I seem to have got my weather thingy on the sidebar working again. Let's see how long it works. I had a mega headache yesterday so I got nothing done and now today I have like a million things to do » laundry, dishes, fix my road bike. Looks like its going to snow on Tuesday or Wednesday as well, something like five centimeters. That sucks! It's spring already, no more snow dammit!

Then again, today's high is 17°C. That's very warm for this time of year. Major chinook I guess, that's probably what gave me my splitting headache yesterday.

People wouldn’t think I was so crazy if they saw who the hell you really were; that you sit around and you drink and you curse and you’re funny, and you have a bad mouth and you don’t have that high voice all the time.

On camera, the general feeling among the crowd was sorrow at losing Saddam. Off camera, the citizens of Umm Qasr and Basra appeared genuinely exhilarated at the prospect of a brighter future, after Saddam had been removed.

Ha! Just kidding. I am much uglier. This is one of my fellow couriers. I didn't catch his name but I just had to get his picture, for obvious reasons. He's been doing this for seven years, putting in progressively larger rings. I asked him if he could ever take the rings out and somehow go back to normal. He said no, not without plastic surgery. Freaky!

Now this is the article I was looking for, it pissed me off. I have to go to the store but I will finish that thought when I get back.

Ok, I'm back, here we go.

» The International Committee of the Red Cross has condemned the arrival of the first aid shipments into southern Iraq -- and a possible future route for Canadian aid -- as a propaganda exercise.

Ok, fair enough, but why?

» Mui'n Kassis, the head of communications for the ICRC in Jordan, said he was appalled as he watched the scene on television. "That was disgusting; that was propaganda," he said, shaking his head angrily.

So some food finally gets through to some people in need and your first response is "that's disgusting"? You know what would have been even better propaganda? If ten trucks of food got through, or a hundred. Would you still be disgusted at such propaganda, Mr. Kassis?

» He said he didn't know who co-ordinated the aid shipment, which came overland via Kuwait, although news reports said it was the Kuwait Red Crescent Society, an affiliate of the ICRC. Mr. Kassis said whoever organized it seemed more interested in appearances than in those they were supposed to be helping.

It was his own organization. Does that mean he is accusing the ICRC of propaganda?

» "We have to think about the dignity of the recipients in these situations," he said.

Ah yes, nothing like a belly full of dignity. Yum, yum.

» The politics of delivering aid to needy Iraqis is highly charged. The United States and Britain have been anxious to get humanitarian aid into Iraq as soon as possible, in order to bolster their argument that they are waging war primarily for the benefit of the Iraqi people.

So its in their own interests to get as much food to as many people as quickly as they can, right? I've got two things to say about this.

First, aid agencies should be concerned about getting food and water to the people in need, period. Getting credit for the accomplishment should be the furthest thing from their minds.

Secondly, the Americans [and Brits] have paid for the privilege of handing out this aid in blood. I think they've more than earned any propaganda bonuses.

» The Canadian government yesterday pledged $100-million in emergency aid for Iraqi civilians, but said it hoped the food, water and medicine would be delivered by neutral international organizations rather than by the U.S.-led military coalition.

See above, I think they've deserve some credit for making it possible to get the aid to the people who really need it and not into Saddam's coffers.

» But the aid dilemma grew more complicated yesterday when United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan made it clear he thinks the United States and Britain are legally responsible for delivering assistance to those affected by the war.

"The primary responsibility for meeting these needs falls on the belligerents who control the territory," Mr. Annan told a meeting of the UN Security Council.

» Aid has thus far been slow to arrive because of unexpectedly stiff resistance from Iraqi units in the south, especially around the southern centre of Basra, where fighting continues unabated and water supplies have been disrupted.

Aid can't get through because of Iraqi disruptions, yet you hold the US and Britain responsible? Kofi Annan, you are an ass.

» The packages that were thrown to the crowd reportedly contained water, flour, oil, tea and bread.

That's disgusting!

