Theory of Creativity

I would like to promulgate the following theory, proposed by myself about the relationship between real life and one's private fantasies:

Creativity is directly proportional to the amount of caffeine and sugar consumed and indirectly proportional to the amount of time available.

In mathematical terms, this would come out to:

C = k_1(a_c + a_s)/k_2t

where C stands for the amount of creativity, k_1 and k_2 are arbitrary constants of proportionality, a_c stands for the amount of caffeine consumed and a_2 for the amount of sugar consumed, and t stands for the amount of time available. 

I do not know what units C will have, but right now it's looking something like grams/seconds. However, it is hard to define a mental/spiritual quality in physical terms, so this attempt to define it is doomed.

I still think this should be published in a research journal somewhere.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

IUPAC Is A Headache

It's a bad sign when even your organic textbook gives up on trying to explain the reasoning behind some of IUPAC's nomenclature decisions and just says: "To keep things interesting, however, IUPAC recognizes eight exceptions for which a -yl ending rather than an -oyl ending is used..."

I really can't decide if IUPAC has its mysterious reasons for deciding how we should name chemical compounds, or if it's just a bunch of nutty Ph.D chemists in a room somewhere laughing maniacally as they assign arbitrary rules that we must all treat as law.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Smaug, Sherlock, & Pterosaurs

So, guess who got a DVD copy of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug yesterday.

So I decided to continue my "Nerd Problems" series in honor of Smaug.

Confession time: I did not actually think those exact words when I first saw Smaug. Actually, I thought this: "Oh my gosh! He looks like an azhdarchid pterosaur! AWESOME!!!"

The better-informed nerd paleontologist afficiandoes on TVTropes, however, have stated that Smaug's body design is more reminiscent of an ornithocheiroid pterosaur, so I will follow their lead. Nevertheless, 'azhdarchid' is an infinitely cooler word than 'ornithocheiroid'. The Persian word for 'dragon' beats the Greek for 'bird hand' any day. Also, Quetzalcoatlus northropi is an azhdarchid, which makes that genus 20% more awesome.

Also, I found this highly amusing picture while looking up large pterosaurs:

That's right. Some artist seriously took the time to compare Arambourgiania philadelphiae to Sherlock. Sherlock Holmes, of Sherlock, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Seriously. They even drew his purple scarf! I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw it. "Surely not," I thought. "They wouldn't actually put Sherlock in a pterosaur diagram."

Nevertheless, I clicked on the image to enlarge it. Sure enough, it was Sherlock. I immediately knew I had to blog it. (Don't believe me? Go to the Wikipedia article.)

Since I've seen so many fanart of Smaug wearing Sherlock's purple scarf, it seemed only appropriate that these pictures should end up in the same post together.

Also, they are not 'pterodactyls'. That refers only to the members of one specific type of pterosaur. The name for all prehistoric flying reptiles is pterosaur - Greek for 'winged reptile'. Get your facts straight, people.

Yes, it bothers me every time I see 'pterodactyl' misused now.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

I'm Gonna Call Myself An Alchemist...

So my organic chemistry teacher started off our chapter on aromaticity by recounting the story of how August Kekule figured out the cyclic structure of benzene. He dreamed of the ouroboros, the mythical snake that swallows its own tail, and in thinking of it realized that the carbon atoms of aromatic compounds (in particular, benzene) could be arranged in a circle:

I was sitting, writing at my text-book; but the work did not progress; my thoughts were elsewhere. I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by the repeated visions of the kind, could now distinguish larger structures of manifold conformation: long rows, sometimes more closely fitted together; all twining and twisting in snake-like motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time also I spent the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the hypothesis.

For comparison, here is a typical ouroboros (you may find others in your standard fictional medieval setting):

Here's Kekule's drawings of benzene:

To us organic chemists, it usually appears more like this:

Now, there's two things I know about the ouroboros: it's generally the symbol of an artificial, 'perfect' life-form (as the ouroboros is supposed to have neither beginning nor end), and it's generally evil. Perfect case in point: FullMetal Alchemist. The homunculi (artificial humans, created by alchemical use of the Philosopher's Stone and believed by themselves to be superior to mere humans) all have the ouroboros tattoo somewhere on their body.

