I have officially given up on the idea of my old employer, Oculan, resurfacing. Seems that Soros managed to make the purchase so painfully slow that many investors have thrown in the towel. It’s now been so long that many of the great minds there have moved on to other things.

It sucks, but that’s business.

I forgot to tell y’all that I went mountain biking before work Wednesday morning! It was so awesome! I hopped on my bike at a little after 6 and rode next door to Durant Park, where I did the Border loop. I didn’t unpack my bike helmet yet, so I went much slower than I wanted to. Next time, though, the brakes are off!

The only thing that kept the ride from being totally kick-ass was my catching a face-full of spider webs. There are drawbacks to being the first rider of the day on a trail!

It just occured to me that the Tour De France‘s biggest asset is also its biggest liability: you can’t sell seats to the event.

That and it’s in France.

Now that things are getting set, I suppose I can stop being so mysterious about The Opportunity. I’ve been invited to join John Kerry and John Edwards onstage when they arrive in Raleigh on Saturday. I’ll be one of a dozen or so veterans who will be greeting them at the airport.

I’ll admit I’ve not been the biggest fan of Kerry. There are lots of issues on which we disagree. I’m not even a registered Democrat. But Kerry has pledged to lead the country back into the fellowship of nations. And I believe America is better off looking for more friends instead of more enemies.

Details of the appearance are still being decided. I have to pass a Secret Service background check (hey, y’all!). And I’m sure there will be lots of waiting on a sweltering airport tarmac.

If things work out, though, I may just meet the next President. And the best part of all is that I won’t have to pay $25,000 to do it.

I just had an interesting opportunity fall into my lap. Can’t tell you what it is, but it should give me something fun to do this weekend.

Lance Armstrong put on the Yellow Jersey today in the Tour De France. His U.S. Postal team had the best time in the Team Time Trials. Tyler Hamilton’s Phonak team came in second with an impressive time despite having only five riders left at the finish.

A controversial rule caps the time losses for each team. So even though USPS blew away Phonak’s actual time, Phonak’s loss will be capped at 20 seconds. No wonder Lance hates this rule.

Follow the Tour action at the Tour De France Blog, an unofficial blog that has more info than the real site.

Man, I wish I already had my satellite receiver and dish set up so I could watch all the action on the Outdoor Life Network.

Andrei Codrescu, one of my favorite authors, will be doing a reading at the Regular Bookshop in Durham tonight at 7PM. He’ll be reading his new book, Wakefield.

I loved his book Ay Cuba! and his NPR commentary is great, too.

(Man, I love alliteration).

I see my comments on the NCSU PSD website hack got me linked to from The Wolf Web. Welcome, y’all!

This case is the equivalent of spray-painting graffitti outside the borders of the Free Expression Tunnel. The campus police ought not to treat them as some kind of terrorists.

I hope the news updates us with the progress of their cases. I’d like to see the charges quietly dropped Perhaps some organized support for the kids is in order?