Saturday, July 15, 2000

12:22 a.m. This is a test. This is a test of the emergency backup systems. If you're reading this, then the backup systems are working.

The cable is completely out -- in our part of the world. No one knows why, and I suspect Big Brother, if you want to know the truth. Or solar flares. It's been out all day and so all my mail is locked up in a server somewhere ... and I've had to go scrambling for serial numbers and original programs so that I can create a mirror, portable program.

Let's see if it works, shall we?

Well, in its own strange and crippled way, it seems to have worked. Everything is primitive here -- I'm typing on the edge of Igor's desk in a strange typeface, on an impossible keyboard. I might as well be in the forest primeval for all the strangeness around me.

My photo stash is downstairs ... and the big machine keeps freezing up as the cable stalls. The modem here is 28.8 bps and this is the old days. If I can't get online for real in a few more hours, I'll stop being a big baby and take a zip disk and copy over a nice photo and sloooooly upload it.

We sure do get used to our things. This certainly is a hard keyboard to get used to. Clank clang clump.

If I ever want to be a world traveler (and I do) -- I'm going to have to learn how to work on alternated machines. I'm considering tonight's small breakdown of the systems I depend on to be a wakeup call.

More later.

(The next day -- cheating abounds here. All rules are off! My machines are rebelling and I am doing what I can to cope.)

Happy Birthday to Freddie. You rooole!