Back in the bad old days of Windows 3.1 and 95, I came to expect that my computer would randomly crash, reboot, or otherwise spiral into some sad state that could only be corrected by interrupting the flow of AC power.

It made me so crazy that I switched to Windows NT 4.0, even though it was crappy back then--- suffering terrible multimedia and game support just so I could know that my workstation is at least stable.

So when I found that my ultra-stable Windows XP machine had rebooted itself this morning, losing some of my work in Photoshop and discarding an email I was in the middle of, I assumed it had a good excuse--- maybe it overheated or something; I've heard of that happening.

But ACTUALLY, it was because F#$%king Windows Update decided that applying a security patch to my already-firewalled computer was more important than the work I was in the middle of... so even though Microsoft says Windows XP is the most stable OS ever, it still reboots at random times by design.

If that's not instability, I don't know what is.

I happened to stray into the "B" section of my playlist today, and now I'm listening to the "Fight For your Right to Party" song by the Beastie Boys. It's a stupid song, but a classic. I guess there's a market for shouting out the plight of the generic, shallow middle class white kid.

I knew this guy Kevin, who really liked that song, I guess because he was a generic, shallow, middle-class white kid. He had a "FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PARTY" banner in his room that he made. Our group of friends played DND and made dry ice bombs and drank slurpees all summer--- the idle, pointless fun of middle school. That must have been 15 years ago now.

A few years ago, Kevin's dad died (his mom had died years ago of cancer) and he got a life insurance check. I heard he spent it on stupid stuff like a hot tub, and I guess the next year he got in some trouble over the taxes due on his dad's estate. He didn't really understand the IRS audit and thought he might go to jail.

He killed himself. He was 31.

So when I hear that song I mostly just feel guilty. We weren't good friends, didn't have a lot in common. He was kind of boring and not that smart, and back then I didn't make much room in my life for aquaintances--- you were my good friend or else a stranger. I guess I'm still kind of like that, but I'm trying.

When we all went away to college, he didn't really have anyone. If I had just bothered to talk to him a few times a year, maybe he would have thought to pick up the phone and call me when he got in trouble. I bet I could have talked him down.

But that didn't happen, so instead I have a dumb song in my playlist that reminds me of the importance of staying in touch.

Today we had a fire drill at work, just like in elementary school. Select members of our staff volunteered to help in the event of an emergency (thereby guaranteeing that we would mock their little outfits).

Once we were outside, we didn't have to line up by height, though. That I felt was disappointing.

By popular request, I removed this image. But you can still see it if you click here.

Here's a sampling of the pictures we took on our trip. My apologies in advance that the annotations aren't very quippy... it was late when I wrote these.

I'm back from my trip. It was... far. Pictures coming soon.

I promise an exhaustive and boring supply of pictures once we return, but for now, this will have to do.

Still plenty of snow on Mt. Shasta in July, evidentally.

Presented to you by Natalie Dee:

I lifted this one from Matt:

Some people are like Slinkys: Totally useless, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.

Trying to get free fonts out of the Internet turns out to be extremely similar to trying to get free porn. Including:

• Lots of popups


• Misleading redirects between different sites that don't actually have any content


• Miscommunication about what "free" means


• Low quality or ameteur content


• Left with vague feeling of dissatisfaction when it's all over

I appreciate that Microsoft had enough money to pay someone to add this dialog to Excel, but not enough money to just fix the bug. What must the Office codebase be like?