A Bloy and his Blog

It’s been six weeks since I broke my wrist (a distal radius fracture to be technical) and had surgery, and I’ve been told I’m coming along nicely. My physical therapist is putting me to work though, currently with all kinds of stretching exercises. With the trauma and immobilization, tendons in your wrist and fingers can really tighten up (take my word for it). Right now my injured wrist can bend vertically about 80 degrees. Compare that to how far your own wrist can bend.

read the rest of: Them bones, them bones

Imagine, being told to evacuate the city you live in and later finding out your home, your possessions and your job are all gone because of the destruction. Worse yet, imagine being one of those who were unable, or chose not to heed the evacuation warnings who are without drinking water, food, shelter or means of communicating to the outside world. Seeing the scenes left in Hurricane Katrina’s wake, I can’t begin to understand what the people there are going through.

read the rest of: Reflecting on Katrina

The stereotypical view of car mechanics (lying to your face so they can get their next boat payment out of your wallet) is probably fueled by ignorance — not ignorance of mechanics, but ignorance of automobiles. I’ve been in situations where mechanics try and use my ignorance to scare me into getting things done. It’s especially difficult when you’re pulling into the garage of a mechanic that you’ve never had a prior relationship with. I speak from experience, having moved seven months ago (has it been seven months already?).

read the rest of: Not so shocking after all

In past years I couldn’t believe how many people waited until the last minute to do their taxes. Invariably, every year on the evening news of April 15th (tax deadline here in the U.S.), the big story would be the lines of people at the post office, mailing their tax returns at the last minute. When I worked at the public library I was amazed by the number of people we would get the last few days before tax day, frantically searching for the tax forms they needed.

read the rest of: Procrastination nation

I’ve been creating and working with websites for about the past 8 years or so. Most recently, I started the first stages of designing a site for the library where I work.

Last night, I had my first web design dream. In fact, I had a small web design revelation last night — while I was sleeping. In my dream, I was working on the library website and I came up with what I think is a pretty good design idea. It wasn’t a big idea, just one for a particular aspect of the design. Is it conceited to be impressed with an idea your subconscious came up with?

Dreaming is something that I very much enjoy doing. Quite often, I find the experience similar to watching a really good movie. Be it conceited or not, the idea I had last night was a good one and I got a kick out of dreaming it into existence.

What a pleasure it was to see the sun shining in Madison after about a week or so of cloudy, overcast (and sometimes snowy) weather. It’s during this time of the year when I can understand how people can become depressed and suffer from things like seasonal affective disorder. During these months (late February, early March) I always feel like my batteries are in serious need of recharging. On days like today I genuinely get an emotional lift from the sun shine.

read the rest of: Good day sunshine

There are a few things I’ve been pondering lately.

1. Why does a meager two-inch overnight snowfall cause massive traffic jams during the morning commute in Madison?
2. Bob Marley would have turned 60 years old a few days ago, were he still alive. Way back in the late 1970’s, his music served as my introduction to reggae music. I wonder how my music collection (and my fondness for reggae and other world music) would be different if Bob Marley hadn’t been around.
3. Is it feed a cold, or starve a cold? With all the liquids I’ve been drinking (and subsequent bathroom visits) I’ve decided it should be drown a cold.
4. Using Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft FrontPage at work only reinforces my dislike of Microsoft products. At least I’m able to use Firefox there.
5. What are Asian beetles doing in North America? More importantly, what are they doing in my attic? Hopefully they aren’t inviting the African, Australian and the South American beetles to come over too.