimming or diving that just appeals to me on a deeper level.  When I was a kid, we used to take our vacations at the beach every year.  I loved it.  I love the ocean.  I would sleep in and then spend the days at the beach or pool.  We would spend the evenings hanging out as a family.  Those were probably some of the best times of my life.  I look back now, and I miss those times.  I think diving brings a little of that back to me.  It gets me closer to the ocean than I have been in a long time.

For some reason, it also calls to mind all of the movies and books and stories that I have read or seen about the ocean and pirates and such.  I know those have almost nothing to do with each other, but my mind joins the freedom and adventure of one to the other.  I have a longing for adventure that is growing inside me, and diving is one of the few things I can do that almost calms it down for a while.  It brings a measure of freedom and excitement to my life that can otherwise be lacking at times.

I know those explanations don’t make much sense, but that is how my mind works sometimes.  When I am diving, I am somewhat connected to ideas and memories that almost don’t make much sense together, but there is a thread in my mind that holds them together, albeit tenuously at times, but it is there.

In more simple terms, I just really enjoy diving, and I am glad that Scuba season has finally arrived!

So, just like Rhodes, I recently watched the new Star Trek movie.  Actually, I have seen it twice.  My family decided to go see the movie on Mother’s Day, so I figured I would join them for my second viewing, and I have to say I enjoyed both showings.

The reality is that I think it is an all around good movie.  I have to agree with Rhodes, though, the physics is way off.  Now, contrary to what you may think, it really didn’t make the movie less enjoyable knowing that black holes don’t work that way and supernovae cannot destroy our galaxy.  And since I am not a serious trekkie, I didn’t have a problem with the reboot (though, even Wil Wheaton said that it was a pretty awesome reboot too, so I figure that I shouldn’t lose any geek cred over that).

That being said, a coworker and I got to talking the other day about the movie at lunch.  I pointed out the fact that there was no freakin’ way a supernova could destroy our galaxy, and he jokingly challenged me on that point.  Well, I made a couple simple arguments, but when I got back to work, I decided to try to work through the math and get at least a qualitative feel for the effects of an extraordinarily massive supernova.

Yeah, that’s right, I actually worked out the math of a hypothetical supernova to show that part of a science fiction movie was just that: fiction.  Most people seem to be getting frustrated that I am pointing out the physics flaws.  They look at it and think that by focusing on the flaws that I somehow get less enjoyment out of the movie…  Yeah, I don’t think they understand how much of a nerd I really am. Well, I even went a step further.  I actually typed up a small document in Latex (mostly because I needed the practice with Latex) that explains why a supernova will NOT destroy our galaxy.

Now, stand back, because I know most of you are not going to believe this, but this was actually FUN for me.  *GASP*  No, say it isn’t so… you couldn’t just enjoy the movie for what it was you had to have MORE FUN by being a physics nerd?!?! Yes, that’s right. I had fun picking on the physics of the movie.  I know that’s hard for most of you to believe, but its true!  Physics is Phun!  And working through a few basic astrophysical examples to show that the entire basis of the Star Trek movie was not realistic was very enjoyable for me.  And the best part… I still really liked the movie!  You CAN have it both ways!

So all that being said, here is the document.  Since I am not great with Latex, I have had to fix a bunch of typos and formatting errors, but I think I have them all worked out, now.  Also, I have only been through the math once, so if there is an error, I’ll get an updated version up as soon as I find out about it and get it fixed.  I tried to make it a very easy doc to read, but there are still a few conventions I follow that may make things a bit confusing.  The circle with a dot in it represents the sun.  The circle with a plus represents the earth.  The rest should be fairly self explanatory to anyone with a very basic physics background (like a semester or two of college or maybe even high school physics).  If you have any questions, feel free to ask.  I’ll try my best to give reasonable answers.

I figure only a handful of people will even read the doc, but I at least had a bunch of fun putting it together.  So, if you do read it, let me know, and let me know what you think about it.  Its my first attempt to refute movie physics.  I hope it is as enjoyable for you as it has been for me!

Over the last couple days, I have done all sorts of updating to my iPod. About a week ago, I bought a CD from a band that played at The Flying Monkey, and since I don’t usually listen to CDs anymore, I resolved to actually get it onto my iPod. Its not that I have a serious problem putting stuff on there, I just never really get around to it.

Well, that didn’t happen quite as fast as it should have. In the mean time, I ended up having to clean up my room (which still isn’t quite done), and in the process, I decided to listen to some music.  I was really in the mood for something new.  I ended up playing around on Amazon and buying a couple movie/television scores.  By the way, The Transformers soundtrack is awesome!

