This is a “Pearls Before Swine” collection and it’s lighter in tone than the “Nighthogs” one that I had read a month or so back so it’s funnier/more humorous. Beware, though, that animals were still hurt and/or killed in the making of this collection. hahaha!

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I am exhausted! Good news and bad news, folks. I did what I thought would be a short ride out to Port Credit (met a nice gentleman named Dana along the way who dropped out by the time we reached the Humber River) and came back home to what I thought was a missing pannier. The left pannier had lost some of its tension and had fallen off at least once when I had hit a large bump. I panicked and thought that it was lying out in the road somewhere. I immediately took off to retrace my steps. I asked two police cars and a City of Toronto Parks and Recreation vehicle if they had seen my missing bag.

I was a bit mystified in not seeing it but this just made me more distraught. I had my cable lock, bike levers, small change, pump, etc. within it and, while that was a bit important, it was the thought of losing something very sentimental to me that kept me going.?? Kept thinking how stupid I was to have kept using a bag that had fallen off already and how would I go about replacing all of that stuff?!

I was starving and almost totally knackered. Of course, if I was totally knackered they’d find my body out there somewhere.

I called my sis while near Exhibition Place only to find out that the bag was still at home. Oops. So, I had ridden an extra 54 kms for nothing.

The good thing about all of this is that I have broken the 9000 km mark for this year! Yay!!!

Time to get some rest…

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Did a short ride today which is probably the latest ride I have ever done in any given year. I know that I’ve done several wintertime rides with snow on the ground while back in Montreal but I don’t recall them being in December. Perhaps between January and March?

In any case, today’s weather was warm enough that I could zip out and do a moderate-speed ride. While I appreciate the opportunity, I just wish that it wasn’t so windy! My old ski gloves are working out great for winter riding. They’re probably getting more usage this month than they’ve gotten in the past decade and a half. I’m tempted to do a long shot down to the ‘Falls this coming weekend. We will see how things progress so fingers crossed on all fronts.

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This is the second Battlestar Galactica book that I picked out and it’s by Peter David! One of my more favourite sci-fi authors, he’s a mainstay in the Star Trek universe and he’s quite an enjoyable read with the ability to wreak havoc with plot twists.

Whereas the earlier BSG book takes place a couple of decades or so in the past, this one is firmly set in the period of humankind’s flight to the stars. I think it takes place sometime in late season 1 because one of the main characters is still alive and involves everyone trying to sniff traitors/Cylons within the ranks. What gets me is if the Cylons can find them seemingly at will how come the humans are still alive?

Anyways, a good read which is typical for David.

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I would like to wish all of my friends (known and unknown) happy holidays and the best for the New Year. It’s been a rough past year for me and it was great to have people around whom I could trust and basically talk myself blue in the face and get myself over the humps. You got my back and I got your’s, always.

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I was running an errand earlier today and noticed one of those horrid Bell beaver ads where one of them is touting a camera/video cellphone as one way to get ahead, ie. by filming the Xmas office party and using the footage as a way to get ahead. It’s an absolute rip-off of an ad by Samsung where a young lad films the indiscretions of his superiors in order to climb the corporate ladder. I’m pretty sure that that’s probably a rip-off of another ad somewhere.

Tip Top Tailors is running a series of ads where they give “tips” on how to get ahead and on relationships. One ad says “Save your best ideas and start your own firm”. Well, I don’t know what sort of bubble their marketing team works in but that’s usually illegal. Any ideas that an employee thinks up during their time at a firm usually belongs to that firm.

It’s sad to see how little creativity and integrity marketers can have. It’s even worse when I think of the idiots who greenlight these initiatives.

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The success of the new television series (as if it could still be called new after three seasons…) is now spawning the usual “halo” industry of books, toys, etc. This is the first book that I have seen to come out of the new Battlestar Galactica universe. In decades past, I did purchase a couple of the books based in the “old” BSG universe with the proud inclusion of the book based on the original movie. The new BSG is a strong departure from the old and I’m not too keen on it.

This book is based in the years before the new BSG happens and decades after the machines/Cylons rebelled, fought the human race, and both sides decided to break contact. The book gives a bit of background about the war and the careers of Adama and Tigh along with the introduction of what I guess is a main character in the new BSG series. It’s not too bad of a read, just a bit of sci-fi fluff to while away the time.

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Well! Much better than the second book! The adventure continues in this series about a man and his dragon during the Napoleonic War. The scene now shifts across the Silk Road back to Europe where our intrepid heroes face both new and old enemies.

The action is pretty fast-paced in this one and much easier to follow than in the second. It’s actually not that hard to follow through the entire series but we’re talking relative terms here. I was a bit surprised to find that this is not the final book in the trilogy as I had expected when I first picked it up. Definitely going to look for the next instalment when it finally comes out.

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“The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq”

This is an excellent book that looks at the planning, strategy and execution of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This book is extremely comprehensive and uses first-hand accounts from the men and women who planned and fought the campaign.

One of the eye-opening facts that I came across is how hard the fighting actually was. Sitting at home and reading the news articles does nothing to convey how lethally difficult it is to fight a war today nor does it say anything about how hard the Iraqis themselves fought. You would think that having Saddam as a leader would be reason enough to desert his cause but American forces found themselves fighting almost pitched battles on their drive towards Baghdad.

Anyone who has any sort of interest in what happened in Iraq owes it to themselves to take a good run at this book.

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This may seem minor in the overall scheme of things but my sister (and I, by extension) has just been rejected as a suitable adopter of a couple of cats by the Annex Cat Rescue people. Some of you may remember her being beaten to the capture of a litter down at the feral cat colony by ACR so she decided to adopt the litter through ACR. After meeting with the foster couple this evening, we got a call that we have been rejected.

I am shocked! I don’t see what sort of reasonable explanation can be given for this decision. She’s employed, well-versed with cats, we live in a large 2-bdrm two-storey apartment and we’re adopting two at the same time. Amazing! Been emailing back and forth with the foster administrator but not much is forthcoming.

Sis had this idea as we were leaving that the fosters wanted the cat for themselves and I was skeptical at the time. Now, I am not too sure if she wasn’t right.

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