Delays

So the Ares rocket was launched yesterday at 11:30. I had been using our in-case-of-shitty-Streamyx Maxis wireless USB modem on my dad's computer since around eight thirty to work on my research paper, and every few minutes I would refresh Google news to check the updated launch times after each new delay. The last proposed launch time I remember seeing was 10:45, then I kind of gave up on it and went on to finish the definitions part of my paper, which is one third of the introduction or around 5% of the total paper. That puts my progress at 10%, with one week left and a survey that still needs more responses before I can compile and analyse the results. Let us not forget the icing on this cake of stress: because for some reason my computer cannot use the USB modem, I have to do all my work on other people's computers until the internet connection is fixed. Life sure is awesome.

Anyway, back to the rocket. When my paper was done I decided to log into Facebook for a while. After five minutes of pondering the implications of receiving only four notifications between then and when the internet died, I came to the conclusion that Facebook excels at two things: propagating retarded applications and showing the people who don't use those applications that they are sad, friendless losers anyway. It was at this point that I closed the tab and went to refresh Google news one last time before heading to bed.

After I refreshed the page, I only managed to glance through the words "launched", "onlookers", "parachutes", and "recovery" before I realized what I was looking at. I checked the time: 4 minutes ago. Because of Astro's satellite delay, 4 minutes is the exact amount of lag time between when news happens and when news reaches our TV screens. I realized that I could still probably watch the launch in somewhat real-time.

When I turned on CNN, however, they were just talking about sports. The BBC was reporting on the bombing in Pakistan and the attack on the guest house in Afghanistan. A few minutes later, CNN was reporting on the same thing. Neither channels were giving me any information on the rocket. I assumed that they had both broadcast it live and were now ignoring it until the start of the next hour.

The start of the next hour came and there was no mention of the rocket in the headlines. It was only before the first commercial break that CNN brought up the launch, and after the commercials were over they went live to a dude who had been waiting through more than a day of delays to cover that story. I didn't hear anything he said because they were playing the launch on loop in the background and I was discussing with my brother about how awesome it was ("very awesome", in case you were wondering).

After that I went to bed late then woke up early then fell asleep a few times during my daily Bible reading then got ready then went to college then attended class then arrived late for the second of my two back-to-back classes then stood in front of class to give an excuse as to why I was late (my excuse was totally valid, you guys) then corrected mistakes in the hard copy of my research paper for correction at a later time then made a PowerPoint presentation for Monday's class then found myself confronted with a dilemma. I could mention what it was, but that would rob me of an opportunity to practice being vague and mysterious about things that I do not to be vague and mysterious about.

I had two options: I could wait or I could go. Waiting would avoid the issue and change nothing. Going would mean taking the risk that things might still be very bad. It would also mean that if things were no longer very bad, then I would have the chance to make them better, or at least less worse. After stalling for quite a while, I decided to go. Just as I was going, I noticed that what I would have been waiting for was happening. This would have only been a good thing if I had been waiting, but since I was going it put me in a bit of an awkward spot. I did not foresee what was occurring. Since it was too far to turn back, I decided to see what would happen. Nothing bad happened. Things seemed to be better than I thought they were. Almost before I had the time to realize that, it was over. It was only later I realized that what happened could have also meant another thing: that things were not slightly good as they had seemed, but instead they were still as bad as they were or worse, and they just seemed good as part of their worse-ness.

That was a depressing realization, so I bought a doughnut from one of the marketing students to distract myself. It helped a little, but I needed more. I was hungry and one of my friends said she wanted to get the clear Coca-Cola contour glass from McDonald's, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and went up to get some money for some lunch and some lunch for a free cup.

I was in line to withdraw money for a quite while because a machine was acting suspicious so the whole queue was for just one ATM. I was in line for McDonald's even longer because everyone wanted a clear cup.

I still managed to get the cup to my friend before class started, though, but I had to eat in the classroom during the lecture. But even that turned out quite nice, except for the realization that they had short-changed in the french fry area of my meal.

So anyway that was a post about nothing in particular and now I want to nap.