Curbs Nov 8, 2006
I have a pretty horrible track record with curbs.  For some reason, they seem to be one of the biggest problems in my life. 

When I was 17, I was on my way to a Super Bowl party in my dad's car (the party wasn't in his car; his car was my means of getting to the party [most people probably didn't need that explanation]).  As I was making a right turn into a shopping center, I misjudged the size of the opening and hit a curb at 30 mph.  That's makes me sound stupid, so let me clarify:  There were two openings to the shopping center, and they were separated by a small concrete island.  Since some entrances to parking lots have a bit of a lip where the curb would normally be, I thought the two openings were one big opening with a slightly larger lip in one section.  So I hit that bad boy head on.  And the reason I was going 30 mph was because I was on a road with a pretty high speed limit and I have this obsessive compulsive fear of being in someone's way as I make a turn.  So my objective was to exit the road as quickly as possible.  And I did.  And I hit a curb.  At 30 mph.  It popped the right front tire and bent a few things in the process.  I pulled into a gas station (with the tire hissing as it lost air) and had it replaced with the spare, at which point I drove home in shame and misery. 

I bought my current car on July 10, 2004.  It was brand spanking new and shiny all over.  Exactly 2 weeks later, I drove to Pennsylvania for a party at the brother of the girlfriend of a friend's house (he's also a friend of the friend and a friend of me; hopefully that clarifies things).  As I pulled to the side of the road to park my car, I misjudged the distance between the curb and my car, and I scraped up my brand new, factory-installed plastic hub caps.  I was mortified.  I got out of the car to check the damage.  It wasn't life-threatening or vehicle-disabling, but it was ugly.  I thought, "Meh, I'll just buy new ones.  Walmart sells hub caps for like $15."  Exactly 2 years, 3 months, and 15 days later, I still haven't gotten new hub caps.  And in the process, I've scraped them at least 10 more times. 

Several months ago, I went on a company-sponsored trip to Las Vegas for a conference.  I rented my first car:  A white Chrysler Sebring convertible, the most common rental car on planet earth.  I drove to some place at night and parked in one of those parking lots with the concrete slabs (similar in size to a curb) separating the spaces.  I went into the building and eventually came out to drive home.  The parking lot was mostly empty, so I thought, "Pull-through!" and went for it.  That's when I hit the concrete slab.  It made a horrendous noise:  The same noise anything makes when it hits any part of a car.  I stopped the car and got out to check the damage.  It wasn't a big deal; I had merely driven over the slab.  The problem was that I actually got the front tires over the slab, meaning I would have to get the tires back over the slab in order to get out of there.  I got back in the car and put it in reverse.  I heard painful car-crushing sounds and found that the car was actually moving the slab instead of rolling over it.  I didn't know those things could move.  So I tried my only other option:  Pull-through!  I bull-rushed over that thing and got the car into a safe position.  I got out of the car and looked around to see if there were any witnesses (for the sake of my reputation, not for the sake of the car), and I kicked the concrete slab back into place.  The car actually didn't have any noticeable damage, so I drove away and pretended the whole thing never happened. #travel
Wrong number Nov 8, 2006
I don't fully understand how I get phone calls from people claiming they dialed the wrong number.  I can remember all two times I've done this in my entire life:  Once was last week, when a stupid lady left a mumbling message on my answering machine, causing me to hear her phone number incorrectly; and the other time was when I was 3 and didn't have complete control over my fine motor skills and accidentally pressed two buttons at once.  Other than that, I've been pretty good at dialing phone numbers.  And with the mass adoption of cell phones, people hardly ever dial numbers anymore.  They look through their phone book or sift through their recent calls.  So how do I keep getting calls from people dialing the wrong number?  If I regularly get several per month, that means other people must get around the same amount (I can't possibly be alone in this).  That means there are something like 6 billion wrong numbers called each year around the country (this estimate* doesn't account for international calls).  Good thing I have a cell phone plan that overcharges me for too many minutes.  Otherwise, I'd have to be overcharged even more. 

The other part of this I don't understand is why the people dialing the wrong number treat it like it's my fault.  I got a call at work the other day where a lady said, "Shontell?  Why you do dat?"  I said, "Sorry, I think you have the wrong number".  The lady mumbled something and hung up angrily.  Did I do something wrong?  I guess so.  It's my fault for having a number that so closely resembles Shontell's. 

*Estimate is a fancy word for "total guess" and is usually based on misinformation and false assumptions. #technology
Time budget Nov 8, 2006
On average, I spend
  • 29.2% of my time sleeping
  • 23.8% of my time at work
  • 11.9% of my time watching TV
  • 5.9% of my time driving
  • 4.2% of my time eating
  • 3.3% of my time doing church things
  • 2.4% of my time fixing/building/upkeeping things
  • 2.4% of my time getting ready in the morning
  • 1.8% of my time in class
  • 1.5% of my time cleaning
  • 1.4% of my time reading the Bible
  • 1.2% of my time buying things
That accounts for 89% of my time.  I'll assume 5% of that is calculation error, so that leaves 94% of my time accounted for.  I wonder what I do with the other 10 hours each week?  That's a lot of unaccounted-for time.  I do remember staring out the window a lot, but I didn't think it took up that much time. #psychology