Ye Olde Mill

I Need To Put That In My Mouth

2009-05-25T01:55:00.004-04:00

Week before last I departed on my $29 flight from JFK to Burlington, VT. Airport security is ridiculous. First of all, according to a TSA agent, an expired New York State Driver's License is not a "government issued ID." She kept saying "government issued." Apparently, I don't have to regard New York State as any sort of authority, and in that case, I would like my tax dollars back.

More upsettingly, the government stole my toothpaste. I really can't imagine why half a tube of toothpaste is such a danger (though, I suspect Austin Powers' judo chop on a tube of toothpaste may have something to do with it). Maybe the freshness of my breath is a danger to the Vermont way of life, and thus is prohibited in that state. Or maybe, its another form of a bailout, where the government steals yours possessions to make you buy more new things (increasing demand, then prices and also profits), its not that far-fetched given the logic the government uses.

Let Me Get Wet First...

2009-04-21T21:29:00.000-04:00

So, I've decided to become the greatest philosopher of my time. I'll admit, this will take some work, but not as much as it would have say, 300 years ago. People these days are simple, and are in a constant state of distraction.

All sorts of gadgets are designed to keep you from having to think while nothing is going on; cell phones, iPods, portable DVD players, and laptops just to name a few. Children especially suffer from this, as they're essentially forced into this, because they're just given these things. And when these kids do have to think, they throw a tantrum and complain.

I've been reading "The Ten Books on Architecture" by Vitruvius, and its quite interesting. It was written circa 1st century BCE, and the ability and knowledge of architects from then is quite astonishing, especially in terms of material properties. It makes me feel like we haven't really advanced much beyond them with exception of concrete and steel. Architectural theory is something completely different now though, and I guess if you were to consider architecture an art, theory may be the only thing that would change.

Recently one of my professors said something interesting, which was that, "nobody lives the true life of an architect anymore." What she meant by that was architects from before our modern era were able to understand and view the world in a completely different manner because they had to fill their time experimenting in drawing, painting and other disciplines. But basically now-in-days, our focus turns elsewhere as our lives are considerably more complex.

My Intro to Art History professor is also very interesting and he expressed that we, as a society, have really lost the concept of a shadow. Given electricity, we are forever surrounded by light. He told us a story of when he was studying in Milan, where he and his classmates had pinned up some drawings that had been repeated by students since before electricity. And after class the janitor made some comment to them about how they can't draw. Then the janitor offered to show them real artists drawings, and so they followed this guy into the basement of the building where students' work had been preserved for years, just trunk after trunk full of work from long ago. And he said it was the most incredible art, and every single piece put his and all his classmates to shame. Anyways, architects used to have really take into consideration the quality of light that each room of a building would receive, but with electricity, its no longer the issue that it used to be (though the great ones of today are successful at involving light).

I find history interesting, and learning different things can make you think about life in different ways, give you a different perspective. I'm not nearly to the point at which I think I'd be content about forming philosophic principles or something like this, but I think I'm well on my way. Part of what I enjoy about architecture is that it's a profession which can never be complete, there's always room for advancement or change in your personal theory, much like I think philosophy is, and I think I just need to be seasoned a little bit more.

Giving You Brain

2009-01-29T22:41:00.003-05:00

The other day, a couple of things came to me at once. I was doing some reading for my Statics/Strength of Materials class, and at the same time I saw this commercial for the clothing store Big & Tall. During this commercial, they flashed on the screen that they had sizes of up to 10XL!! This caught me a bit offguard. I thought that by the time people exceeded 4 or 5X, they'd start just buying drapes to clothe themselves. Basically, it didn't occur to me that there would be enough demand out there for a company to decide to produce clothing at such ridiculous sizes. But then again, with Barack Obama in charge, American business don't have to worry about failing.

