Someone on the ESPN message board posed the question of "What is an Aggie?" I've always had a basic understanding that it came from the schools agricultural roots and was kind of just a remnant of this, but out of curiosity, and due to having the day off, I put a little research into this question and found quite a lot of information on what led to students and alumni of Utah State University being known as Aggies and if possible became even a little more proud of the title.
USU was originally founded as the Agricultural College of Utah back in 1888 and they were known as "Aggies." Lots of schools in the late 1800's and early 1900's were known as the Aggies. Oregon State, Nevada, Colorado State and Wyoming to name a few. Most of them changed their names to what they currently are now. The iconic "Old Main" building on campus still wears the original designation of "Agricultural College of Utah" above its doors.
In the 1940's the teams from Utah Agricultural College (slight name update) were called the Farmers and their mascot was a dude in overalls, but many locals still kept referring to us as Aggies and to the school as "The Agricultural College." In 1957 when UAC changed its name to Utah State University they officially adopted Aggies as their mascot, but kept the farmer around for a while.
During 1969, due to concern by administration of not being known for anything special by people outside of Utah, a movement was made to change the mascot to the Highlanders due to the ideological tie of the school's setting being on top of a hill in a mountain valley and the Scotsman song which was a popular tradition among students. During a football game at halftime it was officially announced that the name would be changed to the Highlanders and the student body and alumni alike booed for the remainder of the second half. That idea was quickly bailed on and we remained Aggies. The Scotsman song remains popular with Aggies.
In 1975 the bull first appeared at Utah State. It was actually a live white bull which they painted blue. It was kept around for a while, but despite rubber boots it still occasionally caused damage to the brand new Dee Glen Smith Spectrum's floor. This and the high level of upkeep for a bull which gets painted blue multiple times a month led to it being replaced with a guy in a bull cartoon suit in 1987, but there is a huge statue of the bull on campus which has a student tradition of being ridden naked to earn the title of Ultimate Aggie (yes, I am one.)
Apparently we really like being Aggies. I wouldn't accept being called anything else, even if there isn't much sagebrush left in the valley.
Go Aggies!!
Friday, December 16, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Looking Back on Yesterday
Today I hung out with my old best friend from high school, Joe. We've stayed in contact all these years while I've been on the other side of the state and he's been doing the whole married thing. We went and got lunch, he brought his wife along - suppose he figured I wouldn't mind. I suppose it's fine. Unlike some of my friends wives she's a cool person and I get along with her. It's just never quite as fun hanging out with your friend plus their wife as it is to hang out with just your friend, but I digress.
It was nice, he kept reminding me of things in my life that I'd either forgotten or heavily repressed the memories of for good reason. It's interesting looking back on it. When we got back to his house I hooked him up on Spotify and he was talking about old music we loved, so when I got home I made him a playlist of all the angry pissed off music we used to listen to during those very forgettable years of 15-19. I even got out some old CDs for ideas of what I wanted to listen to and it really brought back the memories. Some good, most bad.
In no specific order here are some memories of high school that I was reminded of by songs I listened to tonight:
Eva by Orgy always reminded me of my Grandma. My Grandma was a wonderful woman - kind of like a second parent. I had a single parent and we always lived with my grandparents. She died just before my 17th birthday and life was rough, losing a close friend like Grandma is never something an emotionally unstable 17 year old wants to deal with. I mostly hid inside and listened to Orgy's CD Vapor Transmission and Tool's Lateralus CD over and over for weeks. I still love the CD's.
Cloud 9 by Distorted Penguins reminded me of this stupid girl Vonda. At 16 I liked her, I wanted her. She liked me. We went out a few times. Then I decided to let her meet Joe. She decided she liked him better and I was "destroyed" or about as destroyed as a 16 year old can be over a girl. They made out and he told me about it and I remember feeling like the world just ended, haha. Silly Brandon.
In This Diary by The Ataris reminded me of this girl Brindy. Her and I "dated" when we were 15 or 16. By "dated" I mean we'd sit next to each other and hold hands on occasion. Once we even "kissed" and by "kissed" I mean our lips touched briefly. Afterward Joe had a thing for her for about 6 years. It never amounted to anything though, haha. She was very anti-dating of friends.
World so Cold by Mudvayne reminded me of my friend Eric. We're still friends, but in high school we had a brief period of non-friendship. I don't blame him, I was an overdramtic punk. I wouldn't have wanted to hang out with me, but we were still tight in junior high and he bailed to hang out with some shady kids who were into things I didn't approve of at the time... you know, like beer and R rated movies. Haha. He also led me to believe that he was dating the aforementioned Amber which was pretty low, but apparently he wasn't.
The Odyssey by Orgy reminded me of track meets. Eric and I would listen to that song to get psyched up. We thought it made us run faster. Honestly it was just a cool song to listen to and you don't really need to psyched up to run, but man, we sure thought you did.
Silhouettes by Smile Empty Soul reminded me of this time that Joe and I decided that the lines "I don't want to live like my mother/father" were how we felt about our lives. Even though to be quite honest we both have parent(s) who are good people, but hey - in high school you just want to find something, anything, to hate. At least I did.
Here's to the Night by Eve 6 reminds me of when I didn't graduate high school. I quit, I gave up. I'd had enough and decided I didn't need an education. For a brief time my mom tried getting me to do an alternate high school, but that wasn't for me either. I didn't fit in with the druggies and the people who were looking for that technical type of education. Not that I'm above that, my brain just doesn't work that way. I can't fix a car or weld something, it just doesn't doesn't please me to do so and I honestly just have this mental block that makes me give up about half way through anything mechanical like that because I get frustrated.
A couple years later I went in for the GED test. What a joke that was. They allot 5 hours for it. I took two hours and took my packet up to the lady. She asked if I was taking lunch and I told her, "No, I'm done." and she asked if I wanted to maybe review my answers and I told her that I already had. When compared to projected scores of graduating high school seniors I scored in the 79th and 84th percentile in writing. Not too shabby. Math, science and social science scored me in the 90th, 98th and 99th percentile though. Yeah, I kinda owned that test. The pathetic part of this is that I actually took the GED test. Haha. Yikes.
Up all Night by Unwritten Law reminds me of the first time I had sex. It was cute. It was both of our first time. Looking back on it, it was probably terrible for both of us because of that, but again, it was cute. May 16th 2003 I believe. Not sure why I remember that.
No Hard Feelings by Bloodhound Gang reminds me of when we broke up two years later. Her and I still talk now and then. She's a good person though certainly not the type I would date at this point in my life, haha. Despite us being e-friends now, I certainly hated her for a while after we broke up. She sorta boned some dude that she met from myspace, haha. I don't fully blame her, we were obviously bored of each other and neither of us wanted to end it. It was for the best, but I was destroyed over yet another girl. The song Attack by 30 Seconds to Mars reminds me of getting over her.
