clock … watching time, the only true currency

There are two more books I read in 2009, but I’m not going to record them tonight. Soldiers of Reason, a history of the RAND Corporation, and The Contractor, a spy novel, were both library pickups, and interesting in different ways, but I’ll give them their own posts soon. The many movies I saw but [...]

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With the title The Secret Pulse of Time: Making Sense of Life’s Scarcest Commodity, Stefan Klein echoes my own thoughts about the years/months/weeks/days/hours/minutes/seconds skipping or struggling by. Klein is a science journalist who’s found success in taking on big topics with catchy titles. I haven’t read The Science of Happiness or All by Chance, but [...]

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This neglected blog (damn you, Twitter!) reached its sixth birthday today. This is the 1,435th post, but the pace has definitely slowed. I’m glad to say that my birthday mile has not. Yet. 5:22 for the 4 loops (1:20 / 1:22 / 1:21 / 1:18) around Kezar is a second faster than 2008 and 2007. [...]

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I clicked on Seth Godin’s head long ago. Given all he’s shared online, I haven’t spent much time with his books. But The Dip was front and center at the library last weekend, and admirably small and brief, so it was an impulse read. With the goal of being the best in the world, with [...]

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In my favorite iPhone app (when connected), NetNewsWire, I clipped John Gruber’s recommendation for Wurdle. About three weeks ago, I finally spent $2 and added the app to my phone. Excellent decision. Wurdle is Boggle, but the finger-on-the-touchscreen gameplay works brilliantly. And you don’t have to be connected, which even in San Francisco isn’t guaranteed. [...]

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I dearly love my children. Truly. Still, the last few unexpected hours of time without the children on a Saturday afternoon has been a joy. Enough said. Among other mundane tasks, I got WordPress up to date, filled out an annoying but necessary application, and solved a problem for my wife. Not hyper productive, but [...]

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I enjoyed The Guardian’s coverage of the chronophage. “Beware the time-eater: Cambridge University’s monstrous new clock includes a marvelous video. The official University of Cambridge video from the inventor and maker, Dr. John C. Taylor, provides more of the history and details. Neal Stephenson must be pleased that a new mechanical clock was introduced the [...]

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Clock (this blog) is now 5, and I’m (cough) older than that. Still, I matched last year’s mile time of 5:23 (1:19/1:20/1:22/1:21 splits), which brightened the already-beautiful day a bit more. Only hiccup was Kezar was closed for pesticide application, which I found out after running over this morning. So I had to drive over [...]

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Daylight Savings Time provided an excuse for the New York Times to run the Op-Ed column Time Out Of Mind a couple of weeks ago. The author, Stefan Klein, blends scientific studies and literary references to remind us that measuring time leads to changed perceptions of same. Stress and mistakes are also common for those [...]

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I’m a bit early for everyone here in America, but Happy New Year! I’m more familiar with UTC (aka GMT) thanks to OpenDNS; that threshold was crossed hours ago. Besides, I won’t make it to midnight tonight, especially with a hill to climb in the morning. As long as my back doesn’t flare up, I’m [...]

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