I am in a rather foul mood today. The world is all bleak and shit. (Or some such tripe, I don't know...) I'm in a rather goth mood. So, to celebrate my new goth outlook on life (at least for the day) I did a stupid quiz. What better way to express my angst than to act like a teenage Livejournal blogger?

Cyber/Industrial Goth


What Kind of Goth Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Utopia!

1. South Australia was the first place to allow Utopia to stand for parliament!
2. In Chinese, the sound 'Utopia' means 'bite the wax tadpole'!
3. The Utopia-fighting market in the Philippines is huge - several thousand Utopia-fights take place there every day.
4. Apples are covered with a thin layer of Utopia.
5. Owls cannot move their eyes, because their eyeballs are shaped like Utopia.
6. There is no lead in a lead pencil - it is simply a stick of graphite mixed with Utopia and water!
7. Utopia can remain conscious for fifteen to twenty seconds after being decapitated!
8. The Church of Scientology was founded in 1953, at Washington D.C., by Utopia.
9. Plato believed that the souls of melancholy people would be reincarnated into Utopia!
10. Grapes explode if you put them inside Utopia.

I should tell Mr. Blair in my last post to bite my wax tadpole. Man, priceless, just priceless. By the way, Tom Cruise, I'm coming for you bee-yotch. I shall indoctrine you, you weak-minded simpleton, into my Scientology Church and make you my brainwashed ... oh wait... too late. And... I'm taking bets on the Utopia fights... she's one ornry bitch I hear.

Mother fucker. God damned stupid whore-bag sonovabitch chode munching shitbag.

The president of my company has made it madatory for us to come in on the weekend. True it's only half a day on either Saturday or Sunday, but no, just no. I'm paid for 40 hours a week, not 48 or 44, 40. I get my work done and I get it done on time. I am always finished with what I need to be finished with by Friday.

Fuck! I cannot iterate this word enough at this. Fuck Fuck FUCK FUCK FUCK!!

This weekend, I woke up in the middle of the night between Saturday and Sunday, my heart pounding and my face sweating because I thought I had forgotten to set the alarm and that I had to be at work the next day. I'm going to go batty on someone if they come near me on the weekend during my mandatory half day at work.

Today, I am filled with hate.

All I know is that I need to go home and sit and listen to something very mellow.

The title makes my post sound rather serious, but actually, I just wanted to post a picture. Make of it what you will, but, suffice to say, a picture is often funnier than anything I could actually say.

Mock away.

Well my little pretties, I got a stack of new Darkwave music. What does this mean for you? It means you get to hear a new stack of Darkwave music this weekend. Since no one listens to my show anyway, I figured I may as well play music I enjoy. So, this weekend i am doing my shows for me.

Saturday shall be a Darkwave extravaganza. I got about 5 gigs of just new Darkwave music, so it yearns to be played. As always, Saturday shall be pre-recorded but, unlike the last two Saturday shows, I shall be around to enjoy it. So, Join me in the chatroom Saturday at 6 p.m. EST. You'll hear stories and the same Utopia you've grown to love and adore. You'll hear her say fuck a lot. (This show also heralds the return of the Utopia intro... beware.)

Sunday will be an all live adventure. Join me in the chatroom on Sunday and get your songs played when you want to hear them. As with all live shows, it shall be a two hour stretch of pure, unedited Utopia tlaking, stammering and ranting with no direction. If no one shows up, Utopia Sunday will also be a Darkwave extravaganza. Remember, you'll have no one to blame but yourself. So, join me in the chatroom at 9 p.m. EST on Sunday!

And, since you probably missed me last week, for your listening pleasure, I present you with last week's shows. Complete, full and awesome. Saturday's show, Utopia in a Can, was especially good last week if you enjoy Utopia babbling and telling stories while cursing a lot. Nearly a third of the show is pure Utopia! Sunday's show was a failure on the highest order due to the fact that no one listened. Bastards, I bite my thumb at thee. So, enjoy last week's show while you wait in excited aniticipation for this week's.

Go to Mango Radio and download them!!

A few weeks back, you may recall that I mentioned I was going to a cousin's for dinner. Anyway, I said I would bring bread. I found out that they were going to make lasagna for dinner, so I wanted to make a bread that would compliment it and fit into the theme.

I decided to make a variation on a white french bread that is often used for dipping into sauce. I love garlic bread, but I wanted it to be something abit more and I didn't know how well garlic bread would travel (the kind you make with a spread on top of the bread). So I came up with this bread.

It had an excellent consistency and I am modifying the recipe a little bit from what I actually made to add in a bit more garlic flavor. It was a light, but solid bread, soft on the inside and a bit crisp on the outside without being too tough.

Ingredients
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup luke warm water
2 packages yeast
1/2 cup riccota cheese (skim or whole is fine)
2 tablespoons garlic powder (not garlic salt)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4-8 cups flour (depending on how moist your riccota is)

1. Activate the yeast by adding mixing the granulated sugar with the yeast and slowly mixing in the lukewarm water. Let it stand until it becomes foamy.
2. Add egg, milk, roccota, garlic, salt and 1 cup of flour to the mixture and blend until smooth.
3. Slowly add in flour until a stiff dough is formed. The dough should pull off the sides of the bowl.
4. Knead the dough by hand on a well floured surface.
5. Shape into a ball and place into a greased bowl to rise. Cover with a plastic bag and allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in size. Make sure the place where you leave the bread to rise is warm.
6. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead again.
7. Shape into long ropes for bread sticks or form into two french bread shaped loaves. Let rise for about 20 minutes.
1. I sprinkled the surface with a mixture of garlic salt and grated parmesan cheese before I let it rise.
2. Remember to cut slits into the surface of your bread, it helps the bread keep its flavor.
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for about 20 minutes or until top is golden brown and it sounds holloaw when you thump the loaf with your thumb.
9. Let cool on a rack or serve warm.

You'll get to see the sappy side of me now... I like the Special Olympics. I used to volunteer every year in the prelims. I refereed soccer there. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the Special Olympics.

I got involved because of my little sister and because I had a few friends at the school for the deaf and blind. Whoever thinks that those blind ninjas in flying Kung Fu movies are fake... watch the blind kids play baseball then come back and tell me that.

Anyway, I found a new blog that I want to recommend to you all. (All five of you.) It may not be your thing, but it is a pretty good blog.

The Special Olympics Log

Lately, I have been listening to NPR more and more and reading a little bit less news. I should probably go back to reading more news and listening to a little less NPR because lately everything that I have heard on NPR interviews has just pissed me off. I don't really know why either. I hear these Senators bitching and moaning over the same thing day in and day out.

I have been angry at both Democrats and Republicans because they seem to both be saying the same thing with a slightly different spin on it trying to make themselves look like the bigger, better, more "American" party. Well, fuck that. They both have very narrow views of late. Extreme left, extreme right, there doesn't seem to be much of a dice anymore. The lack of thinking makes me want to vomit.

