Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with distance

Distance running along specific route in Central park

omnigut — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:57:30 -0800

NYJoggingFilter: Distance in Central Park; from 90th St, round the north of the park (over the hill), south along the road on the West side, but cutting back across along the Bridle path which takes me East then North along to 90th St again. Anyone? I've seen the other routes, but can't for the life of me get an accurate measure. Also, but don't go to any trouble finding out if you don't already know, anybody know the equivalent distance if it was on the flat (without those hills on the north of the park)?

Thanks!

Long distance cell phones between Hamilton and Peterborough

ndicecco — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:16:38 -0800

My girlfriend and I are going to different universities in the fall - hers in Peterborough, mine in Hamilton. What should we do about long distance phone calls? Since the cell phone world seems to change every year, I didn't find any previous posts that were very helpful.

Neither of us have ever had cell phones... so it may be time that we left the stone age. It would be nice to have a phone we could take with us, considering that we both have very active lifestyles. The drawback, of course, is that cell phone companies in Canada are apparently evil.

Based on the research I've done so far, the Telus Share plan looks like our best option. Should we be wary? Are there better options?

I think Voip would be the cheapest way to go, since the basic idea is unlimited long distance between us (it would be nice to call our parents in Toronto and Vancouver once in awhile too)... but I have no idea where to go to set that up in either Hamilton or Peterborough.

Other things to know:

-she doesn't care about what phone she uses. I would like something I could sync with my Mac. The iPhone hits Canada in July...
-local outgoing calls would be minimal: 100 minutes/month each should suffice
-texting between us would be nice, but not necessary
-local texting doesn't really matter

Any advice on long distance plans, cell phone companies, voip, or even landlines would be useful.

From DC to Dallas.

SNWidget — Tue, 27 May 2008 08:20:38 -0800

My girlfriend and I are moving across the country, from DC to the metro Dallas area. I've never moved cross-country on this scale, so what tips/advice/warnings can you give me about this sort of move? The Background: My girlfriend and I are moving to the Dallas are so that I can begin graduate school in Denton, TX. She'll be working in downtown Dallas, so we'll be trying to live some place that splits the distance.

The Equipment: We've got 1br worth of stuff, with our largest item being a leather sofa that she got cheap and isn't too keen to part with. I have a pick-up truck that we'll use for the drive, and we can get some, but not all, of the small stuff in there.

The Question: How do we do this? I've read past questions on cross country moving to get an idea, but I'm still a bit overwhelmed. Should I get a pod, a portion of a truck, or just get a Penske truck and drive it to Dallas?

The Bonus Question: Any suggestions on where to live in Dallas? I'm a Texas boy originally, but from the Rio Grade Valley, not the big city. We were looking in Carrolton, Flour Mound, or Lewisville. We're generally looking for nice apartments (generally, 1br+study/extra room) and are willing to spend basically up to $1200 to get something.

Et cetra: Beyond any of this, any general cross country moving/driving/packing tips are more than welcomed. I'm in the dark, generally, so I throw myself to the mercy of the Hivemind.

Crossing America..

bobbyone — Fri, 23 May 2008 04:16:11 -0800

Me and three friends are flying out to drive across America, mainly following the old Route 66. I have two main questions: 1) What's worth seeing on this route? 2) What should we be wary of? Also, any other advice is more than appreciated.

hey, here's a card! see you in... not sure when!

jalebi — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:49:47 -0800

Do you attend the birthdays of your nieces and nephews (if they don't live all that close to you)? I used to live close to family, with all my siblings in maximum 2.5 hour driving distance. So for years, I'd go to the birthdays of my nieces and nephews, happily, and the distance was workable.

But I recently moved several US states away, and am beginning to feel bad about not attending the birthdays of my nieces/nephews. I call, send them a card/gift, but I'm going to be present. It's difficult (and expensive) to hop a plane and take that time for an afternoon's birthday party. I don't see this changing. The distance, in a lot of ways, has been important to my health and is something I quite badly needed. I have another year of grad school, and after that, I will very likely work internationally.

