My relationship to Astronomy, Pt. 1: How I got into it

Hello my readers of the internet, I have a story today. It's the story of me and Astronomy, the first part at least, which is how I got into it, and a few of my first experiences with it. This series could stretch out into who knows how many entries. I plan on telling almost ALL of the story of me and Astronomy. You don't have to read it all, as it is rather extensive, but you can if you want to. Now, this blog post could go either way, it could be amazing and well written and easy to understand, or it could be confusing and incoherent because I'm really tired right now. Wish me luck. I shall start now:

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE LOVE Astronomy. I mean, look at my blog, there is a NEBULA in the background. How many blogs have nebulae as their backgrounds? I don't really know, but I know mine does. That's not just any old nebula, actually it kind of is, but I took that picture. I took it with a 6 inch refracting telescope in Mayhill, NM. It was epic. This was a 90 minute exposure, at least I think it was. Wait, what am I doing? This isn't an entry about the background picture! This is my attempt to explain to everyone my how I got into astronomy...let's try this again:

Why do I love astronomy? That's a good question. It's hard to put into words. Try asking yourself why you love your favorite thing...It's not as easy to answer as you may think, is it? Let's start with how I got into it. It's a very random sequence of events, and timing was strangely important. In February 2010, during the epic snowstorm, I was at my mom's house, and we were watching National Geographic, specifically "The Dog Whisperer." One of the commercials was for a little miniseries NatGeo was doing called "A Traveler's Guide to the Planets" premiering that weekend. I thought "Hmm, that looks interesting, I should watch that, I don't think I'll be going anywhere as there's a crap ton of snow." I then proceeded to completely forget about it. That is, until May of the same year. I was supposed to be studying for finals when I suddenly remembered that program. I thought "Finals can wait, I wonder when it's on next!" I then proceeded to go to the NatGeo website to find out if/when it's coming on again. To my surprise, it was on then! At least, four of the six episodes were on, and I'd missed one (the Mars one). But, since I was desperately trying to procrastinate (I procrastinate studying by watching educational television, I'm that awesome), I thought "To the television!" And then proceeded to watch the episodes on Venus + Mercury, Saturn, and Uranus + Neptune. <random opinion>If the show hadn't been on then at the time I was looking, I don't think I would have ever watched it, as I would have most likely forgotten about it again, and in turn may have never gotten into astronomy. That is the one day where I'm SO VERY glad I was procrastinating on that specific day at that specific time, or I may not be where I am today.</random opinion>

After seeing the show, the planets (at the time, specifically Venus) were all I could think about. I went to the interwebs to find the other three episodes and watched them with my undivided attention. After that, I was hooked. After finals and school were over, I spent that entire summer reading and learning all I could about astronomy, and at the end of June (specifically June 30th, 2010) I got my very first telescope! The one I still use today. I was SO happy when I got it. What was more awesome, we got it on special or something, so it came with a BUNCH of eyepieces and lunar and planetary filters, so I was set. I was SO excited to use it that night. I looked at Saturn, Venus, and I attempted to look at a bunch of DSO (Deep Sky Objects), but I was still a wide-eyed young lad who didn't know about light pollution, so when I saw nothing I just blamed it on bad alignment and moved on. About a week later, I learned about light pollution. I learned that Pittsburgh has very bad (though not as bad as some other places) light pollution. I also realized that Up North (Torch Lake Village, MI. My grandparents have a house on the beach there) does not have bad light pollution. So, I was all like "OMG (as I wasn't an atheist yet) LET'S GO UP NORTH LIKE NAO" and then we did, albeit like 3 weeks later. My telescope came with us, and it was AMAZING. That was the first time I'd ever seen the Milky Way, and I loved it more than anything I'd ever seen before. Everyone was there too! My cousins, my two uncles, and soon-to-be step aunt. They all loved looking through my telescope. It was awesome. We stayed for a while. Even though all of the Dolans left, the Nuñezes who were there stayed a bit longer. They stayed long enough to see the beginnings of the Perseids, and that was awesome. Then they left and I got to see the peak of the Perseids up there, and it was amazing. Then, I came home, and did a little bit more observing from my various yards, and then Summer 2010 was over, and I was sad. I didn't do as much observing during the school year as I would have liked, but there is one night I will remember for a long time. It was Columbus day weekend and we didn't have school on Monday. It was a clear night so I decided to stay outside with the scope really late. I ended up seeing objects I'd never expected to see, at least at that time of year. I managed to see The Andromeda Galaxy, The Pleiades Cluster, The Orion Nebula, and the Horsehead Nebula all in one night. It was awesome.

So, that was my 2010 astronomy experience, in which I discovered Astronomy. On to 2011, in which...

Whoa wait I didn't post today!

