Operation ÖSTERREICH
I swam today, only 1,000 yards, but it was great. I did not experience the profound weariness that has marked most of my first swims over the last few years; at the end of the 1,000 yards, divided into ten 100s, considered continuing, but decided not to risk overdoing it and setting myself back. The real test, of course, will be if I can force myself to go back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day.

In related news, on my way out of the Rec Center, which involved walking from one end of the building to extreme other end, to the only stairs that access the lower levels, and then another walk all the way back to the other end to access the pool complex (I know, I know, it's bonus exercise build into the architecture), I weighed myself. I weight a boatload, but actually less than I thought. Cool! Not so cool: I still weigh a boatload, which is why, despite the stiffness I can already feel overtaking my arm muscles, I must go back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day.

Now would be a fortuitous moment for a return of the S.K.P. Machine.

The Banzai Beard Bonanza II: Bonsai's Revenge
Day 43: I finally finagled my father into taking a new batch of photographs, but Bog only knows when he'll find time in his "busy schedule" to email them to me. I will post them as soon as I have them.

Last week, in a webcam chat designed to showcase my new niece Natalie, The L.A.W., in her own relentlessly acerbic fashion, said the beard looks "scraggly." My sister isn't always negative, she's just almost never positive. Both my siblings can be put down as solidly anti-beard. The Impossible Ingenue thinks I need to tame the beard, but The Most Dangerous Game thinks I must let it grow wild. We are nearing a point when I must make a decision about sculpting the beard, perhaps getting rid of some of the neckbeard and possibly shaving my lamentably lightly covered cheeks, but the ordinances of the Bonanza do not allow me to trim whatever hairs escape the corralling blade.

For myself, I'm tremendously pleased with the Banzai Beard Bonanza II; I am enjoying Bonsai's Revenge ever so much more than the original Bonanza back in '05. (About which you can now read due to the new template's restoration of The Secret Base's archives!) I would consider simply keeping the beard after the end of the Bonanza, but I very much want to go through with the Massive Mustache Mistake after Cinco de Mustache, and I have given my word to be clean shaven (or at least back to my normal level of facial hair) by my nephew Teddy's first birthday in late May. Mayhap after that….

Banzai!

Project MERCATOR
The patterns of the fall are being repeated, alas, but on a night like this, when a MERCATOR event pops up unexpectedly and intersects with the resumption of ÖSTERREICH, what am I do to? Triage will have to be the order of the day. I covered Operation ÖSTERREICH and the Bonanza, I'll get to MERCATOR in a big post covering the last fortnight/three weeks, and I owe you a "Master Debaters" post before heading off the Arizona at the weekend; priority must be given to "Freaks and Geeks… and Greeks" and finally publishing "Project PANDORA: The Other Woman," just to be done with it once and for all.

2010 won't be like the latter stages of 2009. I will not allow The Secret Base to fall by the wayside.

The Queue
Recently
Nick Hornby, Slam
Charles Brooks, editor, Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year—2010 Edition & 2008 Edition
Agatha Christie, Crooked House

Currently
Marshall Jevons, The Fatal Equilibrium ***on loan to The Most Dangerous Game***
P. G. Wodehouse, Mike at Wrykyn

Presently
P. G. Wodehouse, Mike and Psmith
Agatha Christie, Passenger to Frankfurt
Agatha Christie, The Murder at the Vicarage

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Green Day, "Nice Guys Finish Last" from Nimrod (T.L.A.M.)