Vickiepedia

Listen to me, people!

There are two types of hadron: baryons (including protons and neutrons) with a baryon number of 1, and mesons with a baryon number of 0. During hadron reactions, electrical charge, baryon number and strangeness are all conserved. The properties and reactions of hadrons can be explained if hadrons consist of smaller particles called quarks. In the basic quark model there are three flavours of quark: up, down, and strange, plus the corresponding antiquarks. Baryons consist of three quarks which may be the same flavour or different flavours; antibaryons consist of three antiquarks. Mesons consist of quark+antiquark pairs which may be the same flavour or different flavours. Separate quarks are never observed; they are always found confined in hadrons. Attempts to separate quarks may result in the creation of new quark+antiquark pairs which both have the same flavour. In hadron collisions, quarks may be exchanged between hadrons and/or new quark+antiquark pairs may be created. Quarks may be ‘seen’ inside hadrons using beams of high-energy electrons which have sufficiently small effective (de Broglie) wavelength. Theory suggests, and observation confirms, that there are three further flavours of quark: charm, bottom and top. Quarks may be truly fundamental particles.

Leptons are fundamental particles which are not affected by the strong force. Electrons, muons, and tau-minus particles are leptons which have a negative electrical charge; their antiparticles positrons, mu-plus particles and tau-plus particles have a positive electrical charge. There is a neutral particle called a neutrino associated with each charged lepton; because these particles have no electrical charge, and have little or no mass, they hardly interact at all with matter. Reactions between hadrons and some hadron decays are due to the strong force. Other hadron decays involve quarks changing their flavour. Changes of flavour are due to another fundamental force called the weak interaction. When some unstable atomic nuclei decay, they emit beta particles; this can be either a beta-minus particle (an electron) or a beta-plus particle (a positron). Protons are the least massive type of baryon, so ‘free’ protons and protons in stable nuclei do not decay by strong or weak interactions. Protons are, however, probably not completely stable: scientists think that free protons have a half-life of the order of 10³² years.

Didn’t understand what I was saying? Me neither. So in other words…

HEEELLLLPPPPP!!!

Despite saying all that yesterday, I still think it’s nice to help people. So satisfying! I helped people with their diaries, just waiting for them to put the correct html codes up!

Wow! After the whole exam-intensive week of little sleep, I finally had a 14-hour sleep last night (got up at 5 p.m. this afternoon ). So many dreams as well! I’ll put them together so it’s like one dream.

At first I dreamt that I was the secret agent I’ve been a couple of times in my other dreams. I was in a forest carrying a heavy submachine gun that I could barely hold up. Suddenly, dinosaurs of all sizes appeared and surrounded me. I didn’t hesitate to shoot. After the danger was cleared, I found myself on a bridge, waiting to go somewhere with my friends.

I was still the agent, but the background changed to a prison-like place. It’s a huge room with grey walls and a lot of beds around. I knew I was there to look for a woman and I found her in the far left-hand corner. She was quite thin and looked very poorly. She was laying on a bed but oddly, the other way round: head where the legs should be. I talked to her for a bit, and when I left, I noticed that she drew two red hearts beside my name on a piece of paper.

Something must have happened and the other agents told me to evacuate the place. The bedbound woman offered to share the safest vehicle with me. I was flattered but didn’t want anybody to spot her affection for me (yeah, right).

And I became myself again. I was with my family in a crowded place waiting to get on a cruiser or something. There was a long, long queue but by the time I got there I found my father already lined up in the middle. I praised him for his speed and he was obviously happy about it.

All of a sudden I was reading a manga with myself in it. In the comic, it was snowing and four dark shadows appeared in front of me. They were three guys and a girl. All the guys were in suits but one had spikey hair and one, although without glasses, looked rather nerdy (couldn’t see the third). The girl had long dark hair. In spite of the weather, she was wearing a short dress. I watched as the snow gathered on her shoulder, not realising that she was talking to me. She noticed the distraction, smiled a little, then leaned forward and kissed me on my lips! She muttered something that I was meant to be able to hear but I just couldn’t hear a thing.

Yup, pretty ladies with long dark hair; they’re everywhere in my dreams. I’ve also dreamt of being that agent so many times that sometimes I wonder, maybe she’s the real me. Maybe the one who’s typing this diary entry was just a girl I often dream of? Maybe I’m actually asleep now and when I’m sleeping I was actually awake? Maybe… maybe all this was just an illusion?

Going crazy. What’s the point of dreaming anyway? They were fun most of the time but your brain wouldn’t have as much rest.

Oh, my brother just said I sounded like “The Matrix”; but I haven’t even seen it.