|
|
Sunday, June 8th, 2003
|
5:22a - An assortment of things I will be doing tomorrow
When I wake up tomorrow I am finally going to go see The Matrix: Reloaded with my other free pass.
I also need to return Nature via Nurture to Barnes and Noble, since I just realized that my two-week check out period will end sometime tomorrow afternoon. It was a very good book, and I will probably wind up buying it sometime. Matt Ridley argues that nature and nurture work together and that it is folly to talk about genes and environment as if they were competitors. He shows that, while our genetic code does limit our biological options to some extent, environmental factors are key in determining how these genes are expressed. The book tells the history of the nature vs. nurture debate in a very interesting way. I'd never before found the lives and works of famous sociologists and psychologists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries particularly interesting, but Ridley's combination of entertaining biographical strands with criticism of their theories based on modern science keeps the pages turning. Ridley also makes some very appropriate and entertaining literary and historical allusions. Bad allusions ruin the books of many science writers. The next book I check out will be the first Harry Potter.
Rent is due, so I will be cashing my paycheck, taking out the money I need for rent, and depositing the rest in the bank. Which bank that will be, though, I have not decided. I am getting more and more annoyed with my bank's 7½ hour weekdays and virtually non-existent weekends, especially now that I know of a bank, Commerce Bank, that stays open until 8pm on weekdays and has decent weekend hours. The other bank also presumably would not charge me money for going in and asking a teller my account balance, which is what my bank has started doing. If I were to get direct deposit, none of this would matter, but I would really like to support the business practices of a bank which has advanced beyond the 9:30-4:00 mentality. On the other hand, HSBC has very nice Internet banking and many convenient locations. I would be happy with it if I did not often have to know exactly how much is in my account and make quick cash-deposit based adjustments to avoid overdrafts.
I probably should start the process of doing something about this/these mouse/mice that appeared tonight. I've now actually seen one, it looks small, gray, and harmless, but I don't particularly like it living in my room. An hour ago, something with the speed and size of a small rodent ran from under my bed to behind my desk. Two minutes later, as I was standing up, picking up dirty clothes off the floor, it ran back. I've never been particularly upset by mice and probably never will be, so long as they don't greatly interfere with my life by leaving too many mouse droppings or, alternately, get scared and bite me. I really hope this one moves away though. I saw another one run into the bathroom a little later, as I was taking the garbage out, but it may have been the same one. Just now it ran behend my dresser. My guess is that the mouse's presence is somehow my fault. I realize that I am not attributing enough random circumstance to the mouse's presence (there is no abiogenesis of rodents that accompanies the accumulation of trash bags - especially those without food in them), but, as far as I know, the apartment was rodent-free until now, a few weeks after I moved in. I think I may be a mouse-bringer. I will have to ask Anehija and Cristina if they have seen any around before.
(1 comment |comment on this)
|
|
|
|