Make or Break month

The beginning of each new year seems to be filled with hope and aspirations.  Resolutions to fight off a few bad habits, lose some pounds, have more sex, try new things, ya know...spring cleaning for your mind, body, and soul.  All of these are great aspirations and something that mostly we'd really like to succeed in doing.  We wouldn't have made the resolution without that hope, right?

So it seems pretty sad that before the end of January (fuggadebout February), 8 out of 10 people will have already failed with their resolution(s)*.  I'm not one of those people that make resolutions very often (I'm Catholic, so lent is so close to New Year's that I feel like I'm already making enough sacrifices so will you get off  my back already?) so I can only speculate as to why people fail at their resolutions. 

Maybe they don't have the right support network, or deciding to quit smoking cold turkey was not the best decision especially when you're so irritated that the cat just stepped in front of you while you were walking that you punted it down the hallway and laughed when it slid five feet into a door (my Nanny did this and this is one of the funniest memories that I have of her.  I like cats, people, but this was funny.).  Perhaps you didn't have the highest hopes of actually achieving your weight loss goal because that damn Snickers bar is just way too yummy (I completely agree with you on this one).  Whatever the reason the resolution failed, I believe it is partly not your fault. 

Nature is completely trying to fuck you over.

Up here in the northern hemisphere, it's cold.  Winter kinda sucks.  The daylight is short and people just can't drive in the snow, which is so stupidly frustrating.  I get depressed because the kids are stuck in the house and after awhile, the smell of Play-Do gets to be nauseating and the choo-choos running around in circles drive me a little bonkers.  I am just not that creative to keep my kids busy without shuttling them outside and running off the insane amount of energy that they possess.  So what do I turn to to keep my head on straight?  A Snickers bar.  Something to help release some dopamine so I won't go psycho bitch mom on my kids.  How the hell am I supposed to give up something that can make me happy when there is nothing else in the winter time that can do it?  I'm already depressed and you want to take away my Snickers?! 

Oh, and you want to work on your relationship with your spouse/significant other, etc?  Pfft, good luck with that one!  Divorce, separation and breakups are at their peak in January (for the northern hemisphere - coincidence? I think not).  What do we turn to when the breakups happen?  A Snickers bar! (guys, insert whatever other vice you have here - smoking, eating, drinking, shopping, sexing it up...although that might be one way to achieve the 'have more sex' resolution)

We're doomed to fail!  Ah, the misery! 

Fuck you, New Year's resolutions.  If we made resolutions in May with more sunshine and flowers, maybe we'd all be a size six and be wearing that string bikini with toned thighs.  Yeah, right.

Give me my goddamn Snickers bar. 

*This is unofficial; this estimate is of a general consensus to a lot of unofficial statistics out there.

Scanning Electron Microscope Picture

This is my idea of photography.  

I took this picture ('captured this image' is the technical phrase) with a scanning electron microscope.  This microscope is not the one you have in your high school lab.  For instance, this particle has been magnified 15,000 times its original size. 

It's chemically oxidized zinc.  We think the round particle in the center is atomized zinc.  They melt the zinc, blow it up into the air with nitrogen and while cooling, it turns into a very round shape. This semi-spherical particle may be one that was not milled and so retained its shape.

This picture was taken with a Hitachi S-3400-N instrument.  It's probably the one that we will be buying. Maybe.