Alum!

And I'm not talking about that bitter white powder, I'm talking about me because I graduated all over the place yesterday. Now I have to go home. I wonder if this rain is going to stop, so maybe I should look it up...

How Many People are Graduating with Me????

Honestly, I just don't know. I simply have no idea-- except I did make an estimate based on those at Graduation Rehearsal: ~300 people.

I'm going to look it up.

Approximately 530 members of the Class of 2005 will receive bachelor's degrees at Skidmore College's 94th Commencement exercises on Saturday, May 21. The ceremony, open to the public, will begin at 11 a.m. at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Thanks, www.skidmore.edu home page. Apparently "mandatory" doesn't mean everyone. If everyone was indeed at graduation rehearsal, my visual estimation of 530 is pretty poor. Riddled with error.

No longer am I at the "undergraduate level."

Slinky Experiment

Well, I'm drunk and a bunch of people were just here drinking before they went out to drink more, so now I'm alone in my house! The Slinky Toy came out during the "party" and I did an experiment with it after everyone left. I started the Slinky by dropping it down one stair, then two stairs, and then a maximum of three stairs to see how it would make it down my 11 steps.

Results:

When dropped from one stair, the Slinky jauntily made its way down the stairs, one step at a time. Almost like clockwork!

When dropped from two stairs, the Slinky made its way [less jauntily] down the stairs, but about 4 stairs from the bottom somehow reverted back to taking the stairs one step at a time!

When dropped from three stairs, the Slinky lurched down the stairs awkwardly until ONE step from the landing where it took the last step BY ONE. It regained its preferred "one by one" on the last step. I wondered if anyone else had done casual research on the Slinky Toy stair-spain preference, so I looked it up:

High school research:
http://home.messiah.edu/~barrett/slinky/home.html

Other research:
http://courses.ncssm.edu/hsi/miniterm2000/fallingslinky/mslinkydrops.htm

I don't really like physics.

What's so great about Nyquil?

I was getting sick with lots of trapped phlegm and scratchy throat, and so Barn and I made a late night trip to Price Chopper for some Nyquil and ice cream. I took what one might consider to be 2.5 adult doses and [eventually] went to sleep. I feel like a million bucks this morning, I mean it! One million dollars! So what's so great about nyquil? I've looked it up:

Dextromethorphan (DXM):

DXM acts centrally to elevate the threshold for coughing. At the doses recommended for treating coughs (1/6 to 1/3 ounce of medication, containing 15 mg to 30 mg dextromethorphan), the drug is safe and effective. At much higher doses (4 or more ounces), dextromethorphan produces disassociative effects similar to those of PCP and ketamine.

STREET TERMS: Orange Crush, Triple C's, C-C-C, Red Devils, Skittles, DXM, Dex, Vitamin D, Robo, Robo-trippin', Robo-dosing.

DXM EFFECTS: Euphoria, enhanced awareness, impaired judgment, loss of coordination, dizziness, nausea, seizures, panic attacks, psychosis, brain damage, and addiction. Coma and death may result from taking cold medicines with DXM.

Oh.

That's funny, on the bottle they say that it's for "cough." Next time, I'm getting the generic stuff. That means I'll get my Vitamin D for much cheaper.

Time to iron my physics book in hopes of selling it back today! Won't be able to look up stuff about PHYSICS anymore, no siree.