• 13:26 Beach Spit: www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/1203.html #
• 14:26 Coke will remove "Classic" label. I remember when it returned, my friends & I doused ourselves using a saved 1985 6-pack. Sticky good times. #
• 15:10 "If you don't want to run out of ideas, the best thing you can do is not execute them." -Ze Frank tinyurl.com/alqumn #
• 18:04 Greatest Web site ever? Collecting all shots across the Internet of beautiful women wearing phone headsets: www.headsethotties.com/ #

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• 08:02 I pity all saps at their desks by 7:30am...for today I am that sap. (Post snow-plowing the drive, no less). Thus endeth #snowpocalypse #
• 08:38 White-haired lady who knows Ben (who may be Faraday's mum): Eloise Hawking. Girl on island in 1954 with rifle: Ellie. #
• 09:27 NEVER ask a relative how their computer is performing. EVER. #
• 09:34 Lifehacker sez PO might try to get read of Tuesday mail delivery, not Saturday. tinyurl.com/ccsfbm #
• 11:33 Pogue on the power of Twitter (assuming you have a few thousand followers) tinyurl.com/cttf4b #
• 13:50 Today's probably a great day to be in the PC Mag office... #
• 16:33 Listening to the worst 70s-style, porno-esque, on-hold musak evar. Thanks, Verizon! Only 30 minutes in, and I want to poke out my ear drums. #
• 17:00 48 minutes on hold, right before 5pm-- Verizon answers the phone. Faith in humanity (somewhat) restored. #
• 17:10 Faith: destroyed. I need an electronic copy of just one bill from 2008 that doesn't appear in my online account. They have to snail mail it. #
• 17:11 Good thing I signed up for that paperless account option, that's really paid off. (They say: FCC forbids them to email me a PDF. Obamaaaa!) #
• 21:50 how low have I sunk? I'm back to watching Smallville, that's how low. I fast forward thru 2/3rds and don't feel I miss a thing. #

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• 16:33 The Post Office wants to stop all Saturday delivery to save money. I wish I had a joke to go along with this. #
• 18:26 Did I write this novel synopsis months before the book was finished? It appears to be about different characters. #

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• 07:31 dropping the car off for inspection; then dropping dog off for surgery. Shame it's not the other way around. #
• 09:16 Winter Magic: tinyurl.com/anbg6m (and there's more on the way) #
• 16:58 Why the world has not gone green: a headlight bulb for a Toyota Prius is 200 frickin' dollars. #

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The legendary Tom Lehrer.

• 08:53 So is now a GOOD time to travel to Iceland? With no government, does that mean I get more ice, or less? #
• 15:40 this has been the fastest day of the year 2009 so far. and for that I'm as thankful as a fat kid with pie. #
• 16:32 12seconds - drinking tiny12.tv/SVQTW #
• 16:37 "I Believed A Man Could Fly" tinyurl.com/b9d5tl #
• 16:43 Logged on to Google Reader, productivity plummeted like a thing that...plummets Still, holding off until 4PM? Me, FTW. #

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• 16:36 purging #
• 17:05 FOUND: Duke Nukem 3D. For... Windows 95? I think maybe. it says "PC only." #
• 17:30 FOUND: 8-track tape of "The Touch of Leonard Nimoy." ew. #
• 18:29 What are the chances the PCMag offices/lab have a stray, USB-based ZIP drive laying around so I can see what's on these 20 ZIP disks? #
• 18:30 Would Vista even talk a ZIP drive? Is that like a teenager trying to relate to their grandparents? #
• 18:32 TOSSED: A nice laminated map of Boston. Pre-Big-Dig= worthless. #
• 18:32 FOUND: Magic 8-Ball. It is currently telling me yes-or-no answer lies. #
• 18:34 TOSSED: 16 years worth of tradeshow badge lanyards. (I really do need to stop holding on to this stuff.) #
• 18:35 TOSSED: 8-track of "The Touch of Leonard Nimoy." It was starting to creep me out. #
• 18:39 FOUND: Wood neck tie. Had it since high school. It's stabby. twitpic.com/16to3 #

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• 18:39 Tonights purge: the plastic bins o' cables. AV cables. Coax. Phone line. PC power. Stereo. Why are so many STILL in the original packaging? #
• 18:42 Also in bin: USB cables. Powerstrip. S-video. Optical audio. Antique parallel cable. 7 pairs of headphones. One still in the box. #