But I'm also starting to feel a bit guilty, for being the only one who isn't celebrating with them. The next "furthest" family member is my sister in law, who lives bout 6 hours driving distance, and she goes for every birthday.

What I'm trying to gauge, is some concept of what is "normal" for people in these situations - I know every family is different, but I don't have a lot of precedents to work with (with my own aunts and uncles, my dad's side was halfway across the world, and we were estranged from my mom's side). Because of this, I don't feel I really know what's "normal."

My siblings aren't making me feel guilty about missing their birthdays, it's mostly self-induced. I think because my siblings and I never really had much experience with this whole aunts and uncles and extended family thing, we've all remained in relative close distance enough to maintain bonds within our own immediate family. I don't feel this is realistic for the path I'm on (and want to be on) in life.

How involved are you in the lives of your nieces and nephews? What are some ways I can cope with feeling guilty for not being around them? What might constitute "normal" or "average" for such inevitables in relationships with growing extended family?

Genetic distance - Why angle rather than magnitude of difference?

PuGZ — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:18:57 -0800

Why is it that the genetic "distance" between two populations would be determined by the angle between their position vectors rather than the magnitude of their respective displacements? That must have been a mighty confusing question. Essentially, I've got a problem very similar to the one represented here and I'm wondering why is it that the angle has been chosen rather than the magnitude of the difference between the vectors?

This has been bugging me for ages and settling it in my mind will help me continue with this assignment. Thanks, mefi :-)

Getting more range on a WiFi card

chips ahoy — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:07:44 -0800

How do I get more WiFi range on my laptop computer? More info follows. I know the obvious answer here is to stick an antenna on my wireless adapter card. The problem is that none of my cards appear to have an antenna jack!

I looked on my Office Depot site for something quick I could pick up today, but all the PC card models shown only have internal antennas and there is no indication whether any of them can take an external antenna.

Googling this I'm coming up empty, and I looked on some of the wardriving forums, specifically the netstumbler forum, but mostly what I found were soldering mods and snarky answers to people asking the same thing.

I use Windows and have a Dell laptop, if it matters, and I'd prefer not to have to spend more than $80 on this. Please no suggestions for fixing the base station; thanks.

Ideas for search by distance

zingzangzung — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:17:52 -0800

How can I best display a search by distance feature on a website? I am building a website which will have a search by distance feature eg find a cafe within 5 miles of x. It's for the UK and uses postcode/latitude longitude info. The obvious way to display it is to have users select a postcode, and a distance radius. However, this means the user has to know the starting postcode, which they may not (if you are searching in different city from your own perhaps). So I could display a drop down of placenames associated with postcodes. But at its best this gives me a drop down with hundreds of options, and in large cities there are multiple postcodes which confuses it even more. I've experimented with a series of selects, ie first select a region, then from places within that region, which is a bit better, but not yet quite what I want. Whether this is because of the data I have, or the way of displaying it I am not sure.
So I am looking for ideas and suggestions, examples even, of good ways to display this feature that will work well for the user. I'm going round in circles with it a bit, and need some fresh input.

Road Trip to say Bye Bye to Michigan

mrflibble — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:28:00 -0800

Need help planning a 2-3 week road trip in spring for a new place to live. We're starting out in Michigan. 2 spots we know we want to hit are Colorado and Oregon (Portland area). Girlfriend needs water. I need high altitude.

We're going to take my van and sleep in that most of the time to save on what we'd end up paying at hotels.

We prefer a liberal atmosphere. Arts and whatnot nearby. Not big on being in the middle of a big city but like having one near by.

What I'm asking for..
Hotspots, Travel Tips, What to avoid, What not to miss, Locations of interest, Cities that you love, Where would you move? etc..

Thanks in advance!

