A Chapter of Accidents

Pronouns
The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive scalar elementary particle predicted to ex-
ist by the Standard Model in particle physics. At present there are no known elemen-
tary scalar (spin-0) particles in nature, although many composite spin-0 particles
are known. The existence of the particle is postulated as a means of resolving incon-
sistencies in current theoretical physics, and attempts are being made to confirm the
existence of the particle by experimentation, using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Other theories exist that do not anticipate the Higgs boson, described elsewhere as
the Higgsless model.

Life shouldn’t be this. This shouldn’t

be life. This is just a pronoun. When
I was 15, I dreamed that it would be
everything I wanted. Instead, this is
just this. Horse shit. TV dinners. Hand
grenades. Oil changes. Viruses. Fuck.
A reference to something that I don’t
even understand.
 Lucid
Richard Branson made several world record-breaking attempts after 1985, when in
the spirit of the Blue Riband he attempted the fastest Atlantic Ocean crossing. His
first attempt in the “Virgin Atlantic Challenger” led to the boat capsizing in British
waters and a rescue by RAF helicopter, which received wide media coverage. Some
newspapers called for Branson to reimburse the government for the rescue cost. In
1986, in his “Virgin Atlantic Challenger II”, with sailing expert Daniel McCarthy, he
beat the record by two hours. A year later his hot air balloon “Virgin Atlantic Flyer”
crossed the Atlantic. This was the largest balloon at 2.3 million cubic feet (65,000
m³), and the first hot-air balloon crossing the Atlantic. It reached 130 miles per hour
(209 km/h).

What am I supposed to do with my dreams? I mean, I’m usually

superman. The guy with a day job. I do what I’m supposed to do.
I do what I shouldn’t. I live in space. I fly through space. I ride
cosmic waves like a cowboy screaming, “I’m John Wayne in a
fucking space suit!” And I shoot shit like kablow. Whatever that
means.
 Carapace
Compass East Corporation was incorporated in Delaware on December 7, 1964. On
September 30, 1966, Latin-American Development and Management Corporation,
Ayefour Corporation (a pun on Interstate 4), Tomahawk Properties, Incorporated,
Reedy Creek Ranch, Incorporated, and Bay Lake Properties, Incorporated, all Flor-
ida corporations, were merged into Compass East Corporation. These companies
were responsible for buying up the land that would become the Walt Disney World
Resort; there were many to obscure the purpose of the companies.

I wore glasses. I was shy. So I guess I fit

into the pattern of the smart kid. Ever since,
they’ve been throwing books and shit at me.
Gold stars. Honor roll. Report cards. Up up
down down left right left right. I can’t keep
the beat. My feet are not my own. They do
not go where I tell them.
 Mistah Kurtz
The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock face, maintained since 1947 by the board
of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago. The
closer the clock is to midnight, the closer the world is estimated to be to global disas-
ter. As of January 14, 2010, the Doomsday Clock now stands at six minutes to mid-
night. Since its creation, the time on the clock has changed 19 times.

There wasn’t really anything special about me. It’s like we never
really have a choice though, do we? The subject always comes
before the verb. The person breathes before the action. We are
before we do.
 Decorum
The “gadget” was tested at Trinity Site, New Mexico, near Alamogordo. For the test,
the “gadget” was lifted to the top of a 100-foot bomb tower. It was feared by some
that the Trinity test might “ignite” the Earth’s atmosphere, eliminating all life on the
planet, although a classified report produced several years earlier had demonstrated
that this was not possible. Less wild estimates thought that New Mexico would be
incinerated. Calculations showed that the yield of the device would be between 0 (if
it did not work) and 20 kilotons (metric, equivalence of TNT). In the aftermath of the
test, it appeared to have been a blast equivalent to 18 kt of TNT. It was also a highly
covert operation.

Baby faced men folded up and creased like napkins.

Expecting, expectations. Boys pretending to be men. Men
pretending to be boys. And we’re all fucking perverts
pretending to be saints. Secrets secretions. I know what
you look at. We emulate lies. We are nothing.
 Cones and Rods
The Tuskegee syphilis experiment (also known as the Tuskegee syphilis study or Pub-
lic Health Service syphilis study) was a clinical study conducted between 1932 and
1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, by the U.S. Public Health Service. Investigators re-
cruited 399 impoverished African-American sharecroppers with syphilis for research
related to the natural progression of the untreated disease, in hopes of justifying
treatment programs for blacks.

How does anyone end up where they

are? Adding and subtracting presidents.
Multiplying capitals. Spelling history. It’s
all shit. And I’m just a passing failure with
empty pockets and nothing on my mind.
 Agave
The plot was revealed to the authorities in an anonymous letter sent to William Park-
er, 4th Baron Monteagle, on 26 October 1605. During a consequent search of the
House of Lords, early in the morning of 5 November 1605, Fawkes was discovered
guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder – enough to reduce the House of Lords to rubble –
and arrested. Most of the conspirators fled from London as they learned of the plot’s
discovery, trying to enlist support along the way. Several made a stand against the
pursuing Sheriff of Worcester and his men at Holbeche House; in the ensuing battle
Catesby was one of those shot and killed. At their trial on 27 January 1606, eight of
the survivors, including Fawkes, were convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn,
and quartered.

