Speed checked by radar (2) Sep 3, 2009
There are a lot of signs on the road that say "Speed checked by radar".  I understand this.  There's a rule, and in order to enforce the rule, police officers use radar.  But my question is, when is this fact not true?  In other words, are there roads where the speed limit isn't checked by radar?  Or is there some other sort of magical device that's used to measure speed besides a radar gun?  If speed is always checked by radar, there's really no need for the sign any more than there's a need for a sign that says, "Continue moving forward". #travel
Current ice age Sep 2, 2009
The most interesting thing I learned at Chicago's Field Museum is that our planet is currently in an ice age.  An ice age is defined as a period of time when extensive ice sheets are present in the northern and southern hemispheres.  Since Greenland and Antarctica are still covered with ice (for now), it's an ice age.  Pretty cool. #nature
How my brain works (4) Sep 2, 2009
I'd like to present a glimpse of what goes on in my head when processing a simple task.  For this example, I'll assume someone has just asked me the extremely simple question, "How are you?"  I've written about this in the past, but I feel like quantifying and graphing my thought processes, since that's sort of what happens in my head anyway. 

Human:  How are you?
Me:  [Brain, engage.]
Me:  [I've been asked a question that requires a verbal response.]
Me:  [Typical answers:  Great, good, pretty good, not bad, nothing much (though this is a wrong answer), bad, awful, terrible, null.]
Me:  [Calculating response...]
[Image: moodminutes.png]
Me:  [Events in the past 10 minutes that affected mood:  Thought about something funny that happened earlier, talked to a friend, ate a hot dog.  Average mood = 8.5, or in human terms, "good".]
Me:  [But what about earlier in the day when I was stuck in traffic?]
Me:  [Recalculating...]
[Image: moodhours.png]
Me:  [Events in the past 10 hours that affected mood:  Got stuck in traffic, hit every single red light, listened to a person talk about their dog, sat around in a meeting.  Average mood = 3.8, or in human terms, "bad".]
Me:  [But I had a good day yesterday.  And two days before that.  Should I factor that into my calculation?]
Me:  [Recalculating...]
[Image: mooddays.png]
Me:  [Events in the past 10 days that affected mood:  Went to the beach, got sunburn, relaxed on the couch, slept in.  Average mood = 5.5, or in human terms, "pretty good".]
Me:  Pretty good. #psychology
Ignoring product reviews Sep 2, 2009
I depend a lot on product reviews to make my purchasing decisions, both big and small.  I'll read as many reviews as I can before I spend hundreds of dollars on a new gadget, but I'll also look at reviews when only spending a few bucks.  My trick is to look at the negative reviews to see why people didn't like the product.  Usually it's something stupid like they bought the wrong color or there was a problem with shipping.  Rarely is their complaint worthy of a negative review.  But sometimes you can sift through the crap and find some useful information.  And then if you're me, you ignore it. 

That's what I did when I bought a pair of retractable headphones recently.  I kept reading negative reviews and dismissing them because the situation didn't apply to me.  One reviewer said she uses her iPod while running, and the retractable cable wasn't long enough to reach from her hip to her head.  I figured, meh, I'll be sitting at a desk, not running, so that won't matter.  Several other reviews said things about how short the cable was, and I just ignored them because I figured any length of cable would reach from my desktop computer to my ears.  It turned out I was horribly wrong.  I got the headphones in the mail, extended them all the way, and still had to put my head close to my desk to use them.  That's the last time I ignore product reviews. #products
Library borrowing time Sep 1, 2009
My library loans out books for a period of three weeks, which is usually a reasonable amount of time.  Sometimes I'll have a busy schedule and be unable to finish a book in three weeks, but more often it's plenty of time.  For DVDs, the loan period is a week, which is also pretty reasonable.  Some weeks I can't stitch together two consecutive hours to sit on the couch and pay attention to something, but most times it's not a problem. 

The problem comes with video games (which I really shouldn't be complaining about because I've rented, say, $500 worth of video games at $50/game in the past nine months), which the library treats as DVDs and only loans for a week.  I've actually emailed the library about this and presented what I thought was a pretty good argument:  It typically takes about 10-15 hours to complete a video game, and since I'm not a worthless teenager who sits around in a darkened basement and plays for hours on end (I'm older and sit in a well-lit room; also I pay taxes), it usually takes me about 10-15 days to complete.  Add a couple "off" days to that total and you get about three weeks, which is the same loan period as books.  The library kindly answered back saying their relatively small video game collection isn't big enough to let people rent games for that long.  That's a legitimate argument, but I stand by my case. #entertainment