body

setting: last night. elf logs onto MSN.
elf: what's the answer to #5 on the QM problem set?
jerod: i got about 17.5
elf: poo. i think i'll track down someone else who solved it with a conservation-of-energy method.

setting: later that night, on the phone.
elf: what's the answer to #5 on the QM problem set?
branimir: i got about 17.6

so i'm sitting there, looking at my result of 257 MeV, thinking i need to drop out of school. thinking this in a calm, rational manner.
i've gone over the problem again and again. i KNOW my algebra is good. but it's not working out... it's not working out... and i need to drop out of school.

this morning on the subway, all of this struk me as odd. i take out my calculator and the textbook. and, lo and behold, i find the problem. my algebra HAD been all correct, it was my arithmetic at fault: where the given value was 100 MeV, i have been plugging in 500.
i did it all again, the calculator says 17.6, and i whack myself on the head (really, on the subway i hit myself in the head with a calculator. i deserved it).

ugh.

so, funny how life works and how coincidences play out. i've been thinking of learning to play the violin or the sitar, one or the other, for months and months now. but it never panned out.
then, i look at my blog the other day and find a note from ipshita. i look at her blog, and find she plays the sitar. i e-mail her about it, and she tells me about the sitar school or toronto. i just e-mailed them, and pending they quote me a good price and so forth, i'm going to do it.
:::joy joy joy:::
i love it when things like this fall into my lap. makes it all so much easier.

also, ipshita, if you're reading this: i think we're soulmates. we both love linwood barclay!