Wired Cola

I'm usually late to the party on cool new things, and so it is with Picasa. It's one of Google's latest toys, and it's a good one.

Picasa, at its heart, is just a joyfully good Windows photo management program. How good? It's nearly a twin to Apple's iPhoto, with a few tricks of its own. Good deal.

In contrast to last year, I was awake before 1100 today, and I rode my fixie down to Legion 113, the Chip Kerr VC hall.

I was heartened to see a substantial crowd around. The ceremonies included cadets in formation, wreath-laying, and two cannons. The crowd was big enough I didn't see the cannons before they fired, and they fired loudly enough that each shot set off a fresh round of car alarms.

Random bile, ludicrous recriminations, utter nonsense:

Hey squeegee kid: your attempt to clean my windshield was diligent and thorough, if entirely unwanted. Too bad it left my glass a mess because your squeegee was incredibly dirty. Argh!

Yeah!

Co-worker and club-mate Brian unwittingly put me up to the challenge when he said he was going to ride his fixie/singlespeed to work all winter.

Well, with that gauntlet laid down, how could I not ride my fixie to work too?

This morning I left a little earlier, and took the hard-core 40/16 (on 27" wheels) fixie to work. 15 pounds of lunch, clothing, and gear in the backpack, my legs on the pedals, and Snake Hill on Clarke Road ahead of me.

I know, I'll stop soon. I have made an editorial decision to cover local affairs here, ranging from somewhere inside the house so no further than the B.C. border, but I will make exceptions.

This one is for the U.S. election, so variously misinterpreted in so many ways. The strange misapprehension I'd like to address today is the idea that there's an emerging long-term majority for either major party. Barring a tremendous leadership failure in either camp, it's not going to happen.

Only days after my loving bike club gave me the award for best crash ("Favell's Famous Folly": I got it for going 2/2 on inviting people to the ride and having them wipe out on my rear wheel) the namesake of the award crashed on our club ride and broke his hip, not that long after coming back from breaking his other hip.

Okay, so my club-mate Gordon Ross is a faster rider, I can live with that. But did he have to go and start a weblog that had better layout, pictures, and content than mine? For heaven's sake, he even has an erudite take on the Storyeum , which I forgot to review after we went. (My verdict? Gord is right on all counts.)

Hey, here's a hint for all you infrequent coffee-drinkers like me: If it is 21:30 on a Wednesday night, and you stop by the Laughing Bean with your spouse for a snack, do not order a medium-sized cup of their very good medium-roast coffee, which tastes so smooth and flavourful and goes so well with the peanut butter toffee bar.

If you do not take this advice, you will still be up at 02:00 the next day.

Ah crap.

I had a long, thoughtful post here, and then I deleted it through stupidity. Short version: spent the day at home, working on my bicycles, fixed up and rode my fixed-gear, made a simple dinner for a tired TLO, watched a movie, and turned on the TV to find that the exit polls were diverging from reality.

Oh, and if you haven't, read the transcript of bin Ladin's recent PSA. A fascinating insight into the mind of an evil man.

The Horserace Blog will give you fresh polling crack. It strongly suggests, quite the opposite of Slate's meta-analysis, that the race is all but decided for Bush.

Well, they can't both be wrong! Or can they?