It seems like the airport harbors a more widely distributed demographic than any other place. No where else does it seem like there is a completely random distribution of all ages, colors, and wealth all around you.

It makes sense because everyone needs to fly (almost), it's not that expensive (sorta), and since there's not an airport every 50 feet, location bias doesn't really come into account.

It's just... refreshing and interesting... considering I live in west campus in Austin TX, so the average age is 21... with a standard distribution of like... three. And in the 2006-2007 year, 55% of the population was white, and only 4.2% were black¹.

It's fascinating (to me, at least) to think that every person that you just happen to pass by, all the hundreds of people you just see for a fleeting moment, have full lives of their own; All with their own crazy dreams, friends, family, drama... everything. Everyone's life is just as complex and extensive as yours. And to them, you're entire life and experiences are just a fleeting moment to them. Perspective!

Some of those fleeting moments are more interesting than others. I sat across from a man on the plane, whom I will dub Physics Fun Man. I first took notice of the awkward, choppy conversation he was having on the phone with somebody. A dead give away that this guy was going to be interesting.

Anyway, Physics Fun Man was so called because he was holding in his lap a book entitled 'Quantum Phase Transitions', and another one about percolation theory, which I've never even heard of.

So this guy was obviously pretty rock'n... but the image was complete when, as he got up at the end of the flight to get his bag, I noticed that in his shirt pocket (that was stuffed with misc. notes and random shit) also held a TI-83 graphing calculator.

You know, just in case you need to solve a system of linear equations or bust out a few trigonometric graphs at a moment's notice.

My life sucked just a little bit more however when I told my roommate this story, and the first thing he said was,

"Dude that is totally going to be you someday... that is your future."

Really?!

Nothing-- no projects, homeworks, deadlines, assignments, work, or other collegiate responsibilities. At least temporarily.

Temporarily spared from waking up at any certain time (mostly), from walking 20 minutes to class, and from sitting in long lectures meagerly listening and longing to do...

Nothing.

Of course I ought to be doing... something. Like said projects, homeworks, and assignments... but there's just something very therapeutically relaxing about just forgetting all that stuff and taking in the moment.

New Orleans has been awesome so far. I haven't taken any pictures at all unfortunately, but even without the proof I have been having a badass time. In a few hours, I'm going to a craw fish broil, and then Nicolle's orchestra concert tonight. They'll be playing Beethoven's Fifth (sweet).

So I will continue to hold on doing nothing for as long as I can, because at some point, I will eventually have to start doing something.

There's a famous quote that says,

"Necessity is the mother of invention."

This of course referring to the fact that in times of great need, the demand for innovation and scientific development swells to try and compensate for whatever society is needing.

A lesser-know variant is "Boredom is the father of innovation". For some reason, given 2 or more bored people in an enclosed space, it is almost guaranteed that somebody will come up with a stupid game. Examples:

Water Jousting

While bouncing around a foam ball one day, my roommate and I had the brilliant idea of creating the exhilarating game of water jousting. To play, fill a cup about half-way full with water, and place it on the very edge of the counter (a bar-like counter), and take turns trying to knock the cup over by bouncing the ball off the floor.

The fun part? The person not trying to knock over the cup stands directly behind it, ensuring that if the other player successfully hits the cup, the loser gets soaked. The best part? Its also the loser that has to clean up the floor afterwards.

Shuffle Phone

This game came about on a slow night during tutoring. At work, all the tutors sit around a huge conference table until a student comes in that needs help. When not many students showed up, some of the guys had the bright idea to play "shuffle phone". Exactly like shuffleboard, except you use your phone instead of a puck, and there's just a target circle drawn in pencil in the middle of the table. The winner walks away with pride, honor, and a phone thats scratched as hell.

That was one of the few times in my life that I wish I had a shitbox of a phone so I could have participated...

Plate Frisbee

As another game born from late night boredom with a roommate, this example is illustrative of how even while doing work, you can still have fun. While emptying the dishwasher, we were tag-teaming the plates... but instead of just placing them back in the cabinet (boring), I found it significantly more entertaining to try an under-the-leg frisbee toss to put them up.

It's a lot harder than it sounds (think about the angles), and it soon became competitive. Especially with the glass dishes*.

Omega

The classic boredom game, I actually got this from an episode of Malcolm In The Middle (though I've heard the game dates back even before the show, and is known as "The Circle Game").

The aggressor makes the "OK" sign with his index and thumb touching, with the rest of the fingers extended. If he holds that hand below his waist and somebody else looks (the victim), then the aggressor gets to punch the victim without fear of retaliation.

I've been playing this game with my equally-immature friends of mine since the 8th grade, and the game has since exploded into something much more serious. With rules and regulations, as well as advanced moves such as the Around the World, the Gravy Train, the Solid Snake, and the Willy Wonka... the game only gets deeper and deeper.

I'm sure there have been plenty more, and there's no doubt in my mind that there will be plenty more to come.

I can't wait.

Only five days until Spring break! And considering the fact that the only significant obstacle between now and a full nine days of absolute relaxation is a compilers test on Friday, my week has definitely shifted into low gear. Essentially, this means even more jasterbation than normal and a significant reduction in my overall stress.

Of course, I'm just ignoring the horrendous onslaught of projects and tests that will accompany my return to school at the end of it all, when I come crashing back into reality...

But regardless... five days 'till freedom, and five days until I get to see my lovely Nicolle again for the first time since January! Being 500 miles away from the girl of your dreams for months on end is enough to drive anybody crazy right??

The only bad thing about Spring break is the inherent chillness that goes on not only during the break, but also the weeks immediately before and after. Like I said, I'm already in jasterbation mode, and the week after will be slow getting started. Inevitably this happens every year, as the week after Spring break seems to be the hardest time to want to do ANYTHING school or work related.

I guess it's time to go see if I can actually get something done, or if the rest of the night is going to be wasted playing my roomate's guitar in his room while he's trying to do his homework...

This semester, four of my five classes are based on programming. A compilers class (hard), a computer architecture class (very difficult), a Python class (moderately time consuming), and a VHDL design class (time consuming... and hard). This translates into me having about 1.8 projects due a week that involve a heavy amount of coding... as well as hours upon hours staring at nothing but a computer screen.

This might seem pretty awful, and sometimes (usually) it is, but personally, I tend to completely zone out and focus only on the task at hand. Its easier for me to do things in large chunks of time and remain focused than it is to break it up over small periods. There happens to be a very serious downside though:

I turn into a computer zombie.

With hours straight of doing nothing but code/compile/debug/repeat, my brain seems to shutdown all other rudimentary functions. Basic conversation skills seem to escape me, and social interactions begin to approach the awkward stage.

It's almost like the feeling of riding a roller coaster and getting off... after you get off, you still feels like your ass is flying around the track. Computer Zombie Mode is very similar... it takes a few moments to re-calibrate my reality. Example:

"I sure worked up an appetite writing all that code! Time to make a sandwich. Shit no bread! I better throw an exception! Time to write an error handler..."

Of course if I had be writing for one my C classes, I would make the sandwich anyway with invalid pointers to my bread slices on accident. My first bite would result in a mouthful of segfaults followed by me vomiting all over the place.

Luckily it doesn't usually take long to get back to the real world. So barring a few semi-awkward initial conversations and distorted thought patterns, it's a relatively painless process.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to go write VHDL for my design lab.