The next thought I had turned out to be kind of weird. The world's population has grown at a tremendous rate over the past 100 years. Being that I was reading a Structures book (which will come into play again later), I wondered how the earth's crust could support such an increasing number and such an obese population at that. You might think the North American continent, at the very least, would be bending, or distorting due to this increased mass. But then I realized that people's mass is only generated from the fruits of the earth, and the total mass of the earth and the people on it would only change when we shoot off a satellite into orbit, or basically while anything is suspended in the air. And it then occurred to me that this meant there are resources being misallocated in fat people that could be used otherwise, and thus obesity is even more of a drain on the economy than I'd thought before. I became very interested in this thought, that the obese body, requires more work and resources to create, and thus is somehow worth MORE than someone that's in-shape. Maybe "worth" is the wrong word, but has more of the public's interest "invested" (that's a quality political word) in it. And not only that, but for most people, these wasted resources used to create these immense bodies rarely gets distributed back to earth properly, as religious people pump their dead full of toxic preservatives to give them a life-like appearance at funerals. Then throw them under the dirt, essentially saying "suck on this" to the earth. The more that people bury the dead in this manner, the less the earth has to offer us in terms of nutrients. I don't know, maybe I'm a bit disturbed.

And now for my last thought:

If I ruled the world, I would carry out a test on the earth's crust on the grandest scale. Of course, there are a few fallacies with this proposal, but we're just going to have to assume every person is an able bodied human, capable of standing and jumping, and also that the pressure of people is evenly distributed across the planet. Alright, so I'm interested to see the weight capacity of the earth's crust before something cracks, or worse (the Structures book mostly influenced this thought being that it's all about determining the load bearing capacities of buildings and such). So, I would have everyone in the world, at the exact same time, jump and also land all together. What type of effect would this have? Would volcanoes erupt? Or, how about if we threw all the people to stand together in Australia and do this, could they shift the continent? I mean, I think we're talking at least one trillion pounds of human, if I gauged the average weight properly. I wonder if we could move the tectonic plates manually? I don't think it would do too terribly much damage. It's just a shame we'll never find out, since I don't think I'll ever rule the world.

Anyways, those were my thoughts, thank you if you made it this far.

How Hard Is It?

2009-01-12T23:22:00.004-05:00

One thing that aggravates me about where I work is that we get tons of tourist customers. Not only do they get frustrated easily because the products they're often looking for do not exist, or we don't have it at the store, but they also ALWAYS seem to forget their toothbrush at home. So they'll be in New York for a week or more, without thinking, "hmm, my breath stinks, maybe I should sacrifice $3 and get a new one, and some toothpaste." And what's more, is tourists, depending on their culture, also tend to be very close talkers. So, I'll have this frustrated, short, European man breathing in my face, unaware that I REALLY want to end the conversation and walk away. Sometimes it's so bad that I take a break after getting one of these customers. It's just so infuriating to me, that these people have such little self-awareness. I find bad breath to be extremely rude.

Go through the backdoor...

2008-11-04T23:12:00.002-05:00

I don't know why, but I always find it absolutely HILARIOUS when I see adults (35+) sitting in the back seats of cars.

I will without fail, laugh EVERY time I see it. It makes it even better when they're dressed up in a suit or something.

I laugh at weird stuff.

No matter how long and hard...

2008-10-22T21:26:00.003-04:00

Despite my rough start in Spider Solitaire (I went 1 for 39), I've persevered and brought my average up to 15% as my record now is 19 for 123. There was a frustrating point at which I thought this game didn't require any sort of aptitude, but I've since found that I can in fact succeed depending on HOW I play the cards, rather than just simply depending on the ones that are dealt. You need to set yourself up for something down the line, rather than attempt to make your combinations perfect right away. However, I've also noticed that at the beginning of each game, if you don't get quality cards, where you can start getting rid of the piles underneath the cards facing you, the game will be very difficult down the line. The piles need to be taken care of first, so that you can use the empty slots later on to your advantage. So, basically, Spider Solitaire comes down to a combination of the cards you're given and the skill you have.