The next thing I know, I am ripping a handful of CDs and downloading stuff off Amazon and getting them onto my iPod. So, here’s what I have added over the past couple days:

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV Score
• The Transformers Movie Score
• The Loose Marbles
• Christabel and the Jons - Love and circumstances
• A random Jazz/Swing Mix CD
• Two Worship Mix CDs
• A bunch of Random classical (including Mozart’s Requiem)
• An Enya CD

I know it isn’t the strangest mix ever, but I thought it was interesting.  Everything from Worship to Classical to Movie scores to Swing to New Age.  The funny thing is that I am thinking about downloading a Beachboys CD too.  I used to love them as a kid, but I haven’t really listened to them very much in a long time.  One of the tracks on the Jazz/Swing Mix was Barbara Ann, so it made me think about all that music I haven’t listened to in a while.

Other things that may be added soon include Micheal Buble, more Christabel, more movie scores, and whatever else I come across that grabs my attention!  Anyway, there is a random music update for those who care.

There’s an esurance commercial running right now. It starts by saying “For an experience that’s out of this world, watch Star Trek!” Frankly, I think they underestimated the movie. It would be more accurate to say that the latest Star Trek movie is out of this physical realm of existance.

I am a Trekkie. I am also a physicist. This movie managed to offend both sensibilities. My list of problems with the film are so long I don’t know where to begin… I suppose I’ll start with the good.

This film was extremely well-produced. Every aspect of the film was crisp and clear. Queasycam made no appearance. The visual effects were–as was expected–stunningly well-done. The score was excellent and largely in typical Star Trek movie flavor. It’s a soundtrack I would actually consider buying on old-fashioned compact disc.

And, my greatest fear, my biggest trepidation going into this movie did not come to pass. The actors lived up to their roles superbly. I raised my eyebrow every time a name was announced for this film, but I should have had more faith. It was clear that the entire cast studied their iconic roles diligently and breathed life into while keeping their charm and manners. I was slightly disappointed with the character interpretation and young age of Scott, but I didn’t perceive that as a weakness of wonderful actor Simon Pegg. Of the crew, I felt Zachary Quinto’s performance was by far the weakest, with Zoë Saldana and John Cho giving performances that outshone the rest of the cast. I don’t understand why the gave Pavel Chekov curly hair… but whatever. I also enjoyed the several nods in the script to the original series. Hearing Spock say “Fascinating,” Scotty say “I’m givin’ her all she’s got Cap’n!” and McCoy say “I’m a doctor not a physicist!” It was charming. Also, someone with a rank and a token last name dressed in red dies horribly. Happiness is in the little things.

The bad… let’s see. I’ll treat this as a Trekkie first. Scotty was way too young. The crewmen of the USS Kelvin and, in fact, all Starfleet officers are wearing the Enterprise insignia rather than individual assignment patches.

Completely unnecessary random alien species kept showing up in every other shot. For no reason. Like seeing a black guy in the background of a movie like … The Notebook. He doesn’t need to be there, he’s just there to say “We’re diverse… no, really!” Of known Federation members, we saw only the Vulcans. No Tellarites. No Andorians. I was shocked by the appearance of not one but several Orion females in Starfleet, which is troubling considering the official neutrality and later animosity between the Federation and the Orion homeworld (later, the Orion Syndicate). Just a bunch of humans, plus exactly one random non-humanoid alien in every second “crowd” shot. It felt like a cop out a very…. Star Wars-y move.

Finally… the ending.

Or, the unending? Or, the invalidation of 26 “future” seasons of Star Trek? I won’t say more about this… I’d like to avoid spoilers if at all possible. But if you’ve seen it, hopefully you know what I mean.

Now, as a physicist. As a physicist watching this movie, I frequently wished I could have watched this maybe when I was … twelve? No, I was still smarter than this movie at 12. Maybe 8. Yes, if I was 8, and watching this movie, the science in this show would have been enjoyable rather than retarded.

Where to begin? My biggest beef is that apparently, in whatever physical reality this Star Trek is set in, black holes are planar. There are flat and directional and if they suddenly appear in the middle of the planet, the gravitational pull will suck the planet in from exactly one direction instead of all of them. The planet will be sucked entirely into the singularity at a steady rate of fall. There is no such thing as a Schwarzschild radius in this Star Trek. There is no such thing as gravitational time distortion in this Star Trek.

What else….

Apparently the planet Vulcan can be seen as a moon-sized object in the sky of Delta Vega…? I don’t think so.

Montgomery Scott, a Starfleet officer and engineer with over a decade of experience “never would have thought” that the spatial coordinates would be mutable in a warp field metric. This basic undergraduate level general relativistic field metric equation is apparently all that is needed to transport onto a ship at warp speeds. Lightyears of distance are irrelevant.

A supernova can “threaten the entire galaxy” yet when it destroys a planet, it is “unthinkable.”