So where is the point at which chemistry and alchemy becomes indistinguishable...?

I do love the thought of calling myself a scientist, but the thought of calling myself an alchemist is also pretty darn appealing...

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Happy Pi Day!

We've been trying to convince our brother to make sour cream peach pie today in order to celebrate, but no luck so far. Hey, we can't help it if he makes the best crust...

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

"How do we usually test stuff?"


"Usually we ask for student volunteers," said the Dean.


"What happens if we don't get any?"


"We give it to them anyway."


"Isn't that a bit unethical?"


"Not if we don't tell them, Archchancellor."


"Ah, good point."


-- Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett


--


...I will admit to thinking of this exchange while in lab this week... O.o


In Pace Christi,


Elyse

I hereby declare that, as we have a mob of crows, a herd of cows, and a pod of dolphins, any collection of annelids must be known as...




a squirm of worms.


*insert picture of earthworm here*


In Pace Christi,


Elyse

LOTR x Organic Chemistry - The Sequel

I have LOTR problems, y'all.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

What Do You Get When You Cross a Ringer and Organic Chemistry?

True story, y'all.

This will make sense to anyone who has read both The Lord of the Rings and passed through the first semester of organic chemistry. Trust me.

Now, to find something LOTR that sounds like the word 'enantiomer'... hmm... Ents could work...

Aww. Now I feel compelled go do to an enantiomer version. I hate it when I give myself ideas.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

And Now For Some SCIENCE!

This is interesting. Take a gander.

Technically, spiders are arachnids, not insects, but they also breathe through spiracles in their exoskeletons so the same principle applies.

On a lighter note:

| When an American hears degrees in Celsius:

| | When everyone else hears the degrees in Fahrenheit:

I have finally realized that room temperature in Celsius is about 20 degrees. Boiling water (which in Fahrenheit is about 212 degrees) is 100 in Celsius. As for Kelvins... phew... just take the Celsius temperature and add 473. No kidding. Kelvin was designed so that you could never reach absolute zero. It is the ultimate scale for temperature.

Yeah, America. We just like having weird measurements. I still can't tell you about how much a meter is, despite the fact that I have been using it almost exclusively in physics and chemistry for... oh... five years now.

Oops.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

And They Say Catholics Are Anti-Science

A HIT, A VERY PALPABLE HIT!

...To quote Shakespeare. That brings to mind, I saw a Shakespeare-ized version of Star Wars (the original movie) in Books-a-Million the other day. I only read partway through the first act but I thought it was hilarious. Darth Vader speechifying about his existence, purposes, and means while strangling a Rebel soldier - priceless.

So take that. XD

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

The Periodic Table Song

In honor of organic chemistry, I thought I'd post this. While it's not as stress-relieving as the last thing I posted (what is it lately with me and posting videos, anyway?), it's still certainly amusing for those of a scientific bent of mind. I definitely rank among that number.

I was sitting in class today and realized just how much of the 'magic system' of my fictional universe is based off of science. Serious, my runic system, at least as far as it is deployed in a battle, is somewhere between hieroglyphics and atomic structure. The moment my runes start forming a tetrahedon like methane or something, I will know I have officially lost it.

Of course, look what Terry Pratchett did with the Discworld. There, magic is basically the equivalent of nuclear technology, complete with a background magic field - a concept I also use.

