Thirty-two years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on a celestial body other than Earth. This marked the beginning of the end of the United States space program.

So. How are you doing? Good. I'm well, thanks.

I got to thinking last night... I've been pretty good (this Wednesday excepted) about posting something every day, in the morning before leaving for work, usually. However, I seem to have traded quality for quantity. In the last few weeks, I've not written one political diatribe. No rants. Nothing of use to my readers, for I haven't really done anything interesting with the computers as of late - they've been working, for the most part, and I haven't had the time or the energy to do anything to them for the fun of it.

In the last month, I've gotten three emails remonstrating me for my wrong-headed attitudes about Microsoft, computers in general, and/or life. All three were for material written months ago. This is a clear indicator that I'm not performing up to snuff.

So, how am I going to fix this? I don't know yet. But I'll think of something. Promise.

Thursday, July 19 - Hmmm

Could've sworn I wrote a post yesterday. Odd. Must've been the mushrooms at lunch.

Life's pretty boring at the moment; work has been a continuous series of meetings, one right after the other. Not much fun at all. More today, so I suppose I'd best get at it. Later...

Tuesday, July 17 - Ooops

Yes, I know, I didn't make it back last night. Mea culpa. Keri wasn't feeling well, and I was a bit short on energy, so I never really made it back to the computer at all. Oh well.

The weekend was spent reading, playing with the Agenda VR3, and in general just relaxing. I actually <gasp> read a work of fiction, one of David Weber's space operas; it felt good not to think too much, which worries me a bit. Usually I like thinking. <G> Ah well. Everyone needs downtime, I guess.

The Agenda VR3 is working out well; I'm adjusting to the differences (the handwriting recognition is *not* the same) and so far, I really like it. It definitely misses the promised 16 MB of RAM, but there have been a few promises made on that score, so we'll see what happens.

The Agenda has been named "Mercury", the Messenger of the Gods; I hadn't really thought about it before (I never did name my Visor) but, well, if the device responds to the hostname command, then it needs to have a name. That little (none) at the prompt in response to the hostname command is a little too sad. <G> Besides, Mercury spends some time on the network, linked through Minerva - I think that definitely proves it needs the name. I haven't added all the applications I'd planned yet (what were they thinking, not including an editor like vi or emacs?!?) but overall, I'm having fun with it - which was the point of the exercise.

Last but not least, I've been reading Robert Zubrin's "Entering Space". It's an interesting book, certainly, although Zubrin is a tad bit negative in many respects. Odd for a space exploration enthusiast, isn't it? Well, his numbers are good, and many of his ideas are as well - but he's thinking a bit too much like an engineer. When you try to justify everything solely on the basis of a specific end goal, it becomes almost impossible to pay for it. It's like doing a cost-benefit analysis on the Building of New York, while factoring in the costs of Columbus's expeditions. If you look at it that way, of course it's not cost effective. Yet there New York stands. The point is not to focus everything on one goal; the point is to aim for small goals, and hit the target in such a way that you leave a building block behind. Start by discovering the New World. Then work on getting a few people living there. *Then* start thinking about subway stations and the Empire State building.

Which of course means, start with Conestoga. I haven't forgotten, and I haven't stopped working on it. Keri's taken over the web design part, with my input, while I'm working on the content. Someday, really...

Monday, July 16 - Just About Perfect

For a Monday, that is. The windows are open, the temperature is somewhere in the 50s - high for today probably not as high as 70 - and a light rain falling outside the window. If only it weren't Monday, today would be the perfect day. Heck, even for Monday, that's better than average.