» Another shipment of seven truckloads arrived at the Persian Gulf port of Umm Qasr -- until recently, the scene of fierce Iraqi resistance -- escorted again by American soldiers.

Damn Americans! How dare they!

» "We planned for 30 trucks, but we only got seven loaded because of the severe sandstorm," said E.J. Russell of the Humanitarian Operations Center, a joint U.S.-Kuwaiti agency. Most of the country has been enveloped in a blinding sandstorm for several days.

As it turns out, the reason so little food got through was because of the weather. You would think aide agencies would be glad a little food managed to get through rather than critisize Americans for handing it out.

This whole article left a bad taste in my mouth.

Another Globe and Mail article, this one looking at the coalition's blitzkrieg strategy. Interesting. I think Bush played too much Red Alert. [tank rush]

Globe and Mail article on Kurdish leader assesing coalition strategy in Iraq. Sums it up well.

Here is a story on a nova [or nova-like] occurance where huge concentric shells of dust were blown off, revealed via 'light echoes' and the star remained cool through the entire event. [2000°C] Very strange.

FYI The sun is about 15,000,000° C at its core and around 6,000° C on the surface. The corona is around 1,000,000° C.

Bye bye Connie Chung. Effective immediately, halfway through her contract. Sorry, I'm trying not to laugh. That no doubt pleases CNN founder Ted Turner, who was recently quoted as saying that Chung's show was "just awful." Hehahhah. Ok, I feel better now.

CNN Pulls the Plug on Connie Chung (washingtonpost.com)

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately, been sucked into watching the war thing on TV and on the web. Need.. to get... away... Been using GoogleNews quite a bit [its great] and of course, CNN. On TV, I've been switching between CNN, BBCnews and CBC Newsworld. Its interesting to see the differences in the way they report things. CNN is very much pro-war and has a positive spin [usually] on most developments ['cept casualties and POW's] while the BBC seems very much anti-war and goes to great pains to report everything negatively. Quite the contrast. Depending on which channel you're watching, you would think the war is either going great with victory just around the corner or terribly, the sky is falling, another Vietnam. So much for objectivity. Newsworld is on the anti-war side, but not as blatently rabid about it as the BBC. CBC radio, at least in Calgary, is most definately bent-out-of-shape against the war, so much so I have to turn it off in the morning. It's really, really bad, I think even people who are against the war would cringe.

• Generals' analysis of the coalition strategy.
  
  
• The coalition is bending over backwards to minimize civilian casualties. This is making it harder for them to carry out their missions, but they hope in the long run it will pay dividends by winning over the civilian population. But will it? Will the Iraqi population appreciate the effort they've made? I have my doubts, but it is quite an amazing accomplishment, at least so far. They could make things so much easier for themselves by just carpet bombing the whole country, but they haven't. Here's an article on this angle.
  
  
  
  Contrast this war, if you will, with even those America has fought before — the civilian toll in Vietnam or, at its apogee of horror, the firebombing of Tokyo, Dresden or Hamburg during World War II and the finale of atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Once, we made almost no distinction between military and civilian targets. Now — at the apparent cost of American lives — we do.
  
  
  
• They've dropped more than 26 million leaflets on Iraq's 25 million people. We give up, no more leaflets!
  
  
• And speaking of psychological warfare, here's a thing on psyops via CBC. [warning: uses Flash] They show some of the leaflets being dropped on Iraq. Take an offensive posture and you will be destroyed.
  
  
• We will liberate you back to the stone age, you bastards!
  
  
  
  In an incident after the US Air Force had carpet-bombed a south Vietnamese town to clear out Viet Cong guerrillas, an American officer famously commented: "We had to destroy the town to save it".
  
  
  

Reading about Iraq, I find out Iraq only became a country in 1920. Canada became a country in 1867, therefore Canada has been a country longer than Iraq. Doing the dance of joy.

[Of course, Iraq is home to Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization where Assyria, Babylonia, and Sumer once stood.]

