Finally back online with my own laptop. Also picked up a wifi card, turned out to be a cheap convenience, very cheap. Of course it would be nicer if I had a lighter laptop rather than the old panzer-puter. This Toshiba laptop is a serious contender for the doorstop computing award.

Got an invite to sign up for gmail when I logged onto the blog tonight. Couldn't resist trying out something new, espcially something free and new. I'm very concious of the devil's deal Google is offering but keeping that in mind, I can still find uses for the account.

I just finished a really brilliant novel called Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hillary Mantel. It was very aptly compared to Henry James' novel The Turn of the Screw. Also as an Orwellian nightmare. I keep thinking of the moment when the book's protagonist, a professional cartographer, labels a map of Jeddah as "cartography by kafka". Perfection. Chilling. You NEED to read this book. In fact, I found this book at the local library and now I have to go to B&N and buy it and others by the author to add to my collection. More, more!