Pete's Log: 4 things

Entry #1579, (Random Crap)
(posted when I was 29 years old.)

  1. I've learned that soccer victories in the European Cup are celebrated by driving in a loop around town, honking your horn, and waving your national flag. Or at least that's how they're celebrated in Mannheim. At first I thought this was a Turkish thing, since I first witnessed it after their victory over Switzerland. But since then I've seen this after the German victory over Austria and after the Italian victory over France. Hupkonzert is how I've heard it described in German. I only wish they wouldn't keep it up until 1 or 2 am.
  2. I was not happy that my hotel did not seem to have hot water on Tuesday morning. I reported this fact to the front desk. Tuesday evening I gave the hot water another try, letting the water run for several minutes. It did not warm up. I was about to go complain again, when I figured I should try pushing the handle to the right instead of the left for hot water. It nearly instantly got hot. I stayed in the same hotel last week and think I would remember the taps being backwards in the other room. Or maybe constant hotel living is starting to affect my sanity, and it's not really backwards. I'll be paying special attention to any and all taps I encounter in the next few days. But it never even occurred to me on Tuesday morning to try the tap backwards. And didn't Donald Norman write about this in The Design of Everyday Things?
  3. On my newish work laptop, I have the issue that combinations of three or more keys only work once in a row. For example, to select an entire word, I'm in the habit of using the combo ctrl+shift+arrow. Usually, for multiple words, I only have to release the shift key and then press it again. On this laptop, however, I have to release all three keys and then press them all again, and even that sometimes doesn't work. Anybody have any clever ideas on how to test if this is a hardware or software issue, asides from reinstalling the OS?
  4. I am really tired of living in hotels.