I don't know what it is about the weather today, but I've been generating massive amounts of static electricity in the office. The combination of dry, cold air, an acrylic fleece and a synthetic carpet must be nearly optimal conditions for generating static, because every time I touch anything in the office (light switch, sockets, poor shocked PowerBook), sparks crackle from my fingers like I'm some kind of human Van der Graaff generator.

It's got to the point where I'm aversively conditioned towards metal objects. Every time I look at the light switch I feel a little knot of fear. I actually contemplated not switching the lights off when I left the office this evening, because it hurts. I can see that I'm going to have to wear a very long version of one of those grounding straps around my wrist, with the other end attached to the radiator.