:

I'm sad to report that my beautiful, beloved pet Noble Macaw, McGee, passed over into Bird Heaven on Sunday night, February 7th, 2010, at the age of about 20. I found him dead, at around 10:30 p. m., on the bottom of his cage. It was very much of a shock, which I still haven't gotten over, but I hope it'll wear off soon.

So saying, I've decided to write a memoir of McGee. Here goes:

A while back, a couple of you suggested a method by which one could reach one's (Ubuntu) desktop from afar, across the Internet.

All one needed was a dyndns.org domain to get around the home desktop's dynamic dns, and some port forwarding on the router. Seemed simple enough. I've managed to gain access to the desktop from within the LAN, but, so far I'm unable to do it via the Internet.

I think the problem is that I'm trying to port forward through two routers -- an ActionTec provisioned by Verizon Fios and a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 to which all my devices connect.

It was astonishingly difficult, but my first novel is now up at Amazon for the Kindle. Due to my "social networking", I've managed to generate about 50 hits on the page since launch (this, too, is by no means as easy as blogsites claim), but these have only resulted in a sale or two. I've been advised that this is due to the fact that when people get there, there have been no reviews to read.

Feels like spring and Monday can't change that.

Then he took the thread, gave it to his disciples and said, 'Take this, all of you, and post.'

I hadn't noticed until yesterday afternoon, but the medals they handed out in Vancoover looked as if they'd been run over by a Zamboni (or maybe a Fauxboni) and then left out overnight on the radiator.

Shrinky Dinks.

Vancouver Olympic Medals.

There's more to hockey goaltending than positioning and quick reflexes. Here's Ryan Miller's analysis of the game winner that got by him:

Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine.

Please don't abuse it.

and many, many thanks to Desidiosus and tomsyl, who hosted me and my family in grand style while we were on vacation in Honolulu. Michael and his lovely wife joined us for dinner at the Harbor Pub, which is not coincidentally owned by Tom's lovely cousin Rita. Tom was also ridiculously generous with a gift of genuine Absinthe from Switzerland (strange stuff, very bitter aftertaste. I didn't see any fairies, but it does put a strange edge on being drunk). The pizza was excellent, the company even better.

So much better than the other threads.