A Less-than-Perfect Time !

Dulce et decorum est
Numerator pro homo mori.

yeah, well, in the last month - since I was here - I've lost my work computer once (only 2 months after the previous time !), and my XP/64 machine at home twice. I also cannot get into my server at home :( Talk about misery - my email is on a disk I can't load right now, and to get Windows XP/64 to boot I have to start with the CD in the drive. After its started it's ok, but something somewhere in the reinstall didn't work ! Still, my son's happy, listening to Crazy Frog, and we're invited to dinner tonight, which is a relief, as I'd no idea of what to cook !

Right now the family is slowly moving into hibernation mode. The inside of my nice german bettdecke is being pulled out this weekend and replaced with the double-thick one. It's a really neat "extra-breit" model from my favourite shop in Germany - Möbel-Mann. I got all my furniture there back in the 80s when I lived in Darmstadt, and dragged the wife in last November. She was almost converted into a shopper by the place, as it's three or four floors of quality you just don't get to see in America these days. I came away with my bettdecke, which it what I really wanted, but not a new bed. I saw the one I wanted, but the shipping cost to the USA was about three times the cost of the bed itself !

Anyhow, last night we went out Wii-hunting. This, for the uninitiated, is a form of a window-shopping-style sport where one searches for a product that hasn't yet been released. Last week one could have been PS3-hunting, but we decided not to after several people got shot or beaten up. Not cool at all. Nintendo lines seemed lots less tense, partly because the machines will be cheaper, and partly because the supply should be greater. When asked, the Offspring indicates that he'd like a Gamecube (his cousin has one), but that a Wii would definitely be the best of all possible toys. Like the geek that I am, I've been trying to steer him towards Lego Mindspring, but I think at 91/2 he's a little youngish yet. Maybe for his birthday - then I can program the thing too !

Something else I've been getting into in the last few days (while also fighting a cold) is an internet prog rock station called The Dividing Line. It broadcasts through a WinAmp format and is definitely recommended. Finally, I'd meant to point any who hadn't seen it yet to Google's TV channel, "Current". This does a very large amount of Viewer Created Content (VC2) in very short segments. Lots of these are really great, and, even if you don't like one, you only have to endure it for a few minutes before another one comes along. Rather like what mothers used to tell their daughters about boyfriends, really !

Have fun, everyone. Hopefully I'll be back sooner next time.