Hippos need breaks too

Well, it's been another week, and I find myself right in the middle of finals. I spent 8 1/2 hours testing today, 2 1/2 in the morning on Boats, and 6 hours this afternoon on Electricity and Magnetism...I didn't even finish all the way. Anyway, our trip to San Antonio was awesome, and I might post some about that when I have more time (I don't know that I'll ever have more time), but it was a very good time and I'm glad that every one got to come stay at my house. I really enjoy hosting people to stay for a little or long while, and it's nice to let my friends into a little bit of myself.

Here are my articles for the day:

I hadn't heard about this bill until reading the article about it. It'll be interesting to see how that might effect our education and how the public schools work, especially in the particularly diverse regions of Texas (i.e., Austin). I don't know much about the bill, and I don't quite know how I feel about it, but the article grabbed my attention.

I know that I probably won't be in the right time-frame or the right demographic for the first Mars trip. I don't really have the desire either, I would really rather go to the Moon (though, if I were offered a chance to go, I probably wouldn't hesitate long). However, these are some interesting considerations that a lot of people don't think about being associated with planning a space voyage. This kind of reminds me of the High School Aerospace program that I was involved in during my Senior summer. We spent a week at JSC in Houston, and I was assigned to the Mission Control team (fortunately because I probably wouldn't have liked the engineering teams as much...I'm not an engineer). We were in charge of planning the non-science aspects of our "mission" to the Moon, then on to Mars, and we had to consider a lot of things that I wouldn't have ever thought of (I was in charge of legality and environmentalism...go figure). It was an eye-opening experience (and made sure that I would not become an engineer).

I know that most people don't like NASCAR. I'm sorry, I'm a closet NASCAR fan. And I found this article comparing Jeff Gordon to Dale Earnhardt interesting and true. The NASCAR community, I think, is very interesting--both the fans, the driver interactions, and, of course (nerd that I am), the physics behind it all.

And finally...interesting.

"First things first, but not necessarily in that order."
-Doctor Who