Closer by Nine Inch Nails reminds me of my first kiss, which by the way was terrible. I liked this girl, Brindy, and was at her house for some party. It wasn't with her. This other girl Rachel was there. I'd never met her before, she was my friend's friend. While watching a movie, Joyride with Paul Walker, somehow we ended up snuggling. Afterward she attacked me. I was 16 and just wanted some, so I made out with her - in front of like 6 people. Yikes. In my defense she 100% initiated it, all right? Anyway, for the next year I kept wishing it would have been Brindy, haha, but oh well. Rachel was at least knowledgeable about what she was doing I guess. She would always tell me some Kelly Clarkson song was "our song." I didn't bother listening to that song. I didn't like it then, I wouldn't like it now.
Blue and Yellow reminds me of my car (which by the way was white.) All of these songs we would always listen to in my Supra, but for some reason Blue and Yellow was something we'd listen to more than any other. I had a 1985 Toyota Celica Supra that my grandma bought me. It was nothing fancy, keep in mind that it was older than me, but I loved it. At the time I thought it was a racecar and the coolest thing ever. I had big subwoofers in it and a hidden switch that turned on fog lights. I still have those same subwoofers in my WRX actually. They work just fine 8 years later. We'd drive around town pissing people off and getting in fights with rednecks. We got drunk way more than any minors should and we fooled around with girls that I wouldn't even give a high five to anymore. Blech. Dirty. Yuck.
It might sound fun, but I'd never been more unhappy in my life. There was always something missing. I'm not sure what it was, but it's not missing in quite as large of an abundance anymore. I was never happy. I found distractions to keep me from being sad, but for a good 3 years I just never had a feeling of "Oh wow, I sure am happy to be here." It's fun to reflect like that. That was the worst half-decade of my life and remembering it in detail makes me so much happier to be me now.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would attend the best university in the world and be a scientist 7 years later. Shut up, a geologist is still a scientist. Never in those same wild dreams did I imagine that I'd be nearly 26 and still single. I certainly never thought I'd still be in the Salt Lake area. Being someone who doesn't drink now, even around people who do drink? Yeah right. I guess I probably never even thought about what I'd be doing 7 years later when I was 18. A lot of days I really didn't project me still existing when I was 25. Well here I am, I made it. I think I installed a few major upgrades too.
I wonder when 32 holds for me.
If I had to project at this point I imagine I'll still be a geologist. I may even still be working at Norwest, but if I am I wouldn't be surprised to see me at the Denver office. Otherwise I think I'd have moved to Northern California or possibly Oregon by now. I'll be married. Nice woman, probably tall and thin. Doubt we'll have kids yet, well I don't know - maybe a baby. I'll still drive Rex (my WRX), but I'll be heavily considering something new at this point, something more lush but still semi-sporty. Maybe a Legacy? I imagine I'll own a house. Nothing huge, but it'll be newer and in a nice neighborhood. I'll still make it to Logan often enough for Aggie games. I'll own a really expensive telescope. Like a $2000 telescope, just for fun and a hobby. Oh! A dog. I'll definitely own a dog. Probably a Corgi or something similar in size and personality. Maybe a few more personal upgrades too. I'd be cool with that. I'll have likely forgotten about this blog and in no way read this at 32, so I'll have no clue what my 25 year old self expected of my 32 year old self.
I often romanticize about the past. This is one instance where that is not the case. It's an interesting trip down memory lane, but I can't even put into words just how much I don't miss that time of my life.
Seriously, fuck high school.
It was nice, he kept reminding me of things in my life that I'd either forgotten or heavily repressed the memories of for good reason. It's interesting looking back on it. When we got back to his house I hooked him up on Spotify and he was talking about old music we loved, so when I got home I made him a playlist of all the angry pissed off music we used to listen to during those very forgettable years of 15-19. I even got out some old CDs for ideas of what I wanted to listen to and it really brought back the memories. Some good, most bad.
In no specific order here are some memories of high school that I was reminded of by songs I listened to tonight:
Eva by Orgy always reminded me of my Grandma. My Grandma was a wonderful woman - kind of like a second parent. I had a single parent and we always lived with my grandparents. She died just before my 17th birthday and life was rough, losing a close friend like Grandma is never something an emotionally unstable 17 year old wants to deal with. I mostly hid inside and listened to Orgy's CD Vapor Transmission and Tool's Lateralus CD over and over for weeks. I still love the CD's.
Cloud 9 by Distorted Penguins reminded me of this stupid girl Vonda. At 16 I liked her, I wanted her. She liked me. We went out a few times. Then I decided to let her meet Joe. She decided she liked him better and I was "destroyed" or about as destroyed as a 16 year old can be over a girl. They made out and he told me about it and I remember feeling like the world just ended, haha. Silly Brandon.
In This Diary by The Ataris reminded me of this girl Brindy. Her and I "dated" when we were 15 or 16. By "dated" I mean we'd sit next to each other and hold hands on occasion. Once we even "kissed" and by "kissed" I mean our lips touched briefly. Afterward Joe had a thing for her for about 6 years. It never amounted to anything though, haha. She was very anti-dating of friends.
World so Cold by Mudvayne reminded me of my friend Eric. We're still friends, but in high school we had a brief period of non-friendship. I don't blame him, I was an overdramtic punk. I wouldn't have wanted to hang out with me, but we were still tight in junior high and he bailed to hang out with some shady kids who were into things I didn't approve of at the time... you know, like beer and R rated movies. Haha. He also led me to believe that he was dating the aforementioned Amber which was pretty low, but apparently he wasn't.
The Odyssey by Orgy reminded me of track meets. Eric and I would listen to that song to get psyched up. We thought it made us run faster. Honestly it was just a cool song to listen to and you don't really need to psyched up to run, but man, we sure thought you did.
Silhouettes by Smile Empty Soul reminded me of this time that Joe and I decided that the lines "I don't want to live like my mother/father" were how we felt about our lives. Even though to be quite honest we both have parent(s) who are good people, but hey - in high school you just want to find something, anything, to hate. At least I did.
Here's to the Night by Eve 6 reminds me of when I didn't graduate high school. I quit, I gave up. I'd had enough and decided I didn't need an education. For a brief time my mom tried getting me to do an alternate high school, but that wasn't for me either. I didn't fit in with the druggies and the people who were looking for that technical type of education. Not that I'm above that, my brain just doesn't work that way. I can't fix a car or weld something, it just doesn't doesn't please me to do so and I honestly just have this mental block that makes me give up about half way through anything mechanical like that because I get frustrated.
A couple years later I went in for the GED test. What a joke that was. They allot 5 hours for it. I took two hours and took my packet up to the lady. She asked if I was taking lunch and I told her, "No, I'm done." and she asked if I wanted to maybe review my answers and I told her that I already had. When compared to projected scores of graduating high school seniors I scored in the 79th and 84th percentile in writing. Not too shabby. Math, science and social science scored me in the 90th, 98th and 99th percentile though. Yeah, I kinda owned that test. The pathetic part of this is that I actually took the GED test. Haha. Yikes.
