Last Tuesday my truck's odometer read 33333 as it hit 133,333 miles (it has no hundred thousands digit) and I took a photo of it. Sure it probably wasn't safe taking a photo of my dash while driving, but I'm ok and with 3 being my favorite number, it was worth the risk. I have included the photo for your pleasure, the thumbnail links to the full image. It would have been nice if I could have gotten 133,333.3, but there was too much glare and the photo didn't come out. I'm pretty surprised at the quality my phone put out on this one and completely unsurprised that the photo 0.3 miles later didn't turn out at all.

Also the post title is a Final Fantasy VII reference.

Today is the 6^th birthday of the Sega Dreamcast. The Dreamcast, which I have often hailed as one of the best video game systems of all time (probably second only to the SNES), was released in the USA on 9/9/99. So, Happy Birthday Dreamcast, you'll always hold a special place in my heart.

My simulation code seems to be working pretty solidly now and I've gotten almost my entire polyethylene model working. As of right now, I haven't addressed bond eclipsing and some of my interaction constants are a little off but, otherwise, everything seems qualitatively good.

Right now I've got my computer running a single C₁₀₀H₂₀₂ molecule at 273K. I am performing calculations for every femtosecond, recording for every picosecond and it will generate a full nanosecond in about 4 hours. After the calculations are done, I'll render up images and make a movie, which I will probably then post somewhere.

I'm a little disappointed in the state of the computation engine but I don't care; I'm just so glad that I got the model working.

UPDATE: It all worked out reasonably well and I have a video up on the page that I just made up for my thesis. Sadly, initial conditions and physics caused the system to develop a rotational mode that, combined with some software limitations, makes most of the video rather uninteresting. The first few seconds are nice. Further things will be placed on that site as they appear and will, for the most part, not be mentioned here.

Ok Internet, it's time we had a little discussion about the chicken and the egg. There's a longstanding pseudo-philosophical debate as to which came first: the chicken or the egg. The debate rests on two simple principles: chickens come from chicken eggs and chicken eggs come from chickens. The whole debate is wildly circular and people like to make it analogous to other, (less pseudo-) philosophical debates.

Now, because this is a stupid argument, I'm going to set the record straight. The egg came first. Now some people will launch into stupid debate with me and say where did the egg come from and to these people I say, learn some evolutionary biology. The current chicken generation (generation n) hatched from eggs laid by the previous generation (n-1). Generation n-1 hatched from eggs laid by generation n-2 and this goes back for a long time. As you continue to go back, different varieties of chicken converge and we find, for example, that the Bandara chicken came originally from an egg that was laid by a White Cornish or by a Gimmizah; in other words, the first Bandara egg was not laid by a Bandara chicken. Just as Bandaras can be traced back to eggs that are not their own, so too can chickens be traced back to an egg laid by some pre-chicken creature. So there you have it, the egg came first, now shut up about the damned chicken or egg debate.

It will have to be noted that this solution is theoretical and that experimental tests suggest that the chicken came first. Having run only one trial, the results can not be guaranteed to be statistically significant.

As a sidenote, the information about the Bandara chicken came from a Breeds of Chicken site that google got me to.

That the United States, at one time, had an Emperor has recently come to my attention. I find it rather interesting that history books tend to neglect the reign of Emperor Norton I when recounting American History. The more I read about this man, the more exceptional he is, truly a great American and a patriot. I can honestly say, with great conviction that Emperor Norton I is one of my personal heroes.

So I was watching Transformers: The Movie again (yeah, I do this a lot) and I noticed a funny thing. The movie begins with the wonderful phrase, "The year is 2005..." So I say to myself, that's now! This is the year of the Transformers.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of a true name, basically, if you knew the true name of a spirit you could use it to invoke said spirit and have power over said spirit. An example you may recognize is that of Beetlejuice, saying the name "Beetlejuice" thrice invoked him or dismissed him and so on and so forth.

It occurred to me recently that a cellphone number is very much conceptually akin to the mystical concept of a true name. If you have someone's cellphone number you can call them anywhere and theoretically invoke them as well. You are granted power over an individual by being able to contact them at any time. Also, just as with summoned demons, if you invoke people for stupid reasons they will take it out on you.

It sometimes seems as though I never have free time when I want it and I never want free time when I have it.