Going on record.

I'm in the midst of another test week but I have a few free minutes so here go.

First, on the subject of baseball: when people suggest that one ought to root for the team that knocked one's own favorite team out of the playoffs, this is the sort of situation they must imagine. In the Greater Scheme, it ought to be more satisfying for Red Sox fans to see the Rays win the World Series than to watch the Phillies dispatch the 2008 Rays as though they were, say, the 2007 Rays. Or were they the Devil Rays then? I can't keep it straight. But on a more personal level, I want to go on record as saying that I will root for the Rays because I have a soft spot for them. Of course, I wanted most to see the Red Sox take a second ring in as many years but now that that's not an option, I would like to see the incredible story of the 2008 Rays come to a fitting conclusion. It's like seeing the youngest child in a family of five be graduated from high school. Maybe I'm just less concerned about the Red Sox because I have more life to handle this year.

Second, there's school. I'm struggling in physics lately and, though the stress of being pulled many directions certainly contributes to my ability to focus, I think a large part of the problem is that there is has been less math involved. I never realized what a central focus I had placed on learning formulas and analytic methods until I couldn't rely on mathematical tricks to bail me out. Physics is definitely a math-heavy discipline but there is much more involved than the mathematical manipulation I have spent so much time learning to employ. I think I knew that there would be conceptual techniques to develop too, but I'm only realizing how much of the discipline they represent. And I had hoped I wouldn't have to think for myself until next year. Damn.

Time's up. Bye.