How do I learn to be a journalist over the internet?

phaedrus441 — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:54:07 -0800

How can I learn about or get some type of journalism accreditation or certification over the internet? I'm really interested in journalism, but live in Japan, so I don't exactly have much of a chance to study it except through the internet. I currently help edit a trade magazine here, but I want more knowledge about journalism and some kind of online curriculum would be great. I noticed News University which made me think of this whole question in the first place...

Should I let my girlfriend move across the country to be with me?

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:30:55 -0800

Met girl abroad, corresponded for several months, met again, got together, started living together as soon as I got back to the states. Now I've moved across the country, and she's set to follow soon. I'm not sure I want her to. What do I do? We're great together - have very similar interests, always have a lot of fun, definitely physically compatible. No drama, she's very down-to-earth and things just work between us. But I don't have the "oh my god I need you" feeling, and I never have. We don't have hour-long conversations where I don't even realize how long we've been talking. I love her (or at least I care about her, think about her often, want the best in life for her, and enjoy being with her), but I feel like there's something missing.

We were corresponding for 6 months before we started dating, and then we were living together for 6 months before I moved (job-related). So we've known each other for about 13 months at this point. In the month since I left her on the other coast, I've met up with a couple friends I used to hook up with years back. In both cases I still felt a twinge of that old feeling, the need that I don't feel with my current girlfriend.

Now she's headed here in a few months, and I am having huge doubts. I don't want her to come across the country to live with me if things are going to fall apart. I'm totally stressed out about this.

I really don't want to hurt her, and I really don't want to subject either one of us to the pain of her moving here and then us breaking up. On the other hand, it's quite possible I'm creating an excuse to explain away my fear of commitment (which has ended several previous relationships).

Even if I did decide that I didn't want her to come, I have no idea how I would break the news to her.

Any advice from the hivemind would be most appreciated.

taming the emotional hydra?

bluenausea — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 14:51:43 -0800

So, how you do contend with massive, hemorrhaging, overwhelming emotion? This is also sort of a LDR question too. The specific situation, not entirely essential for the questions -- On Thursday, I will move into a difficult living situation with nuns in a village in Malawi. The nuns speak little English; I speak little Chichewa. I will have access to a phone, with middling poor reception, and will be able to talk with my fiance (who I miss agonizingly already) daily. I will have internet on a more or less weekly basis. My duties, theoretically, entail assisting in the village health clinic, but there is also a secondary school. I want to get as involved in both of these as my Chichewa will allow; at present, this doesn't mean much since I don't speak it very well. That will change. But nonetheless, I'm already seriously questioning my judgement in taking this venture, mostly as regards leaving my fiance. (He is totally supportive, and I have stayed stateside while he did similar ventures of his own, so I should not feel too much guilt, although I do. The timing seems wrong -- he is engaged in a superdemanding graduate program and this year, when I am leaving, is actually one of his less busy ones).

It just seems silly and selfish to leave the one I love and who loves me for people who don't know whether I live or die, and would not be affected either way if I did. Arising from all the presently-experienced grief, fear, and pain, and the anticipated futility, powerlessness, and frustration, are my overwhelming, appetite-destroying, sleep-forbidding emotions.

Specific questions:

- How do you cope with overwhelming feelings that destroy your ability to reason? (My reason tells me this will be an unmatched growth opportunity for me, allow me to see world realities as few people in developed countries do, etc; that I will see my fiance soon (in three months), with maybe another 4-6 months apart afterward, but that this has been done before and is really not going to be all that awful, etc). I tell myself all this, but nothing registers. How can I get excited about this amazing opportunity I have again, and stop focusing on all the missing pain? What can I do to beat back my emotion and be comforted by my reason?

- Any particular advice for coping in circumstances in which you can neither understand nor be understood easily, specifically in third-world villages? Anything I can do to cope better with the inevitable social and emotional isolation?

- Most importantly, your very long-distance relationship tips? The fiance and I have done this before, and it's been rough, never fatal. I have good reason to believe it will be better this time, but it's so damn HARD! Does anything make this better? We do all the letter-sending, phone-calling, joint-activity business that we can, given the 8000 mile and six timezone separation. I need more emotional LDR management tips than practical ones.