Up all Night by Unwritten Law reminds me of the first time I had sex. It was cute. It was both of our first time. Looking back on it, it was probably terrible for both of us because of that, but again, it was cute. May 16th 2003 I believe. Not sure why I remember that.
No Hard Feelings by Bloodhound Gang reminds me of when we broke up two years later. Her and I still talk now and then. She's a good person though certainly not the type I would date at this point in my life, haha. Despite us being e-friends now, I certainly hated her for a while after we broke up. She sorta boned some dude that she met from myspace, haha. I don't fully blame her, we were obviously bored of each other and neither of us wanted to end it. It was for the best, but I was destroyed over yet another girl. The song Attack by 30 Seconds to Mars reminds me of getting over her.
Closer by Nine Inch Nails reminds me of my first kiss, which by the way was terrible. I liked this girl, Brindy, and was at her house for some party. It wasn't with her. This other girl Rachel was there. I'd never met her before, she was my friend's friend. While watching a movie, Joyride with Paul Walker, somehow we ended up snuggling. Afterward she attacked me. I was 16 and just wanted some, so I made out with her - in front of like 6 people. Yikes. In my defense she 100% initiated it, all right? Anyway, for the next year I kept wishing it would have been Brindy, haha, but oh well. Rachel was at least knowledgeable about what she was doing I guess. She would always tell me some Kelly Clarkson song was "our song." I didn't bother listening to that song. I didn't like it then, I wouldn't like it now.
Blue and Yellow reminds me of my car (which by the way was white.) All of these songs we would always listen to in my Supra, but for some reason Blue and Yellow was something we'd listen to more than any other. I had a 1985 Toyota Celica Supra that my grandma bought me. It was nothing fancy, keep in mind that it was older than me, but I loved it. At the time I thought it was a racecar and the coolest thing ever. I had big subwoofers in it and a hidden switch that turned on fog lights. I still have those same subwoofers in my WRX actually. They work just fine 8 years later. We'd drive around town pissing people off and getting in fights with rednecks. We got drunk way more than any minors should and we fooled around with girls that I wouldn't even give a high five to anymore. Blech. Dirty. Yuck.
It might sound fun, but I'd never been more unhappy in my life. There was always something missing. I'm not sure what it was, but it's not missing in quite as large of an abundance anymore. I was never happy. I found distractions to keep me from being sad, but for a good 3 years I just never had a feeling of "Oh wow, I sure am happy to be here." It's fun to reflect like that. That was the worst half-decade of my life and remembering it in detail makes me so much happier to be me now.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would attend the best university in the world and be a scientist 7 years later. Shut up, a geologist is still a scientist. Never in those same wild dreams did I imagine that I'd be nearly 26 and still single. I certainly never thought I'd still be in the Salt Lake area. Being someone who doesn't drink now, even around people who do drink? Yeah right. I guess I probably never even thought about what I'd be doing 7 years later when I was 18. A lot of days I really didn't project me still existing when I was 25. Well here I am, I made it. I think I installed a few major upgrades too.
I wonder when 32 holds for me.
If I had to project at this point I imagine I'll still be a geologist. I may even still be working at Norwest, but if I am I wouldn't be surprised to see me at the Denver office. Otherwise I think I'd have moved to Northern California or possibly Oregon by now. I'll be married. Nice woman, probably tall and thin. Doubt we'll have kids yet, well I don't know - maybe a baby. I'll still drive Rex (my WRX), but I'll be heavily considering something new at this point, something more lush but still semi-sporty. Maybe a Legacy? I imagine I'll own a house. Nothing huge, but it'll be newer and in a nice neighborhood. I'll still make it to Logan often enough for Aggie games. I'll own a really expensive telescope. Like a $2000 telescope, just for fun and a hobby. Oh! A dog. I'll definitely own a dog. Probably a Corgi or something similar in size and personality. Maybe a few more personal upgrades too. I'd be cool with that. I'll have likely forgotten about this blog and in no way read this at 32, so I'll have no clue what my 25 year old self expected of my 32 year old self.
I often romanticize about the past. This is one instance where that is not the case. It's an interesting trip down memory lane, but I can't even put into words just how much I don't miss that time of my life.
Seriously, fuck high school.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Jaded in the Field
I'm laying in a random bed eating day old pizza which I heated up in my rooms only cooking appliance, a microwave, while listening to some indie rock music and reflecting about happier times. I do this knowing that I'll have to wake up in 8 hours from now and brave the cold weather to go look at some core pulled out of the Earth. I'm in Milford, Utah and I have been for the last 12 out of 13 days. Is this what being a geologist is?
Today was a relatively easy day. My partner and I worked for 8 hours, far shorter than our typical 12 hour shift. We worked together expediting the process of things and only drilled two holes. Most days I've been the lone geologist on my crew of 4-5 people and we've done anywhere from 4-7 holes. Afterward we drove into the city (Beaver - population 4000) to get some Mexican food and check our cell phone messages.
That was pleasant I guess. It's something to look forward to, but to be honest these past couple days have been quite miserable. I can do field work, it's not a huge deal. Having a room, whatever I want to eat, gas, rental truck and any supplies I need for the job all paid for by the project is great. Then on top of that getting paid more than I ever dreamed of making at this point in my life is amazing. There are so many perks to this job, especially the field work aspect, that I couldn't leave even if I wanted. I just get so lonely.
My only connection with the outside world is whoever I can talk to on facebook. I find myself messaging random people who I've not talked to in years just in the hopes of starting a conversation. It doesn't normally happen. Occasionally old roommates will have a conversation with me or various girls that I used to date will chat for a while with me, but that's about it. I can't talk to any of my family because my motel has an absurd long distance charge that I would feel bad charging my company for and my cell phone doesn't get service here.
Around town I've tried talking to various people and making friends, but most people here seem content with not getting to know outsiders. I don't blame them. It's a small town, maybe 1000 people. Everyone knows everyone and when someone comes in with a new $40,000 pickup truck wearing clothes purchased at the mall and traipsing around their modest town eating out every day. It's probably a little annoying. Then I try asking questions like what living in Milford is like and they look at me weird. I understand I guess. If someone asked me what living in Salt Lake was like I would be happy to answer, but I'm proud of Salt Lake. I can't imagine many people are proud of Milford. It probably sounds condescending though I don't mean it that way. I really want to know what the lives of people here are like.
On any given day I have about 2-3 hours to myself where I'm not working, doing post-work paperwork, showering or sleeping. I have those 3ish hours to get dinner, read, watch TV, play on facebook and anything else I might want to do. I guess that's what being an adult is like. I can't imagine things are much different for most of my married friends, but I'm single. I should have plenty of time to myself still, right? Oh well.