That's so smooth...

2008-10-14T16:04:00.002-04:00

I was on my way to the subway station the other day, walking along at a normal pace, when another guy just walked out of his building. He started behind me but was walking much faster. He passed me, and for some reason it frustrated me. So, my reaction to this was to speed up, and pass him. As I did, I looked at him. And he slowed down. I think I made my point.

Put the rubber on...

2008-10-09T11:10:00.002-04:00

Last night, I was walking home from the subway station, and I noticed something. While I was walking down the street, I saw that the curb, where a car was not parked, was covered in rubber. I immediately assumed this was from cars attempting to parallel park and consequently bumping the curb with their tires. Often times you'll see people's rims and hubcaps all scratched up, and this is from being bad at parallel parking, they'll scrape the curb. So I thought, why not make the curb out of rubber? And, while we're at it, make the road out of rubber as well? Aren't you tired of running around the street, and tripping, falling and scraping your knees and elbows? Well, I think it's about time we move on from this scummy, hard, abrasive asphalt that we've so apathetically used. The rubber streets would be much easier to clean, safer for kids, and tires could be engineered to have much better traction.

If a politician were to propose this idea, he would tell you, you deserve to move on from the norm, that this is a better technology, and you won't have to pay a dime in tax money for it, as he or she is desperate to gain votes and be elected just to serve their own vanity. Well, rubber in this quantity is not cheap, I'm sure of that, so I hope this politician can pay for it on their own. So, let's say this politician gets elected, proposes this bill mandating that all roads shall be made out of rubber, and it passes. Soon, this politician will realize, "oh, this DOES cost tax payer's money, sorry folks, I lied." But, the bill has already been passed, and the mandate must be followed. So, people get their rubber streets in the summer, when most road construction is done. And, they love it, because everything the politician promised about the quality of the roads was true, so they don't care if it cost them money.

Then comes the fall season, increasing the potential for rain. When the rain hits, this smooth, rubber surface becomes slick, and accidents happen. Accidents involving people of all socioeconomic classes, also including business transports, and even federal transportation. So now, the citizens demand that something be done, and politicians agree. The politicians, that can't figure out why this happened in the first place, as the rubber was working so well, decide not to repeal the rubber mandate, but decide to keep the rubber roads, and come up with a solution to save their roads. Now, remember this problem is country-wide, affecting all people, so a solution is imminent, and politicians feel the pressure to act fast. Many of the citizens may be clammoring for taking up all the rubber, because they knew it was a bad idea in the first place, but politicians, attempting to save their own ass and not to admit they wasted the taxpayers' money before, call those people shortsighted and uneducated about the situation.

The politicians, of all parties, now group together and form one party, at least for the time being. The solution they come to is that they need to enact a government project to create a ceiling over all roads, to prevent precipitation from falling and potentially causing accidents. Also in this proposed bill, shop owners and other people won't be able to clean off their sidewalks by spraying it down with the hose, because water is not allowed to touch the rubber, ever. Now, the citizens know that this idea is really bad, and is going to cost them tons of money, so the majority do not want this to happen. But the politicians argue that it is essential for their safety, and all band together to pass this bill, as they're "putting aside their political differences" in the name of public safety and prosperity. So, they pass this bill, ironically against the voters' (by whom they were elected) wishes, and cost the taxpayers' even more money to support a government program that was created "just because" something had to be done.

