Blogging has taken a back seat to life, what with the active Holidays, and the vast need to waste the time I don't use in other fun when not working. Reading - first "Mysteries of Pittsburgh." Excellent first novel of Michael Chabon. Great beginning to this book, and the entire book is a word-fest. Getting out my notebook as I always do when reading Chabon, I jotted down some goodies like "sere" and "Belvedere." Don't expect the meaning here. Then I found the end of the book rather draggy and felt somehow that the end was not really enlightening. Who knows what became of our protagonist. But, the book was so much better than most other books anyway, that I enjoyed it, even though it was, overall, a bit dismal.

Also read a wonderful little book called "Flyboys" about a junior high boy and his fantasies of flying a B-47 in cold-war 195?. Quite a bit of this was esoteric stuff that being a Milbrat in the fifties in SAC gave me the "schema" for understanding - otherwise it may or may not amuse you. The author is Tom Hanley. I did enjoy many minutes of hysterical laughter while reading it. Not great literature here, but a great story. Teenage verbiage slightly more than exaggerated, and not that well-handled, but good anyway.

Years ago there was a poem that people got on plaques and put up on the outside of the house by the door. I can't remember the whole thing (so I will spare you) but it went something to this effect: "No solicitation...I don't need whatever you are selling...if Sears and Roebuck doesn't have it - I don't need it!"

The techy 21st century equivalent is: "If AMAZON.COM doesn't have it - I don't need it!" Really, what is there that you can't at least get another site address from AMAZON to purchase? Everything from compressors to diamond rings to books and toys to clothing and vacuum cleaners? Wow. Even searching "sofa" brings me to links where I can purchase furniture online.

And what is everyone I know's favorite gift for themselves and others? You guessed it - an AMAZON gift certificate....OH YEA!

Winter is upon us, and cold, and some snow squalls. Not too bad out there though, especially when the sun shines. This means knitting and reading as well as Mac upkeep. I am knitting a ridiculously simple shawl in a wonderful varigated blue-grey Homespun yarn. This is the only knitting I will do from now on. Just simple knit stitch over and over until I have shawls, throws, etc. And of course it is reading season.

I am finishing "Pictures from an Institution" (Randall Jarrell). It is not light reading. Both the form and the content require concentration and thought. Considering the pile of unread books I have, I would say I have reading for about ten years, without even purchasing any more books. Yet I know I will get more books. It is as the water flowing over the waterfall, it is as certain as the Spring, and as wonderful an adventure as any. It will be back to "Seven Pillars" for me after finishing "Pictures". I intend to immerse myself in "Seven Pillars" and then read a few books about Lawrence and the events of the time. Then maybe another Sax Rohmer for a break.

Back to Opera. I am now running Opera 7.23 in Windows XP. Mozilla, while nice, is too much to maintain, and Opera is still the best and fastest. All that I said about bloat is still unfortunately true, and I do pine for the slimmer version, but I did learn that one does not have to install in a profile. If you elect NOT to install for multiple users it is all installed into one folder as in the good old days. At least as far as I can tell in the little time I have searched. The best part is the election of only text ads. That is just so classy. No graphic monstrosities flying around from the browser, only from sites.

Now for a viable Opera product for Mac OS X and we're all set. But that may not happen any time soon. Safari is a good browser on Mac, but the speed of my Mac keeps going down with each new security upgrade and with more software installed. It "feels" like it is carrying a heavy load. And yes, I do use Cocktail and MacJanitor. There is probably more I can do but for now I am set. I do have about a GIG and a half of music on the Mac now - not that much by some standards, but more than needs to live there.

O.K....well, for some reason Blogger is very weird with Firebird. So out it goes. Back to Mozilla and my primary use of Opera 6. I love Opera 6. Seven is top heavy, complex, and worst of all - it installs in your PROFILE. I hate that. The slim, all in one folder browser that Opera made me love is gone, and that leaves no reason at all to use Opera, unless it is my old version 6. So I will continue to use that as long as I can, though at present I need Mozilla or IE to download to the windows PC. Opera crashes every time.