Eulogy to a Derelict Laptop

A week and a half before Christmas of last year, my dear old laptop died. 

I was packing things to go spend Christmas with my dad in California when I opened up my sticker-covered laptop and found that no sound would come out. I had an hour before I had to catch the shuttlebus to the Seattle airport. The poor thing was coming apart at the hinges, so I knew its days were numbered, but when the day finally comes, you find that you are not ready. All those partially-started novels, saved pictures, audiobooks, and even a couple MS Paint doodles are still on there on that dilapidated thing, hanging in the balance between slightly salvageable and digital oblivion.

I got the laptop when the laptop that came before it died. My first laptop had been a birthday present for my fourteenth birthday, and I had it until the day that smoke started to come out of the CAPS key. I brought it to the friendly local computer repair shop where the saintly gentleman there carefully took it apart free of charge and regretfully told me that it was not salvageable. I was sixteen when I had to say goodbye to Laptop #1, and my stepdad, moved to kindness by my sorry state, drove me over to Best Buy and got me Laptop #2. 

I swore I would take good care of Laptop #2, and care for it I did, but I also used it to death. It was the central hub for all I did. I wrote so many short stories and partially-started novels on there, I played through all of Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, and I adorned it with the best stickers I could find. That computer even saw me get my first job as a medical transcriptionist. Unfortunately, even the best-cared-for computers eventually see the toll of use. Many hours of medical transcription and playing Fallout wore off some of the keys. The hinges in particular eventually took some damage; the seam holding the two halves of the hinge together popped apart. Even through all of this, I swore I wouldn't get a new one until Laptop #2's very last day. I saw that promise through. 

Christmas was coming, and I noticed that Laptop #2 was getting slow. Despite its physical condition, I thought that as long as my games still ran well, it would be fine. When it took half an hour to turn on that fateful morning, I knew something was wrong. I took it downstairs to my stepdad, who did some programming magic to find out that it indeed needed to be sent to Laptop Hospice Care. I sent it to its tomb in my closet and was on my way. I had a flight to catch and no time to do anything about it. Once I reached California, I sheepishly asked my dad if we could stop by Best Buy at some point. He took me by there later and helped me pick out Laptop #3, upon which I write this article. Being a grown-up with a job, I had to part with a few hundred dollars to get it, but Laptop #3 is a nicer model and I am confident that it will last a good long while. Though Laptop #3 is faster and has a touchscreen, it did not see me through half of high school the way that Laptop #2 did, nor does it have the stickers. If I am honest, I am afraid to put too many stickers on this one because it is as mortal as the last. I have gone no further than sticking on NASA sticker that a friend gave to me. 

Yesterday I dug out Laptop #2 from its tomb in my closet to see if I could salvage a few audibook files off of it. I was able to transfer them over to the new laptop with a thumb drive, but that sticker-covered rascal got me feeling sentimental. I shelled out a few bucks at Comic Con for some of those stickers. I was so proud of how I'd decorated it. I am still torn between returning it to its tomb in case I remember another file that I have to pull of of it and taking it to be recycled. I think it would want to be recycled, though, so that it can help to prevent the oncoming cyberpunk dystopia I spent so many hours writing about on it. Perhaps that is the way it can pass on from laptop purgatory into digital heaven. 

Here's to you, Laptop #2. You did a great job. 

The Perfectionist Student's Guide to Summer Sanity

Summer is here, at long last! All you other students have probably been living for this time. Unless you are enrolled for summer classes, you don't have to look at another textbook page until the fall! You can finally take a break from your unattainable standard of utmost perfection! But after the first week of binge-watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 and living off of Cheetos, that familiar perfectionist feeling begins to creep up again...

Well, what does one do about it? Here are some things I've tried:

• Read classic literature. You want to have a well-rounded education, right? I've started on     Jane Eyre. I haven't gotten very far in the month I've been reading it, but I'll finish, I swear...
• Get a job to earn some cash to help keep you out of student debt next year and to get some of that "experience" that employers typically want. (Mainly geared toward college students and high school seniors, but it's good to start early!) Run it by your mom. She tells you that unless you want to either walk or purchase a bike pump to ride that bike of yours that's been sitting in the garage for years to work, you'll have to get a driver's license, and she promptly forbids you from taking a night shift anywhere until you can drive. Then postpone the original plan until you get your license. 
• Practice math! I have been going over the things in the textbook that I didn't fully understand during the school year, then once I'm done, I'll start on the textbook section that we'll be starting the next year with to be a few steps ahead of the game. One subsection of a chapter a day should do. Or maybe every few days. No, no!! Do four in one day to make up for the days you took off! Aaauuuugh!!!
• Binge-watch a Youtube series about rocket science. Feel smart, then realize that you've understood little and retained nothing. 