It's just hard. It's hard being with drillers for 10-12 hours hearing about nothing but raunchy sex stories, of which 95% are more than likely completely made up, and cursing over dropped pipes, slippery work conditions or crushed liners and then making an hour long commute back to a motel room over mostly unpaved roads. It's strange to think that I went to college for four years to live this life. Would I have gone for it if I knew this is what I was getting myself into?
Don't get me wrong, there are good parts to my job as well. I love sitting in the office with geologists and engineers and building models and even building databases (though databases can get monotonous at times I still do enjoy it.) I love the pay and the ability I have to help people out when they need money or to just be able to say "I got this one," when I go out to eat with someone and not have to worry about how that's going to fit into my budget. Certain things about life right now are amazing. Field work is just so hard. I don't know how long I can sanely do field work at this frequency for an extended period of time. I hope once the Sevier Lake project is completed that I get to spend a few months doing desktop geology.
I guess overall this is a wonderful experience for me and is really helping me become a more well-rounded person. I'm learning so much. I'm doing a great thing for the surrounding community should a mine develop here bringing employment and commerce. It's just that being cut off from friends, family and anything that I care about for 12 of the last 13 days isn't something I dreamed of doing shortly after college, but I guess this is the life right here; a lonely motel room and a laptop and day old pizza. Staying up late, past 10pm, for the sake of writing a blog that I can someday reflect back on and hopefully remember these times as being a pretty good experience.
Today was a relatively easy day. My partner and I worked for 8 hours, far shorter than our typical 12 hour shift. We worked together expediting the process of things and only drilled two holes. Most days I've been the lone geologist on my crew of 4-5 people and we've done anywhere from 4-7 holes. Afterward we drove into the city (Beaver - population 4000) to get some Mexican food and check our cell phone messages.
That was pleasant I guess. It's something to look forward to, but to be honest these past couple days have been quite miserable. I can do field work, it's not a huge deal. Having a room, whatever I want to eat, gas, rental truck and any supplies I need for the job all paid for by the project is great. Then on top of that getting paid more than I ever dreamed of making at this point in my life is amazing. There are so many perks to this job, especially the field work aspect, that I couldn't leave even if I wanted. I just get so lonely.
My only connection with the outside world is whoever I can talk to on facebook. I find myself messaging random people who I've not talked to in years just in the hopes of starting a conversation. It doesn't normally happen. Occasionally old roommates will have a conversation with me or various girls that I used to date will chat for a while with me, but that's about it. I can't talk to any of my family because my motel has an absurd long distance charge that I would feel bad charging my company for and my cell phone doesn't get service here.
Around town I've tried talking to various people and making friends, but most people here seem content with not getting to know outsiders. I don't blame them. It's a small town, maybe 1000 people. Everyone knows everyone and when someone comes in with a new $40,000 pickup truck wearing clothes purchased at the mall and traipsing around their modest town eating out every day. It's probably a little annoying. Then I try asking questions like what living in Milford is like and they look at me weird. I understand I guess. If someone asked me what living in Salt Lake was like I would be happy to answer, but I'm proud of Salt Lake. I can't imagine many people are proud of Milford. It probably sounds condescending though I don't mean it that way. I really want to know what the lives of people here are like.
On any given day I have about 2-3 hours to myself where I'm not working, doing post-work paperwork, showering or sleeping. I have those 3ish hours to get dinner, read, watch TV, play on facebook and anything else I might want to do. I guess that's what being an adult is like. I can't imagine things are much different for most of my married friends, but I'm single. I should have plenty of time to myself still, right? Oh well.
It's just hard. It's hard being with drillers for 10-12 hours hearing about nothing but raunchy sex stories, of which 95% are more than likely completely made up, and cursing over dropped pipes, slippery work conditions or crushed liners and then making an hour long commute back to a motel room over mostly unpaved roads. It's strange to think that I went to college for four years to live this life. Would I have gone for it if I knew this is what I was getting myself into?
Don't get me wrong, there are good parts to my job as well. I love sitting in the office with geologists and engineers and building models and even building databases (though databases can get monotonous at times I still do enjoy it.) I love the pay and the ability I have to help people out when they need money or to just be able to say "I got this one," when I go out to eat with someone and not have to worry about how that's going to fit into my budget. Certain things about life right now are amazing. Field work is just so hard. I don't know how long I can sanely do field work at this frequency for an extended period of time. I hope once the Sevier Lake project is completed that I get to spend a few months doing desktop geology.
I guess overall this is a wonderful experience for me and is really helping me become a more well-rounded person. I'm learning so much. I'm doing a great thing for the surrounding community should a mine develop here bringing employment and commerce. It's just that being cut off from friends, family and anything that I care about for 12 of the last 13 days isn't something I dreamed of doing shortly after college, but I guess this is the life right here; a lonely motel room and a laptop and day old pizza. Staying up late, past 10pm, for the sake of writing a blog that I can someday reflect back on and hopefully remember these times as being a pretty good experience.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
7,000,000,000
That's how many people there are now on our planet.
Interesting. I thought out of boredom, and since having worked for the census bureau for 3 months I am obviously an expert on population (not really), I would put together a collection of interesting stats based on that number.
When I was born, on January 30th, 1986 there were 4,912,946,909 people alive, according to a cool little calculator on the BBC website I used. You can use it here The world population has since increased by 30%, or roughly 1.2% per year.
3,563,000,000 people on the planet are female.
485,000,000 of those fall within an age range in which I would consider dating. (20-29)
1,400,000,000 people on the planet currently have a viral STD.
That leaves 388,000,000 for me to date if I disqualify those with STD's.
700,000,000 left handed people are alive today.
This means only 38.8 million of the dateable people for me would have to eat dinner sitting to my left.
94.5 million "geniuses" (People with an IQ over 145) are currently living today.
This leaves 27,000 females who would be around my age, STD free and intelligent enough for me to date (I'm obviously kidding about this one. I prefer intelligence around my own, which is clearly below IQ=145)
There are 57,308,738 square miles of land on the planet.
That is roughly 21,200 square meters of land per person. That is a box which is 145 meters on each side or about 1.5 football fields.
This area obviously varies by the resolution in which you look at the planet. Here along the Wasatch Front, I obviously do not have that much area to myself, but using the resolution of the whole state of Utah I have about 4x that.
7,000,000,000 seconds ago George Washington was about 6 months into his role as president of the newly formed United States of America.
There are roughly 7,000,000,000 separate bits of information in the Xbox 360 video-game Dragon Age 2.
There are 7,000,000,000 bytes of data in 70 yards of physical books on a shelf if you converted them to e-books.
7 billion years ago, the nebula which would later condense and ignite and be called the sun by 7 billion people hadn't even begun to form.
