Outrunning entropy

Entropy is just a scientific word for disorder. As I discovered in adolescence, disorder is a natural state. Don't clean your room and disorder ensues. As I rediscovered as an adult, disorder is still a natural state. Take a look at my desk on a normal workday, and it's chaos. The reason why disorder conquers is neither evil nor malicious; it's pure math. There are many more ways to have disorder in the world than there are to have organization. Therefore, order is an unlikely event. You have to apply time and energy to achieve organization. As an example, if I gave you twelve dice and asked all to show same number, it's very unlikely that they would be given that way. With a little effort though, you could easily order twelve dice. Now suppose I gave you billions of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen molecules and wanted to see a bacterium. That's a little harder.

Life generally works against entropy. From bacteria to plants and humans, we strive to keep cell membranes intact, proteins working and even create newly-ordered organisms. This requires a lot of energy, provided free of charge from the sun. Humans, alas, are natural moochers. Instead of making energy through photosynthesis, we eat things that previously made energy (vegetables) or something that ate something else (meat). Over the last billion years, life has done better than break even. It's gone from bacteria to lots of different stuff inhabiting every pocket of the Earth. In aggregate, it looks like life is outrunning entropy.

My attempt to outrun normal life, however, is coming to a close. I can count the days left in my American adventure on one hand. Returning to Houston, however, has its perks. Spending time with my wife, eating normal meals and finally getting started with my new education are things I'm awaiting. This past week in Boston reminds me how important and precious family are. I got to spend three days with my mother and sister, while getting to see my father and god-mother. Plus I've won two more stuffed animals form the claw, as pictured below. This weekend, I head south, both homeward bound but also to play a few final hands of poker. That said, I'll need to get lucky as I've established I have a tell and am not the best player in California or Vegas.

Last night, I also caught up with an old friend from high school, Joel French, and his wife Elena. Joel is a vicious Scrabble player. In our single match, he nailed a seven letter word ("renaming", using the "n" from a prior word) and broke a score of 400. Joel has memorized every two letter word in the English language, and is on his way to knowing all three-letter words. He and Elena now live in rural Connecticut, so I actually saw the cow pictured above. Farm animals usually captivate me, but this cow seems even more interested in me...a first!

Miles driven: 7,560 (driving across the George Washington Bridge is pictured above)

Quote of the Day: "A Hyundai Accent is like the hot dog of meats. They just use whatever was left over." - Joel French consoling me on my suboptimal care.

Poker update: Made $130 at Mohegan, so now down less than $500 for trip. Hoping to get lucky in Atlantic City.