I do apologize for the probable incoherence of the actual questions.

This is a question about AM radio reception in my car.

thirteenkiller — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 08:14:30 -0800

This is a question about AM radio reception in my car. I currently live two states away from where I grew up, and every now and then I drive back for a visit. When I start getting close, I try to tune in to my hometown public radio station, 910 AM. It seems like I can never get good reception until I'm just 20 or 30 miles out. When I leave my hometown again, though, having tuned into the station in town, I get good clear reception for nearly 200 miles. Why does this happen? It really does seem to be a regular thing. My antenna is imprinted in the rear right window of my car. Is it possible that once my radio has been tuned into the station, it can maintain it longer? Or am I just imagining things?

MetaMusic for private use?

Mali — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:54:36 -0800

I'm looking for some sort of web template / upload script that would act sort of like MetaMusic but on a private scale. My band is being split up as college approaches, but we want to keep writing as a band while we're there. We've had some success over the summer with recording ideas we have and sending them around, but it's a pain to send the same idea to four different people, especially with AIM transfers being flukey and people not always being online. What we're looking for is a sort of Metamusic for private use thing; a template or script that we could put up on my website that would allow us to upload clips and leave notes about it. The only catch is that the MP3 needs to be downloadable too. Any ideas, Mefi?

Distance relationship 101 needed.

Baud — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 02:04:14 -0800

Distance relationship 101 needed. comment on blog lead to mail, one thing lead to another. We saw each other in the flesh a few days ago for a few minutes, want to see each other longer the next tume and... voila ! distance dating.

Here are the vital stats :

- We're not an ocean apart. 300 kilometers with good rail and road connections make seeing each other possible but not every night. e-mail (sometimes delayed as mauch as 24 agonizing hours), phone, IM lines of communications are open. Skype or VOIP is not in the mix yet but remains possible.
- Both in our thirties.
- She has a three year old that spends some time with divorced dad.

What are the do's and dont's in such a relationship ? Any agony aunt online ressource specialized in distance relationship I could read (or write to )?

Please feel free to throw buckets of reality-based rationality enhanced cold water at me. Be careful : it might generate lots of mist.

Realistic, rational and practical advices is what I'm begging for, hive. Because I'm in full, 100% passionate romantic mode and I need a Jiminy Cricket on my shoulder pointing the (potential) icebergs out there before we run into one of them.

Help us find the tools of distance happinness. I'm sure it will be good in a karmic way for everybody involved !

I'm needy--help! (pun intended)

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 09:21:11 -0800

I'm needy--help! (pun intended) Something that pushes my buttons is the feeling that I am being ignored. For instance, I have a really hard time waiting for someone to contact me when we are dating, and I get upset if I call or text message someone and don't hear from them. This makes me act all sorts of insecure.

I could go into a deep psychological interpretation for why this happens (there are reasons) but I would rather just learn to grow up. If I can't learn how to feel less needy, how can I act less needy? What are tricks for distracting yourself when you're obsessing about why he didn't call? How can you stop yourself from sending a text message or email to check in when you shouldn't do it?

I seem to have a lot of difficulty with modern forms of communication (cell phones, instant messenger, text messages, etc.) because when you know the person has received your communication but hasn't responded it feels like they are ignoring you. This makes me incredibly anxious. I really wish I could be more independent.

Innovation in distance education

b33j — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 01:19:06 -0800

What methods, software, stuff will create an exciting and cutting edge distanced education program? I am part of a team that is converting an internal graduate diploma to external mode. This program turns graduates from different areas into teachers in one year (two semesters). It does have practicum in schools. The university requires the use of Blackboard.

The academics in charge of this program want an innovative distance education program but they don't know what it looks like. They're thinking mabye podcasts, maybe streaming video, maybe teleconferences. I'd like to bring them a kick-arse list of ideas from people who know technology.

