Rotundus.com

Jogging never was one of my favorite pastimes. But walking is. I can meander for miles with the baby on my back, staring and buildings and nature, letting thoughts come and go, sorting through the chaos in my heart. Walking doesn't hurt and it makes me feel refreshed, relaxed and energized.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of walking is that it gives me an opportunity to be alone. I need these quiet moments as much for myself as for those I care for.

... solitude is possible — I'd dare say necessary — to anyone who wants to live creatively and peacefully. (Boundless)

I may fit into the single category, but somehow I still find it beneficial to get away from most things for a while. Tonight I took roughly a 10 km round trip with a brief stop at a Tim Hortons half-way through - a little over two hours in total.

The reason that I first bought hiking boots was not to go hiking. Rather they were just an easily-available type of insulated footwear. I was looking for something to enable me to go for reasonably long walks when it's -20 degrees Celcius (or colder) without having to worry about my feet getting numb.

The last few weeks have been quite busy, and, with the combination of weather and sickness, I didn't really get to do much of this. I think that the lack of this particular kind of downtime was contributing to my stress levels lately.

From Newbusters:

Will the Bible be banned in Beijing for Olympic athletes? Catholic News Agency reports:

Organizers of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing have published a list of “prohibited objects” in the Olympic village where athletes will stay. To the surprise of many, Bibles are among the objects that will not be allowed. According to the Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, organizers have cited “security reasons” and have prohibited athletes from bearing any kind of religious symbol at Olympic facilities.

This sounds contrary to what the communist government was promising just a few weeks ago.

Here an update via Baptist Press:

Five days later, however, CNA published an updated report indicating that visitors to Beijing are being told to take only one Bible with them into the country. The updated CNA account cited the official policy from the Beijing Olympics Web site, which clearly states that "Each traveller is recommended to take no more than one Bible into China."

Even though today Time Magazine labelled the iPhone the invention of the year I've not yet felt the urge to jump on the iPhone bandwagon.

One interesting result thing that popped up in the paper's was the sign that Canadians are paying an awful lot for their cell phones:

The iPhone will hit Europe this week, and at prices that are likely to put pressure on Rogers Communications Inc. to cut its cellphone rates if it wants to be the carrier that eventually brings the popular device to Canada

European carriers will offer service plans that start at the equivalent of $70 a month. A rough calculation based on Rogers' current fees for its existing cellphone services indicates that similar features are more than double the price here, based on the cheapest plan.

... But wireless carriers in the United States, Britain and Germany had to adjust their packages of services to get the opportunity to sell the coveted iPhone. So the phone's arrival in Canada may not be entirely up to Apple. Rogers may have to make concessions, either by slashing data prices or finally embracing the idea of WiFi for cellphones.

(From the Globe and Mail)

Video games today are a race to the bottom. They are pure, unadulterated trash and I'm sad for that Nolan Bushnell (Found of Atari - perhaps the father of electronic games?)

A case of old fogeyism, or does he have a point?