New Label: "Short Stories by EvilDawg"

I am creating a new tag for this blog and will start uploading some of my Short Stories that I have written that are currently housed on Writing.Com.

The first one I will upload is one that that has won several writing contests and has the most reviews and with a 4.5 out of 5 star rating, I think it will be a good choice for the first post under this new label.

Thanks!

Dawg

Moving

I find, as I get older, that moving becomes less stressful and more painful. I have moved so may times in my 42 years that while moving sucks and is not fun I feel that I have a pretty good handle on the process and the mental checklist of remembering certain things like transferring utilities and such. While all of that is well and good, I hurt, physically, more than ever. I guess that the many years of martial arts and physical labor (Mobile Auto Detailing for many years, pulling network cable, gym workouts, etc...) have finally caught up with me as has my aging structure.

Having said all of that, moving from a small house to a large house is definitely worth it. When I have my son every other weekend we have six people in the house and 1100 square feet was not cutting it. The new house is 3000 square feet and it is just right and everyone will have their own space if they need it.

All in all it was a good move and I should have the office set up soon so I can get back to writing.

If anyone is interested in checking out my writing portfolio, you can visit Writing.Com.

Chantix: Part II

So I am now almost a week without Chantix and life is much better. I am sleeping better, not as edgy or mean and most of all, my wife doesn't hate me anymore.

I don't know why it affected me the way that it did but I can only assume that my brain chemistry has changed since the last time I took it.

Anyway, life is calmer and better.

I will try Chantix again after we move and the holidays are over.

Until next time...

Dawg.

Chantix

Let me me preface this post by stating that I have taken Chantix before, and it worked.

I am, or rather, was, on Chantix. Obviously I smoke or I wouldn't be taking it. The first time I took it I smoked for about 2 and a half weeks and then magically I just stopped; didn't want to smoke anymore. It was Awesome! The second time I took it, I quit after two weeks because I was travelling and didn't want to smoke where I was going.

This time, however, I started taking it and I am at two months and am still smoking. I have tried to quit several times but sadly I am still smoking.

This time I am an asshole. This never happened before. My wife can't stand me, the kids think I'm a mean person and to be honest I don't like me. I don't like the person I have become and I hate how my wife sees me.

When your wife tells you that you are not the man she married, there is some shit seriously wrong with that.

This... attitude let's call it, has gone on for over a month now and I hate it. I was ready to stop taking Chantix before because I didn't like the person I am on it. My wife and I mutually decided that I should keep taking it because it was better to suffer in the short term than keep smoking and suffer in the long term. I get that, I really do. But deep down I know that Horrible Me would not go away and I dreaded what would happen. Don't get me wrong, I wanted and still want to quit smoking, it is a crutch and it sucks.

Long story short, I can't live my life always wondering if a) I am going to the straw that broke the camels back and everyone hates me or even worse, b) that my wife will just get fed up enough to leave me seeing as how I am not the same person that she married.

The funny thing is that I can see all of this happening to me. The anger, the edginess, the assholeness... All of it! But as long as I have that shit pumping through my brain I can't keep my finger off the trigger for very long and will eventually snap and be the person most hated in the house... again.

To the point of tears most days is how Chantix makes me feel about myself. I hate me.

So I am not taking it anymore. Fuck it.

If I smoke but am the person that my wife married, I would rather me him that whoever this asshole is.

The irony is that I know that I can't quit alone, without help and I know Chantix can do it.

Maybe I'll try it again after moving and holiday stress subsides, who knows.

NASA's Curiosity Rover Checks in On Mars Using Foursquare

From the Science Daily article:

ScienceDaily (Oct. 4, 2012) — NASA's Curiosity Mars rover checked in on Mars Wednesday using the mobile application Foursquare. This marks the first check-in on another planet. Users on Foursquare can keep up with Curiosity as the rover checks in at key locations and posts photos and tips, all while exploring the Red Planet.

After landing in Gale Crater last month, Curiosity began a planned 23-month mission that includes some of Mars' most intriguing scientific destinations. Curiosity is roving toward Mount Sharp, a mountain about 3 miles (5 kilometers) tall. The rover is conducting experiments along the way, seeking clues in the rocks and soil that would indicate whether Mars ever was capable of supporting microbial life. It is taking and sharing pictures of the trip."NASA is using Foursquare as a tool to share the rover's new locations while exploring Mars," said David Weaver, associate administrator for communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This will help to involve the public with the mission and give them a sense of the rover's travels through Gale Crater."

Back here on Earth, Foursquare users will be able to earn a Curiosity-themed badge on the social media platform for check-ins at locations that generate an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Available late this year, this new badge will encourage Foursquare users to explore science centers, laboratories and museums that pique scientific curiosity.

NASA has been on Foursquare since 2010 through a strategic partnership with the platform. This partnership, launched with astronaut Doug Wheelock's first-ever check-in from the International Space Station, has allowed users to connect with NASA and enabled them to explore the universe and re-discover Earth.

The partnership launched the NASA Explorer badge for Foursquare users, encouraging them to explore NASA-related locations across the country. It also included the launch of a NASA Foursquare page, where the agency provides official tips and information about the nation's space program.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Mars Science Laboratory mission and its Curiosity rover for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

To find out more about Mars Curiosity and NASA on Foursquare, visit: http://www.foursquare.com/MarsCuriosityand http://www.foursquare.com/NASA

For information about NASA's partnership with Foursquare, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/connect/foursquare.html

For more information about NASA's Curiosity mission, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

enlarge

This artist's 

BLACK HOLE TWINS?

Found this article on Discovery News:

From the article:

Globular star clusters like M22, located about 10,600 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius, may start out with hundreds of black holes, but gravity soon slingshots all but one of them away.

Or so scientists thought.

Newly discovered radio waves coming from M22 indicate the massive cluster has at least two -- and possibly as many as 100 -- black holes, each about 10 to 20 times the mass of the sun.

"This suggests that while some black holes might be ejected from globular clusters, this process may not be as efficient as some have thought. Globular clusters might actually turn out to be good places to look for black holes, rather than poor ones," Michigan State University astronomer Jay Strader told Discovery News.

Black holes are objects so densely packed with matter that not even photons of light can escape their gravitational grip. They are found by studying their impact on orbiting partner stars and surrounding material.

Each of M22's black holes has a companion object that is being cannibalized -- not good for the objects, but fortuitous for astronomers who were able to pick up telltale radio signals of the phenomenon.

Analysis shows there may be many more stellar-mass black holes, perhaps as many as 100, lurking inside the cluster, a spherical collection of stars orbiting around the galactic center.

"That many black holes will have an effect on the structure and evolution of M22," noted astronomer Stefan Umbreit with Northwestern University.

The black holes likely would keep the cluster's core from contracting and slow the evolution of the cluster as a whole.

M22's black holes are estimated to be about 1.6 light years from one another. Light travels at about 186,000 miles per second.

Strader and his colleagues actually were hunting for larger black holes, those with 100- to 1,000 times the mass of the sun, when they stumbled upon M22's pair.

"The stellar-mass black holes we found were a surprise," Strader wrote in an email.

The research is published in this week's Nature.

Curiosity Finds Old Streambed on Mars

From the NASA Press Release:

Sept. 27, 2012: NASA's Curiosity rover mission has found evidence a stream once ran vigorously across the area on Mars where the rover is driving. There is earlier evidence for the presence of water on Mars, but this evidence -- images of rocks containing ancient streambed gravels -- is the first of its kind.

"From the size of gravels it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep," said Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley. "Plenty of papers have been written about channels on Mars with many different hypotheses about the flows in them. This is the first time we're actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of streambed material to direct observation of it."