If you were going to teach “teaching” externally, what things would you like to do? What are some limits (eg students on dialup, accessability issues)? As a student, what did you hate the most with your distance ed course that should be avoided at all costs? What was on your wish list?

Bonus points for tying the technology to a purpose eg "Encourage students to share lesson plans via a diploma-wide wiki"

Yes I would also love links to organisations who are modelling best practices, to product sites, to articles. I am still looking myself, but I'm finding hard to narrow down the search criteria to get useful resources.

My girlfriend wants to spend more time together than I do.

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:06:26 -0800

My girlfriend wants to spend more time together than I do. This must be common. I'm happy seeing her a few days a week and having the rest of the time to myself and she'd prefer us to be together nearly every day. I'm pretty sure I want to get married some day so I know I'll have to live in the same house as her or whoever I end up with, but I'm worried that this will become a big problem for us.

So for those of you with experience in relationships with this kind of difference, how have you dealt with it? Thanks!

Correspondence Courses for an Australian

divabat — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:45:59 -0800

What are some good, simple, affordable correspondence courses I can do from Australia? (The courses don't have to be based in Australia.) Ever since my mum did a correspondence course in interior decoration in the early 90s, I've been intrigued by the concept of learning by mail. I am trying to find some good and simple correnspondence courses, but I can't really tell what's worth the money.

A lot of the Australian ones are distance certificates or diplomas - things you need to be certified in. This makes them a lot more heavy-duty and consequently a lot more expensive. I don't really need a certificate in anything specific; I just want to learn something for the sake of learning. Also, there isn't a simple way of looking up reputations.

Which companies are reputable? They don't have to be Australian but since I'm there I need to be able to receive the material! I prefer something short-to-medium term rather than long-term, and something not so in-depth (I'm in university).

I'm interested in creativity, human services, communities, and anything weird and unusual. I don't need to do a creative writing course, though, as I'm already doing that at uni. I'd prefer post-based courses. Where else can I go?

Are online/distance high schools worthwhile?

Anoxs — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:26:20 -0800

Are distance/online high schools worth the money/effort, with special regard to AP courses? I've seen many advertisements for high schools allowing you to take classes online, and looking at the web sites for a few of them, I have noticed many of them have Advanced Placement courses.

Are these schools worth it and if so, are the AP classes worth it? Which schools have good reputations?

Obviously with AP courses, the curriculum on the tests could be self-taught if the student were to put forth the effort, but I would like to know how well the classes prepare students.

I don't know if anyone here has any experience with these distance schools, but any information is appreciated.

Pint of ice cream, here I come!

spec80 — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:21:17 -0800

Relationship Filter: How do I stop myself from tallying stuff up then try to make myself dismiss it because I don't want to make our relationship into a scorecard but not being sucessful and end up feeling confused and emotional? And how do I talk about it with my boyfriend? Please forgive the word/grammar vomit I am about to unleash. Run on sentences hoooooo!

I am in a long distance relationship. I live in New York and he lives in Chicago. It is also my first relationship (it is not his first) and we have been dating for about 11 months. We are both in our mid-20s.

What prompted me to post was a call from my father. He said he doesn't think I should go to Chicago as often as I do because I shouldn't spend so much on going over there and because I will (or would be) treated as having less dignity. On one hand, flying over to see him makes me happy. On the other hand, he has my best interest at heart. I know that he doesn't want me to be taken advantage of, also, I'm inferring that he sees me visiting him so frequently as unseemly.

The reckless teenage rebel in me wants to be dismissive, but looking back at all my parents' advice and talks, they more often than not DID know better and I'm not going to cast away an observation made out of love because I want to be all "but he's my booooyyyyfrrriiieeend."

I've flown to see my boyfriend at least a dozen times. He has come to NY 4 times. Two times with his friend (one time for a music festival, the other time to apartment search because they both plan on moving here and being roommates).