It was so much better in my memory. No fucking iPods or text

messages. It was something important, and they listened. Now
it’s just empty. Knowing is dying. We’re all going to Rome, and
we’re ready for it.
 Ensemble
Ball lightning is a proposed atmospheric electrical phenomenon of which little is
known. The term refers to reports of luminous, usually spherical objects which vary
from pea-sized to several meters in diameter. It is usually associated with thunder-
storms, but lasts considerably longer than the split-second flash of a lightning bolt.
Many of the early reports say that the ball eventually explodes, sometimes with fatal
consequences, leaving behind the odor of sulfur.

What hasn’t been said? You are the dung. I am the dung beetle.
And what is the point anyway? To prove that my words can compare
love to something, and that will prove that we’re meant to be
together? As if my words could be supernatural signs that prove
this isn’t just us but it’s something bigger because the universe
actually gives a fuck about just the two of us. We all think we’re
special, and we’re all just flying through space on a fucking rock
into nothing.
 Synecdoche
The Third Law means that all forces are interactions between different bodies, and
thus that there is no such thing as a unidirectional force or a force that acts on only
one body. If body A exerts a force on body B, body B simultaneously exerts a force of
the same magnitude on body A— both forces acting along the same line. As shown in
the diagram opposite, the skaters’ forces on each other are equal in magnitude, but
act in opposite directions.

In 4th grade Mrs. Keninski called me from

recess so that she could show another
teacher my dimples. It was like one
piece defining the whole. x=everything. I
am become commodity. It doesn’t make
sense like a jock completing the square
to cheers from cheerleaders.
 Malapropism
In 1963, Alabama Gov. George Wallace personally blocked the door to Foster Audi-
torium at the University of Alabama to prevent the enrollment of two black students.
This became the infamous Stand in the Schoolhouse Door where Wallace personally
backed his “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” policy that
he had stated in his 1963 inaugural address. He moved aside only when confronted
by General Henry Graham of the Alabama National Guard, who was ordered by
President John F. Kennedy to intervene.

Useless facts for fact’s sake because we

have to take a test because that’s what life
is all about. There’s a reason for all this.
You have to quantify the life. Proving that
you are what you are instead of just being.
Memorizing. Making networks with useless
people to do useless things and then die.
Connect, fuck.
 Recess
An electoral college is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to a
particular office. Often these represent different organizations or entities, with each
organization or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes
weighted in a particular way. Many times, though, the electors are simply important
people whose wisdom, ideally, would provide a better choice than a larger body. The
system can ignore the wishes of a general membership.

Love. In reality. Ugly fuck. I don’t like you.

There is no secret. I love her because I
love her.
 Injury
With phosphor-based electronic displays ... non-uniform use of pixels, such as pro-
longed display of non-moving images (text or graphics), gaming, or certain broad-
casts with tickers and flags, can create a permanent ghost-like image of these objects
or otherwise degrade image quality. This is because the phosphor compounds which
emit light to produce images lose their luminance with use. Uneven usage results in
uneven light output over time, and in severe cases can create a ghost image of previ-
ous content.

Left is me – right beside her. Writing about love is stupid. Fuck

Hallmark, St. Valentine, Chocolate, Flowers, Teddy Bears,
Jewelry. And those fucking romantic comedies. They’re all pieces
of shit. What do we learn anyway? This person is pretty so they
can be with that person who is pretty. And they’re both rich, so
that’s what we should want because that is happily ever after
and we’re the pieces of shit with boring lives where one day
melts into the next. They all have the high life, and like waves
crashing into crags, they’re pushed into the sky and eaten by the
sun. And we just sit there thinking about how beautiful it all is.
 Carbon
Copulation is the union of the sex organs of two sexually reproducing animals for
insemination and subsequent internal fertilization. The two individuals may be of op-
posite sexes or hermaphroditic, as is the case with, for example, snails.

It’s like I only get to be me in my

dreams. And that’s never me. Electrical
connections. A series of firings
misfirings. Dendrites. Troglodytes.
Complete the circuit. It’s all in my
imagination. What is what?
 Modifiers
Aum is said to be the primordial sound that was present at the creation of the uni-
verse. It is said to be the original sound that contains all other sounds, all words, all
languages and all mantras.

Diagram the planet. Objects. Subjects.

Who modifies the galaxy? Find the
action. Subordinate the section. Can I
move us from under the sun? We are in
the pronoun. What kind of life is this?
It’s like we’re all just moving.
Or moved. I don’t even know
where we’re going.