Summer

"You should soon have all the tools you'll need to start moving forward towards creating a more rewarding future for yourself. So now would be a good time to figure out where you'd really like to go and to plan and prepare wisely so that you won't have to end up making excuses for yourself later."

Closer to the edge

Okay, so that is a little over the top, but somewhere inside of me there is an outraged person screaming.

About to break? That's a little too melodramatic.

About to get kind of moody and maybe have a beer? That's more appropriate. But less fun to shout.

Roller coasters

Yesterday I rode them all day long. I like to ride roller coasters because I like adrenaline, free fall, speed, all the pretty views you get from such great heights, and I like anything that fills me so full of excitement. My favorite ones are the ones that take you up the highest, because then you get the best views combined with the longest free falls.

My favorite ride from yesterday was one called Superman. It's 168 feet tall (nearly 16 stories), and it is made even better by the fact that the ride is built up right along the side of the cliffs and waterfalls that surround the Six Flags in San Antonio. The ride starts by taking you up to the top of one of those cliffs, then makes a curve and drops you so you are falling right along the side of one of those cliffs and heading straight for one of the little ponds at the bottom.

I digress from the point of this story. The point of this story is that on the bus ride home, if I closed my eyes, I still felt like I was twisting and falling through space like I had been all day long. In fact, every time I closed them I had to open them again just to reassure myself that I was NOT on a roller coaster. And, even though I took my knee brace off as soon as I got on the bus, I could still feel its pressure and itchy material on my skin. I also had to double check that to make sure that I had actually taken if off like I remembered.

So, the point of this story is that sometimes things stay with you long after the situation has changed. No matter how many times I told myself that it wasn't possible for me to be falling, nor was it possible for the brace to still be on my leg, my brain was so used to those feelings and activities that it could still make me feel like those things were going on. Now, the things that I was doing only lasted a day, and the subconscious memory of those things only lasted a few hours, but I can understand how it can be so hard for people to change who they are or how they see the world.

I don't know where this train of thought is taking me, other than to cliches. I really want to understand how the brain works. It fascinates me.

Prime Numbers

This is how you work out what prime numbers are.

First you write down all the positive whole numbers in the world.

Then you take away all the numbers that are multiples of 2. Then you take away all the numbers that are multiples of 3. Then you take away all the numbers that are multiples of 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and so on. The numbers that are left are the prime numbers.

The rule for working out prime numbers is really simple, but no one has ever worked out a simple formula for telling you whether a very big number is a prime number or what the next one will be. If a number is really, really big, it can take computer years to work out whether it is a prime number.

Prime numbers are useful for writing codes and in America they are classed as Military Material and if you find one over 100 digits long you have to tell the CIA and they buy it off you for $10,000. But it would not be a very good way of making a living.

Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all you time thinking about them.

**The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Mark Haddon