Piling On

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This Fox News “fair and balanced” bashing is getting so easy it’s not much fun any more, but this (free subscription required) was too rich to pass up:

The Fox News Network is suing Al Franken, the political satirist, for using the phrase “fair and balanced” in the title of his new book. In claiming trademark violation, Fox sets a noble example for standing firm against whatever.

Unreliable sources report that the Fox suit has inspired Paul Newman, the actor, to file a similar suit in federal court against the Department of Housing and Urban Development, commonly called HUD. Mr. Newman claims piracy of personality and copycat infringement.

Male Ego

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The official results of the Double Eagle Time Trial are up, and I’m pleased to point out that I didn’t come in last in my age group. I do not know Blake Osburn, but can only assume he had a flat tire.

Bicycling is very much a matter of style. I do not have any. In addition to quads of steel, one must have brightly colored clothing and a disk wheel to play with the coolest of the kids, so I had to very much swallow my male ego to be out there at all. I would like to say I’m above all that, that I was blithely unconcerned about the fact that I was riding a heavy old steel frame in a carbon fiber world, but I’d be lying. Still, I was able to ignore enough of my “I’m not cool” to get out and do it, and if they were racing this week I’d do it again.

GNOME 2.4 Diaries

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There’s a photographer I work with named Richard who has this routine when we go out together on a story. He’ll work quickly, as soon as we get there, to get something in his camera that will work. So if the whole thing collapses, he won’t go home empty handed – we’ll have something to put in the paper. Once he’s got something, he keeps working, but you can see him relax a little bit. I’ve learned from him the value of getting something quick that will work into my notebook. The first thing may not be the best thing, but once you’ve got it you can relax and work the thing, knowing that if you the situation goes south on you, you won’t go home empty handed.

That’s the way I feel about the GNOME 2.4 release notes. I’m not relaxed yet, but I’m close. A section on accessibility improvements, some notes on the improvements to the control center, some screenshot magic from Jeff and we’ll have something publishable. Not great, but then I can relax and work on making it sing.

I’m not used to it taking this long to get the first shot in the camera.

Double Eagle

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This is my bike with the clip-on aero bars Jaime loaned me for the Double Eagle time trial. You could think of them as instruments of torture:

my bike with aero bars

This is my heart rate during the Double Eagle time trial. You could think of the red zone here as the zone of torture.

graph of my heart rate

This is my smiling face after the whole thing was over, thinking it really wasn’t all that bad, a swirling 15 mph wind across the west mesa – generally a head wind for the last half of the ride – notwithstanding:

me standing with bike after race

(Note the stylish cyclist’s white ankle tan line.)