Stuff of Happy

The best kind of happy is the kind you get from opening a can of cat food.

Soft, foamy peaks...

There should be a course just on whipping egg whites. This has to be the most challenging thing I've ever done with cooking. And that says something. I pride myself when it comes to things I cook, even though it's kind of hit-and-miss when it comes to edibility. Not being able to properly whip egg whites just makes me sad.

If you can make those fluffy peaks I'm always hearing about, then you are a god. And that's all there is to it.

(Insert Name Here)

When I made this, I planned on using it more. I haven't abandoned it or anything (not that I ever really started), but I probably won't start using it more frequently anytime soon. Oh well~

For this post, I feel compelled to talk about fishies.

Okay, well, that fish is a robot. I'm talking about real fish. Specifically the kind that live under thick sheets of ice for months at a time. Didn't you ever wonder how they don't die?

Here in sunny Florida, it's been roughly 35F-40F all week, which is quite the shock to those avid beach goers. The snowbirds are probably thinking that they should have stayed up North. Except we don't have any snow.

But back to the fish thing.

There are actually a bunch of different ways the little masterminds avoid becoming popsicles.

Suppose you have a freshwater lake. In this case, we'll focus on the Physics of it. Typically, things expand as you heat them and contract when you cool them. Water, however, likes to be special. It does this weird parabola thing when you change the temperature.

Basically, that graph says that water is most dense at 4C. So the water acts normally, getting more dense as it's cooled (why ice makes your water bottles stretch out). But it stops getting more dense at 4C. For the fish, this is a very good thing. Imagine, if you would, a lake.

With fish in it.
Now it starts to get colder. Say the lake is completely at a temperature of 5C in the beginning.
Fish are a little chilly, but hey, it's the burden of a fish life. Then that top layer of water gets cooled to 4C. What happens? It's denser than it was at 5C. So it sinks to the bottom.
(The fish know it's beginning)

SO the veeeery bottom of the lake is at 4C. This process keeps happening until the ENTIRE lake is at 4C. But then what? The top layer gets cooled to 3C. But since it's less dense than the rest of the water, according to our lovely parabola, that water stays up on top. Slooowly, that layer cools the next layer and that layer cools the next layer and so on. Then, once the top layer reaches 0C, the freezing point of water, the top of the lake freezes. At that point, though, the water at the bottom of the lake is still 4C.

And so the fish get to not freeze.

In places like the Artic, where the fish ARE swimming in water below freezing point (because salt water can do that and not freeze), different stuff happens. Apparently, some of these fish have natural anti-freeze in their blood. From what I understand, it's actually some protein (insert name here) covered in sugar.

Everything is manipulated to keep the fishies happy.

Yup. Trufax.

Popped Corn

Y'know... popcorn is really cool. It is.

No matter what field of study you're interested in, you can probably work popcorn into it.

Seriously. Let's try some experiments here.

Type 'popcorn' into google. Naturally, the first link we get is from wikipedia. Let's click on it.

"Popcorn or popping corn is a type of corn which explodes from the kernel and puffs up when heated." Things exploding and puffing up? Well that sounds like chemistry to me.

According to Wikipedia, it was discovered by Native Americans and didn't become a popular snack food until the great Depression. Historians, come hither!

"Some consider it to be a health food, while others caution against it for a variety of reasons." Medicine.

"Popcorn can also have non-food applications, ranging from holiday decorations to packaging materials." Designers.

"Some shipping companies have experimented with using popcorn as a biodegradable replacement for expanded polystyrene packing material." Business and such.

"The world's largest popcorn ball was unveiled in October 2006 in Lake Forest, Illinois." World Record Breakers.

With another trip to Google we find that there are even uses for this tasty snack in the technology field. People need to engineer this stuff. And hey, someone has to program that stuff, too. Which temperatures and styles create the best textures? Which toppings create the best flavors? Even lawyers get jobs out of popcorn. (Note: Engineers, do your job to prevent this.)