Yes, the sedentary days of summer can be a tough time for those of us who thrive on being busy and productive. Hope for a shred of sanity is not lost, though. Here are some things that I've tried that actually work. 

• Ask your mom to show you her favorite classic movies. Not only will she be excited, but you'll learn a thing or two!
• If you have little siblings, play spaceships with them. For me, it satisfies my scifi-nerd cravings while nurturing a stronger relationship with my family. 
• Another one for the little siblings: help them make a lemonade stand! Not only will a bit of social interaction keep you sane, but it will help foster an understanding of economics in the next generation of human beings. When I helped my younger sisters with this, we made lemonade from a recipe we found in an old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, and we pulled out a table from the garage and a couple chairs off of the porch, and we (meaning I) put together a few dollars to buy a sheet of poster board for a sign. They used the money that they made to by unlimited ride wristbands to the Independence Day carnival. I was paid in lemonade. I'm not complaining. 
• Get outside regularly, even if it's just to check the mail. Walking a dog is a good excuse. 
• Read that crappy YA semi-scifi dystopian romance adventure that you refused to admit you wanted to read. Enjoy every moment of it, then tell everyone all about how you hated it. (You can tell me you loved it, though. My lips are sealed.)
• Keep in contact with the friends that really matter. Don't bother with those who don't make you feel valued. Write letters, or Skype them at an unusual hour to tell them about that idea you had for a steampunk Godzilla anime.
• Lie on your bed, stare at the ceiling, and listen to what God has to say.

It is a good thing to want to be productive, but it is not healthy when your sense of self-worth is based in it. This summer may be a good opportunity for honors, AP, college, or otherwise advanced students to finally learn how to relax. (Even Elon Musk takes a break now and then! What do you want to bet he watches Scooby Doo reruns while mindlessly munching on dry cereal on his days off?) My stepdad (used to be an engineer, now a statistician, pretty heavy workload) is always reminding me that if I want to get anywhere in my education, career, or life in general, I have to learn how to balance work and fun. Work that you already find fun is good, but on top of that fun work, you need a bit of mindless fun to give yourself a rest. Speaking of mindless fun, I need to go plan my Lego Batman movie night with a couple friends. I wish all of you an excellent, restful, mild-in-temperature summer! 

Busy Science Student Explains Science

This is my first post since February, partially because I haven't recently read any riveting books to review, but mostly because I've been quite busy with chemistry and calculus and OH DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN, LET IT END!! IF I SEE ANOTHER TITRATION PROBLEM I SWEAR I'LL-

Sorry. That slips out sometimes. I do love what I study, I swear, but BOY, is it tedious.

Something that I really enjoy about my chemistry class is that I finally understand how acids and bases work. When you're in elementary and middle school, you're told that some substances are acids, and some substances are bases, and they react together. Acid-ness or base-ness is measured on this mysterious spectrum called the "pH scale". They turn litmus paper different colors, too.

But when I asked, "What exactly makes a molecule an acid or a base?", my teacher could not find an answer past "Well, acids turn litmus paper blue litmus paper red, and bases turn red litmus paper blue." It frustrated me for years. So if you have suffered the same frustration, I am here to enlighten you! Let me be your guide in the magical microscopic world of hydrogen-swapping!

There are three kinds of acids and bases. The most basic (not in the chemical sense) type is called Arrhenius acids and bases. An Arrhenius acid is a molecule with a single hydrogen atom dangling off the side, and when it is mixed in water, the water molecules, with their funky bendy shape, yank off that hydrogen. The water molecules that do this then form what's called a hydronium ion, or H3O+. (The "+" means it has a positive charge, like a magnet.) An Arrhenius base is similar; it has an OH- (a  hydroxide, an oxygen and a hydrogen) dangling off of the side. This, too, is yanked off by water's wily ways. (The "-" means it has a negative charge, also like a magnet.) BUT! Things get interesting when you put them TOGETHER!