Then again, Iraq only has 19 miles of coastline, we have more than 36,350 miles. Neener, neener.

Here's my Mexican redleg male. He's still not mature, apparently. Hopefully he'll be mature after his next molt and I'll be able to breed him with my female emilia.

I've read this blog before, but it seems surreal that somebody could be blogging in the midst of a war. Strange but cool. Good luck dude!

The dog walk is cancelled, the war is awwwwn.

Flash presentation of a photo essay on Iraq. Cool, although the use of flash is rather irritating. So, are they smoking tobacco in those hookahs or something stronger?

We've been waiting for this war for almost a year now and this is what we get? BORING. I'm going to go watch Star Wars. Now that war rocked. "Come to the Dark Side, Puke"

It's been fifteen minutes already! C'mon, start bombing already you lamers or I'm gonna change the channel. Fucking slowpokes.

Eighteen minutes to go. Checking the live from Baghdad shot on CNN, waiting for the fireworks to begin. It's funny, I'm more concerned with what North Korea is going to do in the next few days than what Iraq might do. Iraq probably doesn't have any weapons of mass destruction. Their army will likely be overwhelmed by massive arial bombardment. Mass surrender will be the order of the day, at least outside Baghdad. In Baghdad they might put up some resistance, but I don't see why the US couldn't just lay siege and whittle them down bit by bit. They ain't got a chance man.

On the other hand, North Korea has a million man army ready to invade South Korea at the drop of a hat. Something like seventeen thousand pieces of artillery within range of the south. Possible nuclear capabilities, almost certainly chemical and biological capabilities. And a crazy motherfucker of a leader very likely to use them. They know the US is occupied with Iraq right now but will almost certainly turn their attention to North Korea once they are done with Iraq. In their sick, twisted view of the world, North Korea might see this as their golden opportunity to invade the south.

Or China could try to retake Taiwan. Or Quebec might try to take Labrador! Ah, maybe not, they are kinda French aren't they?

I did laundry today! Woohoo!

Got some new shoes, too. Installed the cleats and now I'm ready to ride the beast tomorrow. Can't wait, it's gonna feel so much better than my road bike, which is on its last legs I'm afraid. The rear end is all over the place and I noticed the BB has come loose as well. It served me well for 17 years but now I might have to put it out to pasture. Or bury it in the back yard.

I've been thinking of putting together a winter bike for next winter. I can get a cheap frame for $170. Although, it ain't shit, I think it's aluminum or something. I'd like to keep it simple as possible with a single speed on the back and a single chainring on the front. Rigid forks. Run cable housing all the way from the lever to the brakes to keep out crud. Fenders. Platform pedals. Maybe a cute little pink basket in the front and hockey cards in the spokes to make that cool ratatattat sound.

And a bell. Did you know you are legally obligated to have a bell mounted on your bike in Calgary? A cop gave me a $25 fine once for not having a bell. What a dick. That was about 7 years ago and I still don't have a bell.

Here's my bike, ready for action but I don't want to take it to work tomorrow because it will just get all messed up after the snow today. Mud and salt tend to ruin my nice, new parts PDQ. Maybe Tuesday if the snow melts tomorrow. I still need a front derailler and a rear brake as you can see. Soon I hope. Check out that disc, its huge!

I spent most of the weekend putting my mountain bike together. It warmed up on Wednesday and most of the streets had dried out so I thought it would be safe to ride my shiny new machine on Monday. Well, today I took a nap at about one o'clock and then woke up at around two to find a bright white light shining through my window. More fucking snow! Argh, I hate this it never ends. It was a lot of snow too, like around 5 cm or so. I guess I'll be riding my road bike for at least one more day. And that sucks as my road bike is all screwed up, the back end is wobbling real bad. The back wheel is not that warped, I can't find anything wrong with the frame and the axle doesn't seem bent. I can't figure out where the problem is. Bleh, this sucks in every way.

