Waterpicking

Cool, I tried that toothpick on the water exercise again today and it actually seemed to have followed my intention. This time I started it a bit different - I threw the toothpick right into the water and started practicing without waiting for the water to calm down first.

At first I intended the toothpick to follow an oval path (turn around in the corners and then drift parallel to the box edges). There was an obvious problem with that .. the angular momentum was preserved and the toothpick kept spinning clockwise. Because of that, I failed to make it move parallel to the box edges. Ok, I tried to stop it spinning and make it drift backwards (in reverse to the impulse I gave it at first). It only slowed down a little and still hit the edge with its tip. Even after hitting the edge, it was still difficult to make it reverse its direction while it was still spinning around quite fast. It then hit the longer edge; the spinning motion stopped and it started gaining speed quite fast..

Here's a quick (and not very accurate) sketchup of how the toothpick moved (black curves) and how I had intended it to move (orange curve).

 

Before going to sleep, I tried some meditation with a visualization of becoming lighter in order to practice levitation. As I felt becoming lighter, some heavy snapping sounds started coming from both the living-room and my bedroom. I didn't let it bother me. Other than that, I haven't heard much snapping lately..