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• 14:59 here's something to get worked up over: I loathe and despise the new Google favicon. I mean, HATE IT. #

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• 09:51 How does Synecdoche, New York *not* get a screenplay Oscar nom? The academy is biased against big, unpronouncable words! #
• 15:09 Warmest day in weeks, but my feets is freezin'. It's just not right. #

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Image via Wikipedia

• 08:23 No flying cars. No unicorns. No lollipop trees. No rainbows. So far, the first 24 hours of Obama is a bust. #
• 15:33 can't believe I've got an interview for a work story at 7pm. Feel tired already. (Yet, I will mysteriously revive at 9 for LOST...) #
• 17:34 Go to ping.fm/qMNpr and fast forward the audio to 15:50 and listen to my bosses say how AWESOME I am. #
• 17:35 I've listened to it five times. Even tho they also insult me. They'll pay. (Literally... pay day is next week.) #
• 18:12 I remember feeling sick to my stomach when COPA was signed in 1998... but the last eight years made it seem almost quaint. is.gd/gLDL #
• 21:01 9pm. LOST. Squee. #
• 21:07 already: best. opening. ever. #
• 21:55 man, Desmond as a constant? I want PENNY as a constant. Schwing! #

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• 08:50 Obama changing Facebook status in relationship to America: "It's complicated." (Joke courtesy of Daily Show writer Paul Mercurio.) #
• 09:18 Bush should get a blackberry! He can use it to take orders for his brush clearing service. Still just two months of work a year. #
• 09:24 How many people bought an 52-inch HDTV this weekend, just to watch the inauguration, which they'll return before Superbowl Sunday? #
• 09:29 2.5 hours to "yes we did." #
• 10:08 If I were in Washington DC right now, I think I'd be pretty disappointed in the lack of decent shopping at the National Mall. #
• 10:12 It is SOOOO nice not to file any email into my CES2009 folder anymore. (It is the little pleasures.) #
• 10:15 Possible Obama federal CTO choice is Cisco's Padmasree Warrior. With that name, she would CRUSH HER ENEMIES. And kill spam. #
• 10:30 My Three Sons: The First Season, Vol. 2 on DVD? There goes the weekend! #
• 10:47 Had to call back to a PCMag reader today... thought I was going to get bitched out about something. He wanted this: is.gd/fHid #
• 11:14 Mom called me, she and Dad wanted to know why Fox News calls the first Bush "Bush-41." Me, I want to cry knowing they're watching Fox News. #
• 11:26 This should have been the inaug with a dog. #
• 11:28 I hope Aretha Franklin sings "Chain of Fools" instead. #
• 11:34 Of COURSE Bush is smiling. Dude is positively giddy to be outta there. #
• 11:36 Yeah. Cheney lifted boxes. Heaviest thing he's picked up in years is a shotgun. #inaug09 #
• 12:03 (i have 94 followers on Twitter right now... by end of the day, after this #inaug09 spam attack, I gotta go below 80, right?) #
• 12:05 I hope in 2013, they got Jon Stewart to host. #inaug09 #
• 12:05 Barack's blowing his lines! Does this disqualify him?? #inaug09 #
• 12:06 Whew. He's in. Let the healing begin. #inaug09 #
• 12:09 I think Obama is about to call Bush-43 a bee-yotch in his speech... wait for it... #inaug09 #
• 12:14 "Everywhere we look there is work to be done." Uh... not in my basement, dude. #
• 12:17 Barack's daughter is taking video of his speech... probably worried that the TiVo won't record it. #inaug09 #
• 12:23 If the chief justice was feeding Obama's speech to the prompter, I wonder if the new president would stumble on the lines? #inaug09 #
• 12:25 To remind the world that there's more than #inaug09 today, at 4:30 I take my dog to the vet to get a lump removed from her head. Cool, huh? #
• 12:28 America has poets? I'm still accepting that we let "non-believers" in! What next? Wizards? #inaug09 #
• 12:36 In the Mirror-Mirror universe, Barack with a goatee is being sworn in as World Emporer after stabbing W-43 with a laser shiv. #alt_inaug09 #
• 12:37 "Tanks into tractors" just doesn't have the same ring as "Swords into plowshares," but I do know what a tractor actually is. #
• 12:39 The national anthem comes last? WTF? And Obama is putting his hand on his heart! That's now the guy I voted for! #inaug09 #
• 12:41 NOT the guy, I mean. Remember that? No flag pins? No hand on the heart? Ah, the "outrages" of yesteryear. #
• 12:45 If Obama really loved the nation, he'd drag this out through the rest of the work day. #
• 12:49 Man, are my dogs frickin' happy about Obama. Jumping around, crazy, barking -- wait, what's that boy? Oh. Lunch time. Right. #
• 13:32 whew: www.isgeorgewbushstillpresident.com/ #
• 13:35 I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. #
• 14:04 I thought this page was going to be about the Harrison Ford movie tinyurl.com/a5qv4c #

