Various Thoughts (in no real order)

New Pope
Well, loads of folks have said lots already, so I'll not bother adding to it except to say that his non-papal name just makes me think of a spicy, battered thing produced by a KFC with stereotypically lax hygeine and food-quality standards. It is a thought that just will not leave my head.

Various people I know should have "proper" blog sites
The first person I'm looking at here is you, sea_cucumber. Your writing is getting better all the time, and I think that it would be worthwhile for you to set up such a site for things like your (amusing, informative and generally interesting) travel reports, your (informative and well researched) comments on the new pope and the like. The kind of site where these things can be referred to as "articles" rather than LJ entries. Coupled with a bit of design layout work (which you are also quite capable of) and maybe a few other people contributing as well, you could probably have a pretty decent site built around it.

Skating Injuries
I got my first Ice-Skating injury last night. Didn't fall over or anything, but did manage to rip the skin off the side of my finger whilst trying to lace up my skates. It appears that they coat the laces in ground glass or something. Ice was smoother than last time, and heavily populated by ice-dancers who don't seem to care that an open session on the rink will have beginners on the ice, and that those beginners may be knocked over if they suddenly decide to make sweeping turns and swerve about six inches in front of somebody who can barely stand up on the ice without any warning, and without even looking.

Other stuff...
There was other stuff, but it is gone from my head, alas...