OH NOES! I didn't post on September 2nd! Although, I feel that since I posted 5 frakking times yesterday, I should get off the hook for that. But, alas, I'm posting anyway. There is no topic for this entry at the moment I'm typing this sentence, but one could easily evolve in the next few sentences. Today was boring, not much (actually almost nothing) happened. My dad and I Skyped my sister in college. She's having a good time. She still doesn't have a roommate yet. Then, around 6 I went to a family friend's house and had birthday cake (as it was his birthday). The cake was good and I saw his girlfriend's EPICALLY CUTE DOG named Sammy Samakow. HE'S SO AMAZINGLY CUTE AND SMALL AND AMAZING AND SMALL AND CUTE AND AMAZING. Then my dad and I went to dinner (Dessert first FTW). Then I got home and watched some Netflix. Then I fell down the stairs and thought I twisted my ankle but didn't (YAY!), it hurt a lot though. Now I'm here typing this. Later, I will probably go to sleep and wake up tomorrow and thankfully not have to go to school because one does not have to labor on labor day! Yay!


Anyway, my day was boring. Hope you had fun reading it though.

My relationship to music

First off, something completely unrelated to music: WHOA!! New Doctor Who!!!!!!! That was EPIC! Surprise debut! Jenna Louise-Coleman! Oswin Oswald! What? Okay. So many Daleks!!! CRAZY EPIC AMAZING EPISODE!! Can't give away more than that, but the end is a fucking TWIST! And it's sad, oh so very sad.

Second off, something else completely unrelated to music: Who here has heard of the game "Slender"? I have. I heard it was scary as scary can get. So, logically (at least going by human logic), I played it. It's really not that scary. I don't know if you all are on drugs or something whilst playing this game, but it's so not scary. It's just a virtual slender human without a face. Nothing more. Nothing real. You want to know what's really scary? There could be a potential type 1a supernova close enough to wipe out all life on Earth and we wouldn't even know!

Third off, the entry:

So, there's this stuff in the world. It's called music. It's a very interesting thing, this music. I'm not really sure what it does to you, but for some reason when words are said in a melody, it makes everyone have things called emotions. It's very odd. But anyway, that's all fine and dandy, but also, I now realize, not what this entry is supposed to be about. It's supposed to be about my taste in music and stuff.

So, ask yourself, what music does Jacob Block like? Then, if you can't think of anything, ask me that question. I'll answer that in two words: No clue. I have no frakking idea what music I like. It's all so random. If I hear something I like somewhere, I'll get it. But, I DO NOT actively search for music. I have legitimately gone MONTHS listening to the same music, and I'm perfectly happy. Right now, I'm loving The Gaslight Anthem. Two specific songs by them are amazing. 45 and Handwritten. I love those songs. I can't stop listening to the two of them on repeat. I'm sure it will change at one point, but that could be a long time from now. Now, something I realized I forgot to explain to you: I go through "phases" of music. I never listen to all of my music at once, only a little bit of it at a time. Like, right now I'm on The Gaslight Anthem, and I don't touch any of my other music. This could go on for a long time, I could just listen to Gaslight for three months and not touch anything else. That's how I do music. I don't understand how everyone else does music. It's weird. How can you keep it all straight? 

My friend Noah, he godsdamn motherfrakking LOVES MUSIC. I mean, if he could marry it and have sex with it, he'd have so many babies (I'm so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so sorry for that image). He has a record player and stuff. He's just Mr. Music. No, that's a stupid name. He's the Music Man? Hahaha someone please help me here, I'm dying. Anyway, I just don't understand it. How can someone like music that much? It's not that exciting. You want to know what's exciting? Motherfucking stars, that's what. Giant balls of thermonuclear fusion that create all of the elements in the universe, and ultimately create us. We come from star stuff! Now that's just EPIC. Music...well, music isn't. It's a fun thing to do when you're bored, but I don't see much else in it. Now, you can say I'm not a real human because of this, and I say thank you. If I'm secretly an alien, then that's just pure awesome. I hope that's true...it isn't though, sadly. I just don't like music that much. That's just the kind of person I am.

Deal with it.

P.S. Five entries in one day? Epic. I have no life. Even though today I was with friends. I guess I have no life even when I do. I'm THAT confusing.

So many entries in one day

So, I'm still at that friend's house. We're studying various things right now. I don't have anything I need to study right now. At least anything with me that I need to study. So I'm sitting here awkwardly (common theme of today). I wish I brought something with me to study, but I didn't because I'm that productive. Sitting awkwardly somewhere whilst everyone else does things SUCKS. ASKLDASJHDSKJLHDAkKJLAH evil. The worst part is that I'm not even useful. I can't explain things for my life, and there are multiple people here who need things explained to them. But there are also multiple other people here who can explain things far better than I can. So I'm just sitting here awkwardly without a use and no one is talking to me. Anyway, wish me luck. Sorry for all the entries in the same day, by the way. There will probably be more later...I think I'm going to make an entry about my relationship to music later. Yes, that's exactly what I'm going to do! Stay tuned.

