Recently read this fascinating but sort of traumatic article on worldwide traffic problems.  Here’s a picture of Moscow at its worst:

I love the guy roughly in the middle (circled) changing lanes. Yeah, that'll help.

This is pretty much my nightmare.  I will drive an hour out of my way to avoid congestion.  My house is under 15 minutes from work and sometimes it still feels like I’m wasting too much time and effort commuting.  I can never ever accept any job that requires a serious (like, 30+ minute) commute.

I posted on twitter that I have the hearing of a 16-year-old and the eyesight of a 50-year-old.  I picked those ages somewhat arbitrarily, but genuinely trying to guess my age equivalencies.  It occurred to me later that my actual age is precisely halfway in between those two ages.  (Determining the numerical value is an exercise left to the reader.)  It’s a little weird to think I’m as close to 50 as I am to 16.  Sixteen kinda seems like a long time ago, but then again, it kinda doesn’t.

Totally unrelated, some items of interest:

*The Chilean earthquake actually shortened days on Earth. Wow.

*I’ve been obsessed with this video since lambwaffle shared it.

*A croquet set.  I am considering leaving a fake review suggesting shoppers look for something of higher quality. Also: laser mallets!