Resonant Constellation

I recently read a story about a preview screening of the new Star Trek movie in Austin, Texas. It was supposed to occur at a screening of Wrath of Khan and was going to include 10 minutes of the new movie. After the title credits of Khan (which is, by the way, my favorite Star Trek movie. That’s a story for a different day, though), the film seemed to break up and play was stopped. People came out in front of the screen to say that they were working on it. Then, reportedly, a man in a hat appeared, holding a film canister.

This man turned out to be no less than Lenoard Nimoy and he was carrying a copy of the new movie. Which he let the shocked and awed audience view in its entirety. I stopped reading the article there, because it went into spoilers, but suffice to say, I was speechless. As a fan of Star Trek since…well, literally as long as I can remember (one of my earliest memories is watching TNG), I am excited about this new movie. If they’re confident enough to do something like this a month before the movie comes out, that can only bode well.

Okay, my March beer review is a little late, but well worth it. This month saw many great beers imbibed, including Dechutes Brewery’s Hop Trip, Newcastle Brown, and Delirium Nocturnum. The beer I chose, however, for this month’s review is the Rochefort Trappist 10 °C.  This is an abbey Quadrupel brewed by the monks of the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy near the town of Rochefort.  15 monks live at the abbey and produce the beer through their incredibly secretive process.

Now to the beer itself: it has a dark brown hazy appearance with a substantial light brown head. The head took a while to fade and left nice lacing. The aroma is very complex with hints of various sweets, dried fruits, yeast, and a bit of alcohol. Flavor follows suit, but is much more intense with pronounced fruits and perhaps a hint of licorice. I’ve had other beers this complex, but none are nearly as well balanced as this-they just do it right.  In some respects, drinking this beer is like taking a huge bite out of a wonderfully moist fruitcake, but a fruitcake better than any fruitcake you’ve ever had-the One Fruitcake to Rule Them All.

My rating:
Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Flavor: 8/10
Palate: 5/5
Overall Impression: 17/20
Final Score: 84/100

It is the weekend, so I offer you a drawing I made of The Winslow.

If you’re wondering just what The Winslow is, follow the link above the picture.

It is now 6:30 PM. I have been in the physics building since 8:00 AM save two short (~10 minutes) breaks for food at around noon and 6 PM. I began today by studying for a test, and then I took it at 11. It was a horrific experience, none were left unscathed. Judging by the comments afterwards, it’s a good thing the exam was given by a proxy and that our teacher is out of town-there might have been…interesting dealings afterwards otherwise. Then I began work on the E&M homework due tomorrow. “There’s only four problems, how hard could it be?” I thought. Oh, past me, how naïve you are.

Here I am almost seven hours later having completed a grand total of half of the work. I wasn’t the only one working on this, either, there was a rotating group of about 6 people working on the same problems. The best part of it all was when we thought we had one problem finished, so almost everybody left, and then the remaining two of use figured out that it was wrong and spent three hours getting it right, which we eventually did before going to fetch dinner. Of course, when getting dinner, we realized that it still wasn’t right, so we got back to work.

I wonder what the outside is like, it’s been so long. Please, help us.

Recently on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart showed a series of clips on a Senatorial practice called “Reconciliation,” wherein the minority party in looses the ability to filibuster-effectively their only power. Now, I don’t always agree with the Republican party (read: I almost always disagree with them…almost), but I certainly don’t want the Democrats to run things with carte blanche (I also disagree with them with a high frequency). As long as the two parties are of equal power and fighting each other as is their wont, hopefully only the truly valuable and necessary measures can make it through with bipartisan support. When one takes over, you can bet shenanigans will be afoot.

The particular shenanigans afoot today had to do with a budget-related bill that the dems are shoving through the Senate with this reconciliation bullshit. A Republican Senator rightly stood up and called the Democrats on this idiocy. Then Jon Stewart showed the exact same man making a speech four years ago defending this deplorable practice when the situations were exactly reversed (the Republicans were ramming through a budget-related bill with majority rule). This man went so far as to say “What’s wrong with majority rule?” My mind: it boggles.

And then, Stewart brought out the best (and worst) part of it all. He showed Nancy Pelosi defending the Democrat’s use of reconciliation, using many of the same terms as the Republican Senator did four years ago. Then he showed her four years ago condemning reconciliation. I did not think it was possible for me to be more disgusted with “our” political parties-I didn’t know whether to laugh or vomit. I found out it’s actually possible to do both at the same time.

So, the answer to my question: Are politicians giant douches or turd sandwiches? Yes.