And going back to flavors? There's this company called Popcorn Universe. They have over 150 flavors of popcorn. I almost want to make it my life goal to try every one of the flavors...but then I think about watermelon popcorn and figure I have better things to do. Seriously though.

There's vinegar and salt, white cheddar, vanilla butternut, pumpkin spice, ranch, raspberry, rootbear, tangerine, taco, honey, honey mustard, cinnamon, ketchup, kettlecorn, maple, mint, mocha, CONFETTI (holy hell, the colors on that one), cookie dough, creme DeMenthe (whatever that is), caramel, chocolate toffee crunch, cinnamon toast, cola, poppycock, s'mores, passion fruit, nacho, peanut butter and jelly, pineapple, pizza, plain butter, peppermint, pistachio, dreamsicle, and, my favorite, the pregnancy mix. Dill pickle and ice cream. Yes, that's what I said. To quote their website:

"Don't knock it 'til you've tried it!"

No, I have never personally tried it, but y'know what? I love these people. I really, really do. They're awesome and creative and THEY OBVIOUSLY HAVE A PASSION FOR POPCORN. Anyone who is this in love with something definitely deserves some love in return. And better yet? They blame their wonderful discoveries and ideas on an alien invasion.

You can't look at this website and not smile. You just can't.

I think she might talk to me again sometime next week...

Yes. I've become one of those people.

I am a weiner!

This has very little to do with anything, but this problem made me cry on Friday in Physics class. And, no, I don't mean "Haha, I cried on the inside when I saw it." I mean I cried until my next class because I couldn't even start it and I was supposed to be able to finish it.

Since this is such a personal triumph for me, I feel the need to post it.

ClickforaBIGGERversion >D

That is all.

Harvard and Princeton and Yale, oh my!

The time to start looking for places to go to college is getting closer and closer.

Actually, it's now.

Now is when I'm trying to figure out what it is I want to do with my life. Or at least the next four years of my life after high school. I mean...my grades are mediocre at best. I don't have straight 'A's, I don't excel in any one subject, I'm not particularly passionate about any one thing... There isn't much a college admissions office should see in me.

Still, I would love nothing more than to go away to college. Leaving home and meeting new people in new places is just something that feels very right to me. It's kind of like an obstacle course. One of those challenges where you need to use all of your team members to complete the task. To me, that's fun, and that's what college will be. A new environment, balancing a variety of factors like jobs and schoolwork and trusting in a bunch of strangers to mold my life and make my first experiences as "an adult" (ffff, yeah right) enjoyable. It's new, and it's exciting. And nerve-wracking, but that's beside the point. It's something I've always wanted to do.

Then again, like many of my friends, I don't want to leave my comfort zone. I'm attached to my friends, and although I'd rather swallow live tarantulas than stay in Florida longer than necessary, I don't want to leave them. I'm sure it annoys the hell out of a select few, but I can be protective. I want to dorm with them and talk to them every day so I know how they're doing and know how their classes are and learn about how they hate the smelly person that always sits next to them in the cafeteria, despite the fact that they're actually pretty nice and even offers them candy once in a while. I like little details like that. Actually, I like to be downright nosy, and it's hard to do that when you have to pay for long-distance calls and don't have the time or energy to write every detail of your life in an email. I try to encourage them to apply to some of the places I'm thinking of applying to, but I wonder if trying to convince them to leave Florida is like them trying to convince me to stay. Which kinda makes me a hypocrite ^_^"

But I REALLY digress.

What I meant to say is:

Colleges are visiting my school this month. I'm really excited about hearing people brag about their schools~ I'm kind of nervous about leaving home, but there's plenty to explore and I know there's more out there than what I've experienced in the wonderful place known as the Sunshine State. I want to go somewhere totally new, but I want some familiarity, too. I wish I could bring some of my friends along with me. Alors, I still have a year to sort these things out. Here's to hoping things turn out well! Will revisit this topic at a later date.

But speaking of schools, MIT allows pet cats in some dorms.

I would love to bring Jade with me.


Yeah, she's definitely a Jade.