The problems they face would not be difficult to solve if they just sat down and started thinking about it like rational humans. I know this is a lot to ask for, but you'd think that they could at least step back from their petty partisan views for a moment. Both of the parties suck, they're the same. Sure, on a few issues they may hold differing views, but in the end, neither one of them actually wants to change anything.

Our fore-fathers didn't like the idea of a split party system. When you think about it, this is not a true democracy. In a two party system you have two choices. In a true democracy, there are many and they are not tied to a party that backs them and gives them money and puts them on display with a pretty bow and a 12-carot smile spewing some 'party line'. Now, I'm sure people will argue that there are other parties, but in reality we all know those other parties are a fucking joke. The Green Party, the Libertarian Party... bah. No one takes them seriously in a campaign. They aren't even invited to the debates unless they throw a hissy fit.

Thomas Jefferson envision a drastic change in the government about ever 200 years or so to keep things fresh and in the hands of the people. Well people, we're 30 years late for a revolution.

Here is what I say needs to happen to resolve the government and give it back to the people:

1. Get rid of the Electoral College. Gods, this is fucking retarded. I can understand back int he day when it was hard to count all the votes and they just needed an easy system. Why have it now? We have the technology to count all the votes quickly and efficiently and get a real number up on the boards. This would mean that each vote would matter. If you lived in a 'Republican' State and you voted Democrat, your vote wouldn't disappear into the Ether, it would go into a pool. This would mean that candidates would actually have to go out and campaign actively in states because all the votes would matter, not just the unswaying majority.
2. Get rid of Parties. Each candidate would have to campaign on his/her own merit. If people liked that Candidate they could donate to his/her campaign individually. No lumping people into broad categories. This would make people vote for individuals and not for parties. I hate going into a voting machine and seeing the buttons that allow you to vote for one party down the board. Yech. If there were no parties, people could say what they really think and not have to follow their 'party line'. They could be moderate on many issues and extreme on others.
3. Make the system of Checks and Balances actually mean something. Lately I've been seeing a tendency to move away from this system. The President wants people to simply approve the people he picks and doesn't encourage any debate on the matter. Look at what happened with the U.N. representative. The Senate wouldn't confirm, he put in his choice anyway. bastard. Don't fuck around with the "Nuclear Option". The Senate has the right to fucking filibuster if they want to.
4. Separation of Church and fucking State. I god damn fucking hate seeing God brought into campaigns. I don't give a rats ass what flavor of Christian you are when you're running for public office. I don't care if you believe God is some guy named George who lives in your back tooth. It's none of my God Damn Business. Keep your religious views out of my government and my private life. If you campaign badly and don't answer the questions asked of you with your views, I won't vote for you. It is the issues that matter, not the religious philosophy behind them.
5. Let the people vote on things that effect them. Like going to war. Obviously a good chunk of the country didn't want to go to war. Let us choose on it. You may be surprised as to the result.

Anyway, enough ranting from me. I have been reading anti-[everything] quite often lately and I must say I have been enjoying his blog greatly. Go over there and read it, it's worth it even if you don't agree with him.

Uhg… yesterday sucked. It sucked a lot. The morning wasn’t really all that bad until I got to work. I was rather excited because I knew my Mango Radio mugs would be coming in. I was pretty happy about that and I looked forward to seeing them when I got home from work.

Well, everything at work broke on me. Everything. Everything was like a fucking redo. We have to redo an entire experiment because some fucker decided to change a formulation at the last minute on something we were transferring to production. Bastard. This change was large enough that it cause quality failures left and fucking right. Then he went to a meeting and god damn lied about it. There was other shit at work, but suffice to say, it all sucked.

So, work was like a scratch and a redo.

I get a call from my husband saying my mugs had come in. I was joyful again. I don’t mind sitting about work with nothing to do, it gives me time to think and mull over things and do paperwork that no one else is willing to do but has to get done. Fan-fucking-tastic. So, my husband asks if he can open the package. He loves opening packages, so I said he could because I knew it would make him happy. About thirty seconds later I hear a shaking sound. A shaking sound that is something akin to broken ceramic.

My Shitty Blog Radio Mug was broken on arrival. God damn it.

My anti-[radio] mug was fine so I was still pleased as fucking punch. My husband says he’ll take care of it and make sure I get a new mug. He’ll just call the number on the shipping order that it says to call if something has gone wrong. Cool. He calls, they ship a new mug. Great. It was no problem at all, they even let me keep the broken bits of mug. (I’ll have a picture when I get home.)

So, my day continued to be boring and shitty. Then it came time for me to leave work. Excellent. I’ll go home and have some dinner and a glass of wine and everything will be fine. I had a Netflix movie I could watch and unwind to. Then I could listen to some WebKittyn.

So, I carpool. I get to the place where I park my car between my house and his and get in my car to come home. I look behind me, coast clear.

Wrong. Apparently there was someone sitting in my fucking blind spot. Crunch.

God damn accident.

So, sitting in the parking lot waiting for the cop to arrive, the guy and I start chatting politely. He was really easy going about the matter and told me that he had just taken out his other taillight backing into his garage. Uhg. Was it really my fault? Was he also backing up at the time and just didn’t say anything? I don’t know. he was a nice chap so I want to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. There wasn’t a lot of damage, a cracked tail light and a bit of pain on the bumper that wiped off fine. A bit of my car got paint on it as well that will probably buff out and a slight bend in the metal around the tail light.

An hour later, when the cop arrives we give him the information and everything is taken care of in about five minutes. I get my case number and can finally leave. So I drive home through thick traffic and finally arrive at home.

I eat dinner and watch my movie. (Ewan McGregor… mmmm… yummy.) I check my email, I can’t connect to Mango Radio during WebKittyn’s show because apparently I suck. So I say fuck it all and go to bed early.

Today will be better. Or worse. I suppose it could be a downward spiral. I don’t know.

So, now what?

I sit here thinking what I'm going to do next. Where is my mind lately? To be completely honest, I'm not entirely sure. Some days I think I want to do one thing and others my mind is in another realm entirely.

I want to roleplay.

I want to roleplay in a place where I won't be treated like a child. I want to roleplay in a place where all the characters aren't the same... dull, cookie cutter molds of shadows of people. I want to roleplay in a place where I'm not forced into creating one of those characters if I want to participate in anything major plot-related. This means I am going to quit Shadow Siege for good I think. I can't do it. I can't deal with the bullshit there. I don't want to be treated like an inferior person so i'm not going to subject myself to people who want to treat me that way.

I think I am going to switch to playing Eternal Struggle. It's more open and a bit more limited, but the roleplay is good. People there have personalities and it's not completely filled with angst and immature prattle. I am tired of games where everyone is boring ... a stereotype of a character with no real depth. Dull. I am tired of Shadow Siege mostly because everyone is the same. The world doesn't allow for much else (and the staff doesn't like anything that is too different).

