Natural Bridge

Recently, I took a weekend trip to visit Natural Bridge, VA to see the one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. For starters, this claim is a load of poop. The Natural Bridge is listed as a contender (among many) on one website, but not on most others [1,2]. Despite delusions of grandeur, it's actually pretty spectacular. It's hard to imagine how big it is until you notice that I am in the picture (circled in yellow).


Next stop...foamhenge. As tacky as that sounds, I actually enjoyed a quick visit. Best of all, it saves me a trip to England. The artisit, Marc Cline, also has a Haunted House and Dinosaur Kingdom that I recommend. Bring the kids. They'll be scared.


Almost as scary as the Haunted House, was this toy, on display at the Toy Museum located inside the Natural Bridge Visitors Center. Remember those good ol' days of making your own die-cast toys? Yikes! Caution kids, high temperatures!

College Text Books

I am glad that I kept my college science and engineering text books for reference. However, sometimes you come across situations like this:

"The solution to these equations make a good exercise for the reader (see Problem 3 at end of chapter.)"

Good for professors. Bad for professionals.

The Mechanic's Dilema

Ever take something apart and put it back together and find something missing? Take a look at the figure below. What happened to the missing square?

Finally, 2009!

It's time to review how my 2008 Resolution went and proclaim new ones for 2009...

My resolution for 2008 was to "reduce input" in order to "be more productive". Here are some of the things I did to reduce input...

• Reduce television time - One thing I implemented was "no-TV Tuesday". I figured cutting one day a week of TV watching would be easy. I was surprised how hard it actually was. I like having TV on in the background when I do other tasks. Even though I missed having the TV on, I found I could focus on my other tasks more, so it was a good idea. I'm not sure how much it reduced my dedicated TV watching, though, because I record everything on DVR, so I wound up watching the shows on another night instead.
• Less magazines - I canceled one magazine subscription and recycled a stack of magazines I was going to read "some day". Now, I find that I am catching up on trade journals that I never got a chance to read.
• RSS reduction - Last year I spent ~30-60 minutes/day reading RSS feeds. I eliminated 20% of the feeds and moved the rest to a new reader. My old reader forced you to read all new items in a feed once you opened it, forcing more effort on my part. My new reader allows me to read at my own rate and I no longer feel the necessity to read every post.

Even though I managed to reduce input, I failed at "being more productive", mainly, because I introduced new distractions. This year I have become addicted to online poker and Wii rockband. So much for New Year's Resolutions.

For 2009 I have resolved not to make a resolution. (OK, I just couldn't think of a good one.)