Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Clouds; or I Can't Think of a Clever Title

I got out of my Theatrical Lighting Design class early last Thursday and I didn't want to pace for one and a half hours or sit in the Green Room in the theatre building on Facebook for extended periods of time, so I figured I'd go sit in my car and listen to music. I walked all the way to the parking structure, up the stairs to the top floor, got in my car, rolled the window down, put my feet out the window, and turned on the radio. It was relaxing and I nearly fell asleep. Figuring that "I was taking a nap" would be a bad excuse for being late to my next class, I kept myself alert by watching the clouds. This made me think of Geography and what clouds are. Clouds are evaporated water droplets made into ice crystals that are suspended in the atmosphere, meaning that, despite their fluffy appearance, they would be incredibly unpleasant to actually be in. There are several different types of clouds. Cirrocumulus, Cirrus, and Cirrostratus are all clouds that form at high altitude. Altostratus and Altocumulus are all clouds that form at middling ranges. Cumulus, Stratocumulus, Nimbostratus, and Stratus are all clouds that form in lower altitudes. The clouds that I could see from my car window that afternoon were Cumulus, which are the big, fluffy clouds that one thinks of when one thinks of clouds. Cliche clouds. They were moving slowly across the sky, which is due to wind currents pushing the clusters of ice crystals through the atmosphere. It was a hypnotic sight and I wish I could have stayed. But, alas, class was a necessity.

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