OK, I guess I have a couple things for this post.

First off, I wanna wish Many Happy Returns to a couple of friends. wolfye, you found me by accident, it seems, and I'm glad to have gotten to know you. Looking forward to more. priestofcards, m'man, it was great seeing you recently, and I'm still looking forward to coming down Cali way this spring. Already making the plans. Always take care, my brother.

OK, let's see, next...spent the weekend out on Whidby Island with Mick and Auralee, and a friend of hers. Lisa and Vicky came out for a while, and much boozage was had by all. Dinner cooked outside over the fire, relaxing with friends, in the middle of nowhere, just the woods and the starry Northwestern sky, beautiful weather...it was very nice to get out of the city for a couple days.

Came home to discover computer problems. Friday, I bought myself a present: Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1 edition soundcard. Didn't install it perfectly, but it seemed OK...then found out last night that my internet will not connect anymore. Hmmm...OK, reinstall sound card software, thern get rid of and reinstall the networking stuff. Problem one: suddenly, no more response from speakers. At all. Shit. Reinstall software, computer hangs...not going well. Smoke a cigarette, think hard. Try again, success, but still nothing. Eh? I'm an idiot, speaker plugs are in wrong jack. Never plug things into a computer my feel. OK, now that I feel like a COMPLETE USER, get cracking on the network stuff. Well, "getting rid of" was easy, but then it wouldn't reinstall them. Oh hell...OK, luckily, caliban has a burn of Win98SE, so I go to use that to reinstall them all...nope. WTF?!? OK, smoke another cigarette, think hard...AHA, all cab files were backed up to D drive...Success, networking reinstalled. OK, time to test everything. No Connection, tell me why? Because 01flux is online. OK, no problem, wait until she's off...meanwhile talking to Heidi off and on during this, who seems genuinely worried that I'm annoyed as much as it sounds like (she can tell and cares from 3000 miles away...if I don't marry this girl, it'll be a loss. Love you, baby!). Eventually, connectivity is reinstated, and the card works better than before. Thank the goddess, too, because it's getting late, and I still have to get up at 4:30am.

This morning, I wanted SO bad to call in sick, I was so beat, but I know that's a bad idea, so here I am. had to set up the computer (yes, I got moved AGAIN), but it's abetter monitor than last time, so no bitching from me. My friend Veronica screwed up her leg on her new dirtbike this weekend, so I'm semi-official Gimp Helper for the day, but i don't mind. Other good news: this is my last day of early schedule, tomorrow I go back to my normal schedule...YES!!!

Useless fact for the week: There was a study done to determine just what all duct tape was good for and not good for. Their findings were mostly non-surprising, in that duct tape works on pretty much everything (anyone who has done theatre or carpentry or made or fixed just about anything could confirm that), but they did find one thing that it was NOT good for: fixing ducts. Apparently, duct tape does not handle changes in temperature and moisture very well. Go figure.

Lastly, I gotta promote once again. There is a video game store, somewhere in Canada (near Vancouver, I think) called Gamer's Edge, run by a man named Gord. Gord kicks ass. I've actually been ion contact with him today, and if I manage to get up that way, I'm dropping in to see him. Wanna know why? Checkalo his website, Acts Of Gord.

Y'all be sweet.