Now, let's look at the industries that would benefit, and those that would be hurt. The beneficiaries are clear; the rubber industry, as a spike in demand rises, they could demand a premium price and turn their greatest profit ever (though your politician may argue that because you're buying this rubber in bulk, at a higher volume than ever before, this "pooled" demand will actually cause a decrease in price- this just serves as proof he or she doesn't understand economics), and also the politicians because they think they saved their asses by "fixing" a problem that they'd created. Industries that would be hurt though, are not so evident. The bandage industry would take a hit, because kids would no longer be scraping their knees and elbows. Car parts shops would also take a hit, because they wouldn't be selling as many rims or hubcaps, or even as many tires, because the wear and tear wouldn't be as vigorous on the slick new roads. Also, as a result of the increase in the price of rubber, sports such as hockey, tennis, raquetball, lacrosse, basketball, and many others that use rubber products would become much more expensive. Hockey pucks, could jump from $2 per, to $15-20 per, given the ridiculous demand. Not to mention even the other consumer products that use rubber, the prices would also spike if they continued to use rubber instead of finding a replacement.

Basically what this story comes down to, is that no matter how well intentioned a government program may be, there are terrible, unintended consequences. And, the pride of politicians makes it "hard" to repeal programs such as these, even though everyone knows it's a terrible idea after it happens. The way that the government chooses to resolve these problems is by creating more programs, which cause more problems, and the "need" for more government programs. The government should just let the market be, and allow it to make decisions for itself, as any sort of restriction or government mandate can create an enormous mess, even though in the short term they may work fantastically.

Wow, that's so long!

2008-10-07T10:01:00.000-04:00

Does anyone else get tired of going to bed EVERY night? Why is it so completely out of the question to totally get rid of "the week" as a measure of time?

I feel it would be a fantastic time to try a system of non-week months.

In this new system, there would be four days in a month, and each day would last 168 hours. People would need to train themselves to sleep for 56 hours straight, and then further train themselves to be awake for 112 hours straight. There would have to be a few rules and regulations put forth to make this system a success.

First and foremost, an extremely strict curfew would need to be set in place for the designated 56 hours of sleeping time. Robots would patrol the streets and kill anyone who was not inside at least attempting to sleep. These robots would be similar to the Sentinels found in The Matrix movie series. Along the lines of Sentinels, streets could also be patrolled by the Sentinels from the X-Men video games... though I think the Matrix Sentinels would be more effective. On a related note; all electromagnetic pulses would be banned.

Second, the Marines and the Air Force would be completely dropped from our military. Marines are huge douchebags and Air Force people are scared to kill people. The Coast Guard and the Army National Guard aren't even worth mentioning. We would only need the Army and the Navy -- that's it. Both of these branches of the military would be on completely different sleep schedules than the rest of the country; one branch would sleep for the first 84 hours of each day, while the other guards us as us civilians sleep, since during our irrationally long sleep hours, our country will be very susceptible to attacks -- by terrorist jerks. These two military branches would patrol land, sea, and air. Also, surplus soldiers cannot be used to enforce the curfew, that's just how things are.

On an unrelated note, all of our soldiers currently stationed overseas would be brought back to the US. Additionally, all of our nation's prisons would be emptied and all prisoners would serve the rest of their sentences in Iraq, fighting our war. Anyone serving a sentence for a property crime would be forced to make elaborate fireworks. All states would legalize fireworks. Furthermore, fireworks would be used as an "alarm" to wake everyone up after their 56 hours of deep sleep.

Now I can see how some people may not agree with this new system of life, but I assure you; it would be an overwhelming success.

PROS:
- Athletic contests could quadruple in time -- extended sleep hours would give athletes super-human endurance, and time would not be a factor.
- The Sun would eventually adapt to our new way of life. We control the sun. Science wins.
- People would acquire an abnormally large tolerance for alcohol, for unrelated reasons.

CONS:
- It's a terrible idea.
- It would never work.
- Sentinels aren't real.

What a waste of time this was.

Inaugural Address

2008-10-06T23:00:00.000-04:00

Well, this is Ye Olde Mill, it is a blog by Aaron, and Andy. And, it shall be a dandy one at that. We have a lot of thoughts, from baseball to bigfoots, from Wii jokes to Office trivia. We're thinkers, and this will be the best blog on the web.

So like, do you have a myspace or something?