You ever see someone shaking a bottle of Ketchup vigorously trying to get the red stuff out? They shake, shake, and slam the heel of their hand against the bottom of the bottle and then finally, everything comes flowing out - sometimes all over the place. Then they pass the bottle to the next person who easily pours the ketchup for their own use. The bottle is then placed on the table where it sits and stiffens until the next unsuspecting person goes through the same drill.
Over the years, Heinz addressed this property and even ran a series of ads using the song Anticipation, by Carly Simon to mitigate the perceived aggravation of it all before finally coming up with the stand up flip top bottles with the open end on the bottom.
Smart people (hydrodynamic engineers) call this property "Pseudo plasticity."
(Okay, I'm about to get technical on this issue but bear with me)
And about.com defines a pseudo plastic fluid as:
One whose apparent viscosity or consistency decreases instantaneously with an increase in rate of shear; i.e., an initial relatively high resistance to stirring decreases abruptly as the rate of stirring is increased.
That's kind of how I feel in a literal sort of way. I was stuck in trial - It's finally over, You can call me Mr. Foreman! - for about 7 weeks. Meanwhile, all of my other responsibilities continued. I struggled to keep up with Blogging, coaching basketball, eating, drinking, socializing, etc., during this process with about 8 hours out of each day snapped up by my civic responsibility.
Well, I'm happy to announce that I enjoyed my refresher course in the execution of civil law and I'll be taking this knowledge along with my $427.00 (for jury service) and playing Catch - UP for the next few weeks.
It's been difficult getting the fluid moving and finding my grove but I think I'm starting to reach my stride again. I have a new appreciation for the word sluggish, but I feel like the ketchup is slowing sliding off of the glass and ready to drip down all over my juicy burger. I'm getting my creative brainwaves in motion. It's time to travel again and explore some great new ideas! In the next two months or so I'll be heading to Japan, (Go Figure) Miami, Puerto Rico, and other parts of the Caribbean. I may even be appearing in an episode of CSI. So be on the lookout!
Thanks for waiting!
