happyJust finished replying to some birthday messages that came in while I was away. Much appreciated. Yes, still catching up. Heheh... just think how many days that would take if I went away for a month instead of a week. I went to the post office this afternoon to pick up my mail. (suspended delivery for the week) Big bundle of letters! Among the more noteworthy items are more rebate checks (See? They do send those!), the DMM 100 (apparently, the post office is sending out their new user-friendly Customer's Guide to Mailing to everyone), and a Louisiana travel guide and map. (Popeye's is selling my info to the state! Hmm... wonder how's the geocaching action over there. :) )
The latest issue of Linux Journal was in that bundle of mail. What's this on the cover? A bloody hand stuck in a menacing drive bay! Software Development Magazine, which I get at work, has brains in jars on the cover. Looks like a Halloween theme is sweeping computer mags. Probably others will join in the game but I'll have to wait a few more weeks for the rest as some of the trade rags I get are weekly.
Just discovered today that the latest version of <http://vim.sf.net">Vim</a> can auto-format paragraphs! I guess I'll be upgrading the Vim installation on this PC soon as that feature would be useful for writing LJ entries. Currently, I write each paragraph as one long line that Vim wraps at the window's edge. That's ugly and the movement commands are different. This is still a lot better than the what notepad does but it's natural to never be satisfied with one's text editor. :) I used XyWrite in those days of DOS and spent way too much time tweaking it. Don't remember any XPL these days though. Now that I think of it, Vim seems pretty much to be in the same vein as XyWrite as far as strengths go. Powerful, speedy, very configurable, and a lot can be done in one or two keystrokes.
The best thing about taking Where's George? bills on vacation is the vacation hits keep coming long after you have returned. So far this hit and this hit are the best. The former may actually be on one of the bills that I spent at a used book store on Pacific Avenue near the oceanfront. The latter has a cute and very appropriate comment.