The number of base pairs in the human genome is less than half of that number, at just over 3 billion.
According to BP's estimate of 1,333 billion barrels of oil remaining on planet Earth. This is roughly 8,000 gallons of crude oil per person.
When considering the refining process used to extract gasoline usable by your car from crude oil and using the average quality of oil found on the planet we end up with approximately 19.5 gallons of gas per 42 gallon (1 barrel) of crude oil. This lowers the number to 3,700 gallons of gasoline per person remaining.
Using my car as an example (a 2010 Subaru WRX), I can drive to Los Angeles and back to Salt Lake City 67 times with that much gasoline. (Fortunately for Americans, no one uses as much gas as we do...)
Using the current population growth rate of 0.012 (or 1.2%) per year and a continuously compounding growth curve the world population would hit
8 billion : 2023
9 billion : 2033
10 billion : 2041
and would be at 13.5 billion when I die, assuming I live 80 years.
Most people who study this stuff expect a decline in population growth.
60% of the 7 billion people on the planet live in Asia.
When comparing population percentage to land area per continent it looks like this.
Asia: 60.4% pop, 30% land area, Ratio = 2.0
Africa: 14.5% pop, 20.3% land area, Ratio = 0.71
Europe: 10.9% pop, 6.7% land area, Ratio = 1.6
South America: 8.5% pop, 12.6% land area, Ratio = 0.67
North America : 5.0% pop, 16.3% land area, Ratio = 0.31
Oceania: 0.50% pop, 5.2% land area, Ratio = 0.096
The ratio is essentially useless, except for comparing population density to the entire world, which would have a ratio of 1.0.
In an estimate done by Carl Haub of the Population reference Bureau, 106 billion people have lived on Earth throughout history.
Having evolved roughly 200,000 years ago and given a world life expectancy of 69.4 years, this says the average person who will die today has seen 0.035% of human history, but had they met every person on the planet, they would have met 6.6% of all humans to have ever lived.
I should have been a statistician.
Interesting. I thought out of boredom, and since having worked for the census bureau for 3 months I am obviously an expert on population (not really), I would put together a collection of interesting stats based on that number.
When I was born, on January 30th, 1986 there were 4,912,946,909 people alive, according to a cool little calculator on the BBC website I used. You can use it here The world population has since increased by 30%, or roughly 1.2% per year.
3,563,000,000 people on the planet are female.
485,000,000 of those fall within an age range in which I would consider dating. (20-29)
1,400,000,000 people on the planet currently have a viral STD.
That leaves 388,000,000 for me to date if I disqualify those with STD's.
700,000,000 left handed people are alive today.
This means only 38.8 million of the dateable people for me would have to eat dinner sitting to my left.
94.5 million "geniuses" (People with an IQ over 145) are currently living today.
This leaves 27,000 females who would be around my age, STD free and intelligent enough for me to date (I'm obviously kidding about this one. I prefer intelligence around my own, which is clearly below IQ=145)
There are 57,308,738 square miles of land on the planet.
That is roughly 21,200 square meters of land per person. That is a box which is 145 meters on each side or about 1.5 football fields.
This area obviously varies by the resolution in which you look at the planet. Here along the Wasatch Front, I obviously do not have that much area to myself, but using the resolution of the whole state of Utah I have about 4x that.
7,000,000,000 seconds ago George Washington was about 6 months into his role as president of the newly formed United States of America.
There are roughly 7,000,000,000 separate bits of information in the Xbox 360 video-game Dragon Age 2.
There are 7,000,000,000 bytes of data in 70 yards of physical books on a shelf if you converted them to e-books.
7 billion years ago, the nebula which would later condense and ignite and be called the sun by 7 billion people hadn't even begun to form.
The number of base pairs in the human genome is less than half of that number, at just over 3 billion.
According to BP's estimate of 1,333 billion barrels of oil remaining on planet Earth. This is roughly 8,000 gallons of crude oil per person.
When considering the refining process used to extract gasoline usable by your car from crude oil and using the average quality of oil found on the planet we end up with approximately 19.5 gallons of gas per 42 gallon (1 barrel) of crude oil. This lowers the number to 3,700 gallons of gasoline per person remaining.
Using my car as an example (a 2010 Subaru WRX), I can drive to Los Angeles and back to Salt Lake City 67 times with that much gasoline. (Fortunately for Americans, no one uses as much gas as we do...)
Using the current population growth rate of 0.012 (or 1.2%) per year and a continuously compounding growth curve the world population would hit
8 billion : 2023
9 billion : 2033
10 billion : 2041
and would be at 13.5 billion when I die, assuming I live 80 years.
Most people who study this stuff expect a decline in population growth.
60% of the 7 billion people on the planet live in Asia.
When comparing population percentage to land area per continent it looks like this.
Asia: 60.4% pop, 30% land area, Ratio = 2.0
Africa: 14.5% pop, 20.3% land area, Ratio = 0.71
Europe: 10.9% pop, 6.7% land area, Ratio = 1.6
South America: 8.5% pop, 12.6% land area, Ratio = 0.67
North America : 5.0% pop, 16.3% land area, Ratio = 0.31
Oceania: 0.50% pop, 5.2% land area, Ratio = 0.096
The ratio is essentially useless, except for comparing population density to the entire world, which would have a ratio of 1.0.
In an estimate done by Carl Haub of the Population reference Bureau, 106 billion people have lived on Earth throughout history.
Having evolved roughly 200,000 years ago and given a world life expectancy of 69.4 years, this says the average person who will die today has seen 0.035% of human history, but had they met every person on the planet, they would have met 6.6% of all humans to have ever lived.
I should have been a statistician.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Disjointed thoughts
Two days ago at work I got to go deliver some samples to a Chemistry lab in South Salt Lake. The guy who met me was excited to talk to me and take my samples. We chatted for a while and he asked if I wanted to take a tour. It was lunch time so I figured why not? I'll consider it part of my lunch break. He showed me the lab and introduced me to some of his employees, who were all cute women, I felt important. It was really nice. He kept introducing me as a "new client who is a geologist." It was really cool being that respected at such a young age. Now obviously the man probably doesn't personally respect me as much as he was acting. Mostly he just wants business and the company I work for has money to provide business, so he wanted to treat me right. I liked it though, unfortunately my opinion on who processes our samples is not really a strong one. That aside, I drove back to the office with a big smile on my face the whole way. For the first time that I can remember I was treated like I was incredibly important. I was given the VIP tour of a chemistry lab and talked to like a professional. It was really nice.