Let's take a typical strong acid, HCl, and a typical strong base, NaOH. But let's make this exciting; let's put some adventure into there. Let's say you are a mad scientist who put more energy into studying physics and engineering than chemistry. You ride in on your stealth helicopter to the local college and use your laser pistol to carve a hole in the window of the chemistry lab. You use your super-duper-lockpicking-invention to break into the chemical storage room, and you pick out two amber bottles that say "HYDROCHLORIC ACID" and "SODIUM HYDROXIDE". You've heard of those. They sound DANGEROUS! But could they be more dangerous TOGETHER? You mix some together in equal amounts in a beaker. Little do you know that a chemical jitterbug is going on on that beaker's dance floor:
                                          HCl + NaOH ---> H2O + NaCl

You laugh manically when an idea hits you- drinking it could potentially kill you, but it could also give you superpowers, like Spiderman. Being a mad scientist, emphasis on mad, you have little impulse control and decide to take a swig. As soon as it fills your mouth, you recoil and spray it out, partially through your nose- it tastes like salt water! It IS salt water! You rush to rinse out your mouth and grab the nearest bottle labeled "water", but that tastes nasty, too; it's deionized water. You're not having the best night. Eventually it dawns on you that mixing these kinds of acids and bases generally makes water and whatever else the other atomic legos in the mix make when they are snapped together.

Next in line we have Bronstead-Lowry acids and bases! A Bronstead-Lowry base is what we call a proton-accepter. Remember that dangling hydrogen? Hydrogen is the first element on the periodic table- it has one proton in the middle, and one single electron whizzing around it. (Its lack of a second electron makes it highly unstable, which is why it likes to explode, but that's for another post.) When it's hanging out on the edge of a molecule, that single electron is doing double duty zipping around its nucleus AND zipping between the other electrons in the molecule to keep it attached. That electron is working SO hard to keep it in place that it can rarely ever stop by to visit, so that lonely hydrogen is dangling off the side, barely attached, essentially a naked proton. When you throw the molecule into water, the water molecules, or whatever base is in there, looks at that naked proton and goes "Oh! Poor thing, it must be freezing! Let's give it some of our electrons!", and before you know it, that proton has been spirited away into another molecule, and it has effectively been "donated" by its home molecule.

Things get reeeaaally different with Bronstead-Lowry bases. Remember the Arrhenius base with the hydroxide hanging off the side? While all Arrhenius acids are also Bronstead-Lowry acids, that rule is flat-out thrown away when it comes to bases! A Bronstead-Lowry base is a proton-acceptor. It finds those naked protons dangling off the edge acids, and its electrons slurp them up into its molecule. A Bronstead-Lowry acid is what took the proton in the previous analogy! Now, the hydroxide ion does do this, but plenty of molecules don't have any hydroxide ions and are perfectly capable.

Now comes the finale, the LEWIS acids and bases! If you've ever taken high school chemistry, you've probably made Lewis models where you wrote the chemical formula for an element and drew little dots around it, representing the electrons in outermost orbit. Usually in molecules electrons are pretty wrapped up in keeping the atoms attached to each other, but occasionally you'll see what's called a "lone pair", where there are two electrons hanging out, not really assigned to any atomic bond. A molecule with this is a Lewis base, an electron-pair donor. Those electrons getting bored whizzing around with no atoms to hold onto, so whenever they see a stray atom with few electrons to speak of, they tackle it and attach it to their molecule! (Sound familiar?) I find "donating an electron pair" to be a misnomer, because electrons are essentially the glue between the atoms. But I like to see it as donating a parking space for a lonely atom to come and hang out in. And what kinds of atoms come and hang out in those electron parking spots? Lewis acids! You don't really need to know a whole lot about these kinds of acids and bases, but I thought I'd throw it in there because it exists, and it was in my book.

Then there's that pH scale thingy. What the heck is it? There's actually a formula:

                                                  pH = -log[H+]

This means that it is the negative logarithm of the hydronium concentration. Acidity is a measurement of how many little protons manage to escape their molecules. A low pH means that it's SUPER acidic and ALL of them got loose, and as the pH gets higher, that concentration decreases by factors of 10, like the Richter scale.  That's how that logarithm makes it work out. A high pH means that it's basic, containing lots of OH- ions. (Some of those Bronstead-Lowry bases can react with the water to make OH-! It retuuuurrrns!) There's another scale based on the OH- concentration called the pOH scale, but that's rarely ever used.

