I went with a new look today. Not sure how long it will stay, but for now, it is going to be the template. I know I need to do some minor edits to it, but spelling errors occur at 2 am, in fact they are almost mandatory.
Today’s 20 Questions Tuesday is all about the past. Everyone (nearly) who sent in questions asked what my first memory is, so instead of answering this one in the questions, I will give that answer here, kind of as an up front bonus. Q: What is your first memory? A: Well, it is a tie between 2 memories (because I don’t know which one is older than the other since they were from about the same time. Memory the first is of a toy plane. It is a red plastic plane with a metal wheel axel and black plastic wheels and a blue plastic propeller. It wasn’t doing anything, just sitting there. I hear that it was my toy that went with me everywhere. Memory the second is of getting bit on the nose for going down a slide properly. Sure someone was climbing up the slide at the time, but it was my turn dammit! He bit my nose for sliding into him, the little prick.
Anyway… Thanks this week go to Lsig, Peefer, ACW, Allrileyedup, Dustin, and Wifey.
On to the questions:
1. Is there something you've learned from your own past that will help you NOT be doomed to repeat it?
Not that I can hink of.
2. What's your favorite "zoic" era?
Mesozoic, baby! It was the golden age of the ‘zoics.
3. Why do fashion styles from the past get recycled so quickly?
Because fashion is fickle and people have short memories.
4. Why is the present tense, the future imperative, but the past imperfect?
Because the most of the present is not progressive, we must look to the future together, and the past is never truly complete so it is always imperfect.
5. What are you most glad is part of the past?
High school. I hated that crap
6. Did the past really exist? or was it made up in the future (that future being our past - oh my brain hurts...)?
The past is always recorded in its future, so in many ways the answer to your above question is “Yes,” and “Yes”
7. Did you have to evacuate due to hurricanes while living in Alabama?
Nope, Birmingham is way too far north for hurricane evacuation being necessary. We did get pounded by the remnants of hurricanes though. I think a few times the system was still organized enough to be called a “tropical storm,” and more than a few “tropical depressions” moved through the neighborhood.
8. What was the worst natural disaster that you experienced?
I was in an area very close to where a tornado touched down. I did not see the tornado, so I can’t say that I really “experienced” a tornado.
9. Any regrets, so far?
None the I can hink of
10. What was the Boer War about anyway?
To boil it down to it’s simplest reason… Okay, the British annexed the bankrupt Dutch Transvaal colonies in what we now know as South Africa. In doing so the Boers (Dutch for farmer) were not happy with Imperial British control, so they revolted. The original Dutch colonists felt oppressed by the British Empire. This led to 2 wars which the British eventually won.
11. What is the difference between the past tense and past participle?
On is rigid and the other dangles?
12. What period of history sports the best advances in mathematical theory (I’m curious as to just how much you learned in that history of math class)?
Well, honestly the biggest explosion on mathematical ideation happened in 2 time periods.
The first was with the introduction of written language and number systems. People were able to really start better accounting and therefore math systems once they could start writing stuff down. For ease of historical record, we will attribute this explosion to the ancient Babylonians. They were the first major society to have a significant population of non labor scholars to investigate stuff.
The second is truly the modern era. I consider the modern era to be post 1908 publishing of Principia Mathematica by Bertrand Russell. By this time many different people were investigating the theory that mathematics rested upon. The number of people and their relative connectedness allowed collaborative discoveries and more continual discovery. It is a very fascinating time to be “into” math right now.
13. Have you ever heard people pronounce Pabst Blue Ribbon as Past Blue Ribbon, and if so, did you correct them?
I am from Alabama. I learned a long time ago not to correct any one’s pronunciation of alcoholic beverages. No good can come of that.
14. Is the space-time continuum as fragile as science would have us believe? I mean, like in the Simpsons episode where Homer travels back in time and keeps messing things up by infecting dinosaurs with the flu...that's just in he cartoons...right?
One can only hope, since I have been traveling into the past and messing with shit.
15. So when people say "your past catches up with you," does that mean all the ants I've ever fried with a magnifying glass are going to come back and kick my ass one of these days, or more like those breaking and entering charges on my record are really gonna hinder me in the WA gubernatorial race?
It is all about universal inescapable karma. Not instant karma, that is a different thing all together. Just so you though, Them is a documentary. Your ant killing days will come to haunt you.
16. If I traveled back to pre-historic times and became chieftain of my own cave-person tribe via my ability to "create" fire...would you come hang out with me? I'd let you ride my pterodactyl...
