Staples

Today at work, I went to staple something and found that there were no staples left. I rummaged through my desk drawer and found the box of staples I was issued upon starting my job. As I pulled a row of staples out of the tightly packed box, I had the same thought I'd had the last time I refilled my stapler: It's going to take me a really long time to go through these staples.

Then, I went to the next logical step that I hadn't pursued last time: Can I estimate how long that will be? Turns out I had all the necessary information at hand.

Today I took the fourth row of staples from the box, meaning I've used three so far.

There are 210 staples in each row, for a total of 630 used.

I've been at my job for almost exactly four years now, so my average staple use per year is 157.5.

There were 5,000 staples in the box, leaving 4,370 there now.

If my staple usage continues at the rate of the last four years, it will take me about 27 years and 9 months to use my remaining staples.

I guess I'll go ahead and submit retirement paperwork for March 29, 2039.

Small Worlds, Part IX

My friend Mike is in a band, and my friend Jocelyn is in a band. Last week, Mike emailed me to say he had met Jocelyn at a concert, and ask if I wanted to go to see a show they've got coming up. He was unaware that I already knew her...funny, but not that big of a coincidence, given that he saw I "like" the band on Facebook.

Later, however, Mike was telling a friend about this coincidence while they were having dinner, and at the very moment he was talking about it, I rode by the restaurant on my bike.

(This is part of a subgenre of coincidences where the telling of the story yields another coincidence.)

Doughnut Plant in DC

You may recall that Doughnut Plant was the overall winner of our Doughnut Quest 2010, sweeping the top three positions. I make a point of going there every time I'm in New York -- in fact, I've been going there for almost 10 years now. I think the area around their Lower East Side location may be the neighborhood I'm most familiar with outside a city I've actually lived in.

Now, Jess S. tipped me off to some earth-shaking news: Doughnut Plant owner Mark Israel plans to open a DC location. I guess maybe I'll gain some weight?

California

I went to California for a long weekend to visit my brother. It was quite nice -- got to walk around the Marin Headlands (where he's living now), camp on the beach with him and his girlfriend Molly near Santa Cruz, and spend some time in San Francisco as well. I posted a few pictures on Flickr.

Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Hamsters?

Not to make light of the ecological issues involved, but I was drawn to this article on the Great Hamster of Alsace by the phrase "wild hamsters," which is highly amusing to anyone whose only experience is with their wheel-running relatives.

Clearly the reporter had the same American childhood associations, given the opening line of the article: "France was punished on Thursday for not taking proper care of its hamsters."

Har har har.

Songs of the Moment (An Occasional Feature)

> TV on the Radio - Second Song
> Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero
> US3 - Tukka Yoot's Riddim
> Free Energy - Free Energy
> Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
> Beck - E-Pro
> Caribou - After Hours

Bonus PSA at the beginning of that US3 video.