So maybe it's not a bad thing, having a scientific bent of mind. At any rate, it'll be amusing if a work of fantasy turns out to be more scientifically accurate than your average sci-fi thriller or comic book. It always amuses me how superheros get their powers, anyway... A spill in a chemistry lab? Oh, no, you have super speed! I mean. really... XD

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

So True

I found this on Tumblr:

| i think it’s a universal truth that everyone in our generation takes pluto’s losing its planetary status as a personal offense

| | I will not teach the children this heresy

I will not teach this, either. Maybe I should go to BAM and get the shirt that says, "Pluto: Revolve in Peace," with a date showing its year of discovering and year of demotion.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Why I Don't See Any Problem With Faith & Science

A university student once sat on a train next to an old man praying the Rosary. "Do you believe in such things?" the student asked the man.

 

"Yes, I do. Don't you?" asked the man.

 

Laughing, the student said, "I don't believe in such silly things. Take my advice. Throw the Rosary out of this window and learn what science has to say."

 

"Science? I don't understand," said the man. "Maybe you can explain it to me."

 

The student offered, "Give me your address and I'll send you some literature."

 

After fumbling in his pocket, the old man drew out his business card. The boy looked at the card and burned with shame.

 

It read, "Louis Pasteur, Director of the Institute of Scientific Research, Paris."

I love my faith. We don't run around telling people they're going to Hell, we don't insist the Earth is no older than 6000 years, and we don't disallow medicine and other weird things.

We're actually pretty rational.

Which is always a great way to be!

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Because It Needs To Be Posted Again

A day may come when I stop generally goofing off on the Internet and practice my speech for tomorrow...

But it is not this day!

Just kidding. I've already practiced it twice and I should run through it again (it's so hard for me to practice with a webcam; there's a very strong temptation to just start laughing hysterically). I should make notecards. However, I have a crippling fear of (1) not being able to read my own writing due to its tiny size, light pencilling, and general sloppiness- this is a legitimate fear (2) mixing up my notecards- also a legitmate fear and (3) the fact that this would keep me looking down at my hands instead of out at the audience. It doesn't help that that room doesn't even have a podium I could line up my cards on.

At the very least, I could hide behind the podium. When you're short, you can do things like that.

No such luck, however.

Other legitmate fears are that I will become nervous and start talking more quickly, thus preventing anyone from understanding what I'm saying and causing me to run under the time limit (again) or that I will forget what I was supposed to be saying and instead just start rambling on meaningless things, causing me to run over the time limit (again). Goodness. It's a good thing I've already taken speech or I would be majorly freaking out at this point. It is also good that we are not to use any PowerPoints because all the overachievers in class would have nice, pretty, well-organized PowerPoints and I would be the only one (again) to not have a PowerPoint and who also couldn't even remember to bring a poster about my topic.

Story of my life. I fail when it comes to technology. Ah, well, let's just hope that I can make someone laugh or at least smile tomorrow. I am a firm believer in the power of humor. I always try to be funny during my speeches, because I think that an amused audience relaxes the speaker and also puts the audience in a more kindly disposition towards the speaker- and a happy audience is potentially a more attentive audience.

And, why, yes, I am attempting to exorcise my fears by blogging about them. It helps sometimes, y'know? I put a lot of myself into my writings. I put some of my traits into my characters occasionally- even my negative traits. Actually, I think recognizing my own negative traits and dealing with them by describing them in another helps me to identify my own behavior in that regard and avoid it in the future. See? My writing is therapeutic.

I have also looked up the requirements for a chemical engineering degree at other colleges. I am now suitably intimidated and want to go hide under a couch somewhere. I am really afraid that I will change my major and then not like chemistry and math, as irrational as that fear may be. We can't all be mad scientists.

I just think this gif is funny. I'm not actually like that. In fact, I spend time on a regular basis trying to convince my little brother that chemistry is not all about boiling strangely-colored liquids, evaporating solutions into tubes, and bringing dead bodies back to life with lightning. (Because, of course, Lightning Can Do Anything!)

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Pi Day!

Today is Pi Day!

Pi, as in, you know, 3.1415926 or something like that. An irrational number, its digits receding indefinitely into the distance. Today is March (3) the 14th, so Happy Pi Day! XD It's a typically nerdy thing to celebrate.

