Arnold's Web Home

today is and I'm feeling:

Glad you came by, wipe your feet before you settle in.

So.... I've been to a great many websites lately where you leave thinking, "I'm now dumber having visited that site".  Of course there are others where you leave thinking "Cool, I've experienced another human being."  That's what I'm trying to build here... the second one. :)

I am tired of being run off the road.

These new living rooms on wheels... these super sized sports utility vehicles are hazards.  Great big huge, behemoth safety hazards.  In the last month I have been very nearly bumped into the next lane by some Excursion or Expedition or Yukon or what have you with a 5'2" person inside barely able to see over the steering wheel.  

These are the same people that park these monstrosities at 60 degree angles in the parking lots because they misjudge the advanced calculus it takes to maneuver one of these leviathans into a parking stall.  Either that or you see them making 16 point turns trying to get in straight.  

Can't these things be designated their own lanes?  Their own special hours of operation?  Maybe they could pay a special tax that the rest of us could get refunded to us as compensation for having to drive with these land yachts.  

Explorers would be exempted because they're not as big and I drive one.  (But I can handle it!!!!!!!)

8/3/01 - 3:14pm

The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind. - Humphrey Bogart 

7/27/01 - 10:00am

Now I've seen everything.  I was at Starbuck's innocently getting an iced venti non fat chai tea latte.  As I hopped out of my car, I notice in the car one to my left the oddest sight.

In a midnight blue Toyota Corolla is what appears to be a fifty year old man of Chinese descent.  He's wearing khaki pants and a blue, plaid or checked shirt.   He's wearing wire rimmed glasses and black patent leather shoes.  And he's listening to Aerosmith's new album, cranked to almost full.

Although I am still reeling from the implications of this, I still say "nicely done, sir."

7/21/01 - 9:24pm

If being a denizen of this country means getting run off the road, then today is a great day to be an American.  

I'm talking about riding your bike around town, people. It's lately become one of my joys and something I've added to my "things needed for the good life" list.  Of course, that's my side of the story.  Let's look at the other side a moment.

Say you're a car driver... suddenly the biker is a moving obstacle, a minor annoyance that necessitates you moving a few inches to the left so as not to clip the lad on the bike with your side view mirror.  And if you're a biker trying to cross the street, you've got to keep an eye on the guy turning right who's looking for cars and pedestrians, but not bikers.  I ride my bike in the city a lot so I'm exposed to more potential collisions than most, but even the one time some driver sheepishly waves the "sorry, didn't see you" wave is one time more than you want to experience.  Believe me.

And pedestrians.  Don't get me started on pedestrians.  Well, I suppose I've started myself, so here goes.

Most are innocuous enough, but some are positively hilarious.  I'm talking about the people who read bills as they walk or talk on the cell phone or worse, apply makeup.  These people bob and weave on the side walk like a prizefighter.  You're forced to slow down to a crawl to see where they end up on the sidewalk as you pass.

To be fair, I suppose I should mention that I've spooked a pedestrian or two.  Some you can't help.  The jogger, intent on his Walkman, who leaps a foot in the air as you pass.  You just try not to chuckle to loudly or smile too noticeably.  Makes them feel better when you pretend you didn't see them start.  Others are totally my fault.  Like the people who come out of shops with their new purchases in crisp paper bags who don't expect a biker to come up suddenly, zooming in silently from the left.

I've left a few tire skids on the sidewalks, I have to admit.

But these are the small things, they don't detract from the sun on your hair or the wind in your face.

Now I feel like riding.  See ya.

7/15/01 - 6:57pm

I read today (and just verified with a chemist I know) that a chlorophyll molecule is made of a sphere of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon surrounding a single magnesium atom.  If you switch out the the magnesium and replace it with iron, you get a hemoglobin molecule. 

This humbles me.  

Imagine the complexity of a chlorophyll molecule. Together, with other chloroplasts, these blobs of green take sunlight and manufacture food for a living plant.  Yet one change.  One seemingly insignificant change, and suddenly you've got yourself a molecule, together with lots of other molecules like it, that sift out oxygen from the lungs and carry it to cells all of the body that need it.

The changing out of one atom amongst many makes all the difference in what the thing is and does.

Surely this can't be random chance that did this.  A million monkeys typing on a million typewriters for a million years could never have typed this elegantly economical design. And yet.. Someone did.

7/10/01 - 8:43pm

There's a lot to be said about getting enough rest.  I suppose there's a lot to be said about a great many things, but too many people are talking about too many things already.  

Hmmm... I think I may be talking my way on to that very list.  Anyway, I'm finding that running on empty for two weeks takes more than one night's rest to make up.  What happened to the days when I could stay out all night, shower then go straight to work and no one was the wiser?

Sure, I was falling asleep at my desk by 4:30 and the Starbuck's people knew me by name, but that's a small price to pay, really.  It was like getting another day in for free.  And we could all use a little extra time, I say.

But what's all this business about needing seven hours rest now?  I should be able to lodge a complaint somewhere, because I never agreed to this.  Somewhere, somehow, I'm finding that if I don't get about seven hours of sleep, I start accumulating a sleep debt.  Maybe it's the big sleep collection agency finally coming after me for taking advantage of the system for so long.  In any case I don't like it and someone's going to hear about it.  

Right after I take a quick nap.

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