Matter, Energy, and Life of Michaela A. Castello.

Category: Short Reads

Updates that are comfortably bite-sized.

  • I Love Gloves

    Working in a lab means I have to wear exam gloves for just about everything I do during the day. Since it’s a global policy that gloves cannot be worn outside the lab (for safety reasons), I am constantly gloving and de-gloving. One of the coolest things about wearing exam gloves is that you can…

  • Guitar Hero 3

    Kyle recently purchased Guitar Hero 3 for the PS3 and it’s been keeping us occupied for the past few weeks. The final song that you play over the credits is “Through the Fire and Flames” by Dragonforce, and is by far the most difficult song in the game. I was finally able to beat it…

  • Things that make me feel dumb: Unlabelled Doors

    In general this problem is pretty simple, right? All I have to do is look for the visual cues—be it a sign with clear directions to “push” or “pull,” or more physical attributes like the presence of a handle (pull) or crash bar (push). What gets me are the handled doors like the one shown…

  • Another Lazy Sunday Morning

    Lately when I have spent the night at Rachel’s house, I find myself waking up at 6:00 AM with her, ostensibly for reasons ranging from taking her to work in my car to studying. This particular week I have been doing some preparation for the MCAT, a task that has been considerably hindered by my…

  • The Pirate’s Dilemma

    The TorrentFreak blog posted a guest article by author Matt Mason that I think hits on the same idea I was trying to get at in one of my earlier posts. He makes some interesting comparisons to historical events that I found quite interesting. Of particular note, from the closing paragraph: …what pirates are actually…

  • SteelWolf on Digital Freedom

    This past Friday I had the unique opportunity to take a trip to Washington, D.C. with several members of EDUCAUSE, a higher education organization dedicated to the “intelligent use of information technology.” Representing UMBC students and the UMBC Student Government Association along with SGA President Jay Lagorio, we presented a student perspective on a very…

  • Omar’s Room

    Kyle and I ventured into Omar’s room while he was off taking his Physics 111 final in a bold attempt to discover the source of the odor. I’m guessing it results from 2, 3, or 4, but it’s anybody’s guess. All I have to say is, take out the trash and wash your filthy sheets…

  • Pet Peeves: Listproc n00bs

    Here at UMBC we have a whole lot of listprocs. Every organization, committee, and campus department seems to have one of these email mailing lists to mass-message students who opt-in. Conveniently (or not so, depending on your perspective), there is a system through our campus portal, myUMBC, that allows users to manage what listprocs they…