I am going to play Time of Darkness and Eternal Struggle. I am going to write an email to Mina describing why I'm not going to play there anymore. Unlike the other players who are wishy washy and flop in and out of playing, I'm just going to step away. There are hundreds of games out there and I don't need to put up with feeling like I can't say anything for fear of wrath and discrimination.

For those people who know me and are used to seeing me around, they would have noticed that they havn't been seeing me in the places I normally haunt. By this I mean I havn't been MUDding for the past month or so.

GASP!

Right? Heh. I realized that I have an obsessive personality and I tend to drag myself too deeply into things. So, every now and again, I test myself to see if I can give things up cold turkey. Most of the time I am successful. I gave up MUDding for several weeks now because I felt I needed to. I gave it up because I thought I was spending too much time behind my computer and not enough time with my husband and doing other things.

While I gave up MUDding, I still spend ample amounts of time behind my computer. I guess you can't take the geek completely out of me.

I also gave up caffeine cold turkey. This was infinately harder than the gaming for two reasons. One - caffeine is highly addictive and the headaches, the shakes and the muscle spasms made me want to crawl into a hole and die. The worst part of the withdrawals was the heart spasms and the inability to breath every now and again. however, reason number two made it much, much harder. I love tea. Love it. I feel incomplete if I havn't had my cup(s) of tea during the day. There is nothing like sitting down with a hot cup of Kuan Yin Oolong and slowly savoring it as the semi-earthy and sweet smell permiates your senses. The taste of the hot liquid rolling over your tongue, tingling each of the aste buds: salty, sweet, bitter, spicy... all of them at once for a complete round taste that dances in your mouth and calms every nerve in your body is wonderful. Decaffeinated tea can suck my dick, or rather, in my case lick my clit. Non-caffeinated, chemical treated bullshit if you ask me.

Tea has become a part of my routine. I love all sorts of tea (save for the chemical treated psuedo-fruity teas). I spend a lot of time (and money) investing in tea, the proper brewing contraptions and the perfect mug and teapot. I have all of these things now and they sit there, on their shelf weeping for me. I can see it. My Chinese teapot made from Yixing clay sits so sadly on the counter, begging me to use it. I open it every now and again and smell the aroma of tea past, now permiating the clay and making it smell sweet. That smell taunts my nose and sends me reeling.

I gave up caffeine around the same time I gave up MUDding. I realize now how much I truly love them both. I feel a bit empty without my games (and the psuedo-human contact that comes with it) and my tea. My hobbies are rather sad really.

My books aren't quite as happy without my teacup. My playstation isn't quite as much fun now that I don't MUD.

So, now what? Do I give up n my resolutions to persue the things I really enjoy? MUDding was not a resolution so much as a choice I made to test myself... but the caffiene and the lack of tea...

I'll hate myself for giving up.

But which is worse, the hatred or the void?

Hey, fucktards.

The The Shitty Blogs Club has moved to a less shitty domain. Even we assholes and twats of shittiness have standards. Hoorah.

Visit them at: http://shittyblogsclub.blogsome.com/.

And in honour of the move, bad haiku.

The Shitty Blogs Club
Has standards for their server
Just not the Members.

And a button.

So, I chopped off most of my hair. It's not exceedingly short, nor have I shaved my head again. (Yes, I used to have a mostly shaved head... I cut it to about an inch long once... listen to my radio show on Mango Radio and you would know that already.) I hacked off a good portion of it. I hate having long hair. It annoyed the bajeebus out of me. I have always prefered having short hair. One of the main problems with short hair is that you have to style it properly so you don't look like a twat. I think the hair style I have now is decent.

Very often I go through periods where I experience intense malaise. To get out of these funks I often do rather drastic things. I cut off all my hair, I get a new peircing... something. One time I shaved all of the hair off of my body. These days, it's getting ahrder to find ways to break myself out of the malaise. Days are starting to blend together and in my head, the monotony is what is really getting to me.

Hair is generally the easiest way to give yourself the illusion of change. A new style and bam... you're some how different. A new outside look helps to form a new inside outlook. I'm not saying it fixes all problems, but, it is theraputic. For some people, their hair is their temple. I'm not one of those people. To me, hair is symbolic of change and growth. As we grow older, our hair grows with us. It changes length, colour and thickness. When we want a 'change', many people's first instinct is to cut their hair. When we want to stop our growth, many people dye their hair to cover the grey.

Hair is a strange thing and I think many people don't really realize the symbolism behind it.

In Orthodoxed Jewish culture, women cover their hair. To be totally honest, I'm not even completely certain why they do this. I remember my Grammy Frida always wore a wig to cover hers. When I go to the store (I shop in a kosher Kroger because its the closest one to my house... kind of convenient and amusing) I see countless women with their hair bundled up and pressed into a hat or scarf. Few people can see their hair. For me, it is almost like it is a feeling of true bonding. You can only see her hair if you are close enough.

Perhaps it goes back to Samson and Delilah. His hair was the source of his power. She took that source from him. We see the hair myths often: women cleaning mens feet with their hair, Rapunzel letting down her hair, women cutting off their hair to get a magical knife from the sea witch... Hair somehow possess a power. Perhaps that power is all mental...but it is there.

There are very few subjects that truly divide people, but the subject of abortion is one of them. I will be upfront with the matter right now. I am pro-choice. If you aren't, you probably don't want to read any further. I am not going to debate the matter with you and you are not going to change my mind.

There are a number of reasons I am pro-choice. The first one being that choice means choice. It means you can choose whether or not to have an abortion. If you are against it, that is your choice. By having this choice open, it gives women the option. Freedom means choice. By having the right to choose, we are expressing the freedom we have over our bodies.

When this choice wasn't available, women still had abortions. Whether they did this by taking herbs that forced miscarriage or by visiting back alley doctors, women still had them. The consequences of the choice being unavailable was often severe. Never again should 15 year old girls have to suffer an unwanted pregnancy. Never again should a woman have to sufer the unclean back-alley clinic. There is no reason for it. For many women, abortion is one of the few realistic options available.

A woman's reproductive rights are as essential to their well-being as their suffrage. There was a time when condoms were illegal. When any form of birth control was illegal. We have come a long way since then, but until people recognize the fact that a woman's body is her domain and no one elses, a woman will be seen as inferior in the world.

In America, there is a separation of Church and State, so banning a medical procedure based on religious views simply should not be done. This goes for any procedure, not simply abortion.

I am doing a poor job at explaining my views on the matter and I know it. The problem is, I have such strong views on the subject, that it is hard for me to express them clearly. For me, the right to have an abortion is fundamental as any right to choose. To have the option open is what matters.

