awwww flightsim

So I went down to the map library and on the giveaway table were eleven FAA aeronautical charts that had just been superceded. Free.

YAAAAAAAY

It is inevitable

I was in a store the other day and since it is after labor day, there was Christmas music playing. The particular song that was playing was Bobby Helms’ masterpiece “Jingle Bell Rock”, which, as we are aware, contains the line “Now the jingle hop has begun“.

Now, I can’t be alone in feeling that the next line should be “…and we are powerless to stop it”. It just flows. It’s a statement that implies some inexorable, epic, monumental event, some blind capricious will against which humanity is powerless and insignificant.

“Now the jingle hop has begun, and things will never be the same. Should we attract its notice, God himself cannot help us. All of humanity - our dreams, fears, kings, peasants, wars, loves - all are hubris and folly in comparison to the jingle hop. We cannot reason with it; it has no emotion or logic. It is blind power, and we have as much chance at halting the stars in their paths as averting the jingle hop.
“Some of us may turn to prayer, to family, to love. Others may choose panic, hedonism, chaos. In the end, it will make no difference. Humanity - all of existence - is living on borrowed time, standing on the precipice, staring into the void. Elliot was wrong. It will not be a whimper. It will be the jingle hop.
“And it has begun.”

roflosophy

lolvercingetorix

Presidential candidate blind date

Fill out the questionnaire and it’ll tell you, based on your positions and their relative weights, which candidates you have the most in common with. Apparently I’m evenly split between Giuliani and Romney, with 26 points each. I’m not sure I would have predicted that, but there you are.

Bikes + civil order = awesome

From the New York Post:

“”Even though I did not win, I am happy that Fallujah’s name was held up high today,” said 17-year- old Marwan Khoedeiri, adding that he was not scared to compete, because of the security provided by police and army.”

Speaking of bikes, today (Monday) is the first day since around May that I’ve driven to work instead of cycling. With the ice on the roads, I won’t be able to stay upright, much less get anywhere on my Continental Contacts. Good thing I have a set of tungsten-carbide studded Schwalbe Winter Marathons on the way.