Posts like this are exactly the reason why The Art of Manliness has earned a permanent spot on my Google Reader. Not only do they go through the basics of how to land a plane, but they also add helpful reminders (make sure the landing gear is down!) and recommended air speeds for a Cessna and a 737. How sensible.
From Slashdot: Why Email Has Become Dangerous:
The Sydney Morning Herald runs an interesting story dealing with a study about email user behavior, explaining how and why email can be a terrible distraction: "It takes an average of 64 seconds to recover your train of thought after interruption by email. So people who check their email every five minutes waste 8 1/2 hours a week figuring out what they were doing moments before." Email is also compared to slot machines in the way it works psychologically: "So with email, usually when I check it there is nothing interesting, but every so often there's something wonderful — an invite out or maybe some juicy gossip — and I get a reward." There are also some hints offered on how to keep control of the inbox, for those of us already addicted.
The first time we had a bat in our house back in November, I didn't know what to do. So, I called Animal Control and they came and solved my problem for me. Round 1 goes to the bats.
As I told this story among numerous friends, I was repeatedly admonished (mocked?) for not handling The Bat myself. Some suggested grabbing it through a bath towel, others recommended hitting it with a racket of some sort, or even opening the front door and waiting for it to fly out on its own.
So, at 4:11 a.m. on Sunday morning, after having been awoken by a bit of thunder, I looked up at the ceiling and saw something circling the fan. About this same time, Amanda started elbowing me and saying/whispering "There's a bat. There's a bat. There's A BAT!" She pulled the covers up over her head as I jumped to my feet and headed into battle. My friend Scott is fond of saying "You can only do what you are prepared to do", and in light of the last confrontation I was prepared to settle things with something other than my cell phone. I headed for the basement, closing the hallway door on my way in order to keep it confined to that "wing" of the house. I grabbed the tennis racket and headed back upstairs.
With all of the lights now on, I looked around our room and in our closet. Nothing. I moved on to the bathroom, sure that the winged beast would spring out from behind the shower curtain like so many movie monsters before him. Wrong again. Amanda had mentioned that she heard Tess fuss a minute before, but I thought it unlikely that Mr. Bat would have found his way into her room because the door was closed. While I was trying to figure all of this out, I looked at the space between her door and the floor just in time to see the bat crawl (yes, crawl) out from under her door. Instinct took over as I swiftly brought the racket of justice to bear on the flying rodent that had invaded my home.
Bats: 1
Wittmanns: 1
I snapped a quick picture with my camera phone, and then placed the carcass in a ziplock bag so Animal Control could send it to K State for rabies tests. We looked Tess over for bites and didn't find any, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to have it tested anyway.
Sorry, it's a little fuzzy, but it was taken with a camera phone at 4:30 in the morning.
A friend of mine at work loaned me his copy of The Lillywhite Sessions, Dave Matthews' Band's technically "unreleased" album. I had heard of it, but never really listened to it until today. I'm a DMB fan from way back, and I'm really enjoying this album as I listen to it today. I told my friend the only regret I have is that I'm hearing these songs for the first time at work, while I can't really *listen* to them.
So, I got to thinking. I listen to music all day at work, while I am (hopefully) concentrating on other things. I listen to music while I'm riding my bike to/from work. I listen to music while I work out in the yard. I listen to music while I'm driving. But, do I ever actually listen to music? Not really. I wonder how much deeper this new-to-me album would sound if I were sitting at home listening to it and doing nothing else.
I also wonder what other pursuits this applies to. How many things in my life do I passively experience, but not really experience at all?
My job has been keeping me pretty busy lately, and I've been going in early to try and keep up during one of the busiest parts of the year. One side-effect is that I also get up early (unintentionally) on the weekends. Saturday morning I woke up around 5:00 a.m. I worked on Amanda's new blog for awhile, and then decided to go on a bike ride before everyone else woke up.