In my mind, it doesn't matter who is having the procedure done. A woman with three children, a 16 year old girl who doesn't want to fuck up the rest of her life, a woman who simply isn't ready to commit to the life long responsibility of having a child... it is a heavy decision, but for many it is the only decision they can see themselves living with. Before Roe v. Wade, countless women killed themselves rather than have their child. Other went to the back alley clinics to have a bent coat hanger rammed into their uterus.

Several years ago, I became pregnant. My husband and I were not ready to have a child. I was still in school and we were poor. Dirt ass poor. Instead of having the child, I had an abortion. I could not bring a child into the world when I knew I didn't have the capacity to care for it. I do not regret my decision and I never will. Because I made the decision I did, I now have a good job where I am contributing to the world. if I had a child now, it would be very hard for me to have the job I do due to my work schedule.

I had a choice to make and I made it. I do not know what I would have done if I hadn't had the choice to make. My life would be ruined and I suspect I would be little better than trailer trash right now. I would be a drain on society rather than a member of it. I suspect my marriage would have fallen apart because of it. Also, i don't want children. My mother is a bitter woman because she had to give up her education when she became pregnant with me. The resentment becomes apparant. No child should have to live with that feeling thrust upon them.

Stand up for your right. Say no to coathangers and the suppression of reproductive freedom.

And remember, choice means choosing. By having the choice available, you can choose to go either way based on your own sense of morality.

So, yesterday my friends (I do have some... though rare and often living out of state), my husband and I all went out. For those familiar with the Atlanta area, we went into Little Five Points for dinner. The dinner was not the purpose of going out. No no. Little Five Points only served as a jump off point to our true destination. It also served as a bit of an energizer for the starving Utopia fresh home from work.

I digress.

My friends and I decided that we needed a dose of punk. We all went out to a place called Lenny's Bar that has become the local dive bar/punk bar music for an infusion of some kick assness. We went because there were some bands we wanted to see playing. The first band was not Punk as Fuck. They were dangling chodes wishing they were something resembling rock. The coolest part of the first band was that the lead singer was dressed sort of like Doctor Who ... he also sounded like Frank Black which was a touch unnerving. Aside from that, they sucked ass. I thought the drummer was going to jam one of his broken sticks into the singers anus and cackle as his rectum was gouged with splinters. You could tell the lead singer was very into himself and had spent quite a while posing in front of his mirror trying to be cool. He got up on the drummers bass drum and half broke the guys toms. What a fucktard. I gained new respect for the drummer when he had to remove his now unstable toms and proceeded to finish their set without them. He was punk as fuck, but everyone else was just a fuck.

The second band was the band we went to go and see. It was an all chick punk band. They were tight. Damn, they had their shit down. You could tell they had spent months practicing. They didn't need visual signals or anything. They kicked some ass. The band was made of three rather... large women who were a cross between punk and grunge. It worked for them. The singer had this little mousy-girly voice when she spoke, but when she sang it made me swoon from the excellent blend of Pat Benetar and Joan Jett that came belting out of her. They sounded like L7... except bitchier, more angsty, and possibly more menopausal. They were not punk as fuck... they were punk as cunts. It was most excellent.

I felt rather out of place at the bar as I was not wearing black and I was young when compared to the rest of this very old school punk crowd. I had come directly from work and was obviously not wearing anything that remotely ressembled punk. But, that was okay... everyone was very laid back and accepted me into their fold. There was a girl there who looked like she belonged in an Avril Lavigne video except she was hot. Crazy hot. She was there with her girlfriend. I love hot lesbians. They make me warm and fuzzy inside. My friends, Revni and Lynch* were friends with the bassist of the chick punk band. So we talked with them for a little bit before we all cleared out (including the band), because we all had to get up early.

I love punk music. Love it. There is little better in the world than sitting about with a nice Guinness in a loud, smokey bar listening to chicks scream punk**. I love people watching at these places. I know I don't fit in there, but it's okay.

I am punk as fuck.

Fuck fashion.

Fuck stringy hair.

Fuck big boots.

Fuck you.

And Fuck me too.

I am punk as cunt.

Gods, I am a bloody twat. I got up before the butt crack of dawn, my eyes were blurry and i was stumbling about like a git. I stood in front of my computer to publish the comments I got yesterday and accidentally deleted them all.

So... a gazillion apologies to those whom I deleted! I am an idiot. I didn't mean to do it. (Except for that guy trying to get me to "p.lay PO.ker". "Playa Star" you can go fuck yourself.)

So, in an effort to make amends for my early morning idiocy, I shall respond to each of your comments as best I can make them out.

To YummY! - She wanted me to go with the SBC Radio mug, but professed that she might be a touch biased. Perhaps you are a bit biased, but in that way, I am as well. Also, you reminded me that I must write my weekly rant to Jeckles and Captain Shutter for them to read on the radio.

To jeckles - You said something about me really wanting an SBC mug with reluctance to admit it freely. Hmm... perhaps that is so. Shitty Blog and Punk as Fuck would both have a pretty nifty impact as my work coffee/tea mug.

To TheBisch (times two) - You said something about the amusement factor of having a mug that says Punk as Fuck at work. Yes, the amusement factor is most definately there. I can just see the faces of hte neo-fascist Christian right people I work with and it makes me giggle. Also, you said something about work place ninjas rather than cubicle ninjas. I think perhaps you're refering to the Work Place Samurai, the deadly nemesis of the Cubicle Ninja. Having one means you inevitably have the other as they do kung fu when you're not looking.

Alright... I will not delete comments again... in order to make sure I don't, I'm going to set my comments to no approval and just go through them every day to rake out the muck.

Gods... some days I am such a wiley tit.

Well, I have reached a point where I am in a total quandry. The feeling of helplessness has taken over and I am tossed upon the banks of uselessness.

So... what is this quandry that has sent Utopia into such a tizzy?

I'll tell you since, obviously I have nothing better to do.

I don't know which coffee mug to buy.

Do I want a Shitty Blog Radio coffee mug? Or do I want an anti-[radio] coffee mug? Ooooor do I want a WebKittyn coffee mug?

It's horrible, I don't know which one to choose. (I'd like to buy all three but at 12 bucks a pop I should contain myself a little bit and save that money for food or socks or something.) I want it for work, so I think the "Punk as Fuck" logo would be fucking hallarious to have set upon my desk. But I fear the cubicle ninjas would make off with it. The Shitty Blog Radio looks like the perfect 'work' mug with the fake tape on it and all. And WebKittyn is just cool and hers is a talking ham mug with cat ears. Cat ears!

Uhg.

So, the quandry continues. Maybe I'll buy one mug this month and one mug next month, etc until I've collected them all! It's like fucking pokemon for this little twat or something.