This supernova is also, obviously, planar, since it can magically destroy a planet systems away while not at all affecting the supernova-averting-ship traveling towards it.

If you have a deus ex machina… magical liquid…. ridiculous plot device… liquid capable of destroying an entire planet with a single well placed drop, it is absolutely necessary to carry a minimum of 300 gallons of it at all times.

When 300 gallons of your … liquid “ignites,” the effect will create a singularity several orders smaller than the one that ate the planet. Plus, that singularity won’t have any significant destructive effect on the ship it was created inside.

Also, that singularity will, of course, be planar.

Mining ships in the future are bitching, have unlimited ammunition, and have the supplies to support a full crew compliment for 25 years. They’re also huge.

Shooting the hull plating of a well-constructed ablative mining platform with small arms is way more effective than climbing into the hatch and sabotaging it the traditional way.

All starships have large Wonka-esque tubes of water that are labeled “inert reactant” instead of “water.”

Hitting a transporter platform at terminal velocity hurts way less than hitting anything else at terminal velocity.

Parachutes of the future retract, but cannot support ANY additional load.

Kirk spends a lot of time hanging from ledges. A LOT of time. Four times in this movie, he hangs from a ledge.

Running away from a planar black hole at warp speed has no effect. On anything. You might think it may distort the spacetime geometry (twice), but it doesn’t.

Star Trek 11
RRR: 72

Writing	Acting	Production	VC	Face Cred	Geek Cred
13/30	26/30	14/15	21/25	3/5	-5/5

The Bottom Line (Trekkie): This movie has done more damage to the franchise than Star Trek V and Enterprise combined.

The Bottom Line (critic): This movie is worth seeing in theaters. It is an entertaining, well executed movie, despite retarded lines and retarded science. If you are a Trekkie, you may cry. If you are a physicist, you may scream. If you are a Trekkie physicist you will laugh, then cry, then lobotomize yourself. Excuse me, I have to go find a drill.

I don’t really know where to start.  Last month was extremely busy, so I don’t think most of us really even had time to think about posting.  Finally, things are starting to calm down a bit.  I hope this means posting will go back to a normal schedule, but we’ll see how that works out!

The semester in review:
Last semester was probably the most difficult semester I have had yet.  I took 5 classes and a lab:

• General Chemistry I
• General Chemistry Lab
• Methods of Partial Differential Equations
• Intermediate Electricity and Magnetism II
• Intro to Quantum Mechanics II
• Intro to General Relativity

The chem class (and lab) was my easy class; the rest were all senior level physics and math.  Thankfully, I pulled off 4 A’s and 2 B’s.  Ironically, I got a B in the easy Chem class!  I didn’t put forth the effort I should have in chem, but given the amount of effort I had to put into the other classes, I think my priorities were correct.  The other B was in E&M.  I also just barely missed an A in there.  Oh well.  Overall, I am happy with my grades.

A few other interesting things happened this semester.

• Inducted into Phi Kappa Phi
• Inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma
• Made Dean’s list
• Elected President of the Astronomy Club
• Elected Vice President of the Society of Physics Students
• Elected Vice President of the Math Club

This means next semester is going to be busy, now that I hold office in 3 clubs.  I think it will be a ton of fun, though.  Since I didn’t get accepted into a summer research position, I will be staying in town and taking a math class this summer.  I now will only have 4 classes in the fall and 4 (and a lab) in the spring, also.  That means I will have a lighter class load than I am used to, so things should balance nicely (I hope).

This summer should be very busy as well. My list of goals for this summer is probably a little longer than it should be, but tihs is my time to finally get caught up!

• Study for the GRE
• Read!
• * Lots of Fantasy
• * The Feynman Lectures
• * Statistical Physics
• * my books on Astrophysics
• * my General Relativity Book
• * my books on Particle physics
• Scuba Dive! and get my Dive Master Cert
• Yoseikan! (establish my uber ninja skills!)
• Instrument rating (I REALLY need to finish this before I graduate)

Thankfully, I have already started.  I just have a ton left to do.  I plan to spend a ton of time reading, mostly in preparation for the fall.  I am taking my final astrophysics course, and this prof is really hard.  Much of the reading I am doing is to be ready for his class.  I also have got to be ready for the GRE Physics subject test.  I need to do well on this test to get into a couple of the grad schools I have been looking at.

The fall should be exciting.  I am staring my senior research project working on gravitational waves.  I think it will be a lot of fun.  I also have that GRE test.  I hope that I get enough studying done to pwn that exam, but it is a very difficult exam, so we’ll see how it works out.

All in all, things have been going well enough.  Life has been stressful but good.  I hope this summer and this fall turn out to be as exciting as they hint that they could be.  I guess we’ll just have to see how it all turns out!

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