New Blog!

It's been a while, Blogger. Summer's nearly over, which is both shocking and somewhat relieving. And I've barely updated this blog at all. It's neither due to writer's block -- it doesn't take much inspiration to type up a simple three-paragraph-long blog post -- nor to time constraints -- it doesn't take much time to type up a simple three-paragraph-long blog post either -- but more just to me always overlooking this blog because it just isn't as important to me anymore.

I made this blog nearly two years ago, and while I can still identify with some of the content on this blog, much of it was written by someone completely different. People are palimpsests with their constant change, and this is why I've decided to start a new blog that will, in one way, be a continuation of this blog, and in another way, be a new start.

Find me now at stiricide.wordpress.com!

Venus Flies Across the Sky

Think lunar eclipse, except think again.

Tonight, because their respective orbits pull them into alignment on the same plane, Venus crosses between the sun and Earth, a rare astronomical event also known as the transit of Venus. This is the first time this has happened since 2004, and as a twice-a-century occurrence, the next time something like this will happen is 2117.

Shortly after 5PM in Illinois, Venus's path started trailing across the sun, and will continue to do so for at least seven more hours, except the phenomenon is only visible while the sun is still up. To have seen it required special filters in telescopes and binoculars, because viewing the sun directly would have been all but impossible given the extraordinary glare.

Metaphor

Today was the last day of finals, wherein I took one final, spent two hours hanging out with friends, playing Tiny Tower, and heckling the teacher in charge of schedules to get a class I really wanted to have next year, Journalism, added to my schedule, and then tried to act social during the school picnic and yearbook signing when really my head throbbed and I was being ignored by the majority of the people whom I actually wanted to talk to. And now, I am throwing a hissy fit online. How much lower can I stoop? (Don't answer that.)

I'm typing this on my bed. Mere minutes ago, I looked at my nightstand. The only framed photograph was one of my school portraits during second grade, and it occurred to me that I had absolutely no reason why it was there -- it wasn't significant in any way, it was outdated anyhow, and my nightstand, for the most part, with its roomy drawers, serves a storage, not an aesthetic, purpose. I rarely pay heed of what is on my nightstand anyhow -- the corner that it occupies is like the door that Amy Pond never wanted to see in Doctor Who. The photo has been there for years now.

So I took the photo down and threw it into one of the aforementioned drawers.

Blog Abandonment

Blog abandonment should be punishable by law. Then maybe I won't keep putting off writing posts. Remember when I said I'd try to write on this blog on a regular basis, and that this blog would remain active, and that I would try to write about more interesting things?

Well, yeah.

On another note, remember the flower background? It's back. I quite like it, actually.

What Do Aspirin and Ibuprofen Taste Like?

I have a weird habit. Whenever I take prosaic over-the-counter pills, I don't merely swallow them like other people do. I chew up the pill completely, as though it were a regular food, and then take my water with it.

I think the peculiar habit started when I was younger, and for some obscure reason, I was paranoid about choking on the pill. (Darn you, fourth grade health class.) Now, I have no qualms about swallowing my pills without chewing, but crunching on the pill may be a habit that I don't think I'll be able to get rid off easily.

With that being said, I'd like to comment that most pills actually don't taste egregious, contrary to popular belief. For example, aspirin is mostly nondescript, with a dash of bitter. Ibuprofen, on the other hand, is surprisingly spicy, though not unpleasantly. One of the only ill-tasting pills that I've had is a traditional Chinese herbal pill that tastes a malignant combination of balsa wood, ant, and wasabi (and yes, I have, to my disgust, tasted all three -- I think of the three wasabi was the worst).

So there you have it: Alice's random spiel of the day. The end, goodbye, whatever, blah blah blah. I'm sleepy.

Winner Takes All

The challenges to rid the world of nuclear weapons, harness nuclear power, and meet the nearly inexorable climate disruptions from global warming are complex and interconnected. In the face of such complex problems, it is difficult to see where the capacity lies to address these challenges.

-Timeline, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, on why the clock of doomsday moved ahead a minute

Last week, the Doomsday Clock advanced a minute, and now, it is only five minutes until midnight. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) manages the symbolic clock that is supposed to measure how close we are to our destruction, and the organization cites the constant threat of nuclear proliferation as well as degrading environmental standards as the two major threats to our world.

The clock was introduced in 1947, after the world's witnessing the destructive rise of nuclear weaponry. Surprisingly enough, the clock's been ahead of five minutes before. In 1957, the clock was set to two minutes before midnight, the most it's ever been, after the United States began testing on the hydrogen bomb.

Nonetheless, we are in a quagmire right now, a winner-takes-all battle between doom and survival. We seem to be stuck in an never-ending cycle of gloom: with the same old uninspiring leaders, the same old issues that only keep deteriorating, and -- some would argue -- the same old corrupted culture. We have ecological, political, and economic wars raging across the world. We have the actual wars raging right now too.

The clock really drives home the message, in a fear-inspiring manner that really conveys the urgency of issues and our relative inaction. It's challenging -- nearly impossible -- to convey the urgency needed for this type of blog post. Being a teenager in a teenager world, it's impossible to imagine how we might grow up, and what world we might live in. What will we see? It's at times like these when I feel like a pariah, writing about the Doomsday clock when my peers worry about homework and social events. But will we all have to grow up more quickly to combat our species' issues?