Maybe I'll come up with a design for the Utopia show on Mango Radio. I do have two of them now that I really should promote more. I tell stories now. One live, one not live. It's not complete crap... only partial crap and I'm getting better (I think?) I hold contests and give away real prizes! Real ones. Like gift certificates and shit. But, alas, I am on over the weekends when people have better things to do. Ah well. Download me or something. Listen... I'm smooth baby, smooooooth.

In 1905, Einstein first published his paper on Special Relativity. It was in this paper that he first challenged the truths of Newtonian physics and Euclidean geometry by changing how the world saw space and time. He proposed that the Galilean transformations of velocity must be abandoned. In 1916, Einstein expanded his Special Relativity Theory to include gravity and thus, the Theory of General Relativity was born.

These days, every school child knows that:

E=mc²

This however, is only part of the equation. For Special Relativity, the above equation is true as Special Relativity doesn’t take into account gravity or motion. Special relativity assumes the body is at rest. In the more complex and complete General Relativity, the equation is transformed into:

E=gamma* mc²

Where

gamma = 1/ (1-v²/c²)^1/2

So, what does this gamma mean? Why is it so special? Does anyone at all care about this aside from physicists and geeks sitting behind their computers writing the basics of relativity for all to see and experience?

Truthfully, to the layman, relativity means nothing. It only applies at high velocities. However, from relativity the Lorentz Equations were formulated. The Lorentz conditions explain the expansion and contraction of waves. Now, this may seem lame and boring (and really, I suppose it is), but it shows that time contracts as you reach higher velocities.

I would like to say that time slows down when you’re bored because you aren’t doing anything. However, in reality, the opposite is true. The faster you move the slower time is for you. So, as you approach the speed of light, time stretches out. This concept is known as Time Dilation. We spent about a month in Modern physics studying this concept with long drawn out homework assignments, a silly little project and endless space-time diagrams. We heard a plethora of analogies, all of which were quite dry and boring. Instead of boring you with one of them, I will instead make up my own.

Remember in Superman 3, when Superman went so fast he made time go backwards to reverse all the bad things that happened on Earth? Yeah… that’s not actually possible. You can’t jump back in time simply by increasing your speed. That’s just crazy talk. You can however, make yourself age slower. So, if Superman flew out into space at a speed very close to the speed of light, leaving Clark Kent back on Earth as a sit in (yes yes, I know Superman is Clark Kent, but he’s not real either way so just go with me on this one) for say 8 light years or so and came back, he would be younger that Clark Kent.

Gasp!

Why is this?

Well, Time Dilation says:

T = T₀ * gamma

Basically this is the difference in time between a fixed frame of reference and a moving frame of reference. So, Clark Kent is in the “still” frame of reference and Superman is in the moving frame of reference. However, we are talking from Clark Kent’s point of view. If we look at it from Superman’s point of view, it seems that Clark was the one who suddenly started moving faster. Ack! It’s relative to what frame you’re in? Indeed. (This is also known as the Twin experiment and was proven through the Muon Experiment, yes, the ‘twin’ did indeed age slower when at a resting frame. No, it’s not as cool as putting a cat in a box and guessing whether or not it’s alive, but still rather nifty.)

Now, most major changes like this in the scientific world take a very long time to become accepted. However, Einstein’s theory was so simply explained and written, that it caught on almost over night. It’s publication flared a maelstrom of new physics research. It opened up new study into atomic, molecular and astronomical physics. This led to the theory of black holes, the Michelson-Morley Experiment, the aberration of starlight and relativistic mass.

At the same time Einstein proposed this theory, another theory that we now accept as true (unless you honestly believe the Earth is but 5000 years old and are thus a dancing twat) was the theory of Plate tectonics. While Einstein gained momentum and was easily accepted into the world of science, Plate tectonics took decades to be embraced, even within the world of geology.

Why?

Why would a theory that proposes that the distance between two points changes depending on how fast you’re going and time slows down be embraced faster than one that simply proposes that there are plates on the Earth’s Surface. Which is truly more outlandish?

Any school child can look at a map of the world and see the ‘puzzle pieces’ of the continents. But, how many school children can randomly postulate that space-time bends around mass and gravity?

Even today, outlandish theories are proposed into the scientific world that catch on like wild fire. Take String Theory for example. This theory is un-provable. It was written to be un-provable. It was postulated by some guy in a basement who was reading through old math books and found an equation that looked nifty because it sort of described a wave function. This is bad science. But, people love it because it postulates 12 dimensions. So, these people sit about playing with the equations hoping to find something within them that can be tested and thus ‘proved’. I hope that their work is not in vain, but if it is, they’ll have no one to blame but themselves for practicing bad science.

Relativity, unlike String Theory, was described and set up so tests could be done to prove various facets of it. Relativity helped to explain things that scientists had been struggling with for a long time and opened up an entire new area of science. While I may not like all of the fields of science it did open up to study, I do understand that they need to be explored and probed to enhance the depths of human knowledge and understanding.

I wish the scientific world didn’t pick and choose which sciences to embrace without hesitation. But, it is human nature to want to reach for the impossible things. We have been raised on Science-Fiction that becomes more and more a reality as time goes on. We want to be able to do the things we see on TV. We want to think that the advances are bringing us a step closer to being an ‘advanced’ civilization.

Maybe they are.

But who is to say where the next big idea will come from. Will it be from the small theory written on a bar napkin by a few struggling graduate students who aren’t given the time of day in the scientific world. Or will it be from the quick and easy theory that the world wishes is true?

2 names you go by: Utopia & Jay

2 parts of your heritage: Cuban & Hungarian

2 things that scare you: Small Dogs & close minded fucks with no filter from their brain to their mouth

2 of your everyday essentials: Cup of Tea & 10 minutes of “me” time

2 things you are wearing right now: grey cotton panties & jeans

2 things you want in a relationship: Friendship & common Interests

2 truths: Gravity Sucks & people are generally stupid

2 of your favorite hobbies: MUDding & baking bread

2 things I want really badly: 20gig iPod-movie thingy & a life of ease

2 places I want to go on vacation: Andalucia, Spain & Space

2 things I want to do before I die: Invent something nifty (like a blue transistor laser) & Kill Bill

2 ways I am stereotypically a chick: I change my mind on a moment’s notice & I bleed every month

2 ways I am stereotypically a dude: I don’t care what I wear everyday & I don’t understand fashion

2 things I am thinking about right now: God damn it, two things are hard to think of for these little categories & mmm…. poblanos rellenos con pollo y frijoles negras

Shit, I suck. I spaced out the entire weekend and got nothing done. I have my relativity post half done because I just didn't work on it over the weekend like I told myself I would. Chist on a lollipop stick I am lazy lately.

I have got to get it together.

Monday came 'round far too quickly and here I sit at work. Unfortunately I have a shitload of actual work to do now that I actually want to post something intelligent and useful. Why do I have nothing to do when I have nothing to talk about? It's hateful.

