House: painted. (Though not completely. I was going to finish up the dining room corners today but was distracted by sleep, toast, television, and things related to item two. ((I guess I should mention I was only painting the dining room.)))

Computer: faster than ever. A blistering 45.2 kilobytes per second! Episodes of This American Life play with less buffering than before.

I've been slowly rebuilding my once-extensive bookmark collection. I used to have all sorts of links to brainy papers that I thought sounded neat but which I never seemed to get around to read, and I am now kind of relieved, in the way that lazy people are relieved when they no longer have to do something, even though they might have liked that thing.

Sad commentary about the state of the internet: I am in no hurry to rebookmark The Onion, which is still funny, but whose site is only slightly less ad-choked than Salon's. Note the lack of links. I AM FLIPPING THE BIRD TO THE MAN.

I've got a new(er) computer and have spent the last two days trying to work out the kinks. Of the three mice I own, one is fifty miles away, one doesn't seem to work, and the one which does work is my least favorite. I've got a faster modem but it claims its connecting at a slower speed, which probably just means this computer is more honest with me than the last.

At any rate, I couldn't remember my ICQ password at gunpoint, so until I can figure out how to transfer the relevant information from one hard drive to the next I will be largely incommunicado. E-mail me, if you want. Assuming that there is a "you" to whom this is addressed who isn't also me.

Pluses of the new computer: A CD drive that works.

Minuses: Over an hour to update a Diablo II patch.

Special minus: Diablo II is one of the newest games I own. I've been out of the loop for awhile. I was going to play Sid Meier's Gettysburg, which is even older, but Firaxis seems to insist on a password before it hands out patches (like the one that makes the game run under XP). Rather than try to figure this out (maybe they just don't like Firefox?) I gave up.

And I'm not sure what the deal is but I can't seem to stay connected to the internet for very long. I've been disconnected while writing this. I really hope my download resumes.

No, of course it doesn't. Makes perfect sense. Well, I've got repetitive tasks to attend to that hold neither reward nor frustration, so I guess I'll get to them.