Day: April 5, 2002

The Friday Five, found initially via kottke.org

1. What are the first things that you do in the morning to start your day?

First, I wake up. I find this helps immeasurably. Then I grab a towel and some clothes and stumble to the bathroom for my morning shower. I get dressed in the bathroom not so much out of modesty — I live alone — but because I don’t want to traipse naked and wet across my cold, cold living room and its hardwood floor. Once finished getting dressed, I brush my teeth and pocket my keys and my wallet, usually spend a few minutes transfixed to the television or mesmerized by the radio while I struggle with the whole concept of being awake, and then I head out the door, locking it behind me. If I’m lucky, I have about five minutes to get to work. I almost never eat breakfast on weekdays, the only days I really have a routine. That might be a mistake — by eleven I’m usually famished and can’t think straight — but food generally doesn’t agree with me until I’ve been awake for an hour, and I have enough trouble allowing half an hour for getting dressed and my commute.

2. What are the last things that you do at night before going to bed?

I make sure my alarm is set, my door is locked, and then I climb into bed and turn off the light. Sometimes, but as often as I should, I leave on the radio, more because I know I’ll forget to turn NPR back on in the morning than anything else.

3. What daily routine have you recently added to your day?

My routine has stayed basically the same for years. The only real difference between now and a year ago is I have a better paying job and a car. But I’ve had the better paying job since September and the car since January, so I wouldn’t really call those recent alterations to my day. I am nothing if not predictable. But then, you probably knew I was going to say that, didn’t you?

4. What routine do you wish you could get rid of?

I’m happiest when I can sleep without setting my alarm at all, so I would like it if I didn’t have to be at work until at least 9 or 10 every morning. Then I could have more time to myself in the morning, more time to adjust — maybe even have some breakfast — and I could still cling to this dream of eight hours of sleep every night. So it’s not so much a routine I want to get rid of, as it is a rountine that needs some serious tweaking. I won’t even begin to bore you with the routines that need tweaking at work.

5. What’s the one thing that makes you feel like something is missing if you don’t do it some point within your day?

Hands down, Caption This. It’s just part of who I am. And, really, if I don’t be me, who will?

I continue to think spam can’t get any more confusing or annoying, and yet it continues to confuse and annoy me. Case in point: today, not ten minutes ago in fact, I received a fake virus warning. “A letter sent to you was infected with a virus,” it says. “It was deleted. Below are the headers of this message and information from the virus scanner.” This didn’t come from my virus detection software, though, and I’m quite sure there is no postmaster at unreality dot net. Maybe someone tried to send a virus using a faked e-mail address and my domain name, but overall what I received looks suspiciously like spam since it, too, comes from an address I don’t recognize. Which begs the question: if you’re not selling or promiting something, and you’re not sending a virus, a link or something else, what then is the point of spam?

It’s the fifth of April and yet, despite that, outside my window it’s snowing. Not much, just a flurry here and there tossed around in the afternoon wind. But it’s enough. It shouldn’t be snowing. Winter should let us go, wish us well and send us on our way. I’m starting to need spring the way I need water. I need the genuine article, too, not these false starts and stops. I need robins chirping in trees, flowers in bloom. I need warm sun, cool breeze, and most of all no more snow.