Strange day, and motorbikes

Yesterday (Tuesday) night I noticed that the windows to the coldest room of my flat were fogged from the outside. When I opened the window, warm, wet air sloshed in. I opened the windows again when I went to sleep shortly before sunrise (still sick and following my natural day-and-night rhythm), and it was the same temperature outside as in the warmer rooms. When I woke around 1 pm, I felt warm air coming in from the outside. It was 27°C.

Last week I had the garage pick up my motorbike, because it would not start. Two days later they called, said it needed a new battery but would be done tomorrow. That was one week ago. Today, I had arranged with Gwydion (who is on reduced hours, which means he has a two-day work week) to go to the garage to pick up the bike -- as I am in no state for motorbiking, he'd get the bike home and I'd dive the car.

Everyone at the garage was very nice, but it took them 20 minutes to find the person in charge, who then needed 10 minutes to find my bike, which was still not done. Next week, then. Blargh. The good thing was, I peeked on the bill and found that they were only charging 30 Euros to pick up the bike. Had I known that, I'd have got it picked up earlier. Also, nothing expensive seems to be broken.

Gwydion and I went up to the showroom then to look at some of the new bikes. BMWs always make me feel smaller than I am. I never expect to be able to reach the ground from the seat of an R1200GS, or reach the handlebars on a K1200S, but actually it's easy. The new G650Xcountry had the petrol tank below the seat towards the back, nothing between you and and handlebar, and weighs next to nothing. It feels tiny, although it looks big.

I'm considering to sell the BMW and get something smaller (though not that G650Xcountry, that's too strange). I'm not driving enough to do a medium sized bike justice. But there are hardly any smaller: Currently, motorbikes seem to start at 600cc, for a top speed of more than 200 kph. Next smallest is the 125cc class, or a motor scooter. Hrmp.

When I got home, I was completely exhausted and slept for four hours. I don't feel feverish anymore, but I'm still a wreck.

Linking to it might spoil the joke...

The Cold War Reenactment Society (via copperbadge).

Poe's Law in action

Poe's law says, Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing. (found at Urban Dictionary, discussed in depth at Rational Wiki, lots of examples at TV Tropes.)

This it not new -- more than twenty years ago I heard a satirist mock the very same effect, that one day's parody was next days politics -- but it has been brought to a new high (low?) by the Conservative Bible Project (keep the brain bleach ready if you follow that link, you might need it). If this was parody it would be over the top, still, how can it not be parody? (via slacktivist).

I'll go with the Lolcatbible here: And if pplz photoshpz the Heliez Bibul, the Ceiling Cat takes pplz's cheezburger away, k? Unless there is some severe taking away of cheeseburgers seen, the whole project will make a good data point for scepticism.