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It’s been one of those days when I wonder what, if anything, else can go wrong.

I laid the bike down (gently at least) and strained myself picking it up.

I found out that a major deadline that I thought was at the *end* of October is actually at the *beginning*.

WestHost, my Web site provider, somehow killed my page counter again (after I’d written one specifially to be idiotproof). I think I’m well over a million hits on my home page– but who can tell?

In the afternoon, the bike wouldn’t start, so I had to take the bus home (carrying all my gear of course).

When I got home I found that my roof had been leaking, and that plumbers had broken into my place at the behest of the guy downstairs (who, to be fair, was also getting leaked on).

Just to show that I’m still young and hip and trendy, though, I’m blaming it all on Global Warming.

I am sick unto death of the double standard the SEC officials apply to the Gators. It’s like we’ve never been forgiven for having the gall to upset the Alabama dynasty.

Saturday, Louis Murphy was flagged by the officials for doing an small, understated Gator chomp after scoring a touchdown. And the flag came down *right now*, like the guy had his hand on the flag waiting.

That’s fine. But you know what? I want that same call *every time* an opposing team does the Gator chomp on us after _they_ make a good play.

There simply isn’t any excuse for the SEC officials not to do that. What’s good for the Gator is good for everyone else.

Shots from the 2007 Dexter Jackson Classic are up on the site.

To say I am disappointed in myself over the quality of these shots is an understatement.

Ian was unable to shoot the show, and as we’d discussed the possibility of him contracting out to me in the past, we thought we’d give it a try.

Unfortunately, I was already exhausted, and you can see that in some of the shots– it’s camera blur, not motion blur. To complicate matters, UNF is a dark pit, and someone apparently had an uncontrollable urge to fiddle with the few lights that *were* there.

But most of all, I wasn’t shooting the way *I* normally would have– I was trying to shoot what someone else wanted, and within those constraints, I didn’t do a very good job.

As if that weren’t enough, due to muddled communication I found myself an uninvited guest at the after-show dinner. Had the shots been magnificent works of art, I wouldn’t worry so much about it, but as of now I feel like a moocher.

So I think we’re going to can the concept of “contracting out” for now.

I did better at the Floridas, and those shots will be up soon.

Throughout history, good has always triumphed over evil.

Doesn’t this strike anyone as rather odd?

It makes sense, not because good is inherently more powerful than evil, but because what we call history occurs at the confluence of three important facts:

1. “Good” and “evil” are self-reflexive terms. Each can only be usefully defined in negation of the other.
2. No one ever thinks of themselves as being “evil”. Evil is instead performed in pursuit of some goal, often to a perceived benefit.
3. History is written by the victorious.

The practical application herein is religious. No group ever sees itself as “evil”. Yet evil is performed daily; violent and destructive deeds committed to prove that “God is on our side”.

All this stands in stark contrast to an overwhelmingly obvious fact: The infinite Universe, in its mind-numbing complexity and overwhelming scope, contains all that we are, were, will be, or could possibly imagine.

Why would anyone think that the Creator of such a Universe, by whatever name given, would have a “side”?

At long last, shots from the Ancient City in St Augustine are up.

I’m not delighted with the color, the wonderful on-stage architecture that seems to help the white balance had been removed this year.

Next up: Dexter Jackson Classic.

So you may have noticed that I’ve added the ability to digg articles on my blog, based on a request from a reader (who may have simply been a spam-bot, I still don’t know).

The reaction thus far has been underwhelming. I submitted a trio of articles myself, just to bootstrap things, but I feel dirty afterward. :)

I’ll likely just leave them for a few days, and see if any activity shows up. But they’re kind of distracting, so if nothing seems to be happening, it’ll be time to fire up the old e-chainsaw [yinnnggg yINnnnnng chug chug chug chug chug chug]

*Update:* I changed from digg to StumbleUpon, as the topics seemed more appropriate to the forum.

One has to be careful criticizing laws that are meant to protect law enforcement personnel.

But Florida’s Move Over Act, to paraphrase Creighton, is one of the worst ideas in the long sad history of bad ideas.

I don’t mean the intent is bad, of course. I mean the law will never achieve the intent, and therefore the law is bad. Motorists cannot be blamed for violating the law if the hazard appears too quickly for them to react.

Rather than attempting to legislate what should be common sense, the public and the law enforcement community would be better served by creating better visibility of local emergency events, such as a vehicle blocking a lane of traffic.

One way to do this might be to erect a bright flashing red and blue light on a portable, retractable tower, perhaps something akin to the towers used by remote television broadcast vans, or perhaps on a standalone tripod support.

Another way might be to raise such a light with a quickly-inflatable balloon, tethered to the law enforcement vehicle.

It might even be conceivable to combine the two ideas, to provide maximum visibility.

The point is to give motorists more than a few seconds’ notice that they are approaching a temporary hazard.

That will do far more to protect the public and law enforcement than an impractical, unpublicized, and nearly-unenforceable law. “Move Over” should be relegated to the scrapheap of history, as soon as possible.