My Journal- July - August 1996

Cream of Broccoli, Broccoli Cheese, and Cheese and Broccoli Soup. Ever tried them? It's great stuff, really. Yeah yeah, I know, you HATE Broccoli, right? Well, so do I, but you can't even taste it in the soup... honestly! Well, unless you get soup at a restaurant that has huge chunks of Broccoli in it. Most places chop the Broccoli up so small, that you can barely see it. Mostly it tastes like cheese soup. Yum.

Trying Broccoli Cheese soups out has been a pasttime of mine and Nick's for a few months now. Our objective is to try the soup at every restaurant that serves it and rate it on a 1 to 10 scale. Well, just in case you're a soup conisourre (SP!), I thought this "review" might help you. It's a small list now, but watch for more to come:

Chili's - 9, deliciousioso! Big bowl!
Pizzaria Uno - 8, comes with a nice, soft, hot bread stick
TGI Friday's - 7, small bowl.
CoCo's (JoJo's) - 7, they serve it with tons of crackers!
Tony Roma's - 7, go for their burgers, they're incredible!
Black Eyed Pea - 2, HUGE chunks of Broccoli
Grady's - 1, awful! How can you call that soup?

Have I ever mentioned my extreme interest in our Universe? In astronomy? Fascinating! As a matter of fact, I loved it so much that in college I took any course I could that seemed as though it might talk about Astronomy. Even in classes where there was no way we would broach the subject, such as English, Communication and Argument, and Philosophy... I would find ways to sneak it in. In my freshman English class I wrote an awesome term paper on "wormholes". It rocked. Don't know what a wormhole is? It's what connects two blackholes and can be used as a time machine of sorts! Seriously. If only we could figure out a way to survive the immense gravitational pull of a blackhole, we'd have the perfect time traveling machine! If you're interested, I could create a link to my entire wormhole paper, so let me know.

I also did a report for freshman English on how Earth couldn't exist without the moon. Don't believe me?? Listen to these excerpts:

If there were no Moon dogs would no longer have anything to howl at, there would be no nursery rhymes boasting of high-jumping cows, there would be no werewolves to terrorize at "full Moon", and there would be no eclipses to marvel at. We could no longer say "once in a blue Moon", talk about the "Man in the Moon", or have romantic dinners by moonlight. Heck, folks like Neil Armstrong would be just another face in the crowd.

The Moon is an important factor in all of our lives, and if it didn't exist, life as we know it wouldn't have evolved.

First, and quite obviously, without a moon there would be no moonlight. Nocturnal animals might be less successful in some of their activities such as hunting, foraging or traveling with the permanant absense of moonlight.

The Moon has saved the Earth from meteoroids that otherwise may have hit us. We can see many of the scars they've created on the far side of the Moon, which always faces deep space, and as a result, is one of the most heavily cratered surfaces in the Solar System. There are over a dozen craters on our Moon's far side with diameters of 150 miles or more. Consider the catastrophic effects those impacts would have had on Earth. Without this shelter, the result might have changed the rate of evolution by wiping out important branches of animals or never preventing mammals from establishing dominant roles.

Ocean tides are also largely caused by the Moon. If the tide range were 70% smaller, as it would be without the Moon, the exposed surface area would be significantly smaller and the number of bird species able to feed would be much smaller... meaning there would also be less variety of such birds. Similarly, the number and diversity of tidal sea creatures would be lower.

Another way the Moon affects us is through the friction caused by tidal water rubbing against the shore. This friction is causing the Earth's rotation to slow down by about two milliseconds a century. A billion years ago, as a result, the length of the day would have been less than 21 hours. The Moon is also "flung" away from the Earth at a current rate of 4 centimeters per year. This means the Moon was about 8,200 miles closer a billion years ago, and revolved around the Earth 14 times rather than 12 times a year. The Earth also rotated about 400 times a year instead of 365.

Without the Moon, Earth's rotation rate would have decreased much more slowly. A shorter day would have had important effects on the evolution of life.

Did the extinction of dinosaurs have anything to do with this gradual slowing down of the Earth? Did the difference between the dinosaurs' clocks and the day-night cycle become so great that they weren't able to function effectively? Perhaps if the Moon hadn't slowed down the Earth's rotation, dinosaurs would still reign supreme.

It is believed that the Moon formed after a Mars-sized object crashed into the Earth pushing part of the Earth's mantle and crust into space to form the Moon. This collision undoubtedly changed our rate of rotation, our angle of rotation, and our orbit around the Sun, ensuring the procession of seasons. If the object hadn't struck, causing a large fraction of the atmosphere to heat violently and escape into space, the atmosphere today may still be made up of poisonous gasses that it once was.

Needless to say, if the collision hadn't occurred to form our Moon, and if our Moon never came to be -- life as we know it would never have been feasible on Earth.

Cool, huh?! Not bad for a freshman. Heehee! Well, children, that's your lesson for today. Stay tuned next week when we will argue the point: "It is inevitable that the world will end due to an astronomical disaster". Oh yeah, and next time you see the Moon, be thankful, be very thankful.

I went to Six Flags over Texas (in Dallas... well, actually, Arlington) for the first time yesterday. It was pretty cool, I must say. But not as cool as Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois.