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• 09:52 I wonder how George the short-timer will spend the day. Helping the VP kill puppies? #
• 12:45 my work for the day is done! now, I return to the clearing of snow. #
• 14:32 it really is time to focus. or lose focus entirely. I'm on the fence. #

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• 17:19 made chili. Delicious, but it did not raise temperatures nor spirits. #
• 20:00 supreme waste of a Saturday night: making a ringtone from Van Halen's Panama for when my brother calls me. #

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• 09:19 The Office and 30 Rock already renewed for next year. So much for giving up on TV after May. #

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• 11:04 my prefered way to IM, via Meebo.com, is down for the first time in months. Maybe years. This is how losing an appendage feels. #
• 11:09 its been a while since I mentioned The Best Free Software of 2009 at is.gd/fHid. It's never too late to go download some of your own. #
• 12:00 first month with iGor the iPhone: only used 168 minutes. Rolling over 282 minutes. Must talk more. #
• 16:40 Two things I'm not a fan of: JFK airport and geese. Big fan: good airplane landings. Give that pilot a frickin' medal. #

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• 10:32 life lesson for the day: frozen M&Ms dropped on tile floor shatter like glass. Also: shattered M&Ms make dogs very happy. #
• 14:33 nothing lifts a guy's spirits like having a brother who's a cop and he's seen it all, and it's usually bad. but now I know he reads my blog. #
• 15:33 found myself annoyed today that a double-space-bar tap in Word didn't auto-insert a period like on my iPhone. May set up in auto-correct. #
• 15:39 Correction: my brother doesn't read my blog. my mom does, and made him read last night's post. thus world still spins on its axis. #
• 15:56 I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. (Okay, maybe briefed.) #
• 16:41 for 967th time in front of my house: deer vs. motor vehicle. Went out to find 2 guys debating who'd take still-kicking doe home for eatin'. #

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• 09:45 my favorite story of the year, Best Free Software, is LIVE: is.gd/fHid. It is useful, large, & filled with stuff that is FREE. #
• 10:13 Did I mention that is.gd/fHid is full of free? And if you YahooBuzz and Digg it, YOU get something free? 173 items for free, in fact. #
• 12:07 I'm trying to use dial2do to twitter today and we'll see how well it transcribe what I'm saying right now. dial2do.com/17saro8 #
• 21:53 the show 24 continually proves one thing... deleting computer files always looks much cooler on television. Oh, & all former agents go bad. #

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It's not really a secret anymore -- not to most people I know, be they friends or family or co-workers and probably a few stray strangers -- and if it comes as news to you reading it here, well... must be we don't converse much.

I'm talking about the fact that my wife Bonny and I are separating this year.

Soon.

As in, she's looking at apartments today.

This isn't a sudden rash decision. She and I have worked through a lot in the last few months, taken our share of blame, done all the right things to try and make things work, and... it hasn't. There's no fighting or rancor or desire to cause pain. As break-ups go, we're frakin' awesome. We'll be friends on the other side of things. Hell, we're friends now. We're just not much of a couple.

Thus, we have to move on to next steps. That, at the moment, means a household separation.
More change could come in the summer... as I've got some definite thoughts about where my future is taking me. We'll see.

Neither of us really know what'll happen in the long run. (Well, we can guess.) Separate homes, even if they're within miles of each other, is simply another step in the process. It's a big one, and why I'm blogging about it, about this topic I've avoided taking public for months as we've struggled and fought and apologized and made our peace with the situation.

Writing about these things are part of my personal way of dealing with what is a profoundly isolating experience. I've got friends galore keeping tabs on me, interested in my welfare, but ultimately it comes down to me. I have to make sure I'm okay, and, to be honest, I think the worst is over. I'm far from perfectly right in the head, but hey... was I before? (Don't answer that.)

