Well, the election was depressing. I don't have anything of value to contribute other than that.

I was supposed to spend the week in Seattle working with Azaleos but decided to hold off until next week when a new employee will be there. So I'm flying out on Monday the 8th, returning next Friday.

This weekend we'll be doing the NYC marathon again. We don't run, we hand out tissues around mile 14. This started several years ago when Lisa ran and someone handed her some Kleenex. Now we show up with 2-3 other people, Frisket, and a couple of cases of Costco's cheapest tissue paper (I assume the runners don't mind, I mean, the first year we ran out so quickly we ended up handing out napkins I bought at a store up the street).

I picked up a new keyboard last week, a matias tactilepro. I had noticed that the Logitech wireless keyboard I was using kept sticking when I'd type fast. For web surfing and email it was ok, but as I'm getting into writing again and coding it was slowing me down, a lot. So after some echoids recommended the tactilepro I bought it online. I like it mostly, though it has an annoying thing with keys mystically repeating (I have long delays set for repeating keys on both my Mac and PC so I don't think it's the computers) and the control and shift keys tend to get into weird states. I'm probably not using a supported setup (the keyboard is plugged into a USB kvm between the mac and stinkpad). The question is, am I more productive with the keys not sticking like the Logitech even though I have to back up (I've had to stop three times so far and reset the shift key which seems to be acting like a caps lock)?

Other purchases this week: a new heater for my office (in the winter it tends to be in the 40s-50s even with the door to the front bedroom open). I upgraded Visio and MS Project (though I don't know why I continue to hold onto Project). On Eric's recommendation I bought City of Heroes, though I haven't installed it or signed up for the online account. I also picked up a wireless doorbell and a relay. I need to hook it into our existing intercom system so that I can hear the doorbell in my office (which ironically is directly above the door but nowhere near an intercom).

In somewhat sad news, my Thinkpad 240 seems to have gotten upset at its non-use and lost the lower half of the LCD screen. Might just be a loose wire, I need to take it apart but it's not urgent. I'd bought the 240 when I took the job managing part of the olympics.com team in Sydney in 1999. Worked well, though by today's standards it's slow.