Blerg.

I am awake again. I just slept something like 14 hours and I'm now more-or-less in synch with the rest of the world. The thing is, I woke up feeling really lousy. I'm not sure if its just some random thing due to the very long sleep, or if I'm coming down with something, but it does bother me a bit. I can't usually trust how I feel when I first get up in the morning because I usually feel good, no matter how sick I am. So, waking up feeling sick is a bit of a novelty and NOT A GOOD SIGN.

Still, it may just be dehydration or something so I'm going to sit and do the usual morning stuff before coming to any conclusions.

Air Conditioners as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.

For at least the last week its been cold and damp at night -- perfect sleeping weather. Despite this, I've been running my air conditioner in the bedroom. The problem is that the damn thing takes up all the window space. I can't open the windows while its in place. Added to that, its a huge unit that takes two people several hours to dismount from the window. (The case is bolted in place and you have to remove the guts to unbolt it.)

If I could open the window fully then the passive ventilation would be enough to get the room (which is usally quite stuffy and warm) down to a reasonable sleeping temperature. If I just set the AC on 'ventilate' it moves so little air through the room that I hardly notice the drop in temperature. So, I'm cursed to use the A/C unit well after the time that it should be necessary. I'll probably be using it, off and on, until well into october.

I find it ironic that if I didn't own a bedroom A/C right now, I wouldn't need one.

Astrophysics Terminology.

Since we have now clarified what size something has to be to be called a 'planet', we need to take it all the way and make the terminology consistent with that of 'meteor'. After all science is all about rigidly orthogonal terminological structures. And so, since we already have:

Meteoroid: A modestly (pebble- to boulder-) sized object in space.
Meteor: A meteoroid that is falling within a planetary atmosphere.
Metorite: The remains of a Metor (if any) after it strikes a planetary surface.

Thus we are required to have:

Planetoid: An object of sufficient mass that its self-gravity pulls it into a spheroid shape.
Planet: A planetoid that has entered the atmosphere.
Planetite: The remains (if any) of a Planet that has struck another planet.

By these definitions we can clearly see that Pluto is not a planet but a planetoid, as are most of the so-called 'planets' in our solar system. Luckily, it seems that both true planets and planetites are quite rare.

Oorgh.

My head is hurty and my tummy is grumbling in a not-happy sort of way. It really feels like I'm coming down with some kind of sickness. This is neither needed, nor welcome.

I shall go and take some pills and I may well go to bed earlier than planned tonight.