My new front disc brake looks pretty sweet tho.

Too bad I can't get my rear v-brakes happening. When I first got this new Azonic Evolution frame, the guy at the bike shop said I would have to get special oversized brake bosses for the rear brakes. They did not have any but he said I should try this other shop.

When I went to the second shop, the guy there said that was bullshit and that I could use regular sized brake bosses. He said he could order some for $40.00. That seemed like way too much so I declined.

Then when I got my disc brake, I thought I could just transfer the brake bosses from my forks to the rear dropouts. But when I tried to screw them in, they were way too small! Argh, the first guy was right. What a pain. At this point, I think I'll stick with just the front disc until can pick up another disc for the rear. Forty bucks just for a couple pegs is just too much. And it would be really cool to have another disc on the back.

After work today, I went to MEC to get some stuff for my bike.

First, I tried to pick up some new shoes but the only reasonably priced shoes they had were way too narrow. I have like webbed feet, very wide.

So I asked the sales dude to give me some brake and shifter cable housing, a couple meters each. I grabbed a bunch of metal cable ends and he said I could have them for free as I was buying the cable housing. Cool, saved two or three bucks right there. The cable housing was supposed to be $6.00 a meter but he accidentally attached the wrong tag, so the shifter cable housing would only be $3.00 a meter.

At the checkout, the girl rings up all the stuff I bought and it came to $16.59. After I leave the store, I think to myself "That seems awefully cheap!" so I check the receipt and the cable housing isn't even on there! Score! Four meters at $6.00 a meter would have been $24.00 plus the free cable ends, total savings; about $30.00. She double charged on my shifter cables, so my net savings was only about $25.00. Still, not bad.

Then on my way home, I popped into Wendy's to get some dinner. There was a line-up and the guy in front of me orders, then the cashier says something to him and he gets upset and leaves. Weird. So I go up and order a double classic meal, biggie sized, to go. The cashier tells me their Interac isn't working but no worries, I have cash. So I see the guy put a couple burgers in a bag and then he puts another one in and I'm thinking that must be someone elses order. But then he looks at me and says "Your lucky day!" and hands me the bag. Score! I guess they had the extra burgers from the aborted Interac orders so they just dumped them on me. So I had abortions for dinner. Ha.

Anyway, it just seemed weird to get all that free stuff all at once at the end of the day, nice way to start the weekend. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go lie down for a few days while I try to digest about 50 pounds of mad-cow infested dogmeat.

I've been sick lately, ebola methinks. Feeling a bit better today, thanks.

Found this via Metafilter. Here's a couple funny ones. Yes, I have a sick sense of humour. [Warning: some people will find this offensive]

I'D GO DOWN ON YOU BUT YOUR PUSSY FUCKING STINKS.

The Great White show has already begun. Pull off the road, and find something else to do.

I've fixed the weather, it will be sunny and warm for the rest of the year.

Ha! Just kidding. I seem to have fixed the problem with the current conditions thingy on my sidebar, but the forecast is all messed up still. Its an ugly hack so I'll fix the forecast bit later when I feel more energetic. Speaking of the weather, it was not bad when I got downtown today, around -2°, calm and just slightly overcast. I went into a building, came out and began to ride to my next stop. By the time I arrived at my destination, less than 5 minutes, the temperature had dropped a bunch, there was a howling wind and icy snow was being pelted into my cranium! Shit, the weather really can change in 5 minutes in this city! Tomorrow's weather calls for more snow and temps holding steady at around -25°. I am so fucking excited.

Are you ever really pissed off about something and you're obsessing over it and shit, but then you get distracted by something and you forget what the hell you were all pissed off about? Well I'm pissed off about something, believe you me, and if I could just remember what it was, I would unleash a geyser of verbal diarrhea like this world has never seen. Uhm. Nevermind.

So they arrested Osama bin Laden's number two man Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

I'm so depressed! This sucks, where's our chinook?

Forecast