My favorite story of the year is Best Free Software. And what do you know, today is the day the 2009 edition goes live! Last year's edition has become known as the "most successfully trafficked story in the history of PCMag.com" (Or at least of 2008).

I hope the current version does as well, even half as well. If it doesn't, that means a select few will get direct access to 173 of the best software and Web apps available, all for the mind-blowing cost of absolutely nothing. Feel free to Digg or Yahoo Buzz the hell out of it. If you do, I'll get you some free software.

• 10:29 last night I did something I haven't in years: i cleared a foot of snow off my car, scrapped it free of ice, & drove out of a snow bank. #
• 10:29 This was after walking a mile in the snow with my suitcase when it became obvious the shuttle for the hotel I parked at wasn't coming... #
• 10:33 And now I'm home and "rested" and returned to real life. I'm not sure this is an improvement. #
• 11:03 Wow, I added 10 tweet followers in the last week... at least three of which are actual people! #
• 12:18 next year, if this cold comes again for year three, I rename January to "BlowMyNoseuary." #
• 13:27 starting to regret buying $16 worth of red and silver M&Ms at the Vegas Strip M&M store... #

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• 10:20 Waiting for room service then I'm outta here. Some asshat charged some Starbucks purchases to my room...will dispute them on the way out. #
• 11:43 PCMaggers, Robert H was right. Don't leave early foe the airport, it's dead as roadkill here. #
• 11:44 So. 4 hours early, no delays. Thanks for nothing, rabid travel paranoia. #
• 11:52 such a time saver... I'm doing my expense report for the trip in the airport. #
• 18:51 On the ground in Cincinnati. Waiting for a Wolfgang Puck salad. Only 5 hours to go to get home... theoretically. #
• 18:55 IPods are great for drowning out the embarassing public cheering of football fans. #

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Best Things:

1. No Snow.
2. Seeing (and partying with) co-workers. They all rock.
3. Not spending my per diem at all and still eating too much.
4. Free drinks. Nuff said.
5. Seeing my friend Kim live and in person and talking, however briefly, about writing (which we do all the time anyway, but not in person.)
6. The monorail (sue me, I like it).
7. Two nights in a row of being in clubs with go-go dancers. Though they have them right in the casino at Planet Hollywood, you can tell the clubs get the real "talent."

Worst Things:

1. Blisters (I brought the wrong shoes, definitely).
2. The Las Vegas Convention Center -- proof that bigger is not better.
3. Toilet paper. Why is it every place from the airport to the hotel to the convention center has gulag-quality ass tissue?
4. Forgetting my Kleenex/Blistex/cough drops etc. depending on the day.
5. Finishing the novel I brought, not having another for the return trip. [I did buy one tho.]
6. Not seeing more old co-workers of mine... most have fled the industry.
7. Forgetting, after three nights in three different hotels, what my room number is and trying to get into 829 instead of 729.
8. Knowing I have to return to snow.

And now it's time for one last session of drinking, because seriously, I'm like 23 years old or something.

• 11:09 What do I miss about home as much as my dogs, my comfy chair, & reliable wireless 'net? You guessed it... My scrubby loofah. #

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• 11:57 took a day not to twitter to acclimate to Vegas... but there is no acclimating to Vegas. #

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• 07:33 Time for another day of action-packed travel tweets. Hopefully with extra joy, less disdain. #
• 07:35 One thing I'll say for myself... My hotel-airport shuttle mojo is great this trip. #
• 07:53 Thank you TSA. Had you not made me take off my super-dangerous-ninja belt so I'd notice, I may have crossed the country with my fly down. #
• 08:15 Smoking lounges make me throw up in my mouth a little. #
• 08:46 Can anyone confirm that 35 bucks is enough cash for cab fare from Vegas airport to Westin hotel? I won't be surprised if it isn't. #
• 09:06 Holy crap. I'm on a plane. In first class. On schedule. #
• 14:20 My co workers have done more work in the time it's taken me to get to vegas than I've done on six months. BTW... I'm finally here. #

