Excel carpal-tunnel

Nothing like early on-set carpal-tunnel syndrome as a result of number crunching in Excel. Today's been a data day and I've realised part of the reason I am so easily distracted on data-days: because with all the "shift+ctrl" +"ctrl+V" combinations my wrists take a beating. So much for speeding things up using keystrokes instead of the mouse. *clicky clicky* The distractions are often wrist breaks and they do help break the monotony of almost 2000 of the same keystrokes for just one page in a spreadsheet.

Just blogging this I'm intentionally dancing my fingers around the keyboard and flexing different muscles. I've seen people after carpel tunnel ops and it ain't pretty. *stretch, yawn, flex*

The positive spin on this is that I'm actually crunching numbers all to draw graphs so that I can formally unpack my results. There's a pearlescent lining here somewhere.

Non-events in real time

I love watching the Webcams on the SANParks website. It takes much strength of will not to spend the whole day obsessing about what has been seen on the cams. but checking the night-time sightings recorded on the forums is part of my morning ritual when I get to my desk.

The other night, a few weeks ago (thanks Bessie for the most useful expression), there was a fabulous sighting of the rarely seen caracal. The excitement of a sighting recorded (for about a year on this particular forum) is palpable even 12 hours after it was "seen" by the nightwatch, as though I had seen it in real life.

This got me thinking, even though these cams are very popular and most forumites will openly admit their addiction, what if no-one records a sighting? Is that a non-event does it even matter that no-one witnessed it? On a similar vein, if a tree burns in the savanna and no-one is there to douse it with water, does it burn as hot? If a cam goes un-watched do the animals stop visiting the waterhole? I know the answer is no but if someone doesn't witness their visit, does it really happen :P