Ponderings and Musings

So here we go again. Most of us in the United States were subjected to the horror known as Daylight Saving Time when we awoke this morning. My body thinks it’s 10:30, the clocks lie and say it’s 11:30. I will now be in a continuous jet lag mode until this insanity stops. I’m hoping the trip to Las Vegas completely messes me up to the point of a chronological reboot so I can get myself back on track.

I don’t know why we play this game with the clocks. “Noon” is suppose to be when the sun is at it’s highest point in the sky for the day. Plain and simple. This system worked for a long, long time. Then we started with the whole energy conservation, make the day brighter approach to things and started fucking around with the clock. This latest incarnation of insanity, which started last year, has extended Daylight Saving Time to nearly 2/3 of the year. This change is all in the interest of saving energy.

Am I the only one that finds that sort of absurd? Why would a government that’s completely in bed with energy companies want us to use less energy? Studies are showing that we actually use MORE energy during Daylight Saving Time. Let’s watch those oil company profits jump, jump, jump in a legislated dance.

I can barely get up for an 8 a.m. class as it is. Tomorrow morning it will be pitch black when the alarm shrieks at 6:30. Tonight I will lie in bed at 11:00 (which used to be 10:00) trying to force myself to sleep. Tomorrow morning there will be more accidents on the road from groggy drivers. But it’s all good, right?

I was thisclose to starting a rant about this sheep mentality we have going on in the country but I’m not going to. Quite frankly I’m so confused as to what time it is I’m still trying to sort out the whole breakfast/lunch debate. But if I hear one more person say that Daylight Saving Time makes the “day longer” I am going to scream.

Rambling, this time set to random music.

Sometimes I just can’t take the pressure. Knowing that I have a deadline occasionally makes me a little bit anxious about a situation. For instance, I can’t take the pressure of having bananas in the house. We can go to the market and pick up bananas that are greener than a shag carpet from the 1970s, but the moment they enter our house they turn browner than the border around the aforementioned shag green carpet and then I have to chuck them down the disposer. While the bananas are doing their thing, I feel guilty for not overdosing on potassium and eating a banana with every meal. I can’t take the pressure of bananas turning brown. It’s just me and I’ve learned to accept that.

I have my blogroll set up on an RSS feed. Every hour various computers throughout the house grab the latest blog entries from the 50 or so blogs on my to-do list (the computers then compare their lists and resolve them to one tidy list, which I can access from anywhere in the house; I’m such a geek.) The majority of blogs that I follow are those of sexy gay guys. I also read various geek and tech blogs geared toward your typical über computer user. Said blogs are complimented by a smattering of video podcasts that I watch and audio podcasts that I listen to. I also compliment the audio podcast lists with broadcasts from Irish radio, as I like to know what’s going on in Dublin, wanting to live there and all.

So imagine the panic I feel when I see that I’m falling woefully behind on my blog reading. 10 unread blogs. Joe.My.God. posts a bunch of entries and then its 17. Y-O-Y does his thing and there’s another three making 20. Karl writes every morning, sometimes Sean goes right crazy with the number of blog entries in a day (which I think is a good thing, by the way) and then there’s all the technology blogs and before you know it, 40 unread blog entries in two hours.

Since I’m a college student and all, we must also factor into the equation my sitting down and actually writing a blog entry. I have so many things to say but after reading the stack of blogs that I read on a daily basis I find myself sounding like a parrot. On the other hand, sometimes I feel like I bitch about the same things over and over again: most drivers suck, cell phones should be shoved up the owner’s ass, I love Dublin and wish I was there, my collegiate experience is interesting when you have a professor named “Professor Frightful and his cast of voices”, I’m oscillating back and forth between Mac, Linux and Windows, I have a lot to do with no time to do it, the list goes on.

My blog anxiety is occasionally superseded by my e-mail anxiety. If I don’t answer an e-mail within a day it’s likely that I won’t answer it at all and that’s just rude of me. I know it’s rude of me. Since I’ve had an e-mail address since 1984 you’d think that I’d be better about it but I’m not. I still have an e-mail from Labor Day 2007 hanging out in my Inbox that I haven’t responded to. Our friends in Wyoming probably think we were vacuumed off the face of the earth.

It probably sounds like I’m in some sort of continuous panic about these things, but I’m not. Just venting them on my blog has relieved the anxiety somewhat.

I think I’m going to go answer that e-mail now.

Earl and I live less than one mile from a shopping center. In it’s heyday it housed a “Nichols Discount City” and a “P&C Foods” grocery store. It fell upon bad times in the mid 1990s and everyone except the post office moved out. A local realtor bought the property, sunk a bunch of money into renovations and now it’s at 100% capacity once again with specialty shops and the ever-present post office.

Today they broke ground on a brand new Dunkin’ Donuts. I wonder how loud the donuts will call out for us around 11:00 at night.

They’ve also announced plans to build a new car wash. We’ll have the cleanest cars in the county on our donuts run.

