It's The Small Things

- When you use something on a daily basis, you realize real quick certain problems or issues that exist in this certain thing. The thing I am referring to is the "hand dryer" in the bathroom in the dorm. After I wash my hands, I walked over to the hand dryer and place my hands under the heat and wait as my hands dry. And sure enough every time I read why this hand dryer is better then paper products in bathrooms. It keeps bathrooms cleaner. It keeps trees from being cut down to make paper towels. It is better for the environment. And so on. And yet by the time I am done reading that same crap, the dryer clicks off and yet my hands aren't dry. I even rub my hands together as it depicts in the diagram and yet everytime my hands are still wet. Therefore causing me to hit the button again, for 10-15 seconds of another cycle. Did they not test these before shipping them? Why couldn't they have made the dryer blow for an extra 10 seconds or so? That way my hands would be close enough to dry every time. But no, every time I must hit the button again to completely dry my hands. Annoying!

- As a studying architect I try to notice the small things in all the buildings I use. And for the most part a "lay" person wouldn't notice these quirks or annoyances, except for one thing. That is, steps. There are few things worse then steps that don't have a proper riser to tread ratio. Its been refined over years and years of architecture and still architects can't make proper steps. Risers that only rise 3 or 4 inches make for a long quick walk. Risers that rise 9 or 10 inches make for an exhausting climb. There is even a formula for proper rise to tread ratio. 2R + T = 25. That leads to most commonly used and accepted ratio of a 7 inch riser to an 11 inch tread. And even with this formula there are extremes you just shouldn't use and yet people do. Stop doing this. It sucks.

- I thought it was something everybody heard since childhood. That when walking or such and you are passing traffic going in the opposite direction you move and stay to your right. Apparently that was lost over the years and now more then ever people don't move to their right and it turns into a "dance" trying to get around people. The move to your right came about so this kind of stuff wouldn't happen and therefore allow for a smooth flow. I'm not sure if this is the case everywhere, but with my experience with it, the most confused group and least understanding of this "rule" have been Asians. You figure that one out. I'd excuse the British since they of course drive on the wrong side of the road. Damnit people stay to your right!

- In other news, the softball team drew a split in Tuesday night's doubleheader. We played the "wanna be jocks" in our first game and just couldn't pull it together as they were finding every hole. In the night cap we found our bats and our gloves and won 17-2. Over both games I accumulated 5 or so hits, 4 or so RBIs, and 7 or so put outs. And I did commit one error, though in hindsight had I not committed the error we wouldn't have been able to turn a spectacular double play that inning. Oh yeah and I did have a 3rd base coaching error, though I think that the slide actually made it under the tag at home. Hey, you would of sent him too. Well probably not, since I sent the runner from second to home on an infield hit. The next game is Tuesday as we look to win our final 2 games and reach the playoffs.