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• 06:31 For once being ridiculously early pays off: taking slightly less ice-laden earlier flight out to CES. #
• 07:18 So much for that... Still on the Tarmac and they are out of deicing fluid. Still ahead of my original flight but now leave at same time. #
• 07:38 4AM hotel room revelation: the "barbie" (as in " throw another shrimp on") means _barbecue._ #
• 08:46 Classic. The later flight I was SUPPOSED to be on gets to leave first cuz it did not run outta fuel while waiting on the groin for 3 hours. #
• 08:49 In other words, I'm not getting to Vegas today. Tho my luggage might. #
• 08:52 "waiting on the groin"... heh. (3 hours of kicks to that region would have been as much fun as this) #
• 08:57 Delta sex: all of todays flights from Atlanta to Vegas sold out. I should have drove. #
• 08:59 Delta sex? My iPhone wishes. (refuelling now... Then we de-ice. Again.) #
• 09:00 Ah. Now my phone is gonna die. That really is a kick to the groin. #
• 12:34 Air travel in America is broken beyond repair. #
• 12:36 I'm in Atlanta 2 hours behind my connection but Delta kindly rebooked me... To Cincinnati. At least I get to vegas today! #
• 14:36 Ohio, here I come. If the flight crew shows up. #
• 14:56 Everytime I feel optimism today I get "Deltaed." #
• 14:58 Flight departure to Cincinnati now delayed almost an hour, guaranteeing another missed connection. In line to rebook again... #
• 14:59 I'm between women in line comparing the day's travel horror stories. I got them both beat, but I don't wanna brag. #
• 15:23 Aaaaaand... I'm spending the night on Atlanta. Gotta find a hotel now, cancel meetings for tomorrow, and do some work ASAP. #
• 16:00 Shuttling to the Sheraton. Realized: I have no clean clothes. Nor toiletries. Guess I brush my teeth with hotel shampoo. Again. #
• 16:02 Upside: tomorrow's flight is direct and 1st class. Mimosas for breakfast. #

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• 10:47 do I have the strength to NOT look at live blogs of the MacWorld Keynote? I think I do. (but IM me if there's an iPad announced.) #
• 21:12 Checked onto airport hotel in Syr to head off the winter storm. Amount of precipitation here: 0%. #

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• 08:27 How'd you sleep, Internet? I had Oompa-Loompas in my head draining mucus from one sinus to another. Sounded like a staticy radio all night. #
• 08:27 And that's the last time I'm mentioning this cold. Speaking of it gives it too much power... #

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• 08:03 a public thanks to Abner X. Kleenex for inventing the facial tissue. Surely the greatest creation in sheet form. (Not historically valid.) #
• 08:25 tell me a better feeling than knowing you have a fever that makes you sweat out the evil even tho its 1 degree outside? #
• 08:42 had hoped to bring SARS back from CES to spread. In stead it looks like I get to take an old-fashioned Central New York cold to Vegas. #

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• 11:04 feel cold coming. viral, not weather. Opened new bottle of "tussin" in cabinet, found it is 4 years old. Took it anyway. Ugh. #
• 12:17 MATT SMITH is the 11th Doctor! Huzzah! Hooray!... waitaminute... who the hell is Matt Smith?? Is this a joke? #
• 14:00 The Kinky Boots guy (the one with the sword in Serenity) is NOT the new Doctor. Oh well. No Whedon/Who crossover. #

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• 12:06 The 11th Doctor is coming... TOMORROW. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7807742.stm Fingers crossed they pick Barack Obama. #
• 21:40 wrote almost 2000 words of moderate quality today. Including the line, “I’m going to haunt the crap out of me." It makes sense, in context. #
• 23:22 Watching WANTED. Angelina's arms are scary skinny. Shoulda bulked them up with some of that CGI. #

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• 10:11 Suck it, 2008. I like it better here in the future already. #
• 13:52 am I going to waste a load of time on New Year's Day watching all the Godzillathon capsule reviews? I sure as hell am. is.gd/emRm #
• 14:34 Darmok on the ocean #

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I wrote a big long drawn out post today full of poignancy and comedy and stuff, talking all about the ups and downs and highs and lows of the previous year -- more downs and lows, tho admittedly a couple of ups and highs -- and then decided I didn't want to post it, mostly cause my computer crashed and I didn't save it and it was all gone.

So lets suffice to say that 2009 is here, I have no real expectations for it as a year, but some high hopes and major fears of changes to come in life. I think I might do better in odd-numbered years, since I remember 2007 with nothing but fondness. We'll see if aught-nine can come remotely close.