Who Needs Cocaine?

As I've mentioned previously once or twice or seventy-two times, I'm extremely sensitive to caffiene, and don't much care for its physiological effects--I break out in cold sweats and shake and sometimes get extremely paranoid. However, like many recreational drugs, caffiene has its positive effects as well.

Like today. Due to a mixup at Starbucks that resulted in two sugary drinks for me instead of the one I ordered, I have about four shots of espresso in me, and I'm feeling good. One of the pleasant side effects of being caffienated is my sudden surge in creativity. Last time I went to Starbucks, I wrote up a full staging description of Beckett's "Breath." Today, I have immense and boundless enthusiasm for my particle physics paper. Spend hours in the library perusing images of now-defunct particle detectors? AWESOME. This is now the best paper ever, the most exciting assignment, 2000 words is simply not enough to convey my thrill over the discovery of particles that don't interact and don't decay and don't do anything other than wank the egos of the men who predicted their existence. My presentation on this paper will not only be masterful, it will be the funniest, most engaging and enlightening presentation ever presented.

I'm just a little afraid to leave the library, that once I stop pouring all this energy into my paper that I will have to find something else to do with it, like run a marathon or build a skyscraper or maybe swim over to London for a few hours.

Also, something that I think is funny even to non-caffienated physicsists: John Adams, who was the director of CERN for a long-ass time, went to Russia to check out a particle accelerator. The director of the facility there presented him with a bottle of vodka, telling him it was to celebrate CERN's accelerator becoming functional and superior to the Russian accelerator. Construction on CERN's accelerator went ahead, and a few months later it began testing to acertain its energy levels. When the tests were finished and a meeting was necessary to disperse this information to the press and other interested parties, John just walked in, late, holding up the empty bottle of vodka.