I left the driveway around 5:50 and headed for the bike trail that winds from about 40th and Normal to the dam at Holmes Lake. When I rode past the apartments just north of 56th and Van Dorn I smelled smoke, and it kind of looked hazy back between the buildings. This would have been right around 6:00 or a little after. I slowed down a bit and looked to see if there were any flames or anything, but I decided that I didn't really want to interrupt my ride to go investigate and, besides, if there really was a fire I thought the local authorities would have everything under control.
When I looked at the paper Sunday morning, there was an article on the front page of the local section about a fire that had destroyed a 24-unit apartment building near 60th and Van Dorn. At first I thought it had probably burned down in the middle of the night, and that there was still smoke in the air when I rode by that morning. I read through the article and found out that "A resident called 911 and activated a fire alarm at 6:17 a.m. after hearing a smoke detector." 6:17 a.m. About 15 minutes after I had passed by.
The fire started outside, on a 3rd floor balcony. I would guess that the smoke detector didn't go off until the fire had reached the inside of the building. If I would have ridden over there to see what was going on, I might have been able to get somebody's attention before the fire got out of control. Fifteen minutes is a long time when you're talking about a building fire.
I can't stop thinking about this. Why didn't I just go check it out? What if somebody had died? Could I have helped to stop this fire that ended up causing almost $2.5 million in damages?
I mentioned awhile back that I was going to try and grow a garden for the first time in my adult life. I also mentioned the rain barrel system I had constructed to keep the garden a-growin' all summer. My dad warned me up front to not over-plant the plot, as it only stands about 6' x 12'. Sensible advice, I thought. So, I planted two tomato plants, two cucumber plants, and three green pepper plants. I think I even used the spacing directions from the plant tags, but I can't remember for certain.
So, this is what I've got going on back there now. The cucumber plants (which are covered with yellow buds) have taken over the world, and are now growing over and through the rabbit fence. The two tomato plants have grown out of the tops of their cages, and I have a third "volunteer" (?) tomato plant that's doing well without a cage of its own. The pepper plants, which look sickly to me, produced a pepper that Amanda picked this afternoon.
I'd like to be able to claim that I did something special to produce these results, but the only thing I've put on the plants is the rain water from the barrel system.
Last week's movie was Tombstone, and I'm going to have to call it a tie. I like Drew's quote better, but I think he misquoted it. I think the real line is "Why Ike, whatever do you mean?" The Johnny Ringo line is "Why Johnny Ringo, you look like somebody just walked over your grave." Close, but no bottle of whiskey.
Let's make it a little easier this week. If you don't know this one, somebody needs to get you a Netflix membership.
"We got no food, no jobs… our PET'S HEADS ARE FALLING OFF!"
Best of lucky!
… where Jim rides his bike to work and shows up all sweaty? That was me this morning.
The van's in the shop getting new brakes, and Amanda had a doctor's appointment this morning. I've been meaning to start biking it anyway ever since Jared fixed up the bike I've had since high school, so this was the excuse I needed to finally do it. I'm hoping to make the trip 2 or 3 times a week, but we'll see. Judging from the other folks I saw along the path today, the way to go is to get one of those rack/saddle bags combinations so I can pack my clothes in one side, my lunch in the other, with my shoes on top. Sure, that setup doesn't look very cool, but I think I'm past that. I mean, I even wore a helmet today. It's a sure sign of that I'm getting old when safety (and responsibility) becomes a higher priority than going fast or looking cool.
I also found a great site this morning that let me map my ride to get the distance from home to work. Oddly enough, the site is mapmyride.com. The total distance was 5.58 miles, and you can see the route I took here.
Any other bicycle commuters among us? I'd be curious to know who else does this sort of thing, and any tips you might have for me.
I was listening to Dave Matthews Band's Similar Artists this morning when "My Way" by Frank Sinatra came on.
Can somebody please explain to me how Frank and Dave could possibly be considered similar artists?
Boys like to consume and destroy things, but men understand the joy of creating and restoring.
Agree?
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