OK, I'm back but I don't know for how long.

Well, it's Monday and I'm at work, so this may be short. May add more at home tonight. Guess I must have fewer problems than many who blog, as I don't usually seem to have much to say about my personal life. Still, it is Monday and I am at work so all is definitely not right with the world. We had our usual Monday morning meeting, lots of discussion about conflicting goals and some general hand-waved about how to solve the conflicts - like we need to make fewer patches to our old released software and concentrate more on getting out new release on time. Then we sat and discussed what priorities should be and of course all the important things involved changes to old release. SIGH. And every week is the same.

Any way, on a brighter note, can anyone give me a suggestion for a Christmas present for my wife? She keeps giving me ideas (don't you, hon?) but that automatically negates them in my mind as then they won't be a surprise. Of course, at her age, surprise might not be the best thing for her, but I keep trying anyway. When you get to our ages, presents get harder. For example, I'm going to pick her up a new TV for the den (really her room) today, so that throws that out (like she'd like a TV for Christmas anyway).

You know, blogs comes in all flavors, from very personal to political. One of the most open(read that to mean with frequent sexual content) is everydaystranger.mu.nu. I'm not recommending it, just indicating that people come in all kinds and all kinds of things are on their minds. Of interest to me are those where the "Truths" of life are discussed. Some of them are almost like little philosophy seminars. Some of so deep you get lost, although such depth can frequently be attempts at obfuscation rather than enlightenment.

Irritating question of the day: Doesn't it seem rather incongruous that the women's movement wanted their right to equality guaranteed them by a Congress composed mostly of males?

Can anyone explain gasoline prices to me? I mean really. Thirty years ago, they made sense, and I'm sure there's some kind of logicalness to them now, but I can't come up with an economical model that explains it. The price goes up 20 cents in one day and then drifts down close to that much or more over the next 2 weeks, a penny or two at a time. Then it shoots back up a large amount and repeats the cycle. I am sure the market price for oil does not act in that way, especially consistently. Do the refineries shut down for a short while twice a month and jack the prices back up? I mean, does anyone out there working in the industry have some information on this? You guys working at the local 7-11, who tells you what price to put up each day (or several times a day, sometimes)?

Anyway, more later when I get home. Have to choose tonight between regular viewing on channel 4, the last of the special on TLC on Egyptians and the new "Battlestar Galactic" on SCI-FI. Decisions, decisions, decisions.