Pterodactyls are Mesozoic (mentioned earlier. Holla Holla, Dinosaurs in tha House! ) but tribal groups don’t show up until the late Paleolithic. Sadly, even if you did impress early man with fire, there would be no pterodactyl for you to ride. However one could ride an ostrich, and should. I am all about the riding of ostriches. It would be like playing Joust without the midi music
17. Since our great love would have been against the law in the past, who do you think you would have married? (Careful how you answer this one, I’ve seen this picture.)
If loving you is wrong, I don’t wanna be right! Anyway, that lady means nothing to me... nothing. Plus I dont think she finds me all that partnerable.
18. Being that your job has never called upon your math degree, do you wish you had picked a different major in the past?
I cannot say that I have “never” had to use my math degree at my job. One time I did have to determine the Laplace transform function for the polynomial expression of our profits over time function (sadly it is asymptotic to zero), but I most likely should have done the Lagrange transformation. What was I thinking?
19. Little Man “past” gas on me hand this morning. He thought it was pretty funny. Your thoughts?
That is pretty funny
20. When iPod’s are passé, what genius invention will Apple develop to pick up the slack?
They are trying to make the iPhone the newest iPod, but I think there will be a bit of a resurgence of dedicated technology. Tech today seems to be heading toward the all-in-one devices, but until batteries get me reliable and longer lifed, people will start to migrate back towards independent devices. I don’t want to have my phone die while on a phone call with my boss because I had just been listening to Mahna Mahna.
To recap:
No, really, is there something you've learned from your own past that will help you NOT be doomed to repeat it?
Not that I can hink of
Damn! That’s one mistake that repeated itself
Ummm... repeatedly
Dr. B-Dawg just sent me some questions
I will answer them in this recap
Is there a deep connection as to why past, pasta, and paste look so close to each other, but are so disparate?
There is a loose association with the words. Paste is made with flour and water, while pasta is made from water, semolina (specific type of flour) and eggs. So I guess the past is just water
Did Scrooge get a little to dramatic about the ghosts of past, present and future?
He was pretty dramatic about the Ghost of Past and Present and rather indifferent about the ghosts of Past Progressive, Future Subjunctive, Present Conditional, and Past Perfect
Could your future you beat up a past you in a hand to hand battle. What about with non-projectile weapons? Weapons of their respective eras?
Well my future me (unless I get to the gym) will be a pasty out-of-shape middle aged at best white guy, while my past me will be a competitive fencer. My money is on the past me.
I should work out tonight
Maybe I will after dropping Little Man off at home
I want to give my future self a fighting chance against that arrogant fencing upstart
Today’s 20 Questions Tuesday is all about the past. Everyone (nearly) who sent in questions asked what my first memory is, so instead of answering this one in the questions, I will give that answer here, kind of as an up front bonus. Q: What is your first memory? A: Well, it is a tie between 2 memories (because I don’t know which one is older than the other since they were from about the same time. Memory the first is of a toy plane. It is a red plastic plane with a metal wheel axel and black plastic wheels and a blue plastic propeller. It wasn’t doing anything, just sitting there. I hear that it was my toy that went with me everywhere. Memory the second is of getting bit on the nose for going down a slide properly. Sure someone was climbing up the slide at the time, but it was my turn dammit! He bit my nose for sliding into him, the little prick.
Anyway… Thanks this week go to Lsig, Peefer, ACW, Allrileyedup, Dustin, and Wifey.
On to the questions:
1. Is there something you've learned from your own past that will help you NOT be doomed to repeat it?
Not that I can hink of.
2. What's your favorite "zoic" era?
Mesozoic, baby! It was the golden age of the ‘zoics.
3. Why do fashion styles from the past get recycled so quickly?
Because fashion is fickle and people have short memories.
4. Why is the present tense, the future imperative, but the past imperfect?
Because the most of the present is not progressive, we must look to the future together, and the past is never truly complete so it is always imperfect.
5. What are you most glad is part of the past?
High school. I hated that crap
6. Did the past really exist? or was it made up in the future (that future being our past - oh my brain hurts...)?
The past is always recorded in its future, so in many ways the answer to your above question is “Yes,” and “Yes”
7. Did you have to evacuate due to hurricanes while living in Alabama?
Nope, Birmingham is way too far north for hurricane evacuation being necessary. We did get pounded by the remnants of hurricanes though. I think a few times the system was still organized enough to be called a “tropical storm,” and more than a few “tropical depressions” moved through the neighborhood.
8. What was the worst natural disaster that you experienced?
I was in an area very close to where a tornado touched down. I did not see the tornado, so I can’t say that I really “experienced” a tornado.
