I Love Clocky

As a Carnegie Tech alum, it has always been my practice to mock and otherwise dislike MIT students. Part of it is their attitude; "My cult/university is superior to the cesspool from which you spawned." Part of it is jealousy that they are the "name" engineering school, while others (like, perhaps, CMU) are equally deserving of recognition, and perhaps more so.

Clocky has forced me to put that instinct on hold for a bit. Click the link above, if you haven't already, and revel in Clocky's beauty. It is simple, inexpensive, and tremendously useful.

The only problem I can see is battery life. Motoring around takes energy, and batteries are no fun. Still, forking over for some rechargeable AAs is a small price to pay for the promise of a 100% wake-my-ass-up-on-time rate. Congratulations, Ms. Nanda, you have one helluva concept. Now, license/build the dang thing and get it in stores ASAP!

Carl Sagan on human nature

The other day I decided that I need to start reading (books) again. To that end, I pulled Pale Blue Dot off my bookshelf and put in next to my recliner. I haven't read too far yet; so far much of the discussion has concerned the social history of scientific curiosity and, more recently, space exploration. Today I came across the following passage:

"The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life's meaning. We long for a Parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable.

If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal."

Mr. Sagan wrote that passage in the context of humanity's historic desire to find a divine hand intervening in our lives. The Parent he refers to is God, Allah, or any other being(s) that humans hold to be "above" themselves.

I don't think I'm alone when I say that there have been times when I have searched/wished/begged for the existence of a higher power. I'm guilty, I admit it. Good people get hurt, bad people get away, incompetent people get power; we look skyward and ask "Why?"

That "Why" may be futile, or it may not be, but it can certainly be comforting. More comforting, though, is to look at your own actions, ask yourself "Why?" and know the answer. That is where knowledge transcends belief.

Post #1 - here we go...

First ever post. Enjoy. It's a biggie, so feel free to just read the first and last paragraphs.

I cleaned today for the first time in weeks. After I figured out where I had left the darn vacuum (it had been a while, remember?), I decided that I should probably empty it out for the first time since I bought it.

[flashback]
It's June 2004 in Peoria and I need a vacuum cleaner for my new, post-college life. I always felt that normal (read: bagged) vacuums were a PITA, so I bought one of those new-fangled bagless models:

See, I just wanted to be happy like this lady.
[/flashback]

Clean the Filter, Prologue: I popped off the dirt canister, which was about half full, and held it upside down over my trash can...and waited...waved it around a bit...still nothing. I twist/pulled the filter out and tried again. Voila! Well, almost. The contents of the clear plastic thingy dumped out nicely, but the filter itself was still stuffed to the gills with filth. (That's a pun, see, because fluid filters are built a lot like gills, in that they should maximize contact area per...oh right, you're not a nerd. Carry on.)

Clean the Filter, Act 1: The directions on the filter said to "Tap it firmly" against the side of the trash can until no more dirt fell out. No water or brushes allowed. Unfortunately, my trash can was about 90% full. Not one to waste that 10% (that's $0.182709 worth of trash bag!), I tried tapping the filter base against the very top side of the can. A tiny little bit of dirt fell out, and half of it went outside the can. Double whammy.

Clean the Filter, Act 2: The dirt was packed pretty solidly into the grooves, forming a few "dirt worms" (much cooler than "dust bunnies") that would fill the length of each fold in the filter. As you may or may not know, I would not be satisfied until every last worm was gone. The next 15 minutes went by as follows: tap, rotate, tap, rotate, cough, sneeze, pull out worms, repeat.

Clean the Filter, Act 3: I finally got frustrated. I walked outside and beat that !$#*@$! filter against the brick exterior of my apartment until it was suitably clean. I'm such a nice guy - I spared those dirt worms a trip to the landfill. Instead, they got to return to the wild! I hope PETA's happy.

I hadn't cleaned in so long that my vacuum is already half as full as it was before I emptied it. I am left questioning my choice of floor-cleaning technology. The only upgrade path I can see is an expensive one: the Dyson. I guess I'd better forget about buying an HDTV and new sway bars. But seriously, folks... What kind of vacuum do you use? Are you happy with it? Would you like to donate to my Ben-wants-the-vacuum-that's-so-cool-it's-like-a-gadget fund? ;) Leave your comments below.

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