It's important to note that none of these definitions make the other definitions "wrong". They were developed at different times, and they all have proven to be useful, so we keep all three definitions around. You simply use whichever definition applies to your situation. You can use these to do some crazy math, like titration. Goodness, I never want to see a titration problem again.

Tune in next time for another episode of Science Student Explains Science! Leave questions in the comments!

Review: "Everyone Brave Is Forgiven"

So I have a bit of a thing for the 1940's. I love the music, the clothes, and how everyone banded together through the hardships of the war. Occasionally I indulge in an episode of Agent Carter to get my fix, but sometimes I pick up a WWII-era novel. They contain adventure and romance, but unfortunately, most of them are INCREDIBLY DEPRESSING.

The offender in question is Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave. It features four young adults thrown into the fray of the war, still trying to figure out what love is and what life is about. In an absolutely gorgeous style, even characters who you swore you wouldn't like manage to worm their way into your heart.

I mentioned that this story is depressing, but that was a misstatement. It is worse than depressing. It begins to warm your heart with its beautiful storytelling, makes you laugh so that milk sprays out of your nose with its antics between friends, and assures you that though the hardships of the war are present, it's going to be okay. Then, once it has won your trust, it squeezes your heart so tight it cannot beat, throws it onto the ground, and stamps it into the cement like a discarded cigarette before scraping the remaining pieces into a big, lumpy red stain. But you keep reading, because although things seem to be getting worse and worse and worse, you know that things must turn out okay eventually, right? Right?!

I listened to the audiobook version from Overdrive (a free eBook app that partners with many libraries) and absolutely fell in love with it. The narrator is clear, expressive, and gives each character an incredibly distinctive voice so that you always know who is talking (something that I personally found difficult while listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks on CD as a kid).

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about the London Blitz. We read about WWII in textbooks, but this story is about the people involved who are just like you and me. It is an experience like no other to read about such a complicated and sad matter in a medium that makes you fall in love with the subject.

I bet the author's next book will be about a dog with cancer. If he keeps up this alternating heart-warmingly and heart-wrenchingly vivid style of his, I might just forgive him for it.

To the Stars!

Who is this yammering, science-obsessed fool who dares to set foot on the internet?

That would be me. Call me Callie.

I have started this blog so that you may witness my yammering and take part in it, if you wish. Can one withstand such yammering for more than a paragraph? I’ll test your capacity now.

I am a nerdish, science-fiction-obsessed engineering student with a knack for writing and a calling to the stars. When I’m not doing homework, I am reading. Usually I read science fiction, or at least some good adventure story, but if I don’t have any books around, I’ll read even the back of a cereal box. My mind is hungry and starves when it has nothing to do.

Why on earth would you pick engineering, some have asked. If you must torture yourself, why not write? You’re good at writing, they say. I say, why torture myself with only writing when I can torture myself TWICE the amount by pursuing a solid education in the sciences? I am a bit of an academic masochist, after all. Besides, I need to show off what I’ve learned somehow, and I can’t simply wait until I have a degree to do so. So, I have started this blog to show off what I learn, what I can do with it, and how it is interesting and funny.

Back to the question. Why engineering? Simply put, it’s so that I can have a part in getting us into space. Sure, we went to the moon, and we have our dinky space station, but that isn’t conquering, is it? Providing there isn’t life on a planet to make a genocide of, I say that it is our God-given duty to explore, colonize, and make full use of every planet we can get our hands on. We only need to figure out a more cost-efficient way to get in and out of orbit first, which is why I have my eye set on aerospace engineering. (You’ll have to wait for another post on what my opinion is on what to do when we do encounter an already-inhabited planet. Or go watch some Star Trek.)

Yes, I know I probably won’t see a biodome on Titan within my lifetime. Yes, I know I probably will not get to be an astronaut myself.

But I’m not worried about myself. Even if I work my entire lifetime and never get to see the fruits of it, I will die happy knowing that it paved a path for future space colonists.

(Plus, at this point I believe it’s what God wants me to do. You can’t argue with God.)

If you’ve gotten this far and haven’t dozed off, trailed off, ran screaming, or felt the desire to steal my milk money during recess, you have the capacity to read and understand my yammering!

If you dare to set foot into the vortex of space-time with me, I say, to the stars!