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That’s how you get your ducks in a row

If there’s one great thing about my neighborhood, it’s that the local fauna never cease to amaze. Yesterday morning we were greeted by these visitors on the driveway:

Ducks are a regular sight because there are a bunch that live in the canal across the street. Occasionally they wander into our yard, but as soon as you get near them, they head in the opposite direction. So it’s rare to see a mother and eight ducklings just hanging out and not scrambling away (as fast as ducks can scramble, anyway). A couple of them even sat down. I think they were expecting to be fed, but we didn’t feed them.

My mom pointed out that they were “teenage” ducks — neither newly hatched nor fully grown — and that they looked awkward with their fully-grown feet and not-yet-fully-grown bodies (kind of like human teenagers?). But look at those feet.

After a little while of marveling at the ducks, we decided to make it clear to them that they should go back where they came from. So the ducklings gathered themselves…

…and set off with mother in the lead, as ducks tend to do.

Of course, I’m only assuming that the parent of these ducks was a female, but it could have just as easily been a male. I see nothing wrong with fathers assuming motherly duties. Who am I to uphold outdated ideas of how families have to be run? After all, parents should share those nice little opportunities, don’t you think?

Anyway, after crossing the street, the ducks looked around for food in the grass or something.

Due to the new school year approaching, I set a rigid schedule to get used to going to bed earlier. Last night was my first night going to bed at 11:00, and at that time I was actually pretty tired, so I hit the hay. I lay in bed for a while, but it was very hot, I couldn’t get comfortable, and random thoughts were bouncing around in my head, no matter how hard I tried to suppress them. Did I mention that it was hot? I threw my sheets to the side, took off my shirt and shorts, and turned up the fan, and it was still uncomfortably hot. Later, the air conditioning turned on, and it was still hot.

Every once in a while I would check the clock because it was still very easy to open my eyes. An hour passed. Two hours. Now, I’ve had some sleepless nights before, but this made no sense. I should have been asleep anyway. I tried everything I could think of to doze off: taking deep breaths, getting a drink of water, trying to clear my mind. I even put away my alarm clock because the incessant ticking was making me crazy. Immediately after doing that, I felt much more calm and relaxed, but nothing came out of it. I tried focusing on certain sounds, such as a sprinkler or distant thunder that came and went, but to no avail.

After a while it was past 2:00 in the morning. The whole thing was growing more ridiculous with each tick of my farther away, less annoying clock. I was pretty tired — maybe even tired enough to go to sleep — but I was being held up at the gates of dreamland. I finally resorted to going out into the living room and watching TV. I knew it would only make me more awake, but it would sure beat lying around and doing nothing. Just then, there was more thunder and lightning, and since I realized the risks (?) of watching TV during a thunderstorm, I decided to go back to bed.

The rain came for a while. I hoped that the sound would lull me to sleep, but the rain went away quickly. I don’t know what I did to make myself finally go to sleep, but eventually I found that I had woken up. It must have taken me about four hours to get to sleep, and I got less than five hours of sleep. Surprisingly, I haven’t been too terribly tired today, but come on: four hours to get to sleep? What caused that?

For this last week of summer vacation, I’m implementing a new rule: go to sleep only when you’re really tired.

It’s pretty weird that I should have to post a link to this kind of video, but it’s very useful: Busted: The Citizens’ Guide to Surviving Police Encounters. Basically, it describes some police encounter situations (such as getting pulled over) and shows you how to defend your legal rights that police officers may trick you into giving up. The laws mentioned apply to the United States, but it may be useful elsewhere. This is a video that everyone should watch; you’ll definitely learn a thing or two, and it could keep you from getting arrested. (Disclaimer: Don’t do illegal things.)

See what songs are starting to play on radio stations across the US at the oddly-named but easy-to-remember Yes.com (Flash). It doesn’t seem to be working at the moment, but little dots and song titles should appear and disappear on the map.

Two years ago: “Two years ago today, I boldly made the switch to the Dvorak keyboard layout.”
Three years ago: “So, how am I doing after a year of Dvorak touch typing?”