More Adventures in Applied Physics

* A couple of weeks ago, I got an electric toothbrush. My dentist had recommended getting one, and I had thought that it might help my arm if I didn’t use it in that back-and-forth capacity several times a day. (I tried brushing with my right hand, but it just doesn’t work as well.) So eventually I was able to put two things together simultaneously: my memory of wanting to get one, and my presence at the store! I can’t actually claim full credit for that one, either, because it was my better half who reminded me while we were at the store.

Anyhow, it’s pretty cool! I think it cleans my teeth better than I was able to clean them myself. The only problem is that it vibrates (duh) and is kind of noisy when it’s inside your mouth. Also, the vibrations make your whole head shake, and one time when I was really tired and using the toothbrush it made me a little nauseated. But it’s something I can do with my right hand so that outweighs any disadvantages.

* I can tell it’s winter because my hands are scaly. I’m disappointed that despite the (relatively) warmer climate, my hands are as dry as ever. My fingers are like fine-grained sandpaper. You know it’s bad when the dry skin cells on your fingers get hooked on your socks in the morning. If I were putting on panty hose, my fingerprints would cause a run.

Lotion doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. I do apply it most mornings, right when I get out of the shower. But my hands are still scaly, scaly, scaly!

* And speaking of other signs of winter, the static electricity has been interesting. Ever since I lost all that weight I can’t seem to get warm in chilly weather. So at work I wear this “warm fuzzy,” a fleece cardigan, basically. Fleece is of course very static-prone. So I have shocking experiences a lot, but the most interesting ones occur when I’m sitting at my desk and hooked up to my iPod. If I move and it causes sparks of static electricity, this causes interference in my earphones.

* The other day I got this new alarm clock. I don’t like to know what time it is at night, because being able to see the time means that this numbers fiend will look at the clock ALL THE TIME instead of sleeping. So in an effort to reduce the interruptions in my sleep cycle, I generally use a travel alarm clock. I used to have a small purple one, but then I stepped on it. It was an awesome clock, but I decided to go up in the world and get one that synchs with the atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado. This feature cost two dollars more than replacing my clock with the same model, but I decided it was worth it.

Since I am a numbers nutjob, I am really excited about the fact that this clock reads the exact time, to within something like 0.2 seconds. I find myself wanting to take this clock everywhere I go and compare the time on it to the time on other devices. I could do that if I wanted, because it IS a travel clock. But I guess that would be a little bit weird and obsessive. Not that being weird has stopped me from doing things, but obsessive, that crosses the line.