I fell asleep at work this morning when I got in. I was staring at my computer screen punching numbers and doing some calculations and bam, I was out sitting up. I think the Cubicle ninjas spiked my tea. Bastards. I wasn't out for long. I don't even know if I was actually asleep or just wishing to be asleep. I think one of the cubicle ninjas billy sapped me over the head and ransacked my desk. All of the sudden today it looks like my filing drawers exploded for some reason and I don't recall pulling anything out before I left work on Friday.

So now, I put my disguise (aka lab coat and goggles) back on and head back into the lab for work.

I've left a trap for the cubicle ninjas. I'll get them soon enough. It's a cunning plan... they'll never see it coming.

So... I went and voted for myself on BoB. Hey... someone has to right? So, I saw the results thus far, so I thought I'd break it down for all of you before I rant about physics. I have nothing better to do at work today. You know... except work. (Just so you're not caused undue stress due to anticipation, I'm second to last so far. Now that you know, no worries and everything can move on.)

#1 - The Sarcastic Journalist (13 votes)
#2 - Michele Agnew (8 votes)
#3 - Zazzafooky (7 votes, tie with #4)
#4 - The Art of Getting By (7 votes)
#5 - Fighting Inertia (5 votes)
#6 - The Muttering Muse (4 votes)
#7 - Paper Napkin (3 votes, tie with #8)
#8 - The Sound of Muzik (3 votes)
#9 - Abstract Utopia (2 votes)
#10 - Urban Semiotic (0 votes)

Damn you BoB's for making me write a list. I made a resolution to make less lists and now I've failed. Damn it. I have been good with the caffeine. No caffeine makes Utopia a cranky bitch. It also makes her very tired and talk in the third person.

Right... so onto the physics rant.

Let's hear it for Relativity!

Hoo-rah!

This will be the last time I say anything about BoB for the rest of the week and possibly the rest of the month because no one cares. Least of all me. Except for one thing...

Vote for WebKittyn for Blog Whore!


Do it! Vote for her! Damn it!

She's cooler than me and deserves it. She is a Classy Blog whore. And the Mistress to whom I owe all of my success. She gave me my blog and taught me the ways of blogging. Go and vote for her. Now.

Well fuck me sideways and call me Spanky.

I got into the finalists for Best Overall Blog on the best of Blog awards.*

I think the judges were on the crack cocain or something. I have a shitty blog. Shitty != best. (For you math illiterates !=anti or not, so != is does not equal.) I'm up against people there is no way I can win against. Especially since I was planning on making my next post about Physics and Relativity. People hate things that make you think. Maybe not all people, but most anyway. Damn you "people"... they're out to get me, I know it.

Well, now I have to try and be witty or something. Or, you know, funny. I am neither of these things, I'm caustic and morose and dry... so very dry. I'm like the cult classic running against blockbusters. I'm like Steven Segal at the fucking Oscars.

I've got a Snowball's Chance in Hell.**

And not that ninth circle of hell or the eight or the seventh where it is icy and cold. No no, the hot shitty hell.***

I started out my year saying I would try to write something useful (or at least sort of interesting) every week. This is a poor attempt to show that I do actually have a brain and I can do things other than rant and make silly pithy comments on things that don’t matter at all.

I’ve talked about the difference between theophylline and caffeine. I’ve talked about some of the modern wonders of the world. So, what should I talk about this week? I like talking about science but there are a few genres of science that I know nothing about. Like biology. I know jack shit about biology. I’ve never taken a biology class in my life. The closest I ever took was “earth science”. Biology wasn’t required for me, instead I took geology. In high school, I took chemistry and physics instead of biology.

So, lots of people know I’m a scientist. Apparently, because I’m a scientist I know about all science. People ask me crap about human physiology like I know what the hell they’re talking about. I don’t. I don’t know how a fucking cell works, I don’t care. I don’t know what those crazy low electrolyte diseases are and what they do to you. I don’t know where a pig’s spleen is located in its body. Sorry. I’m not a biologist of any sort.

I am a physicist. I know about physics. This includes motion, relative motion, molecules, optics, electro-magnetism, thermo-dynamics, mechanics, quantum mechanics math of all sorts and QFT. Now, these fields of research and study relate to a good deal of other fields. With Optics and Electro-Magnetism I can do electrical engineering. With mechanics and Thermo-dynamics I can do mechanical engineering. With all the molecular and quantum physics I can do chemistry. None of those fields of study allow me to know diddly shit about biology. I’m sorry.

However, people see physics on a resume and they assume I’m either too smart or unqualified for the jobs they have for me. So… people either think I know something about all fields of science or none. It’s a no win situation.

Physics is a lot about theory and exploration into the unknown. Physics is more about the why something works than what it does. It’s the how something happens instead of the should. I’d like to say physics is a creative field of science, but most people probably wouldn’t see it that way. They’d only see the long algorithms and calculations and think it’s dull. And maybe it is, but, physics is a gateway science.

So, I’m going to try and write a science article a week. I will keep it simple because there is no reason for science to be hard. You don’t have to use big words unless you trying to make someone feel dumb or make yourself look smart. If you’re actually a useful scientist, you can explain things so anyone can understand it.

Tomorrow, I am going to write about Energy and Einstein’s relativity, but I thought I would lead up to it.

Finish this equation.

E = ?

So, that bastard anti-[everything] passed along a meme to me. Not only that, but it’s a meme I’ve already done. Five little known facts about me. I did this before, anyone remember? I posted a picture of my one-eyed cat, Cygnus.

I suppose now I have to think of five new little known things about me. Of course, I could lie and just make crap up. Or I could tell you things that would waver even the sturdiest of hearts. So, some of these facts will be true, and some won’t. Then I’ll pass this along to five more people.

1. I like gay porn. Yaoi is boy on boy hentai manga. I love yaoi. I also like Yuri, which is girl on girl hentai manga. I also like the softer shounen-ai and shoujo-ai. This is like comparing late night cinemax softcore to Ron Jeremy flicks, but I still like it.
2. I have a brown thumb. I can’t keep plants alive to save my life. I have cacti on my desk because they are the only plants I don’t kill.
3. I’m not a natural red-head, but most people don’t know that. My hair is naturally a light auburn, but I look stupid with lightly coloured hair so I dye it darker. I have that Spanish olive skin tone, so even when I’m pale, light colors look awful on me.
4. I’ve never told anyone to Fuck Off to their face. No really. Online I tell people to fuck off all the time, but I’ve never told anyone to their face. I have told people to Piss off and take a long run off of a short cliff.
5. I often pretend to be a man. Being a chick fucking sucks. If I was a man I would make ~20% more a year. No one takes me seriously. So online, I often pretend to be a man. Most people don’t know I’m faking it.
6. Fuck you a-[e].

So, there you have it. Most of what I’ve said is true. The truths are mixed with some half truths. I could tell you what they are, but that wouldn’t be any fun. I’ll let you guess.

