fine whine

Few of my timepieces* display the correct time. In the house we do have one clock (actually a weather station) that syncs itself with the signal from that atomic clock in Colorado, but all the others range anywhere from a minute off to half an hour or more.

My wristwatches, when not out of commission or battery, are all at least a couple minutes fast, generally around seven.

My car has two digital clocks in it (both factory installed, no less) and they're both wrong, though within twenty seconds of each other. They're ten minutes fast, tested against the NPR announcer's clock almost daily.

Ten minutes is also the amount of time it takes for me to drive to work in the morning. Knowing that, as soon as I sit down in the car I know what time I'll be at work, all without doing any mental math**.

As nifty a trick as this may be, I'm working on my morning routine so that as soon as I get out of bed I know what time I'll sit down in the car. I'm within five minutes, I think, but I know I can improve my time.

Then again, it's just a matter of time before one of us clumsily fat-fingers the time-setting buttons searching for the snooze button, anyway.

* Because I seem to be writing about time so frequently, I have created a corresponding 'time' category. It's about time, eh?

** Closing my eyes while driving is something I've tried to avoid, over the years, to the extent that I am capable of, and moreover inclined to, sneeze with my eyes open.

I've become a Pod person*.

For a long time I've wanted to own an iPod (to replace my 32MB mp3 player and the mp3-CD players thereafter) but not wanted to spend the cash Apple wanted for the little buggers. Even their knockoffs and competitors were pricier than I'd like, given that I wanted one with massive amounts of storage.

Well, now I have one and I didn't need to buy it or rob someone to get it. Through means I am not at leisure to discuss I now am the proud owner of a third-generation iPod, and have already begun filling it with the hundreds of discs I own and/or have ripped.

I don't think I'm using it the way Steve Jobs intended. Rather than using iTunes to buy downloads and organize my collection and synchronizing the player to the files on my hard drive, I'm using third-party software (haven't yet settled on one, or even found one I'd be willing to endorse) and using it as my primary storage for the music, with backups burned to data CDs.

After all, why do I need two large hard drives filled with the same music? It's inconvenient to load, but once I've got the music on the player that's the only place I need it to be. So this works for me.

I've even gone as far as replacing the battery myself. Before I replaced the battery I'd get maybe an hour from a full charge; now I get many times that. So even in a short amount of time I think I've come a long way. I have a ways to go, though. But it'll be fun learning to use it better, I think.

* The quote above comes from the movie Invasion of the body snatchers, though it concerns emotions, not portable music players. It seemed the most fitting.

I'm filing this under coincidences because it is, more or less, one of them.

This morning as I picked out my wristwatch* I glanced at it to see if it was running. Its minute and second hands pointed between 8 and 9, so I figured that it being somewhere between 8:33 and 8:45 am (given the fact that my watches are all between 0 and 7 minutes fast) was fine, and hurried off to work.

It was only later, about twenty minutes later, in fact, that I noticed the time on my watch hadn't changed. In fact it had stopped sometime yesterday (8:42 am or pm), and I had somehow managed to look at it during the window today when the time was more or less correct. I hadn't looked at the date.

Fully knowing, then, that it isn't running, I've checked it at least three times today. Still wrong. It'll be right tonight, though.

* Not being much of an accessories fellow, the only fashion/jewelry indulgence I have is my collection of watches. I could wear a different one each day to work, and even coordinate them to the outfits, to some degree. Today, being 'casual Friday', I grabbed one with a leather cuff to give my t-shirt and baggy jeans that extra street touch. Or skater, or punk, or whatever.

n.i.m.b.y.

I've spent an hour or so* after dinner the last few nights pulling up dandelions. Every night I survey my work and know that I'll pull more up the night thereafter, but it still surprises me each day how many more of the yellow menace have reared their ugly buds. I can only hope I'm making something of a dent (after all I'm leaving a number of divots) in the total weed population, but so far each day seems to show as many flowers as the one before.

They're moving from west to east, or so it seems. The more mature, bigger and easier to spot plants are growing on one side of the yard, but all the tiny young plants on the other are just lying in wait to pop up this weekend, if not sooner.

Tonight, as I looked back out over my handiwork, I noticed that the neighbors behind us have a veritable dandelion field going, with no maintenance in sight. It does not bode well for our yard once all those flowers go to seed.

I think I'm going to need to recruit some more rabbits.

* The time is approximate, as the albums to which I'm listening vary in length.

Threadless* is doing their irregularly scheduled ten dollar t-shirt sale again. Shipping starts at $5.50 and the shirts rock. The sale ends this Wednesday, but all the cool stuff will sell out well before then. Such as this one.

Since the site's getting somewhat hammered, I recommend using the stock chart for the sizes you wear.

* Note that the link contains a secret tracking code for me, so that if you order, I get some small pittance of credit. I've been saving up, so I bought myself this shirt for less than the price of shipping. Thanks to all who have used my link, and thanks to anyone else who does so today or tomorrow.

working walking

This entry was posted from my treadmill*.

It was only a matter of time before I'd do something like this. I've played PS2 games on the treadmill, I've read books and watched movies, and now, I've been online... at three miles per hour. The board isn't quite the right size, and I couldn't find matching clamps, but for a first attempt it was entirely adequate.

* Of course the photo was not. While I considered setting up the tripod and a timer shot, the fact that I was walking in boxers ruled out any photo featuring me. And I'd probably block some of the view of my fantastic workmanship.