Monday, October 18, 2004

A funny tidbit

from The Edge, in the Oregonian...

We were just about to try this out when our computer crashed (buttered side down, of course)
A panel of experts commissioned by British Gas has come up with a mathematical formula for Murphy's Law ("Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong"). The formula is:

((U + C + I) x (10-S)) /20xAx1/(1-sin(F/10))

with the six factors being urgency (u), complexity (c), importance (I), skill (S), frequency (F) and aggravation (A).

-- The Courier-Mail

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Bits and bats

Well, not much new to report. Mt. St. Helens has not blown her lid yet, steamed yes, but no full on explody. The weather's been lovely, hardly feels like October.

I've been mushing around my bigger writing project again. Still not quite sure what I want to do with it, but it's still there, lurking in the shadows, taunting me.

I will be so glad when the election is over. I feel like I'm stuck in a whirlwind of propaganda and opinion pushing. Why can't we all just get along? I got a letter in the mail today from some anti-Bush outfit I'd never heard of, begging me to register to vote, half filled out the form for me (as if I can't read). Funny thing is, I've already registered. I don't know where these goofs got my info, but they should really get a clue. Sending a form letter scrawled in bad handwriting - attempting to be personalized? - are they really assuming that I would get all sappy and sympatheic and stand up and shout YES! BY GOLLY I'LL DO IT! Please. Oye I know that once the election is over, we will still be inundated with political mediaplay and all that fun stuff. But, perhaps the party posturing will die down a tad.

Book-wise I'm still reading The Claw of the Conciliator, Gene Wolfe, good stuff.