This week's theme (because sometimes there is a pathway my puddling has followed) is Engineering Wonders.

• The Falkirk Wheel - check out the wheel in action in the video below.
• A Bucket-wheel excavator. The Largest Bucket Wheel Excavator in the world is built by Krupp - here are a few specs to give you an idea of how flippin' big it is:
  • Stands over 95 metres tall.
  • Is over 215 metres long (2.5 football fields).
  • Weighs over 45,500 tons.
  • Cost $100 million USD, took 5 years to design and manufacture and 5 years to assemble.
  • Only requires 5 people to operate.
  • The Bucket Wheel is over 70 feet in diameter with 20 buckets.
  • Each bucket can hold over 15 cubic metres of material.
  • A 6-foot man can stand up inside one of the buckets.
  • It moves on 12 crawlers (each is 3.6 metres wide, 2.4 metres high and 14 metres long).
  • 8 in front and 4 in back.
  • Has a maximum speed of 10m/min.
  • It can remove over 76,455 cubic metres of overburden each day
• The Millau Viaduct.
• The Constellation Program.
• The making of one of my favourite songs of all time: I'm not in love by 10cc. I listened to this on repeat 11 hours straight and still didn't tire of it. I flipping love it. Take a listen.

 

Like sands through the hour glass

Don't freak out: I'm not blogging every day. I am just waiting for my washing to dry.

Work continues to be weird and is getting in the way of me thinking about other stuff. I don't mean thinking about stuff other than work while I'm at work - I mean thinking about stuff that isn't anything to do with work before and after work.

How many times did I say 'work' in that runny old sentence?

When I say 'work is weird' it is as if I think it's going to switch back to not being weird - which may be a dangerous assumption to make. Maybe work isn't weird - maybe it's just changed and I have to get with the programme - even if the programme isn't necessarily on my preferred channel.

That sentence caused me to sigh.

It's not you, it's me - I am not ready to settle for a monogamous work relationship. I need to sow my work oats; see more offices; test drive different office equipment before I decide on The One.

Okay, maybe it's not work that is getting weird.

30DMC - Day Three : a movie that makes you really happy

I've been thinking about this on the way home - pondering on public transport. You have a go (you can just do it sitting here, you don't have to get on a tram or anything) and see if you found it difficult to select a movie that makes you happy. I came up with a couple: Back to the Future, Burn After Reading, Predator (I'm into threesomes at the moment) - thinking "I am happy to see those movies" but do they actually make me feel happy?

Two movies make me really happy:

1. The Fantastic Mister Fox makes me cussin' happy, and
2. The Last of the Mohicans - a great story - falls smack dab into this catagory as well (carve out a quiet 90 minutes and enjoy this 1936 version that hurtles along at a cracking pace).