He's back!

I did not die. I did have a birthday and another anniversary. My lovely wife and I are working on year 42, having put year 41 to bed. Congratulations are not in order, at least not until we get to 50 years. But, having finished 41 without any really deep scars, we might well be good for another 15 or so.

I have a small confession to make - depression has got more of me than usual and I have not felt like writing anything except for rants - and those, once started, degenerated fast into unreadable nonsense, so I decided to just hold off on everything until we got more sunlight, I could get out the motorcycle, or the depression magically Went Away.

Well, the days will be getting longer this weekend, I got the motorcycle out today and, having little to do at work once I arrived I have been amusing myself rebuilding my media server at home - resupplying it with music, TV shows, movies, and other things that will turn one's brain to cottage cheese, or so Alec Baldwin would have us to believe. But what does he know? He just plays various people in movies.

I did rediscover today on the way to work just how the presence of a motorcycle brings out blindness, deafness, abject stupidity and outright homicdal behavior on the part of cagers (which is what some of us call folks who go about in their steel cages but choose to call them automobiles.) The pipes on my motorcycle are so loud right now that they would cause folks to fall out of windows if exercised in a big way on a narrow street - but cagers seem not to be able to hear them. Another wonder of the world, or the times.

Speaking of the times, everyone around here is scrambling to get hold of some of that stimulus money to go out and Buy Cool Things that would Make Policing Easier/Better/More exact pick one or several. Most of these things are not things planned for, but ways of using the money so nobody else gets it. Kinda like the kid that has a large box of candy and doesn't wanna share - so when he's had all he can possibly eat, he throws the box on the ground and pisses on it. I need a couple of monitors, but we can't spend less than enough for about 257 monitors - and we don't need that many so we will get something else - and I will eventually get good and pissed and go out, spend $200 or so and buy my own monitor. This isn't how it is supposed to work, but I have got used to paying for my own upgrades, if only to be able to get useful work done. My colleagues, at least those under Civil Service wonder why I bother, particularly since I'm a couple of years past what they figure to be retirement age, but as long as I am here I try to earn my keep once in a while.

Tell you what, though - fiber optics to the home is the greates things - HDTV to as many sets as we have, and internet that is so fast it would probably burn copper wire to an ash. It is almost impossible to use all the bandwidth - unless, of course, you know about binary newsgroups - and even then the only way to use the bandwidth that fiber supplies is to go out and get a newsgroup robot (NewsBin being my favorite) and invest in a premium newsgroup supplier (GigaNews being the one I use) and try to get a plan with no limits on data accumulated - otherwise you'll go through the maximum 25 igs or so in a couple of days, leaving the rest of the month for to withdraw, or to spend one hell of a lot starting next month (and next month(and next month)) just to get your fix of binaries again. Of course, if you do go unlimited, you'll be spending your life somewhere burning data to DVD - or you'll buy a new terabyte drive each week or two until your spouse meets you at the door one evening with a package holding another new drive and saying "WhattheHELL has got into you?"

But it is fun, and keeps you busy and out fo the beer and snacks while it lasts. It even makes it possible for your wife to watch Professional Bull Riding and Dog theBounty Hunter without your profane commentary. EVERYTHING has its positives.

I'm losing my train iof thought here, so I think I'll pack up and go home. I'll try not to stay away quite as long next time. Be well, y'all.