Tonight I was in Provo to go to a party with a friend. It was nice to see her, but the party sucked. We left and saw Paranormal Activity 3. It was a scary movie. Terrible story, great suspense and just a good element of fun to it. We are 25 and 26 years old (me being 25) and we both were asked for our ID's. Strange, but whatever, it happens now and then still. We laughed and showed our ID's. On the way in the person taking the tickets also asked for our ID's. At this point it was just kind of silly. She asked him if he was serious and he said yeah, sorry. He laughed when he saw our ages and said we both looked very young. I supppose we looked offended because he quickly changed his statement to "No, you both just look young, you look your ages." Yes, clearly I look 25, which is why you asked to see proof that I was older than 16. Oh well, such is Provo.
I went to In and Out after I left her apartment. It was 1am, it was still open. I went inside and realized that every female in the entire town of ..Orem? looked exactly the same. Not the "same" that you get in Logan or Layton where everyone is white and modest, but eerily the same. They all had the same medium to long and straight hair style, they all used the same amount of hair bleach, they all did their makeup the same, they all had the same style of graphic t-shirt on. It was kind of disturbing. There had to have been about 20 females around my age in there and beyond some of them being fat and some of them being skinny I would have had a hard time telling any two of them apart.
I like my Subaru. It isn't that special, there really isn't anything about it that is better than all other cars. It's fairly plain looking with a hood scoop and spoiler. It's very fast from 0-60 but pretty typical at speeds over 60. The handling is better than most and the AWD is wonderful in the rain. The interior is plain but functional. It's just the perfect car for me. It's just enough of everything I want, but not too much. It's not a red hot Mustang that screams "give me attention." It's not an overly classy BMW that screams "I want people to know I'm important" and it's not a huge truck screaming, "I think I'm a tough guy." but it's almost as fast as a Mustang, almost as nice as a BMW and honestly.. it probably does better in poor road conditions than a truck, or any AWD vehicle for that matter. Subaru sets the bar for that.
Trisha left on her mission. That's weird to me given our history together. She never struck me as the type who would serve a mission, but religious beliefs can make people do strange things. I wrote her a letter last weekend. I just got around to mailing it on Wednesday though. It wasn't very long. I didn't really have much to say. It will be sad not having her around for 18 months. Not that we really saw each other, but she was someone I knew I could always call and talk to for hours about nothing. I'll miss that. I'll always wonder what could have been if I were more impulsive and would have been able to go through with taking our relationship further. It's both fortunate and unfortunate that I critically think about everything before acting on it.
I have a hard time getting rid of old things that I have sentimental attachments to. A few nights ago I fired up my old Windows 98 computer. Unfortunately rather than firing up I heard a large electrical pop and then nothing. I blew a fuse I imagine, so something with the power pack is probably bad. The computer is old, very old. For the most part any file I needed off it made its way to my XP computer (which still works just fine.) I have a couple games old games on it that would be fun to play, but only for a few minutes. It seems that there would be no reason to keep a busted computer than wouldn't even be used if it weren't busted, but I just couldn't throw it away. I ended up stashing it in a closet. I don't know why, I'll never fix or use it again, but I just couldn't get rid of it. It was a good computer.
Last weekend I bailed on a sort-of-but-not-really date to go hang out with my cousin. Probably is a good thing. I really don't have much interest in the girl, I was mostly just going because I really needed to get out. His dad bailed on him earlier that day and my mom said I'd go hang out with him without first asking what my plans for the day were. I was a little irked at first, but I'm happy she did. He's a fun kid. He reminds me of me when I was 14. We played NCAA 12 against his two buddies and smoked them. It's sad that his dad would bail on him. I remember when I was younger his dad would hang out with me, even coached my basketball team once, not that he had any idea what he was doing, but it was nice. Growing up without a dad sucked sometimes.
The Cardinals won the World Series. I can't tell you how much I don't care. Baseball sucks.
I'm definitely not ready for Winter. I'm even less ready for it because of my job. I'll be out on Sevier Lake for much of the winter. That sounds quite miserable. Yeah, sure it's Southern Utah which is considered warm to most people, but it's really not any warmer there than it is in Salt Lake. Maybe 5 degrees or so. The elevation is still roughly 4500 feet. It is in the Great Basin just like Salt Lake and the weather patterns are roughly the same. To make matters worse the mountains in the area are small (by Great Basin standards) so there is nothing in the way to break the wind and it blows at about 20-30 mph every day. If it snows a lot, it's going to be a long Winter. I suppose it's worth both the money and the invaluable experience though. Most geology graduates would kill for this job right out of college. I need to remember that.
I sleep now.
Tonight I was in Provo to go to a party with a friend. It was nice to see her, but the party sucked. We left and saw Paranormal Activity 3. It was a scary movie. Terrible story, great suspense and just a good element of fun to it. We are 25 and 26 years old (me being 25) and we both were asked for our ID's. Strange, but whatever, it happens now and then still. We laughed and showed our ID's. On the way in the person taking the tickets also asked for our ID's. At this point it was just kind of silly. She asked him if he was serious and he said yeah, sorry. He laughed when he saw our ages and said we both looked very young. I supppose we looked offended because he quickly changed his statement to "No, you both just look young, you look your ages." Yes, clearly I look 25, which is why you asked to see proof that I was older than 16. Oh well, such is Provo.
I went to In and Out after I left her apartment. It was 1am, it was still open. I went inside and realized that every female in the entire town of ..Orem? looked exactly the same. Not the "same" that you get in Logan or Layton where everyone is white and modest, but eerily the same. They all had the same medium to long and straight hair style, they all used the same amount of hair bleach, they all did their makeup the same, they all had the same style of graphic t-shirt on. It was kind of disturbing. There had to have been about 20 females around my age in there and beyond some of them being fat and some of them being skinny I would have had a hard time telling any two of them apart.
I like my Subaru. It isn't that special, there really isn't anything about it that is better than all other cars. It's fairly plain looking with a hood scoop and spoiler. It's very fast from 0-60 but pretty typical at speeds over 60. The handling is better than most and the AWD is wonderful in the rain. The interior is plain but functional. It's just the perfect car for me. It's just enough of everything I want, but not too much. It's not a red hot Mustang that screams "give me attention." It's not an overly classy BMW that screams "I want people to know I'm important" and it's not a huge truck screaming, "I think I'm a tough guy." but it's almost as fast as a Mustang, almost as nice as a BMW and honestly.. it probably does better in poor road conditions than a truck, or any AWD vehicle for that matter. Subaru sets the bar for that.
Trisha left on her mission. That's weird to me given our history together. She never struck me as the type who would serve a mission, but religious beliefs can make people do strange things. I wrote her a letter last weekend. I just got around to mailing it on Wednesday though. It wasn't very long. I didn't really have much to say. It will be sad not having her around for 18 months. Not that we really saw each other, but she was someone I knew I could always call and talk to for hours about nothing. I'll miss that. I'll always wonder what could have been if I were more impulsive and would have been able to go through with taking our relationship further. It's both fortunate and unfortunate that I critically think about everything before acting on it.