Today is turning out to be a grand day. There isn’t any particular reason for the grandness so I guess I’ll blame the abundant sunshine. The sky is crystal blue, the snow is melting and spring is definitely in the air. Let’s see if this storm they’re croaking about for the weekend comes to fruition.

Thursday is my busy day of the week with three classes crammed into five hours. My surveying professor surprised the class by taking us outside for the first time this semester. We staked out a curve that we designed in class. It was a great chance to visualise what we are computing in the classroom AND it was a wonderful opportunity to drink in the sun.

Professor Frightful and the voices in the chalkboard, on the other hand, is losing control of the class. I will say that since I endured this experience last semester, I can see that he is right on schedule for complete loss of control by midterms. Folks aren’t doing their homework, people chatter on through class and the class average falls right down the toilet.

And to think we pay money for this!

I had a chat with the professor that I felt that I let down with my test score. She’s also my advisor. It was a good discussion and I think she was a little taken aback by my passion for civil engineering and all things roadly. She seemed a little surprised at how much I brought to the table as far as field observations go and she told me that I am going to be a very valuable asset to anyone that hires me, I just need to get beyond the exam anxiety. She’s right, and I already knew that. I think that exam last semester (the one where I seized up to the point of panic) threw me off my game further than I thought. I’ll just have to remember to grab myself by the balls, wear a watch so I know what time it is and just do the damn exams from now on. I know the material, it’s about time that I started proving it again.

With the beautiful weather today, I am shunning my traditional military boots in favor of my “rugged sandals” for my afternoon classes. It’ll be good to stretch me toes.

Today has been a productive day in my merry little existence. I’ve erased many to do items off my new holy grail, also known as the whiteboard, and I can say that I feel confident about tomorrow. It’s just now that I’m realising that I never blogged today! I guess I was too busy making homemade sauce for the spaghetti, washing clothes, folding clothes, figuring out scads of homework, editing music for the chorus and other chores that made my day fly in a pleasant way.

I know I’m going to sleep well tonight!

I hereby declare that this whirlwind of a week is temporarily frozen so I can sit down and write a cohesive blog entry.

This week has been insanely busy. I did not plan for this week to be insanely busy but apparently the Universe felt differently. And we all know that when it comes down to one against the Universe, the Universe wins, especially when the Universe has the arsenal black holes and such involved.

Where to begin. Earl and I are having a bear party this weekend. It’s sort of an appetizer for the subsequent bear night at the bar I spin at. Because of this party I’ve been keeping busy making sure the house looks respectable and that the snacks and whatnot will be in order. There’s quite a few guys coming and I think it’s going to be a great time. Let’s hope Mother Nature cooperates, although if folks get snowed into the house I won’t be upset in the least.

School has been going well this week, though the homework has been keeping my busy. Even though this semester has had more homework than previous terms, I feel like all of my homework is geared towards my degree. Aside from the lesson on using my slide rule (WTF?) and doing computations with logarithms I feel like I’m gathering useful information that I’ll need when I’m finally a real Civil Engineer.

In between getting the house ready for company, school work and chatting with friends and family online, I’ve also been engaged in the hyper-amusing activity of keeping the driveway clear of snow. I don’t know if it’s global climate change or what but this winter has been sort of whacky. The traditionally coldest week of the year wasn’t and usually by now the great lakes are frozen enough that we don’t get a lot of lake effect snow. This year seems to be playing by different rules. I guess Mother Nature is shaking it up a bit to keep it interesting. We’ve all heard the reports about the changing weather patterns worldwide; I’m interested to see if we are going to see more severe thunderstorms and such in the spring and summer. I might have to chase me some tornadoes.

Earl and I are going on vacation in a couple of weeks. We are spending most of my spring break in Las Vegas. I’ve planned a couple of side trips courtesy of reading Karl’s blog and I’m looking forward to the adventure. Once upon a time I dreamed of living in the desert in relative isolation. The idea still appeals to me somewhat though I’d rather living in relative isolation in the Irish countryside now. It’s a little greener. Nevertheless, I’m really looking forward to the trip to Las Vegas and I think that Earl and I are going to have a fabulous time.

Now, back to my whirlwind.

Today the beautiful city of Dublin, Ireland enjoyed relatively chilly temperatures between 9 and 12 degrees celsius. That’s around 50 degrees for those that prefer the unscientific method of measuring these things. Said temps were accompanied by sunny spells.

Here at home we have about 10 inches of new snow with the majority of the storm expected late tonight through tomorrow night. I’ve already cleaned the driveway out once and that took 1 1/2 hours because I had to use the “snail” setting on the snowblower.

Is it crazy of me to hope this is the last big storm of the season?

Mother Nature graced us with bright sunshine today. I can feel spring approaching the front door. Soon it will be knocking and we will enthusiastically welcome it.

The bright sun and relatively moderate temperatures did much to bring me out of hibernation. To celebrate, I’ve decided to wear my sandals whenever I don’t have to trudge through snow.

More pictures available on my web gallery. Look in the folder entitled “February Sunshine.”