Paul Simon wrote:

"A cooling system burns out in the Ukraine.
Trees and umbrellas protect us from the new rain.
Armies of engineers, to analyze the soil --
The food we contemplate, the water that we boil.

I can't run but I can walk much faster than this." Dear Elena with her dosimeter -- hubba hubba! (I can say that. I'm a single guy.)

Aaaaiiiggghhh!!! Chainsaw-wielding robotic submarine!

I didn't actually read the article. I just liked the sound of "chainsaw-wielding robotic submarine".

I am currently reading Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd and really enjoying it. I bought it on a whim last week, since at 1033 pages, it seemed like good value for the money. (316 pages done so far. It's a brick.) Then the next day I discovered the new Walter Jon Williams paperback was out, so I should be set for a while. If you've never heard of him, do yourself a favour and read... Well, just about anything he's ever written, since he's a crackerjack storyteller, but if I had to pick one favourite it would be Metropolitan. The Rift, marketed as a mainstream thriller under a slightly different name, is an exciting read as well. Even when he's reduced to writing franchise fiction, it doesn't suck.

Congratulations and kudos to Lisa on the inauguration of her new blog. Likewise, fifty slaps on the wrist with a wet noodle to moi for not updating my own a little more often. And to think, some people actually take the blogsphere seriously as a source of significant journalism.

In case this isn't more generally known by now, I should take this opportunity to congratulate myself just the slightest bit on a new career development. The blog you are reading is now that of a "Retail Service Analyst/CPOV Specialist" at (mumble)corp Canada. That is to say that I -- though a sinner -- have nonetheless graduated from the ranks of mere Customer Service Peon to the exalted and rarefied Ranks Of Those Not Fated To Expend The Few And Irreplaceable Hours Of Their Finite, Ill-Remunerated Lives Cheerfully Taking Unholy @#!^ From Aggrieved And Entitled Customers Who Have Nothing Better To Do Than Bitch All The Live-Long Day About Things That No Amount Of Complaining Will Change. And there was much rejoicing.

Not that I'm bitter.