I gotta say, 1st and foremost, I freaking love this place.

I cannot express the amount of frustration I get in trying to share my ideas with the people I co-habitate with. In example, speaking with my mother, I try to explain the idea behind the illusion of time(as expressed through Special Relitivity), even using the most simple terms I can muster, all I get back is "Well I wouldn't want to go crazy trying to understand it". Likewise, I may be reading at some time or another and, upon finishing some facinating new chapter, attempt to relay the base idea to my girlfriend. Oh, she's very supportive, and does her best not to ruin my excited revelry as I chatter on about Quarks and Leptons, but about three minutes into my banter, I can see her eyes glaze over and her mind speed off to some other realm. I can't blame her, she's a smart girl, just not enough in the same manner as myself. I appreciate her audience none the less. My point here is that I finally have a place I can express my unadulterated excitement of Science! I mean holy crap! The other day I was sitting on the front porch with my roomate(the one person in this entire city who understands and shares my enthusiasm for learning, but whom differs slightly in field of intrest((he's into Chem, and wants to create things no one has seen before, while I am thoroughly engrossed in Cosmology/Particle Physics, and want to discover things not yet understood)), and who I can only stand to talk to for so long), when a passing Semi hauling a MRI trailer labored it's way up the hill leading past our place. I began to think about all the processes involved, all the forces being exerted, in order to pull that monster up the hill. "Hot damn!" I exclamed, "I f-ing love science!" This produced two reactions, the 1st, that of my roommate, was him jumping from his seat, shouting in agreement(he had apparently gone through the same thoughts at the same time as I). The 2nd, however, happens to be the most popular of the two, that being an either puzzled or even slightly alarmed stare, sometimes accompanied by comments ranging from confusion to apprehention(see:You're crazy!).

It is the 2nd reaction I have such a problem with. For a number of years, a question resided at the back of my mind, I observed that, after pouring a glass of soda and dropping a few ice cubes in, on contact with the ice, the soda excitedly began to fizz. Why it was this happened, was a subject I lazily toyed with from time to time. I realized that it was obviously the ice that caused the fizz, so logically it had to involve temperature. What piked my intrest was the actual process, what was going on to cause all the excitement from a decrease in temperature? It was actually something I pondered for an embarrassingly long time(years, ugh), due to me just being lazy. But sooner or later the answer came, as I'm sure many can easily understand, in an exhilarating eureka moment. The answer, I excitedly deduced, was Thermal Expansion/Contraction, namely the contraction part, the carbon dioxide in the soda was being ejected as the particles around it were cooling and thusly squeezing the gas out. I can't possibly describe the rush I got at that point. Which is exactly why I cannot understand such negative reactions to my enthusiasm toward Science & Knowledge.

So with this story, I hope to have communicated the immense amount of excitement, wonder, and just plain good feelings I have for joining this community. And with the warm welcomes I have already recieved, I can't help but to feel positively giddy.

I am absolutely euphoric.