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Entropy
Saturday. 4.9.11 9:55 pm
"Entropy is a thermodynamic property that is a measure of the energy not available for useful work in a thermodynamic process, such as in energy conversion devices, engines, or machines. Such devices can only be driven by convertible energy, and have a theoretical maximum efficiency when converting energy to work. During this work entropy accumulates in the system, but has to be removed by dissipation in the form of waste heat."
- Wikipedia

Physics dictates that most processes that theoretically transforms energy into work (or vice-versa) will be inefficient, resulting in waste heat that cannot be used and must be dissipated. Even systems that use heat don't transform all of it into useful energy. Assuming that the universe has a set amount of energy (accounting, of course, for the energy that arises from mass itself) in it, that can only mean that at some point, everything will come to rest and the only form of energy left will be heat. If the universe is big enough to keep the energy from coalescing into more mass, then nothing will ever happen again. Creation will be dark and still; entropy will rule.

Thus goes the theory of Heat Death.

One of the interesting things about entropy is its complete inevitability. Every attempt to increase the efficiency of a system is an extension or itself a system that is inefficient. The more complicated a physical system is, the more energy is required just to keep it going. Gathering and utilizing that energy requires ever higher amounts of order, and the cycle continues. Eventually there isn't enough energy and the system grinds to a halt.

Strangely enough, this concept applies to almost all systems imaginable. Economics, information networks, technology, biology, etc. Everything eventually dies. A growing government system will become swollen with administration cost. The population of humans will become too much for a rock circling a star to handle. Pathogens, both real-world and binary, continue to find ways around our defensive measures, becoming more lethal and subtle as they do so. An ever-growing national budget, too high and too fast to ever catch up with, is just energy debt applied to international relations.

And there's nothing to be done about it, really. Nothing stays simple when it has the resources to grow. It's unfortunate that humans in particular are very...inefficient with what we have, from money to raw materials, from energy to space. But you can't blame us for living, yeah?

I don't know what I'm getting at, really. This is something that I've always thought about, and it's a deep part of me. It's part of why I try to live simply, when I can. Keep everything conglomerated, easy-to-organize, low-order. The opposite of a pack-rat: if it isn't useful or somehow special to me, I don't buy it. Don't save it. Don't record it. Don't write it down. Minimize the window. Don't make it. Paper or plastic? I'll use my hands to carry my milk, thank you. It's more than conserving resources. It's conserving...everything.

Save space; don't bury me.

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Site issues
Tuesday. 4.5.11 8:30 pm
I don't know if it's the recent updates to Internet Explorer and Firefox, but these browsers do not show my site the way Chrome does (or like they used to). Firefox 4 is especially grievous.

I'm not a code monkey, so I don't really know how to fix it...anyway, I suggest Chrome for viewing my site, for what it's worth. Not really a huge difference anyway, I suppose.

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Women
Thursday. 3.31.11 11:17 pm
buying umbrellas
umbs, as michael calls them
windowshopping more like
not really a lot of cool ones to chose from
a few eye-catching ones here and there
too garrish
too gimmicky
one sturdy, durable looking one
super expensive though
now I'm torn between two
no fun

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And with a flourish,
Sunday. 3.27.11 9:44 pm
Spring Break is coming to an end. The adventures were grand, and included:

My first REAL all-nighter, working on an English assignment from 3 PM Thursday afternoon until 5 PM Friday afternoon with several breaks to eat and go to class Friday morning.

Missing my first plane Friday evening at 8 and going on a wild race against time to procure a new ticket free of charge.

Taking on the Atlanta taxi system with no previous experience (never ridden or ordered a taxi) at 3 AM Saturday morning, after taking a quick three hour nap.

And to end my sleep-deprived stint, I attended my newer Youth Pastor's wedding at 2 PM Saturday after approximately 7 total hours of sleep. I spent the rest of the afternooon napping on and off, and was right as rain by Sunday.

For the rest of the week I didn't do anything stupendously awesome until Thursday when I drove two and a half hours to another college to visit friends. I had never driven that far without my mum or a GPS, and I didn't even have real directions for the trip back (because I'm an idiot I suppose). At one point I was parked on the shoulder of some back-woods road with nothing in sight but more road, and no idea how it had come to this. Thankfully my phone didn't run out of batteries and was able to more or less guide me home. Somehow I managed to arrive within my original time constraints, so I guess all my detours took me in the right general direction anyhow.

And now I'm back at Tech, after spending a Sunday doing not a lot at all. Hooray for Lazy Sunday! I read for English and now I think I'll do some house cleaning. w00t w00t

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