To celebrate Pi Day, my brother is making a pie. An apple pie. I helped peel the apples, which is kind of funny since we are both bad with peeling fruits and vegetables. I have had a very hard time learning to not peel with the knife facing away from my thumb, but I have progressed.

My sister is still faster than me. Of course, she spends the most time of any of us kids actually cooking. I tend to do the cleaning up. Which is fine by me, because I understand cleaning up. That is not to say that I do not understand cooking. I can follow recipies quite well. And I am pretty good at making brownies and cookies and stuff like that. The good stuff, in other words.

No, we're not putting 3.14 on the pie. As far as I know. But it will taste good. Very good. He has made it before and so needless to say we did not need much of an excuse to beg for an encore...

What would make it even better would be if it were an (un)expected party!

Bofur, that is not where the turkey belongs...

I saw on TheOneRing.net a thread about who would you invite to your expected party, if you could only invite nine people from Middle-earth?

Well, here's my list.

Fili and Kili. This should be obvious. I'm sure they would be lots of fun. Also, it would ensure ninja dwarves would help me do the dishes.

I would not invite Thorin. He's a party-pooper. Granted, he is majestic and regal and all that, but he is a majestic, regal party-pooper. He just has to knock on the door to send the happiest crowd into silence. So, no, not inviting him, even if he would help keep his troublesome nephews in line.

Balin. He's basically Dwarf Santa Claus. Everyone wants him as an extra grandfather. Plus, I'm sure he has baby pictures of Fili and Kili (and possibly Thorin) he could be persuaded to show. This would be vastly amusing.

Dwalin. He plays the viol/fiddle/whatever it was, and although he, to quote James Nesbitt, "goes completely mad when he parties," he'd probably be a lot of fun as well. Plus, he could help keep Fili and Kili off the tables in the absence of Thorin. After all, he babysat them; he can keep them in line.

Yes, someone asked Graham McTavish on Twitter if he had babysat Fili and Kili when they were small. His response: "Sometimes I feel like I still am!" He's great about answering fan questions. Someone also asked him what Thorin whispered to him when they arrived in Rivendell. He said: " 'We use the toilet and then we leave.'" So, naturally, this was the result...

Well, that makes four. Who else?

Bofur. Perhaps I could steal his hat, just for a moment or two so I could try it on. He could bring his whistle and there would be a re-enatment of "Blunt the Knives".

Bifur. Because the so-called 'axe Dwarf' is really sweet and does the dishes for you! I wouldn't understand a word he said since it would be all in Khuzdul, but I'd make sure there were plenty of vegetables and fruits for him, since he's vegetarian. We'd provide a beer mug so he could fill it with lettuce.

Or, if he wanted to roast his silverbeet (a legitimate New Zealand vegetable) over a campfire to get that smoky taste, I'm sure we could arrange something, as well.

So that makes six. Who else?

Well, I think Gandalf would also be a good guest. My house would not be too small for him, thus causing him to bump his head on chandeliers and door frames, and red wine could be requested. Maybe he could even be persuaded to play magic tricks with smoke rings and let off a few of his 'whizzpoppers', as Bilbo called them.

Seven! We need two more.

Ori! We shouldn't leave the adorkable baby geek dwarf out of this. Perhaps he could be persuaded to show us his sketchbook. Certainly he'd have a bit more fun without Dori constantly looking over his shoulder, insisting that he eat more greens. Nope, no Dori for me! And no Nori, because although I think he would an entertaining guest he would probably still all the silverware and sausages.

Hmm. One more. Who else?

Let's just go with Bombur. It'd be rude to invite his brother and his cousin and not him, and he could also help me cook. Of course, he'd eat most of the food himself, but since I've already listed eight dwarves... in for a penny, in for a pound, or however the saying goes. Plus, I wouldn't have to worry about eating the leftovers for a week afterward!

So that is who would come to my expected party!

*sigh* If only it were real...

I'll be waiting...

In Pace Christi,

Elyse