Truth and Exfoliation

So, I had the kind of day at work where I saw only men. Seeing how as I see 4-5 people a workday, that is something that rarely happens to me. Men, in huge massive general terms, tend to receive massage less than women do. There are many reasons for this and it is not at all the point of this post. The point is this; my friend asked me if I was more tired after working on men all day and to answer completely honestly I had to say, no, I was not. The upside to working on men is that you get to use my forearms all day, since they tend to have broader surfaces, and the high body hair to exposed skin ratio makes for the best darn natural exfoliation ever! My girlfriend probably has no idea that the soft arms she so adores comes, in part, from me rubbing hairy men on a regular basis. (.....until she reads this blog, that is.)

Infinity

"Note, there is no difficulty in focusing our eyes to infinity; we do it all the time."

This sentence was stumbled over in my physics lab manual and while it speaks of relevant issues to the physics of light, I found it to be especially insightful. Quite literally, we do focus our eyes to infinity nearly everyday. We day dream. We slip deep into thought. We stare out over the ocean. We stare at the blue sky. We stare at our ceilings. It is natural. It comes naturally to us.
I am in the last year of schooling for my current degree. Since I have no idea what school will accept me into their physical therapy program, beyond graduating from this college the rest of my plan looks a lot like infinity. I can visualize the end that I am aiming for but everything in between looks like a yet formed molecular web. There are a few constants I hope to hang onto, a few luxuries I would rather not part with, but the goal is simply to reach the end, whichever end that shows up as. And honestly, considering what I am trying to do and how much work still lies ahead, it may as well be as far as infinity. So, I suppose, the take away lesson here is; relax, keep your eyes open, we do this all the time.

Scholar-Ship

So, I got a scholarship this past week. 67% as a an excuse to take a Friday night off of work, I attended the awards dinner. Which was great. My friend, Knave, who accompanied me was commenting on how novel it was to be in a room full of people who seemed genuinely optimistic about the future. In truth, if I had just paid that much money to help send other peoples kids to school, I would want some freaking optimism served with my wine, too!
Aside from the evening being an honor parade it was actually uplifting to see that many people turn out to say congratulations to some hard working students. Most of these folks overcame difficult backgrounds in order to become abnormally productive. Seriously, I was an honoree and I could not believe what all these people do. I tell people I just gave up sleeping and a social life to meet my goals; some of these kids must have given up breathing. Oy. It just goes to show that anything is possible if you have the will and a little support.
I worked through high school. I worked through massage school. I am working through college. The good thing about massage school was you had two options for when you wanted to take your classes. If you got kids, study when they study. If you got a job, study when you get off. It was really nice to have that flexibility. And, there was a ton less homework. A ton. Speaking of, I am going to go write a paper about what will happen to you if you hold your breath while 20,000 feet above sea level.
It is going to be a very short paper.

Calculating Uncertainties

Once a week, for the past 7 months, I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out why the creators of the physics lab classes decided that the best way to go about this whole thing is to design activities especially good at draining all the fun right out of physics. Oh. My. God. They should re-name the class "calculating uncertainties" just so you can prepare for what it is you will actually be doing for the next year of your life. Why encourage us to engage in more active observation or make cool discoveries about the laws of the natural world when we could just plug numbers into the same bloody equation over and over and over again? That is where the fun is! 3 hours a week I do this and I feel bad complaining about it because I like physics. I get to actually see how magnets and waves and collision forces act on the real world......for about 10 minutes and then it is back to uncertainties. The funny thing is, no one in my class is on their way to becoming a physicist. We are all in the physics class for people who are not going to do physics. Or math. Or engineering. Or probably anything wherein knowing exactly how wrong you are is going to matter so much. Oy. Four more weeks and it is over.