I have a hard time getting rid of old things that I have sentimental attachments to. A few nights ago I fired up my old Windows 98 computer. Unfortunately rather than firing up I heard a large electrical pop and then nothing. I blew a fuse I imagine, so something with the power pack is probably bad. The computer is old, very old. For the most part any file I needed off it made its way to my XP computer (which still works just fine.) I have a couple games old games on it that would be fun to play, but only for a few minutes. It seems that there would be no reason to keep a busted computer than wouldn't even be used if it weren't busted, but I just couldn't throw it away. I ended up stashing it in a closet. I don't know why, I'll never fix or use it again, but I just couldn't get rid of it. It was a good computer.
Last weekend I bailed on a sort-of-but-not-really date to go hang out with my cousin. Probably is a good thing. I really don't have much interest in the girl, I was mostly just going because I really needed to get out. His dad bailed on him earlier that day and my mom said I'd go hang out with him without first asking what my plans for the day were. I was a little irked at first, but I'm happy she did. He's a fun kid. He reminds me of me when I was 14. We played NCAA 12 against his two buddies and smoked them. It's sad that his dad would bail on him. I remember when I was younger his dad would hang out with me, even coached my basketball team once, not that he had any idea what he was doing, but it was nice. Growing up without a dad sucked sometimes.
The Cardinals won the World Series. I can't tell you how much I don't care. Baseball sucks.
I'm definitely not ready for Winter. I'm even less ready for it because of my job. I'll be out on Sevier Lake for much of the winter. That sounds quite miserable. Yeah, sure it's Southern Utah which is considered warm to most people, but it's really not any warmer there than it is in Salt Lake. Maybe 5 degrees or so. The elevation is still roughly 4500 feet. It is in the Great Basin just like Salt Lake and the weather patterns are roughly the same. To make matters worse the mountains in the area are small (by Great Basin standards) so there is nothing in the way to break the wind and it blows at about 20-30 mph every day. If it snows a lot, it's going to be a long Winter. I suppose it's worth both the money and the invaluable experience though. Most geology graduates would kill for this job right out of college. I need to remember that.
I sleep now.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Working at Chili's vs. Working as a Geologist
In this blog post I will compare and contrast being a waiter vs. being a geologist and the benefits of each to see which is a better job for me.
First let's compare the shifts:
Chili's - Any time, any place, any length.
Geologist - Typically M-F, 8-5. Sometimes long field hours.
Advantage: Geologist
Dress Code:
Chili's - A black shirt and jeans.
Geologist - Business casual sometimes and grungy clothes you are okay with destroying others.
Advantage: Chili's
Pay:
Chili's - $2.13 an hour + tips.
Geologist - A whole hell of a lot more than $2.13 an hour. No tips.
Advantage: Geologist
Commute:
Chili's - 5 minutes through Logan traffic.
>>>Biggest commute danger - hitting a cat.
Geologist - 45 minutes through I-15 traffic
>>>Biggest commute danger - getting run over by a semi trailer and dying.
Advantage: Chili's
Work related perk:
Chili's: Half off food for me and up to 3 friends.
Geologist: All expense paid trips to field sites to do work.
Advantage: Geologist
Items I received on my first day at work:
Chili's - Apron and a menu
Geologist - A laptop
Advantage: Geologist
Co-workers
Chili's - A mix of pissed off people who have been working in restaurants for far too long and really hot 18 year old females.
Geologist - Mostly really nerdy old guys and married women who gossip too much.
Advantage: Chili's
How often I have to ride in elevators:
Chili's - Never
Geologist - Typically 4 times a day.
Advantage: Chili's (i HATE elevators)
Potential for advancement:
Chili's - Becoming a shift manager and making $14/hr
Geologist - Learning powerful software, learning invaluable skills and being able to become valuable asset to a company or potentially start your own consulting firm.
Advantage: Geologist
Your ultimate function at work:
Chili's - To bring people who were too lazy to make food for themselves food and kiss their asses hoping for $5.
Geologist - Research and help put together data of the quantity and quality of ores that can be extracted from places in the Earth.
Advantage: Geologist
Geologist wins 6-4.
First let's compare the shifts:
Chili's - Any time, any place, any length.
Geologist - Typically M-F, 8-5. Sometimes long field hours.
Advantage: Geologist
Dress Code:
Chili's - A black shirt and jeans.
Geologist - Business casual sometimes and grungy clothes you are okay with destroying others.
Advantage: Chili's
Pay:
Chili's - $2.13 an hour + tips.
Geologist - A whole hell of a lot more than $2.13 an hour. No tips.
Advantage: Geologist
Commute:
Chili's - 5 minutes through Logan traffic.
>>>Biggest commute danger - hitting a cat.
Geologist - 45 minutes through I-15 traffic
>>>Biggest commute danger - getting run over by a semi trailer and dying.
Advantage: Chili's
Work related perk:
Chili's: Half off food for me and up to 3 friends.
Geologist: All expense paid trips to field sites to do work.
Advantage: Geologist
Items I received on my first day at work:
Chili's - Apron and a menu
Geologist - A laptop
Advantage: Geologist
Co-workers
Chili's - A mix of pissed off people who have been working in restaurants for far too long and really hot 18 year old females.
Geologist - Mostly really nerdy old guys and married women who gossip too much.
Advantage: Chili's
How often I have to ride in elevators:
Chili's - Never
Geologist - Typically 4 times a day.
Advantage: Chili's (i HATE elevators)
Potential for advancement:
Chili's - Becoming a shift manager and making $14/hr
Geologist - Learning powerful software, learning invaluable skills and being able to become valuable asset to a company or potentially start your own consulting firm.
Advantage: Geologist
Your ultimate function at work:
Chili's - To bring people who were too lazy to make food for themselves food and kiss their asses hoping for $5.
Geologist - Research and help put together data of the quantity and quality of ores that can be extracted from places in the Earth.
Advantage: Geologist
Geologist wins 6-4.
Monday, October 3, 2011
25 years makes you old.
The other night I was driving home and as I was driving along someone cut me off. I didn't slow down much more than I absolutely had to, to avoid hitting the other car. They then hit the brakes so I simply changed lanes. The person then honked at me and flipped me off.
At an earlier time of my life I'd have probably honked longer and flipped off with two hands, but that night I was simply indifferent about it. Whatever, bad night for them I guess, it happens. They downshifted and sped off.
At an earlier time of my life, with 270 all-wheel turbocharged horsepower at my command, I'd have downshifted and blown past them. That night I simply continued driving and thought nothing of it.
I then realized that in the last 3-5 or so years I grew up a lot. I didn't get pissed off at the angry road rage driver. I didn't try to race away from them and I didn't waste gas, tires and clutch just to show someone that my obviously fast car is in fact fast. That's cool. Though I can't really figure out why. College certainly didn't teach me that (all college taught me was that sometimes I have to do stuff I don't want to do so I can get ahead, and an extensive vocabulary of useless geologic terms) and it's not like I hang out with older people now. Most of my friends are in their early 20's still.