So, this morning my alarm didn't go off. When I finally woke up, I was already late for work. Go me. I tried to make my one caffeinated beverage I alloted to myself everyday and no caffeine. I try to grab a bite to eat and fail. (it's best not to go into the details here, it's harrowing.) Try to dress myself and find I have no clean socks. I have a gazzillion fucking socks and I can't find two that fucking match to wear to work.

I check my email and write the previous rant about the game I've been playing.

I futzed around until I finally was able to focus enough to be able to drive my car without plowing into my mail box, the neighbor and every other car on the road like some blind old lady sitting three inches beneath her steering wheel. I got to work.

Murphy is out to fucking get me today.

I can't remember having a day this bad in a long long while.

Work is being a whore with tits sagging to her ankles and twelve different STDs.

Perhaps it is the fact I was already in a foul mood when I woke up. Perhaps the stars are somehow aligned to screw with me today.

Or maybe, shit happens and I fucking suck.

My Mango Show yesterday. Gods above. I don't have the words to describe the suck of it all. My internet kept going on in the middle. My internet never goes out, but yesterday it was the bastard crack baby of a 2 cent junkie. I truly appreciate the 3 people who tuned in a listened to me. I don't know who you all are, but thanks. Seriously. I know it sucks to have to keep tuning in and so your effort makes me happy. Thanks.

I am dreading tomorrow already and it's not even 2pm yet.

I need a hot cup of tea and a warm blanket and a hug.

Don't worry, I won't cry. I'm not really an expressive person.

On a positive note, The Dive Bar Verses is (are?) back. Woo! Let us rejoice.

Today, I more or less said good-bye to Shadow Siege. It made me a little sad, but with the way the game is going, I wasn't all that broken up honestly. It was a good game. (Emphasis on the was there.) The staff has slowly become more and more tyranical forcing the plot to go where they want it to. People are quitting left and right and it's not fun. I am not part of any clique, so, no one is roleplaying with me anymore. That was the only reason I ever played the game after all... to roleplay. And now, no one will do that with me.

I'm tired of it. There are a million other games out there and I'm sure I'll find another one with ample amounts of roleplay on it. Not just pk and hack and slash with a loose roleplay scheme, but a real roleplay game. I love my pk hack 'n' slash, but I am already playing one. (I love you WebKittyn.) Maybe I can bring a bit more roleplay to Time of Darkness, I have been trying. Now with Seraphim playing, I think if we get together we can do it. I look forward to being able to shape that game a little bit and bring it to a whole new standard. I think if I set my mind to it, I can.

(Long rant to continue inside... if you play the game, you may not want to read this.)

I have decided to leave Shadow Siege for quite a few reasons. I wrote the staff some of them in notes to them. I hate favoritism. I do. I hate seeing some people get treated horribly because of it. I also hate the flip side of seeing people get treated as little pets because of it. But, it is human nature and it is best for me to keep my mouth shut on the matter. It is not for me to say how people should run their game. I think it was the fact that more and more I had to bite my tongue that made me finally decide to leave.

I see them pushing away other players. I have watched wave after wave of people quit, some of them my friends. I have stood by and held my tongue. I watch as the game slowly turns into a little self-mastabatory world for them to play in. I have watched as individuality is slowly stamped out and interesting character killed off because they aren't exactly what the staff wants to see. All the characters there now are pretty much the same. It's boring. Beyond boring. I rarely see anyone with a personality anymore. They are all like little shadow people doing and acting exactly like everyone else. Little mousy women, big tough wanna be men, psuedo evil slinking in the shadows, big evil stroking off in public... its formulaic. It's predictable. And that is boring.

If a character steps up to the plate to be something else, they are either ignored or killed. Everyone that I started playing with is gone. Everyone in the wave of people after that is gone. Even the old timers are mostly gone. I'm bored by it all. I see the plot a gazillion miles away. I can see if I'm going to be killed or not.

I made twins on the game. The person who played my twin has been pushed away by the staff. The one person who would actually roleplay with me has been pushed away. I'm not going to let the Staff there walk all over me anymore. It's not worth it. I loved the game. Loved it. I liked the world and for the most part the people. It has amazing potential. But, everyone is a doormat there.

I stood up to them once. It wasn't even for me, I stood up to them for someone else and they said some very hurtful things to me over it. I am the type of person who keeps my mouth shut. It's not my place to say anything. I always think before I speak. Always. I try very hard not to say things that I know will offend people when I'm playing on a game. I try very hard not to offend the staff because it's their game and they can do with it as they please. But, it really really bothers me when they don't extend the same courtesy to everyone else. I don't mind people insulting me, I'm a big girl and I can take it like a homosexual man in a gay porn; but I hate seeing them walk all over other people. I really hate it.

I am guilty as the next person. I hate stupid people. I really do. I bite my tongue though. I take a step back and bite my tongue. I try very hard to be a voice of reason in the middle.

But I have a temper that burns like the fire of a thousand suns. When I lose my temper be prepared for smiting... I'm talking fire and brimstone.

I have never lost my temper at Shadow Siege, but I've come close and that is the main reason I am going to quit. When I had to get up and walk away from my computer to keep myself from telling one of the staff members to: "sit on my fist and rotate, fun stops at the elbow"; I knew it was time for me to walk away. Players are one thing, but when I get that angry at a staff member, things are going badly.

I am sorry that the particular staff member is a sad little man who has no control over his real life so he has to take it out on all of us. I truly am. But, I don't have to take it. When I masterbate, I do it in the privacy of my own home. If he wants to wack off on his little game, fine, but I don't want his cum in my fucking hair.

I feel better now.

Besides, I found the game they broke off from, Eternal Struggle, and it is a lot more fun. I am enjoying it quite a bit. I have a halfling. I love halflings almost as much as I love kender and pixies. There is a good balance on that game and it makes me happy for the time being. I think it will turn out well.

In the mean time, I shall hack and slash over at Time of Darkness and roleplay at Eternal Struggle. If you guys ever want to see me on the flip side, that's where you can find me.

Sinfest is one of the webcomics I read daily. I really like it. I recently found out that they have a colouring contest on the forums. I decided to give a go at it and this is what I came up with. (I can't enter it until the 14th apparently so I must wait and wait.) All intellectual property belongs to Tatsuya Ishida of course and I did nothing but colour the image (and my ass with this statement).

In light of all the pain, anguish and otherwise horrible things happening in the world, I though I would take the time to look around and peruse the world's achievments. The height of Man's achievements generally revolve around things he has created; be it art, architecture, music, literature or science. In my perusal of these things (I have a deep love for history, so I really do anjoy looking at all of this stuff), I stumbled across a New Seven Wonders voting website. Twenty one man made structures have been 'shortlisted' onto the final voting. I won't be voting as it requires and international call and I think it's a silly thing to spend money on when I could buy somthing useful, like food or gasoline.

