Entropy

For those few (!) out there that didn't study third-year thermodynamics, and have no idea what entropy is, it is basically the disorder in a system. The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of how entropy works - that unless there is an input of energy (from some external source), entropy (disorder) will increase until it reaches maximum disarray!



This is a Law of science (not a theory) and you can't work against it. The cells in our bodies replicate millions of time in our lifetime but each time it does there is some disorder added, until eventually there not enough order left for the cell to do it's job properly; once salt has been dissolved the only way to get it back is to add a lot of heat and evaporate all the water; two objects of different temperature put together will come to some temperature between the first two (i.e. heat/energy will not flow from the cold object to the warm object); left to it's own devices a house will get messy and dusty, stockings will run etc etc etc. The only thing that you can do is work out how much energy you need to add to counterbalance the rate that disorder increases.



Until Alex was born, we had worked out how much energy we needed to counter the "entropy" that was in our house. Once he was born that energy needed to go up but it was still manageable. Since he has been mobile however the effort involved to combat the disorder in our house has magnified. In fact, I suspect that Alex is not actually on our side in our battle against entropy, but is instead involved in what one friend and I call asymmetric warfare against us.



Just this afternoon and evening he has managed to land a trail of destruction through every room of the house - I accidentally left the doors open to two rooms that he is not allowed into. He must have seen the slight gap when I had my back turned and he seized the moment. He managed to empty three drawers from the bathroom, one from the study (the floor is covered with pencils and envelopes) and get into the cupboard in the en suite. The encore this evening of breaking two plates (melamine at that) by throwing them on the floor with dinner on them! I suspect, whoever decides the medals for entropy will be giving him a meritorious award for his efforts tonight!

The time has come

I have finally succumbed to the lure of the blog. For months I have been enjoying a strange, voyeuristic delight in peering into other peoples lives through their blog. It did, however, seem rather one-sided - here was I, knowing so much about their lives (albeit that which they were happy to publish for all the world to see) and I was just "Anonymous", perhaps someone they hardly knew. So I decided to rectify the situation.

I actually decided to start a blog about two months ago but it took me that long to come up with a name - and I suspect that I will not be asking for a birth certificate just yet, it case I change my mind! The phrase "cabbages and kings" comes from the Lewis Carroll poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter" (found here http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/walrus.html for those that want to read the in context) which my grandmother used to quote. This idea appeals on a number of levels; Lewis Carroll was a mathematician who wrote satirical nonsense, and the concept of blogging strikes me as the sort of "talk of many things" with the ordinariness of life (cabbages) and occasionally talking about the grander things of life (Kings.) Somehow I suspect that any sporadic blogging that I perform will be more of the nature of cabbages than kings!

So Hello, It's nice to meet you. We must catch up soon