We did talk about this last November because I got really upset because I was jealous because his friend was there (this was his first visit to me). What I got out of our talk was that when we usually see each other, I'm so used to having all his attention and it really threw me when his friend (that he does sees rarely) was with us. And the reason why he hadn't come to NY was because he works as a freelance programmer and all his programs and work is on his home computer and his laptop, which at that point he had recently got, wasn't ready to be a reliable alternative for him to travel and be productive. Plus, one of his roommates is his business partner.

The talk made me feel a lot better and we do communicate well and openly.

Also, I tend to invest time and money in holiday/birthday gifts (see 2 of my past questions) and random presents (i.e. aveda shampoo/conditioner - he used mine during a vacation and he liked it, kiehl's shaving cream - I got him a sample when I was getting myself something and he liked it). I know I'm the type of person to get my friends random gifts because it makes me and them happy. But since he's my boyfriend, not only that, my FIRST boyfriend, I know I've been going b-a-n-a-n-a-s.

I feel that if I were a guy, I wouldn't have a problem with this, nor would my dad. I feel that I look desperate but then I think I shouldn't care about how I look, but how I feel. There's a part of me that wants to overanalyze everything and there's a part of me that wants to proceed balls out and, worst case scenario, if we break up, I get hurt, accept it, learn from it and appreciate the experience. I want to talk to him about this without crying because I'm not emotionally brave enough. I want to keep seeing him when I want to without hiding from my parents that I'll be flying over this or that weekend.

My mind is all jumbled and I don't know how to express myself to my parents or my boyfriend without sounding like a flaky, emotional basketcase that rambles on without a point (like I feel I am doing now).

Help :(

Search for Job While Working?

yellowbkpk — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 20:38:08 -0800

How do I look for a job while working? I've decided that I should start looking for a new job. A series of events in my personal and professional life lead me to this decision (for the full story, look at my question history), but I suppose the most important is that my current job is in Milwaukee and I'd like my next job to be in Minneapolis.

My current job is the first "real" job I've had out of college, so the folks I work with right now will be the only people I can put down for business references.

I've discussed my goal (moving to Minneapolis) with my boss, who has said he'd like me to keep working for him until the end of our project. I agreed with that at the time, but our project just got canceled and restarted as a new one, so I can almost guarantee the timeline will be pushed out even farther than it already has (we won't even be close to done until Q3 2008). Needless to say, I would prefer to not wait that long.

Based on these circumstances, would it be bad to go looking for a job? When I have an interview, do I tell them I'm currently working somewhere else right now? Do I ask them not to call my current employer (I have some academic recommendations)?

Jack and Jill

ASM — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 18:08:28 -0800

Yet another RelationshipFilter: This is the story of Jack and Jill... Sorry for this long-winded question/plea for advice…I have tried to make the following description as neutral as possible.

Jack and Jill have been dating since their senior year of high school. Through random happenings both Jack and Jill ended up at the same university and spent 4 years together. While the relationship in college was by no means spectacular things worked out. Jack was an ass but managed to clean up his act by the end. Jill was unsure of the relationship but kept with it.

After graduating college Jack was offered a position at a prestigious university over-seas for a master’s program. Jack accepted. Jill was understandably unhappy about this decision and wanted to end the relationship, which happened to some degree. Jack left the country but the two kept in touch visiting each other every few months. Jack finished his program and moved back the US to be with Jill. In that time, Jill entered a master’s program of her own.

Since returning to the US things between Jack and Jill have been amazing. Better than they have ever been.

Jack has been home since last October but has had little luck finding a job in his field where both Jack and Jill live. Jack has exploited every option possible to find a job within his field at home for the last 6 months. In October, before realizing he wanted to stay home with Jill, Jack sent several resumes/cover letters to companies across the country. Now 6 months later, with little luck at home, Jack has quite randomly been offered a job in his field - across the country.

Jack and Jill are again at crossroads.

