Open Bar: ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I have about had it with the new leadership of the PSU neuroscience club. The old leaders are both up at OHSU now, and the new ones are a bunch of do-nothing clowns with exclusionary attitudes who seem to be intent on driving the club into the ground. They hold the meetings at a time and place very few people can attend, and when people suggest they change that to make it more inclusive their response is invariably "This is the time and place that works best for the active members (ie. the ones who attend meetings) and if you want to change it you should show up to meetings and vote".

Um, I'm asking because I can't attend that time at that location... and the only way to change it is to show up at that time and that location? Ummmkay.

The other thing I requested was an announcement of the next meeting time immediately after the previous meeting. I am not the first person to request this. It's standard practice almost everywhere, with everything. The response is invariably "The meetings are biweekly, put it on your calendar". 

Getting the impression that the LAST thing they want is for more people to show up at their meetings.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

They also tried to rename the group from "Scholars for Awareness of Neuroscience Education" to "PSU Neuroscience Club" based on an un-announced vote taken at an un-announced meeting held at a time and place that is impossible for anyone with a job who isn't already on campus at 5pm on Wednesdays. Seriously. They did that. Meanwhile the original founders have worked really hard for the last couple of years to do outreach and bring in speakers and start branches at other colleges, including at OHSU, under that name. They picked the name for a reason.

[Reginald Ret]

OK, seriously. Have them killed. Or give me their email addresses and I will send them scary messages.
Do not fuck with science awareness scholars, those are the kind of people whose existence always surprises me. It runs counter to my expectations and I like being surprised in that way.

[Suu]

In case anyone needed to know, it is ALMOST THREE STAMPS to send a letter/card to Canada these days.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I am annoyed and frustrated with orbital hybridization. Everything else makes sense to me, why doesn't this make sense to me? Off to school for a bonus study session.

[Pæs]

Despite advising them ages ago, I still seem to be the owner of m.hostamania.com. WHAT DO?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Home now.

And the conference room will never be the same for Those People.  So I have that going for me.

Dearest Roger.

Did you intentionally shit yourself?

~Love, Payne

No.  I would love to say that I did, but it came as much of a shock to me as it did to my colleagues.  I was the only one smiling, though.

And that's the story of my life; the only one smiling.

You're quite epic, you know.

Well done that man!

WHY IS THIS SAYING A THING NOW?

I hang around too many Brits here in Tucson.  Place is crawling with them.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'll show you! I'll crap someone else's pants at work.

[Reginald Ret]

I am annoyed and frustrated with orbital hybridization. Everything else makes sense to me, why doesn't this make sense to me? Off to school for a bonus study session.

Try to think wave instead of particle. I know, it is quantum but that is how reality works, sadly.
Hybridized orbitals are wave interference patterns¹, don't think of it as some random area where electrons just magically happen to prefer to hang out.

¹ These are electron 'waves', as in: areas with increased probability. The reason we call them waves is because waves are results of density differences in the water² And quantum wave effects are the result of differences in probability density.

²Water waves don't measure as density differences because they instantly get equalized with air pressure, but that is all there is to them. The high bits of the wave are symptoms of a higher potential water density straight below them when compared with the potential water density of the low parts of the wave.

Dammit, I lost track of my train of thought. Anyway, electrons are nothing more than potential interactions. Why these interactions are limited to a certain area is not something that is currently understood in any human way. I'm sure there is some math out there about this subject, but let's avoid that headache. Anyway, these probability areas act exactly like pressure areas because they are the exact same thing. Pressure is nothing more than the probability that one molecule will bump into another one. Likewise, these electron orbitals are nothing more than areas with a disproportianally higher chance that an 'electron bump/interaction' will happen there. This can be said even if we do not know if electrons actually exist as particles. Now if we combine two of these orbitals they will act just like the waves in water in that they will create interference patterns that can be stable. If they are not stable they will immediatly resolve so we can ignore the unstable patterns. What is left is what we see in reality, some atoms allow orbital hybridization because that is a stable interference pattern between the previous³ high-probability-of-electron-interaction areas.



³ For any value of previous, including never. Don't bother to try to form a metaphore to understand this shit, it is quantum.



Sorry for leaving this brainfart half-finished but my brain hurts, I am going to bed.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

OK, seriously. Have them killed. Or give me their email addresses and I will send them scary messages.
Do not fuck with science awareness scholars, those are the kind of people whose existence always surprises me. It runs counter to my expectations and I like being surprised in that way.

Seriously, it's pissing me off. I wish the founders were still around to whip these fuckers into shape.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I am annoyed and frustrated with orbital hybridization. Everything else makes sense to me, why doesn't this make sense to me? Off to school for a bonus study session.

Try to think wave instead of particle. I know, it is quantum but that is how reality works, sadly.
Hybridized orbitals are wave interference patterns¹, don't think of it as some random area where electrons just magically happen to prefer to hang out.

¹ These are electron 'waves', as in: areas with increased probability. The reason we call them waves is because waves are results of density differences in the water² And quantum wave effects are the result of differences in probability density.

²Water waves don't measure as density differences because they instantly get equalized with air pressure, but that is all there is to them. The high bits of the wave are symptoms of a higher potential water density straight below them when compared with the potential water density of the low parts of the wave.

Dammit, I lost track of my train of thought. Anyway, electrons are nothing more than potential interactions. Why these interactions are limited to a certain area is not something that is currently understood in any human way. I'm sure there is some math out there about this subject, but let's avoid that headache. Anyway, these probability areas act exactly like pressure areas because they are the exact same thing. Pressure is nothing more than the probability that one molecule will bump into another one. Likewise, these electron orbitals are nothing more than areas with a disproportianally higher chance that an 'electron bump/interaction' will happen there. This can be said even if we do not know if electrons actually exist as particles. Now if we combine two of these orbitals they will act just like the waves in water in that they will create interference patterns that can be stable. If they are not stable they will immediatly resolve so we can ignore the unstable patterns. What is left is what we see in reality, some atoms allow orbital hybridization because that is a stable interference pattern between the previous³ high-probability-of-electron-interaction areas.



³ For any value of previous, including never. Don't bother to try to form a metaphore to understand this shit, it is quantum.



Sorry for leaving this brainfart half-finished but my brain hurts, I am going to bed.

No, I understood that part. The part I was having trouble with were questions in my homework about potential pi bonding for atoms of various electron geometry. I went to school and talked to my lab instructor about it and she said that the questions don't make any sense and to not worry about them.


Anyway, we had some good study time and it all makes a lot more sense, and I understand now why predicting potential pi bonds in an unbonded atom didn't make any sense.

[Salty]

I have been suffering from extreme boredom. This has never happened to me before.

It feels like physical weight.

But I think I have finally found an outlet, which I would share if not for KYFMS.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I have been suffering from extreme boredom. This has never happened to me before.

It feels like physical weight.

But I think I have finally found an outlet, which I would share if not for KYFMS.

SKIN THEM.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Organic chemistry is like Lego!

[Suu]

I may end up giving Roger a run for that crown he just earned today. I accidentally a bag of sugar free peppermint patties. I have no idea how it happened....

...No, I know exactly how it happened, I opened my face hole and stuffed the fuckers in, and enjoyed their dark chocolate minty glory, and the results so far have been catastrophic. My stomach is making noises akin to whale calls and I'm afraid to cough or sneeze.