It's not like I have a family or serve any crucial purpose to anyone. I'm certainly not afraid of a little danger. If I got a speeding ticket at this point in my life I could handle it much better than I could as a 21 year old. I simply didn't feel the need to show this guy, who would likely forget about me 20 seconds later, how much of a bad ass I was. It would have served zero purpose.
It's hilarious to read things that I wrote in my late teens and early 20's. I was such a jerk. I had no sense of tact and everything I wrote was simply driven by rage and emotion. Yeah sure, now and then I still rage over something, but it's rare and usually done tactfully.
I have a very recent ex-girlfriend, who is now engaged, that I can guarantee has never told her very LDS fiance the truth about our relationship. Earlier in life I'd have made sure to let him know I was there first, now I just figure that's cool. They're happy. Good for them. Everyone deserves to be happy sometimes. Two nights ago I had another girl from my life invite me over for a late night visit. I texted her the next day and she didn't reply. This would have pissed me off four years ago, but now I just smile at the pseudo-romantic experience we were able to share with each other that night and understand that she just wanted a hook-up. That's fine. We all do now and then.
It's no wonder insurance for a 25 year old is so cheap. We really chill out a ton right as we approach this age.
Maybe it's because over the course of human history, 25 is actually beginning old age. Sure in the 21st century I'm in the beginning of my life still, but humans haven't always lived to be 80 years old. There is a stat I heard of life expectancy in Ancient Rome being 22. Yeah sure, as a mean life expectancy, but you have to take into account that a third of humans died before their first birthday. Even then humans had discovered how to live longer healthier lives up into their 50's. I'm talking about pre-history.
How long do we really think humans lived when we roamed the African savannah (without sunscreen!) competing with warthogs and hyenas for food and shelter and drinking water from ponds? I highly doubt too many lived past my age. This can kind of be seen in how some of our bodies really do begin to break down at this age. I'm lucky. I still feel as healthy as I did at 14, but I've spent the better part of my life as a student playing the occasional sport and having hobbies and jobs that consisted mostly of simple inside work and large amounts of sunscreen, sunclothes and portable water when I needed to be outside. I have friends who complain about waking up to back pain at my age or who have arthritis developing in their joints. We begin to get wrinkles in our 20's and some of us (like myself) begin growing a few strands of gray hair. Many people gain weight around this age as their metabolism slows. Many female bodies start beginning to show signs of gravity and many males begin to bald. How nice is it though that, barring some unexpected event, I'm not even a third of the way done with my life yet?
For most of human history, a 25 year old would have been one of the older humans in the world. I suppose that is almost still true today with our absurd birth rate, but that is tangent. Maybe evolution caused that the people who become calm and content at this age, while keeping a firey passion of everything through their youth, were able to live longer, thus produce more offspring with this trait, and this is why humans become emotionally mature in their mid-20's. Maybe God simply designed us this way for reasons we can't understand.
All I know is that I'm happy my auto insurance is cheaper now than it was 7 years ago.
At an earlier time of my life I'd have probably honked longer and flipped off with two hands, but that night I was simply indifferent about it. Whatever, bad night for them I guess, it happens. They downshifted and sped off.
At an earlier time of my life, with 270 all-wheel turbocharged horsepower at my command, I'd have downshifted and blown past them. That night I simply continued driving and thought nothing of it.
I then realized that in the last 3-5 or so years I grew up a lot. I didn't get pissed off at the angry road rage driver. I didn't try to race away from them and I didn't waste gas, tires and clutch just to show someone that my obviously fast car is in fact fast. That's cool. Though I can't really figure out why. College certainly didn't teach me that (all college taught me was that sometimes I have to do stuff I don't want to do so I can get ahead, and an extensive vocabulary of useless geologic terms) and it's not like I hang out with older people now. Most of my friends are in their early 20's still.
It's not like I have a family or serve any crucial purpose to anyone. I'm certainly not afraid of a little danger. If I got a speeding ticket at this point in my life I could handle it much better than I could as a 21 year old. I simply didn't feel the need to show this guy, who would likely forget about me 20 seconds later, how much of a bad ass I was. It would have served zero purpose.
It's hilarious to read things that I wrote in my late teens and early 20's. I was such a jerk. I had no sense of tact and everything I wrote was simply driven by rage and emotion. Yeah sure, now and then I still rage over something, but it's rare and usually done tactfully.
I have a very recent ex-girlfriend, who is now engaged, that I can guarantee has never told her very LDS fiance the truth about our relationship. Earlier in life I'd have made sure to let him know I was there first, now I just figure that's cool. They're happy. Good for them. Everyone deserves to be happy sometimes. Two nights ago I had another girl from my life invite me over for a late night visit. I texted her the next day and she didn't reply. This would have pissed me off four years ago, but now I just smile at the pseudo-romantic experience we were able to share with each other that night and understand that she just wanted a hook-up. That's fine. We all do now and then.
It's no wonder insurance for a 25 year old is so cheap. We really chill out a ton right as we approach this age.
Maybe it's because over the course of human history, 25 is actually beginning old age. Sure in the 21st century I'm in the beginning of my life still, but humans haven't always lived to be 80 years old. There is a stat I heard of life expectancy in Ancient Rome being 22. Yeah sure, as a mean life expectancy, but you have to take into account that a third of humans died before their first birthday. Even then humans had discovered how to live longer healthier lives up into their 50's. I'm talking about pre-history.
How long do we really think humans lived when we roamed the African savannah (without sunscreen!) competing with warthogs and hyenas for food and shelter and drinking water from ponds? I highly doubt too many lived past my age. This can kind of be seen in how some of our bodies really do begin to break down at this age. I'm lucky. I still feel as healthy as I did at 14, but I've spent the better part of my life as a student playing the occasional sport and having hobbies and jobs that consisted mostly of simple inside work and large amounts of sunscreen, sunclothes and portable water when I needed to be outside. I have friends who complain about waking up to back pain at my age or who have arthritis developing in their joints. We begin to get wrinkles in our 20's and some of us (like myself) begin growing a few strands of gray hair. Many people gain weight around this age as their metabolism slows. Many female bodies start beginning to show signs of gravity and many males begin to bald. How nice is it though that, barring some unexpected event, I'm not even a third of the way done with my life yet?
For most of human history, a 25 year old would have been one of the older humans in the world. I suppose that is almost still true today with our absurd birth rate, but that is tangent. Maybe evolution caused that the people who become calm and content at this age, while keeping a firey passion of everything through their youth, were able to live longer, thus produce more offspring with this trait, and this is why humans become emotionally mature in their mid-20's. Maybe God simply designed us this way for reasons we can't understand.
All I know is that I'm happy my auto insurance is cheaper now than it was 7 years ago.
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