Jill refuses to stay with Jack if he leaves again. Jill thinks this is a selfish move. Jack feels that he has no other options in regards to finding employment within the field of his choosing. In Jack’s eyes this is a temporary situation until he can get the necessary experience to find the right job for him at home. In Jill's eyes this move shows a lack of dedication to the relationship and her emotions. Jack wants to make things work offering to fly home as often as possible and flying Jill to him whenever possible. Jill sees this as a deal breaker; Jack thinks this is a small bump in the road that shouldn't effect the end outcome of the relationship. Jill was hurt by the first move and is afraid of being hurt due to being in different cities.

Jill cannot move with Jack as she is 1 year into a 2 year program and has expressed little interest in living in the city Jack has been offered a job.

FWIW:
– Jack and Jill have touched (not gone in depth) on the subject of marriage – things looked good until now.
- Both Jack and Jill are close in age - mid-twenties.

Should Jack and Jill try to make things work? Is Jack being selfish for not staying home? Is Jill being unreasonable in not agreeing that this is merely a temporary situation in the big scheme of things?

AskMeFi – help, please!

Should I talk to my boyfriend about me leaving, or ignore the situation?

trampesque — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 03:53:41 -0800

Should I talk to my boyfriend about me leaving, or ignore the situation? My boyfriend and I got together around November, both aware of the fact that at the end of August, I'm moving a 5 and 1/2 hour rail journey away until next summer (long story, it's not really relevant why I'm going, I just want to make it clear that it's not something that can be changed, nor is he coming with me - that's not an option. However, I AM moving back here afterwards, so we'll be in the same town [Southampton, not that it matters] again).

So, I'm not asking HOW it's going to work or what we should do about it. What I'm asking is, SHOULD I TALK TO HIM ABOUT IT? Because we have not, as yet, had the conversation. To be frank, I am terrified he's going to say he doesn't want to do the long distance thing, so I avoid the conversation with all my strength. There have been numerous occasions when I've thought about talking to him, but when it comes down to it I'm too scared, because I feel it's better to be ignorant about it now and not know what's going on than to be told "this is only going to last another 5 months", which would absolutely break my heart and I believe that, to save pain later on, I'd have to end this relationship NOW.

It's definitely a very stable, happy, fantastic relationship, for both of us. He's already asked me to go away with him in the summer, we're both doing the 'meet the parents' thing in the next few months, we have a brilliant connection on ALL levels (for a start, the sex is unbelieveable, for both of us), and we have both said on many occasions that we've found something really VERY great. And I know 5 months is a long time and we could feel differently, but I really don't see that we will. So when I think about it like this, I think, he won't break up with me just because I'm moving away for a bit. But then there's the lingering worry that he just might.

So there's all that, all I want to know is, is it better to just try and enjoy the next few months and not raise the subject (even though it's always in the back of my mind), or talk to him about it now to get some reassurance either way?

A Problem of Scale: Halfway in size between an atom and the universe

0bvious — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 16:10:04 -0800

"A human is halfway in size between an atom and the known universe"... This is a paraphrased quote I have come across several times. I like it. Who said it first? How true is it in the most literal sense? And, finally, what errors arrive in postulating a universe, or an atom, which can be measured AT ALL from our singular, relativistic, perspective? I found this quote from Cosmic Evolution which further complicates the whole relative size issue:

"Roughly halfway in size between an atom and a human, the amoeba has poor awareness and coordination. It generally responds only at the point stimulated, communicating the information sluggishly through the rest of its body. Although amoebas have developed a crude nervous system, living things that aspire to be more agile—and smarter—surely need quicker internal reactions." - link

Kind of sets another stage from which to view this question.

I also found this quote from Holmes Rolston which further complicates things:

"The human world stands about midway between the infinitesimal and the immense. The size of our planet is near the geometric mean of the size of the known universe and the size of the atom. The mass of a human being is the geometric mean of the mass of the earth and the mass of a proton. A person contains about 10²⁸ atoms, more atoms than there are stars in the universe. Such considerations yield perhaps only a relative location. Still, questions of place and proportion arise." - link

Who first made this often used statement? My earlier questions still stand :-)

Thanks...