“The concrete was on fire!…”
13-Jun-08
She wrote:
“…the basics: I’m 26 — old enough to engage you in intelligent discussion but young enough to still appreciate drunken mischief, adventures, and misadventures. I’m cute (so I’ve been told), petite and Asian. I pay the bills by working as an chemical engineer. I love traveling, rock concerts, good company with vino, and napping. I hate Vegas, egoists, and having to post here for a decent date…”
My response:
Hi,
I fear I’m too late to invite you out to Indiana Jones tonight. But perhaps we can go see “Kung Fu Panda”? Or “The Chronicles of Narnia”?
We have a lot in common, you and I. For example, you love napping. I love napping! I’m an Olympic-calibre napper, in fact. But it’s not all sloth at Chez Rasch. There’s gluttony too. You know who makes a really good burger? Dairy Belle, in Belmont. It doesn’t look like much on the outside, but hmmm..mmmh, they make a tasty burger.
I’m sad that you hate Vegas, BTW. They have Cirque de Soleil shows! And Penn and Teller! And those magical gay guys, before the tiger ate one of them. So I hope someday you give Vegas another chance.
What chemicals do you engineer by the way? Do you have any favorites? My favorite chemicals are perfluorocarbon and chlorine trifluoride.
You’re probably familiar with their chemical properties already, but I like perfluorocarbon because it’s so non-toxic and dissolves oxygen so readily that you can actually breathe it. It’s what the rat was breathing in the Abyss:
http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/01/movie-gadget-friday-the-fluid-breathing-system-from-the-abyss/
And I like chlorine trifluoride because it’s such a strong oxidizer that it will burn sand and asbestos tile:
http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time.php
If you look up “badass” in the CRC, there’s a picture of chlorine trifluoride.
As for pictures of me (along with a more extensive profile), you can find them at my okcupid profile:
http://www.okcupid.com/profile/crasch4
So…a movie perhaps? Or coffee? Or if you’d like a more active date, I’ve been eager to try out Sky High Sport:
http://www.jumpskyhigh.com/
If any of those appeal, let me know. I look forward to (maybe) meeting you!
Chris
——
I didn’t include this in my response, but I thought it was pretty cool:
“…During the liquid rocket propellant era, a major incident involving ClF3 occurred the first time a one-ton steel container was loaded with liquid ClF3 for bulk shipment. The container had been cooled with dry ice to perform the liquid transfer and help make the product safer to handle, since the ClF3 vapor pressure would only be about 0.007 kg/cm2 (0.1 psia) in the subcooled state. However, the dry ice bath embrittled the steel container wall, which split while it was being maneuvered onto a dolly, instantaneously releasing 907 kg (2,000 lb) of cold ClF3 liquid onto the building floor. The ClF3 dissolved the 30 cm (12 inch) thick concrete floor and another 90 cm (36 inches) of gravel underneath the spill. The fumes that were generated (chlorine trifluoride, hydrogen fluoride, chlorine, hydrogen chloride, etc.) severely corroded everything that was exposed.3 One eyewitness described the incident by stating, “The concrete was on fire!…”