So, instead, I will simply place my votes for the seven wonders here along with the list of all 21 possibilities.

Petra, Jordan - This city was voted into the short list. I placed it in my seven because it is a city built directly into stone. It is truly a feat of man's ingenuity, simplicity and adaptability. Not only did building this gorgeous city take skill, it also took dedication, cooperation and an eye for aesthetic.

Stonehenge - One of the world's many mysteries. We don't know who built it, though we have a reasonable idea why they built it. A dedication to the heavens and to man achievments in astronomy. I voted for this structure because it is one everybody knows on site. Perhaps it is not much to look at, but despite that, it still take yours breath away.

Easter Island Statues - Yet another mystery. We don't know who built them, how or even why; but these large faced men seem to stare out onto the ocean forever searching for something more. I placed this on my top seven because it seems to embody man's sense of longing. his search for something more, for something beyond what he is. These statues have withstood the elements and endure.

The Great Wall of China - It's a wall built from stone and men. Thousands of people worked on this structure and many of them still remain with it. Those who died while building it were used as part of it. I placed this on my top seven, but in all reality, I think I would rather have placed Emperor Qin's clay army of Xi'an on it. This clay army is truly a testament to art and achievement. Thousand upon thousands of statues were made and each and every single one was different. I cannot imagine the number of artisans who must have worked upon it. However, you can see the Great Wall from Space.

Pyramids of Giza - This one is a no brainer. Ancient, simple and inspiring. The pyramids are truly amazing. Sure they were probably built my my enslaved ancestors, but they have withstood time. Definately on the top seven.

Taj Mahal - Shah Jahan built this as a gift for his second wife. This is a monument of love and devotion. Few buildings truly capture the best of man, but this is one of them. Every face of the building is enscribed with a different poem of love. Shah Jahan was so crushed when his love died (after bearing their 14th child) that his hair is said to have turned white as snow. He built this truly beautiful building as a promise to her. The pillars are even tilted slightly outward that if one should fall, they would fall away from the main structure so it doesn't become damaged. A tribute to the best of man's intentions, architectural beauty and ingenuity.

The last one for my list of top seven was rather hard. There were several I could have placed into this spot, but in the end, I went with one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient world.

The Acropolis - I don't know why, but I have always loved this structure. It's withstood the many attempts to burn it, knock it down and change the meaning behind it. There are numerous temples on the hill which has been considered sacred for millenia. The Parthenon, The Temple of Athena Nike, The Erechtheion, and The Propylaea are each unto themselves a work of art and a monument to man's achievements. Because of the numerous structures that are all lovely, I chose this to be the seventh on my list.

Now, for those that didn't make it.

Alhambra of Grenada, Spain - this is a lovely building and as much as I adore spain, I couldn't put it on my list. There are other monument in Spain which are infinately more impressive.

Angkor Cambodia - Another breath-taking city. It is an amazing looking place, if there were 8 places, this would have been on my list as well.

Chichen Itza - The mexican pyramid. The most amazing thing about this structure is that it was built independantly of the Pyramids of Giza. The symbolism and similarity between the two is startling and truly makes one think.

Christ Redeemer - A giant statue of Christ. Perhaps I didn't choose this on principal. I don't know. It just doesn't do much for me.

Colosseum - Again, it was hard not to put this on the list. A place of entertainment and death. It's hard to pass up, but in the end I did because I was looking for symbols of man's achievements, not his cruelty.

Eiffel Tower - Yeah, it's cool, but it's also French.

Hagia Sophia - Another lovely building, truly, but too similar to the Taj Mahal for my taste.

Kyomizu Temple - Yes, it's pretty, but once again, it doesn't do a whole lot for me when I look at the pictures of it. There are other Japanese Shrines I would have placed above this one.

The Kremlin/St. Basil - An amazing and complex structure. The minarets are gorgeous, but, I just couldn't put it on the top seven.

Machu Picchu - Lovely, remote and boring.

Neuschwanstein Castle - Meh... it's a castle. Woo. Reminds me of Disneyland.

Statue of Liberty - Similar to the Colosus of Rhodes Welcoming... holding a torch. But once again... French. (I just sort of feel like mocking someone. I did have a resolution to do so. Sorry France, I don't really mean it.) The real reason I didn't put it on my list is because it is quickly becoming structurally unsound.

Sydney Opera House - What an eyesore. I'm sure the acoustics are great, but bleh.

Timbuktu, Mali - Yeah its cool, but I can't help thinking of Garfield and Nermal.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll pick out my top seven works of Art of all time.

I've changed how my blog loads, if you have problems with it or it looks wonky, would you please let me know?

Technically, tea does not have caffeine in it. Would drinking gobs of tea be against my New Year's Resolution to drink less caffiene. On the technical side, no, no it wouldn't. Why is this you ask?

Tea contains very very little caffiene, what it does contain in those measurements is a chemical called theophylline. Theophylline has two less Hydrogen atoms in it than the molecule of caffeine, and one more carbon atom.

Caffeine = C7H10N4O2

Theophylline = C8H8N4O2

I apologize for the lack of subscript in my molecules, I'm lazy.

Both Caffeine and Theophylline belong to the same family of molecules called xanthine. Caffeine and theophylline are both achiral molecules which probably means very little to most of you. In essense, what caffeine does is block the adenosine receptors in the brain and other organs. To compensate, the body produces lots of adrenaline (hormonal epinephrine) and dopamine. Theophylline produces the same reaction and that is why it is often confused with caffeine.

This is one of the reasons why people (mostly myself at the moment )have withdrawals from caffeine in the form of headaches and muscle aches. Caffeine is helpful in many things. It activates many medicines because it quickens the heart rate and blood pressure, making them act faster (ie pain medication). It is also known to reduce the risk of type II diabetes.

While drinking tea would not technically break my resolution, it would be against the spirit of it. I have limited myself to one cup of caffeinated beverage a day. Right now, in the early work hours of the day, I am most definately feeling it. Uhg.

On a side note, my insomnia hasn't gotten better. It's gotten worse since my decaffeination.

...and sometimes I do. Christ on a swizzle-stick. I crashed the god damn Mango Radio live365 software twice today. I mean what the fuck? Arg. I fucking suck. Yes I do.

I have decided to do a contest about once a month. In my contests I'll give out prizes to people. Real ones. Not crappy ones. This week I gave out a $10 gift certificate to the iTunes store. I think that's a nifty prize. Right? I think Next montt, well this month actually, I will give out a $10 gift certificate to Amazon.com.

Will people actually listen to my show and enter my contests for real actualy prizes? Who knows.

I got only four entries for my last contest. Maybe I can drum up business for more. We'll see.

Listen to Utopia on Mango Fucken Radio!

Also listen to Webkittyn on WebKittyn Wednesdays on Mango Radio because she is awesome and needs some loving and some linky loving.