My thoughts as I sit here awkwardly.

So, I am at a friend's house. I apparently got here one hour early, even though him and I conversed beforehand with these words, and I quote:

Me: Should I still show up at one?
Him: Of course?
Him: !*

There are other people here, his other friends that play Minecraft with him. I don't, at all. I hate the game. A lot. There seems to be no point in the game and no reason to play it. But Minecraft is not the point of this entry. In fact, there is NO POINT in the entry. This is only to make me seem not awkwardly sitting here. So, right now I'm typing this entry obnoxiously loud. It's quite fun, but no one is noticing....sad. SOMEONE NOTICE ME...hahah just kidding. I legitimately hate it when people notice me. I especially hate it when teachers notice me. This is fun. I frakking hate sitting here awkwardly. THIS IS SO BAD!!! Cows and milkshake in Minecraft? ¿Qué? WHAT ARE THEY ALL SAYING?!?!!?!?!?!?!??!?! WHY AM I HERE I WANT TO LEAVE BUT I CAN'T SO THAT WOULD BE AWKWARD. Now Rohun just looked at what I'm doing, so this sucks. ARAJHFKJASHDKAJDHWJKHDAKJHKAJSDHAKSDJ This is evil. I don't want to be here. I legitimately want to leave.


P.S. This was typed at 1:10, but I didn't post it until now.

Why I hate it when people don't respond to texts

This is going to be a very quick entry. Not as long as my other ones, but still stating my opinion on a matter.

So, I legitimately HATE it when people don't respond to texts. Hate it. Lots. But, not for the reasons that one may think I hate it. Not because I'm annoyed at them for not responding and being douchebags, I'm okay with the douchebaggery. It's actually because I hate myself for sending the message. If someone doesn't respond to a message, I automatically assume that I'm bothering them and I shouldn't have sent the message in the first place. Then, later when I find out that I actually did bother them (WHICH JUST HAPPENED LESS THAN 10 SECONDS AGO), I feel like a horrible person that shouldn't have the right to text. 

Well, that's what I feel when people don't respond to texts. I know, I know, it's stupid and doesn't make much sense, but it's true.

Large groups (with some new people sprinkled in)

Hey! Look! I found a topic! Let's all rejoice in happiness for me!

Anyway, entry time:

Large groups make me shut off. I hate them. Whenever I'm in them, my brain says "Well, you're not allowed to talk to anyone, because no one would want to talk to you. You're too awkward!" So, what ends up happening with me is I just stand in a corner and don't talk to anyone, or, if possible, I leave. The problem is I legitimately don't have any control over this. I want to talk to people! I really really really do! But, my brain says that I can't, and I shy away. Another problem is my definition of a large group is different from everyone else's, 8 or nine people is WAY too many for me, which is why I'm quite worried that if my group of friends keeps expanding, I will just freeze and stop being a part of them, which would make me legitimately sad, because I LOVE my friends. (OLD BLOG ENTRY ALERT: People who like me are awesome, the entry to thank my friends for being my friends, and sticking with me through the awkward stage of knowing me, and being just plain awesome). I don't want to leave them, but if the group gets too big, I won't be able to handle it and I would have to go back to being the awkward kid in the class with no friends. I hate this, because I feel like a jerk saying "No new people!" because if someone new in the class has no friends, I'd feel HORRIBLE saying "Well, sorry, because I can't handle too many people you have to go find other friends. These ones are taken." I'm even a little cautious about adding Rohun to the group. He's pretty cool, but the way the group was before this was PERFECT. Now everything is changing and I don't like it. (I want a time machine (TARDIS) to go back to last year, when life made sense and everything was happy. My sister was still here and I only had 5 people in my group!). It's also not that I don't like Rohun! I do! But the problem is my socialness...I don't have any...New people SCARE ME! I'm not kidding, they legitimately scare me. Meeting new people is like one of my least favorite activities to do! Second only to public speaking (and maybe dying).

I guess what I'm really trying to say is that I'm not a bad person. I'm just a very...I really don't want to use the term socially awkward here, because I'm legitimately trying to be serious right now...nervous (?) person. When in large groups or meeting new people (or, in my worst nightmares, being in large groups while meeting new people) I'm just really nervous that...well I don't even know what I'm nervous about, but I REALLY am. I wish it were different, but it's not. I want to be social, outgoing, extroverted. More than anything in the world, but my brain WON'T LET ME. It's just telling me to go into that corner and don't let anyone notice me, and it sucks more than anything.

Well, that's my feelings on large groups (and a little bit on my feelings about meeting new people). Hope you enjoyed reading about my awkwardness.


P.S. I just got three pageviews from Russia! Welcome!