always too busy

to post here, or to get X amount of other things accomplished that i've still yet to accomplish. my dad likes to say, "life's what happens while you make other plans." ...i think i've got that right, and even if the wording's not exactly right...i think it is....hate to misquote m'dad....the meaning's on the money.

today i was 15 minutes late for work, my 10th tardiness of the 38 days i've worked so far this year. the luster on my attendance record is definitely lacking. incidentally, i've started early 10 times as well. each of those account for about 26.315789473684210526315789473684% of the time. which means i'm on time or early 73.684210526315789473684210526316% of the time. i've been early a total of 450 minutes, late a total of 277, for a net early start of 173 minutes, which, by mathematical average, works out to being approximately four and half minutes early each day.

the prior paragraph clearly delineates a convoluted reasoning necessary to float the data onto the ether with a subtle positive spin. while there may, in fact, be others, they exist in an area of the universe beyond the scope of this post, somewhere vaguely outside the boundaries of the author's motivation.

i hit a hat trick playing darts on my board the other night. missed the bull with two of the next three darts. actually, i left the hat trick in the bull, and threw the other three steel tip darts, followed by the remaining 6 soft tips. looking at all 12 stuck in the board, it was obvious that the proximity of my throws to the bull varied in direct proportion with the amount of time elapsed following the third hat-trick dart's impact.

make a big dent every day it's possible. that's just a little advice i threw in there for ya. no charge.

AC power is better than DC power for transmission over long distances. alternating current requires smaller wires at high voltages and can be stepped down with transformers. lack of transformers in DC distribution systems would require, for smaller voltages of electricity used in common residential appliances, widespread local establishment of small generation substations.

Nikola Tesla ripped up his contract for royalties due from Westinghouse, in order to release the company from financial liability threatening its solvency, and to ensure his dream of a ubiquitous three phase alternating current distribution system came to be. the man died penniless so that the world might benefit.

and he supposedly created a charged particle weapon in the period of the 1930s and '40s. an interesting device, that could theoretically render electric (and presumably electronic) equipment inoperable and kill men (or any living creatures) in wide swaths, by the thousands.

if this weapon doesn't exist, it should. the ultimate defensive weapon against an invasion force. too bad the tendency of early 21st century combatants is toward covert / guerilla tactics and random acts of suicidal violence. maybe they can make a portable one.

flittering across the surface of randomity, chaostically.

french fries aren't as good as hash browns, which proves that the post-cut shape of the potatoes matters in the interaction with the hot oil.

mcdonald's cheeseburgers are really not very good. the spongy buns are part of the problem. bratwurst is good partially because the bun is tougher. a killer hamburger needs a bun with some gravitas.

listened to SRV & Double Trouble's Live at El Macambo a few times this weekend. Stevie Ray was the best. also listened to one of Tori Amos's records.....the name escapes me at the moment. that's interesting stuff, too....she's got a great voice, and i like her piano lines, and she writes interesting lyrics. but Stevie....Stevie could throw down.

i have a taillight out on my truck. think it's just a bulb. maybe i'll get to looking at it tomorrow...but prob'ly not. more likely to get to it this weekend. reasonably likely it'll take me longer than that, if my track record of proper maintenance effort remains undisturbed. i'm really very good at doing the bare minimum necessary to keep a vehicle on the road.

however, it's a sad fact that even the most meticulously maintained vehicles won't last forever, and this truck is no exception. at some point it's going to finally give up the ghost, and then i'll either find myself in the position of being able to acquire a nicer, newer vehicle, or forced to purchase some similarly dilapidated hulk of rust and mildew with which to negotiate the asphalt gauntlet.

it's occured to me that i could literally drive to Bellingham every day, and work straight 8 hour days, and still be gone less time in a typical work day. right now the minimum amount of time i'm out of my house in a typical 8 hr workday is about 12 hrs. an average of three hours per day driving 74 miles round trip, for an average speed of exactly 24 2/3 mph. on the freeway.

but what the hell is there to do in Bellingham? i could get to Arlington or Marysville a lot easier, though. Hwy 9 northbound in the morning would be an interesting commute. or Monroe, with a Hwy 2 eastbound. just trying to go south from here at all, let alone all the way into the SoDo district in Seattle, is a fairly monumental pain in the ass.

i watched the movie Resident Evil the other night. not bad, for what it was. Milla Jovovich is easy on the eyes. not a particularly impressive movie. i liked her better in Ultraviolet. i liked Resident Evil enough to watch the sequel though, prob'ly. i was curious about those movies in the same sort of way i'm interested in seeing Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. i watched Brad Pitt's Troy the other day, too- then again a few days later with Loren, since i knew he'd appreciate it. easily the better of the two movies, by the way- though certainly not LOTR-grade....that seems a fitting bar to set for the future. i hear Ghost Rider is tearing up the box office; been planning on seeing that one for a long time. looks like time to take Loren to the movies this weekend.

saw Jim Carrey on David Letterman last night, caught a clip of his new movie 23. didn't look the same as the impression i got from the preview i saw a few moments later when i flipped the channel. that can't be a coincidence- that Carrey's Letterman segment would end, and at that exact moment there'd be a preview for the very movie he was promoting on an adjacent (or very near) channel. some advertising person earned their money there....why buy the 'blatant' ad on the same station when the segment ends- you just reached that audience anyway....and anyone who was interested enough in Carrey or the movie to sit through the segment before changing channels might get sucked in at just the right moment. surely that's not coincidental.

ok that's got to be enough jangsplankin' tribibulation.

this has been a test of the post system. in the event this was a real post, you may have gleaned something from it. i now return you to a location somewhere in the vicinity of your original point of departure, with sincerely delivered, cloyingly heartfelt, practically genuine apologies.