My iBook, which appears to be operating normally otherwise, and still retains its ability to take and hold a battery charge, has stopped telling me how much battery life I have left:

I’ve tried resetting the PMU, and zapping the PRAM; neither had an effect. I’m open to suggestions.

Coming in to Timothy’s this morning for a chai latte (Steven says I shouldn’t admit sort of thing that out loud), I was surprised to find small globes on every table. According to my server, this is a bold Campbell Webster Initiative. Bravo, I say: I love globes (as does Oliver, although mostly he just wants to see where Charlottetown is), and I think they should be ubiquitous.

We’ve seen a collection of “art bike racks” crop up on the streets of Charlottetown over the last month.

While I am generally an active supporter of infusing art into the conduct of everyday life, and while I’ve become an active and enthusiastic short-distance bike rider of late, and thus someone who is painfully aware of the need for non-parking-meter bike racks, I’m sad to say that these new racks miss the mark on the two most important criteria for measuring the effectiveness of bike racks.

First, they are located in places where they aren’t needed. All respect to City Hall and the folks who use ScotiaBank as their stock brokers, but are these well-known bike destinations? Did the City’s bike planners actually look to see where people might be parking their bikes before choosing these locations?

Second, and perhaps more importantly, they don’t look like bike racks. This is of course to be expected when one takes the “art bike rack” approach, and I’m not suggesting that we require standard-issue industrial bike racks. But something vaguely evocative of cycling, or even a “park your bike here” sign would be useful, especially for out-of-towners who won’t have the opportunity to figure it out over time.

I’m hesitant to criticize anything that comes out of City Hall that looks progressive and forward-thinking. But it’s not enough to just look like you’re doing something progressive and forward-thinking, it actually has to be progressive and forward-thinking. And some common sense would help.

A great piece from Dan Brown at the CBC comparing the party theme songs from the federal election, with links to audio.

For my money, the Bloc had the best of the four.

It’s remarkable how the Conservative song sounds so much like a Simpsons parody. Or a new-age bilingual fascist rallying cry. If you’re trying to convince the country that you’re not evil, having a theme song where the singers sound like they’re wearing titanium spandex and gas masks is not advisable.

And the NDP, trying to package itself as new, hip and relevant, should have known better than to have repackaged Rise Up, a song that was first released in 1983.

The Liberal song, will, it’s just crazy.

Well, that was a bore, wasn’t it.

I’ve been using CocoaMySQL on my Mac to manage MySQL databases for the past month. It’s a great product.

If you’ve used “SQL Enterprise Manager” under Windows to manage MSSQL databases, you’ll have a good idea of what CocoaMySQL does (albeit with considerably more elegance than Microsoft’s product): you can add, edit and delete databases, tables, and indexes, run queries, look at data in a “data grid” and export data as CSV or XML.

Highly recommended.

Here’s a random selection of endorsements in this federal election:

• Conservative
• The National Post
• Green
• Rafe Mair
• Michael Harris
• Liberal
• The Globe and Mail
• The Toronto Star
• Unionized Building and Construction Trades Council of Ottawa-Gatineau and District
• NDP
• Ralph Nader

Either endorsement isn’t as common a thing as it used to be or news content has moved behind for-pay curtains, hidden from Google, because that’s all I’ve been able to find in an hour of searching. I welcome other pointers.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that Canada.com (which I won’t strengthen with a hyperlink) is an evil, evil website that is so poorly designed, drenched with “watch this on Global” advertising and banner ads, and organized in some chaotic nonsensical fashion, as to be effectively useless?

Monday is Election Day. Elections Canada can tell you where to vote, given your postal code. In Charlottetown, polls are open from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

A reminder that everyone is welcome to join us here at 84 Fitzroy Street, starting around 8:00 p.m., for a night of results watching.

The next project for my choreographic friend Bill is a project called Grasslands, which he describes as a “site specific collaborative community performance [that] will share the uniqueness of the geography and culture of the grasslands area with the larger community of Saskatchewan and beyond.”

CARI — Capital Area Recreation Inc. — cries out for a better name. Even setting aside my personal acronymophobia, the name means nothing more than a bureaucratic arrangement. Even the “Charlottetown Pool and Rink” would be better.

But the pool rocks.

Oliver and Catherine and I went out for a swim this afternoon.

We’re used to the “family swim” time at places like the Delta and the old YMCA being an obscure Sunday hour or two. At CARI, “family swim” in the shallow leisure pool is always. Which means from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. weekdays, from 9:00 a.m. on the weekends. This is fantastic, and will mean much to families with complex schedules that want to go for a family swim.

We’re used to “swimming with Oliver” meaning that either Catherine or I has to take him in the men’s or women’s locker room with us, and try to change ourselves while simultaneously preventing him from running into the sauna. At CARI, there’s a large, bright family change room in addition to the men’s and women’s. A family locker room, by the way, doesn’t mean “friends and neighbours, men and women, naked together” as I tentatively feared — there are many spacious lockable change rooms off the locker room where you can do your bathing costume voodoo in peace.

We’re used to pools where the only nod to the existence of those under 12 years is a “shallow end” that’s less deep than the “deep end.” At CARI, there’s an entire pool (the aforementioned “leisure pool”) that is shallow. Shallow enough for Oliver to walk around in. And there’s an even-shallower and warmer pool inset into one corner that would work well for the younger and shorter. The main leisure pool has barrier-free access, meaning that anyone can walk or roll in on a gentle grade.

The only downside for Oliver (or more properly for us, who had to contend with Oliver in its presence) is the giant waterslide that careens down into the far end of the leisure pool. I don’t begrudge its presence, and I secretly want to go back and experience it myself; but it’s awfully hard to explain to a 3 year old why he’s not old enough to experience something that looks so much fun.

The only fault I would find with the CARI pool setup is the absence, at least so far, of any sort of membership program. Although they do offer discounted books of tickets, it still means about $12.00/visit for the three of us (combined), which will add up. We would buy a membership in a heartbeat if they were available. I would also encourage CARI to look into a setup, commonly practised by the YMCA, where access to the pool would be available for free, or at a reduced rate, for those who can’t afford full price.

One other small issue: life for parents would be a lot easier if they took out the candy machines that cover the central hallway like the dew. Nothing like trying to wrangle a kid all wound up on a good swim away from the dizzy allure of the demon sugar.

CARI has seen its share of controversy over its conception, funding and build. From finding a home, to the drawn-out schedule, to the $400 million cost (I’m exagerating). I don’t know enough about the particulars to know how we’ll make out as taxpayers when all is said and done. As parents, though, we’re doing all right.

Thanks, CARI.