9. Any regrets, so far?
None the I can hink of
10. What was the Boer War about anyway?
To boil it down to it’s simplest reason… Okay, the British annexed the bankrupt Dutch Transvaal colonies in what we now know as South Africa. In doing so the Boers (Dutch for farmer) were not happy with Imperial British control, so they revolted. The original Dutch colonists felt oppressed by the British Empire. This led to 2 wars which the British eventually won.
11. What is the difference between the past tense and past participle?
On is rigid and the other dangles?
12. What period of history sports the best advances in mathematical theory (I’m curious as to just how much you learned in that history of math class)?
Well, honestly the biggest explosion on mathematical ideation happened in 2 time periods.
The first was with the introduction of written language and number systems. People were able to really start better accounting and therefore math systems once they could start writing stuff down. For ease of historical record, we will attribute this explosion to the ancient Babylonians. They were the first major society to have a significant population of non labor scholars to investigate stuff.
The second is truly the modern era. I consider the modern era to be post 1908 publishing of Principia Mathematica by Bertrand Russell. By this time many different people were investigating the theory that mathematics rested upon. The number of people and their relative connectedness allowed collaborative discoveries and more continual discovery. It is a very fascinating time to be “into” math right now.
13. Have you ever heard people pronounce Pabst Blue Ribbon as Past Blue Ribbon, and if so, did you correct them?
I am from Alabama. I learned a long time ago not to correct any one’s pronunciation of alcoholic beverages. No good can come of that.
14. Is the space-time continuum as fragile as science would have us believe? I mean, like in the Simpsons episode where Homer travels back in time and keeps messing things up by infecting dinosaurs with the flu...that's just in he cartoons...right?
One can only hope, since I have been traveling into the past and messing with shit.
15. So when people say "your past catches up with you," does that mean all the ants I've ever fried with a magnifying glass are going to come back and kick my ass one of these days, or more like those breaking and entering charges on my record are really gonna hinder me in the WA gubernatorial race?
It is all about universal inescapable karma. Not instant karma, that is a different thing all together. Just so you though, Them is a documentary. Your ant killing days will come to haunt you.
16. If I traveled back to pre-historic times and became chieftain of my own cave-person tribe via my ability to "create" fire...would you come hang out with me? I'd let you ride my pterodactyl...
Pterodactyls are Mesozoic (mentioned earlier. Holla Holla, Dinosaurs in tha House! ) but tribal groups don’t show up until the late Paleolithic. Sadly, even if you did impress early man with fire, there would be no pterodactyl for you to ride. However one could ride an ostrich, and should. I am all about the riding of ostriches. It would be like playing Joust without the midi music
17. Since our great love would have been against the law in the past, who do you think you would have married? (Careful how you answer this one, I’ve seen this picture.)
If loving you is wrong, I don’t wanna be right! Anyway, that lady means nothing to me... nothing. Plus I dont think she finds me all that partnerable.
18. Being that your job has never called upon your math degree, do you wish you had picked a different major in the past?
I cannot say that I have “never” had to use my math degree at my job. One time I did have to determine the Laplace transform function for the polynomial expression of our profits over time function (sadly it is asymptotic to zero), but I most likely should have done the Lagrange transformation. What was I thinking?
19. Little Man “past” gas on me hand this morning. He thought it was pretty funny. Your thoughts?
That is pretty funny
20. When iPod’s are passé, what genius invention will Apple develop to pick up the slack?
They are trying to make the iPhone the newest iPod, but I think there will be a bit of a resurgence of dedicated technology. Tech today seems to be heading toward the all-in-one devices, but until batteries get me reliable and longer lifed, people will start to migrate back towards independent devices. I don’t want to have my phone die while on a phone call with my boss because I had just been listening to Mahna Mahna.
To recap:
No, really, is there something you've learned from your own past that will help you NOT be doomed to repeat it?
Not that I can hink of
Damn! That’s one mistake that repeated itself
Ummm... repeatedly
Dr. B-Dawg just sent me some questions
I will answer them in this recap
Is there a deep connection as to why past, pasta, and paste look so close to each other, but are so disparate?
There is a loose association with the words. Paste is made with flour and water, while pasta is made from water, semolina (specific type of flour) and eggs. So I guess the past is just water
Did Scrooge get a little to dramatic about the ghosts of past, present and future?
He was pretty dramatic about the Ghost of Past and Present and rather indifferent about the ghosts of Past Progressive, Future Subjunctive, Present Conditional, and Past Perfect
Could your future you beat up a past you in a hand to hand battle. What about with non-projectile weapons? Weapons of their respective eras?
Well my future me (unless I get to the gym) will be a pasty out-of-shape middle aged at best white guy, while my past me will be a competitive fencer. My money is on the past me.
I should work out tonight
Maybe I will after dropping Little Man off at home
I want to give my future self a fighting chance against that arrogant fencing upstart