February 2nd, 2018:

	I started using my Mastodon account on SDF a few days ago.  In the 
past, I'd been on SDF's Diaspora pod (as well as their GNU Social 
instance) but rarely logged on, let alone posted.  So, I decided to 
finally take the plunge and commit to following daily.  The local (public) 
timeline seems a bit dead, I'd imagine it'll be a bit livelier once I 
start following other SDFers.

The federated timeline is a lot more lively, and seems to be devoid of all 
the things I dislike about Facebook, Google+, Twitter, et al: politics, 
flaming, one-upmanship, and trolling.  I'm sure it happens but based on 
what I've seen, it's not as "in-your-face" as on the more popular social 
media platforms.  I can certainly see it's value as a safe space (for 
those who need it)...

On the bike front, the missus bought me a pair of 20" tires and a bag of 
axle spacers for my folding bike project as a birthday present (I'm 45 on 
Sunday).  They should hopefully arrive in the mail by the end of the 
month.  Not that I'll be riding any time soon, it's still the dead of 
winter here in Winnipeg (current temp is -25 degrees Celsius), but I'd 
like to have my bike ready to ride by the time everything thaws out up 
here.

Now I just need to pick up cotters for the cranks, and bearings for the 
front hub, and the bike should be rideable.  I'm pretty excited.