At the risk of sounding like a one-note symphony, 724 ms pages and counting.

Done done done. 712 ms pages now. On I trudge.

In the can. Up to 685 ms pages now. Whew!

Did you catch SNL over the weekend? I missed it myself, but one of my coworkers forwarded this to the department today:

Did anyone see Saturday Night Live? If you didn't, the Workshop made it onto a headline on Weekend Update for the firing of 60 employees. Rumor has it the firing was "brought to you by the letters F and U." It kind of brings a tear to my eye . . . well, that passed.

Well, I'm just back from a four-day trip to Arizona, so if you've been expecting email from me, that probably why you don't have any. I returned to discover an awfully nice gift—my short story "The Practical Ramifications of Interstellar Packet Loss" has just been reprinted on the very fine SF site Infinity Plus. Check it out if you get a chance.

Chapter 33 is in the can. 670 ms pages. Now the workday can begin.

I have many Sticker World, the next week, story. Laura keeps asking me if so how I have learned that might be angry about a Mail Boxes Etc.

I think this snippet could just as well have been transcribed from the restless mutterings in my sleep.

Thanks, Reive!

And now, having shown you the License Plate Maker, I introduce to you, just in time for Valentine's Day, the Acme Heart Maker.

Yesterday I was called into a meeting with a couple of representatives from the German television network NDR, which coproduces Sesamstrasse,the Deutsche version of Sesame Street.

That's not the interesting thing, though. When I came into the meeting, I was introduced as the senior developer for the Web site. While that's certainly my title and true as far as it goes, it's also rather misleading . . . since I'm the only programmer for the Web site anymore!

Sometimes I just want to scream.

I love this quote from Roger Ebert's article in yesterday's Chicago Sun-Times with his predictions for Oscar nominations:

Supporting actor? If the academy passes over Willem Dafoe's astonishing work as a vampire in Shadow of the Vampire, I may have to hurl my coffee at the TV screen. If it nominates Albert Finney just because he was in Erin Brockovich, I know I will; he is such a powerful actor that he showed up that tepid role just by appearing in it.

Ebert also hoped for a nomination for Wilson, the volleyball from Cast Away.