I love roller coasters! Have I mentioned to you that I love speed and things that scare me? Well, a roller coaster... especially a scary one where you feel your life may be in danger... fits this bill pretty well. I don't understand people who don't like roller coasters, honestly. How can you not LOVE that feeling of climbing higher and higher in a train/cart thing while the pully is click-click-clicking you closer to the top of an incredible hill? It's sooo exciting! I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

Do you like the front or the back of the train? Sometimes I like the front because I love the way you dangle over a hill, hanging there until the end of the train comes over and forces you down. It's kind of spooky, you know? You keep thinking: 'when is the end of the train ever going to get over the hump? uh oh, maybe the end of the train isn't coming... or even worse, maybe we're stuck'... then on that last thought, you're pushed forcefully down the hill and your head slams back against the headrest.

But mostly I like the back car. You get the most of all the hills and get thrown wildly around. You know, bruised, banged and rattled. It makes you think, 'I'm fairly sure my brain just fell out of my ear on that turn... man, I hope I can find it later, I'll probably need it someday'. The back car also gives you the most lift as you plunge down hills. I swear I lift nearly 2 feet out of my seat when I come down that last hill in SFOT's Shockwave. The only thing holding you in is your puny little 20-year old seat belt. Cool.

And what about loops? Man, when I go through loops, my mind goes completely numb. It's kinda like an out-of-body experience. You know: 'Is this really happening to me? Am I really sitting in a metal go-cart doing vertical loops at break-neck speed? No, surely this can't be.' It's then I remember to breathe, and I see little silver stars twinkling around my head. WOE! Have you ever tried to move your head from side to side while doing an upside-down loop? One word for you...

MISTAKE

Lord, I almost died. Seriously, I don't think I'll ever be quite the same after doing that. Don't believe me? Try it yourself, there's no words to describe it.

Back to drops... the bigger, the better. I'm obsessed with falling. I went on this incredible ride yesterday called the G-Force (used to be called the Cliffhanger... don't know why they changed the name... maybe something to do with the movie of the same name with Sylvester Stallone?). Anyway, it totally rocked! You go in this elevator-looking-like thing (with an open front) and you go up and up and up... I have no idea, atleast 8 or so stories, then you perch there for two teasing seconds, then you fall... fall straight down, nothing hindering your way. At the last second, when you think you're for sure going to be nothing but a red smudge on the pavement below, the cart makes a sharp curve into a 90 degree angle and you live. NOW THAT'S MY KIND OF RIDE! So good in fact, that I had to get right back in line for more terror. You know, it seems to me that they should call this ride the "Broken Elevator" or something. For effect, they could put some buttons saying "lobby", "first floor", "eighth floor", etc on it, and have a binging noise occur for each floor you pass as you rise. Then, when you get to the top, they should create the sound of a breaking cable, then let you drop. Now that would really be an attraction. People would love it! Highrise buildings may soon coincidentally fall in popularity, but people would love it!

There's one more thing I'd like to mention before I leave and that is: "I don't do backwards". No that isn't an obscene comment, it means that I refuse to go on any roller coaster or ride that goes backwards. No way. Talk about BARF city. Do people really think backwards roller coasters such as the Tidal Wave or the Flash Back are fun? I think they hate them as much as I do, but are too cool to admit it. I think everyone that goes on those rides are pressured by someone else who was pressured to go on it at one time or another. It's like anyone who's been through the torture of going backwards has to make someone else share their agony, even if it means they, themselves, have to go through it again. See? It's just this chain reaction that keeps going and going. It's ruthless. I refuse to be a part of it. No one will ever challenge me to a backwards roller coaster. I'll sit, stand, I'll corkscrew, I'll loop and reverse-loop, I'll descend any hill, fall from any height, and wait in a two-hour line to do so... but I will NOT go backwards. Thankyou.

I don't mind when guys wear cologne, though. Drakkar is my favorite! Yummy! It's not a necessity though, and mostly I'm scared for men to put on cologne because they don't know how to do it right.

Men, can I give you a lesson in "putting cologne on correctly"? Well, here goes anyway:

1. Never ever squirt cologne spray more than twice (once is usually good enough). Trust me, your woman will smell it if she's close to you, you don't need to pollute the air in a 50 foot radius around you. You know, this reminds me, do men just not smell very well or what? I mean, can't you smell how much you're putting on? Can't you tell it's excessive? I think not alot of times. I had a date once with this guy and he must have dumped an entire bottle of it on himself... maybe he bathed in it (who knows?), but he walked in the door to our house and my Mother, who was several rooms away, smelled it instantly and later after he left, we joked about it for quite some time as we tried to air out the house. MAN!

   Which leads to...

2. Don't bathe in your cologne... please!

3. Don't spray your arm pits with cologne... if you smell bad, take a shower, then put on some deoderant.

4. Don't mistake cologne with aftershave by splashing it over your face. Enough said about that, I believe.

5. Don't use cologne as a breath freshener. It tastes bad, could be poisonous and doesn't do shit for plaque.

6. Hold the bottle atleast a foot away from the place where you're going to spray (hint: neck is good). If you spray any closer than that, you will get drops running down your neck, soak your collar, and your gal may gross out when she kisses your neck and gets a mouthful of cologne.

1. Pumpkin Pie
   and
2. Lavendar