Hurricane Sandy, the Frankenstorm

    Hurricane Sandy is one of the most dynamically interesting storms of all time.  What was originally a hurricane got wrapped up in the jet stream, took a rare left hook towards the eastern seaboard, bottomed out, then ballooned into a supermassive Nor'Easter after it collided with a nasty cold front.  For several hours it didn't even have an eye, which baffled the entire weather community.  Nobody knows what to call it at this point, so I'm sticking with "Frankenstorm", just because it sounds awesome, lol.  It's been an honor to watch this storm's development, a once in a lifetime event. 

    As I write this there have been an astronomical number of outages: 4 million customers spanning sixteen states.  It's about 9:30pm eastern time and the peak of the storm hasn't even passed.  It is the largest storm that I have seen geographically over the eastern seaboard: its size reaches from Maine to the Great Lakes, all the way down to Georgia!  The barometric pressure reached a northeast USA record low at 940 mb.  The wind hasn't been as bad as everyone was expecting, but the surges have.  Record surges have been reported all over the region.  New York City totally lucked out; the wind and the surges could have been a lot worse because some of the models had the eye of this storm coming ashore farther to the north on the coastline of New Jersey.  That would have made New York the bullseye for destruction instead of Atlantic City, which faced the full brunt of this storm. 

    An unusual fact about this storm is that it's the first time that a hurricane has caused a blizzard warning, mainly over the Appalachian region in states such as West Virginia.  The way it has affected such a large area in unique regional ways is incomprehensible.  DC has been drenched in a torrent of rainfall, Jersey shore has been pummeled by hurricane force winds, Manhattan is becoming submerged by the surge right now, and people were even able to surf on Lake Michigan, which is unheard of. 

    I know it's unfair to think of this category 1 "hurricane" as an epic tragedy for America when much worse storms like Katrina have done a lot more damage.  In fact, I don't think even think it's a major tragedy just yet, because I feel confident that most people will come out of this unharmed.  Compared to the hundreds of thousands whose homes were destroyed in New Orleans, this damage is minimal (although I hope my judgement isn't premature).  This is just a unique event that I had to write about because I don't think meteorologists will ever see anything like it again.  We might see worse storms due to global warming, but I don't think anything will be quite as dynamically original as the Hurricane Sandy Frankenstorm. 

Mario Kart 64 Records

    I have yet to meet anyone better than me at Mario Kart 64, but I know they exist.  It's my favorite video game and I’ve been playing it in spurts for years.  Some of my records are just a few seconds short of the known world records.  The strongest times are highlighted in red.  Since time is relative some of the longer courses have stronger times than they actually appear.

Course	My Best Time	My Best Lap	World Record Time	World Record Lap
Luigi’s Raceway	1’43’’56	33’90	1’38’’19	31’’32
Moo Moo Farm	1’19’’42	25’’79	1’11’89	23’’21
Koopa Troopa Beach	1’27’’15	28’’43	1’19’’57	25’’72
Kalimari Desert	1’53’’86	35’’15	1’44’’10	32’’55
Toad’s Turnpike	2’36’’48	51’’70	2’28’’72	48’’94
Frappe Snowland	1’48’’72	35’’70	1’40’’45	32’’11
Choco Mountain	1’43’’68	33’’85	1’36’’60	31’’72
Mario Raceway	1’18’’47	24’’84	1’13’’16	23’’05
Wario Stadium	3’53’’61	1’16’’99	3’37’’76	1’11’’88
Sherbet Land	1’45’38	34’’93	1’36’’42	31’’52
Royal Raceway	2’32’’45	49’’91	2’23’’29	46’’37
Bowser’s Castle	1’57’’37	38’’96	1’50’’39	35’’96
D.K.’s Jungle Parkway	2’06’’49	39’’94	1’50’’76	35’’40
Yoshi Valley	1’44’’32	34’’27	1’25’’61	26’’17
Banshee Boardwalk	1’52’’62	37’’08	1’43’’95	33’’99
Rainbow Road	5’09’’68	1’42’'03	4’54’’40	1’37’’53

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius

Book 1, in which he writes about the various things that he learned from others throughout his life, from those closest to him to those he briefly knew, is divinely inspirational. I would like to write something like that when I am older.

As for the rest of the book, Aurelias' philosophy is the Western parallel to eastern philosophy. Do your work and do it well, but don't be a dick about it.