I mentioned the phone company has advertised DSL service for $39 a month for 7x24 service. Essentially, you have a continuous connection to the Internet 24 hours a day through your ISP or $49 a month through their's with a download speed of 384K and an upload speed of 128.

I have an ISDN line now that costs me about $32 for a set number of minutes a month, generally during non business hours, that disconnects itself after a short period if there's no activity on the wire. Which happens a lot, hiccuping just as I'm finishing an email, sending it out into the Ether never to arrive, never to take its miserable place in my message log.

They called me today and said yes, I was in a location served by DSL, would I like to sign up? Yes. Of course. Good, they'd call me in two days with an installation date. My goodness. Now I really do know I'm going to move soon, probably right after they finish the installation and I've paid the $200 hook up and signed the "one year" agreement. I'd better think about that part. If I'm actually going to stay another year in this place I'm going to need some heat and maybe an oven that works. (Life is complicated, is it not?) I may have to discuss this with the landlord.

Tom at work has bought a Nikon F-5 and taken up photography again. He was employed at one time as a video cameraman, I think, and knows something about how to turn the knobs. I'll be curious to see how it goes.

There's a Chinese New Year's Parade in San Francisco next weekend, pretty much a zoo, lot's of people showing up to press against the barricades and fucking up the field of view, but I'm going to shoot it rain or not. And if I can't see, I'll shoot the crowd. Hell, I always shoot the crowd. Maybe Tom will shoot it too. We'll see how it goes.

It's raining out. Been raining all day long. I understand now why people retire to the desert if not to Florida. Florida makes you all soft and squishy (albeit warm) and your body quits and dies in a very short time, but the desert dries you out like a stick, straightens you right up, puts some spring in your step, turns you maple hard and shiny under the dry bright white light of day. (Erotic, isn't it?) Why do I ramble like this? Well, it's raining out. Been raining all day long.