Time well wasted

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
I've got clouds... on a cloudy day
I really need to get a new place to take pictures, or at least find a way on to the roof to get pictures in different directions. But such is life. It's been very rainy here lately, which always makes for some good cloudy pictures. If only I had a view out the north side of the building! The clouds were even better there.

From March Thunderstorm
posted by Brian @ 8:14 AM   0 comments
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Time - you ain't no friend of mine
As anyone who has visited my office knows, the walls here are pretty bare. There's a few plaques (Highest team score and most lost balls at the U of A staff golf tourney - score!), a crooked cork board, and a clock.

From Womack Wedding


Well the clock has been broken pretty much since I got here. I've replaced the batteries twice trying to get it to work, but it just never keeps accurate time. However, I don't want to take it down as to remove 1/4 of the decor on my walls. Nor do I want the ELC to buy me a new clock as really, who uses clocks anymore.

Anyway people have always commented on it and the other day I randomly looked at it and noticed it was correct. I began to wonder how often this happens. I was talking to Chas, our computer kid (probably not his actual title) and told him I'd give him a dollar if he could figure it out. What I didn't consider was, that once he gave me an answer I'd have to confirm the result.

Once he figured out his answer, I hatched a plan involving Microsoft access and excel, and literally 1 million lines of data. This plan failed. I was reduced to finding the answer algebraically. Which took much shorter than the excel method anyway (if you've ever put 1,000,000 lines of data into excel, it makes my fancy schmancy work computer respond like my vintage desktop circa 2001).

So anyway, long story short. If you're bored and feel like solving a riddle, here goes. My clock is 4 seconds slow, meaning that when a normal clock has finished its rotation for a minute and the second hand is at 12, mine is at 56 seconds. The next minute it would be at 52 seconds, and so on. How often is my clock right? (disregarding AM/PM)
posted by Brian @ 12:16 PM   3 comments
Thursday, March 12, 2009
To start the day
It's about a 7 min walk from my car to my office. On some days - like the ones later in last week and earlier this week - I love the walk. On other days, like today, I loathe it. Cold and windy, uphill all the way. But there's a stretch between the HPER and the Lewis center where it's concrete on both sides, and a stairway up - only a small patch of sky is visible. Days like today it's just gray and depressing. But days like the one below always give me a positive outlook on the day. It's like my daily groundhog day.

From Starred Photos
posted by Brian @ 10:00 AM   2 comments
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