Personal:
Today is my mother's birthday, and I was able to call her but unable to talk a lot because I have a very sore throat. I am extraordinarily fortunate to have a mother with whom I am very close. She is someone I can talk to, someone I love, someone I respect enormously. She has spent most of her life helping people struggle through their lives and find happiness and delight in the little mysteries of life. I am looking forward to her next visit (she lives a few states away) later this month.

Bookshelf (politics and history):
I am currently reading "A People's History of the United States: 1492 - Present" by Howard Zinn, which is a real eye-opener of a book. U.S. History completely unlike I learned in school. This book is already on my must read list, get a copy now! The world dislikes our government for many, many reasons and this books helps us understand those reasons and perhaps with that understanding we can do something about it.

Computers:
I am writing this on my Apple PowerMac G4 Cube, which is silent, operates on very low power, and plenty fast at it's original 500MHz. I deplore the trend in consumer desktop computers to race faster and faster without any regard for energy consumption nor ergonomics. Most modern multiple gigahertz computers are far too noisy to be near our ears, yet people spend their money on these odd contraptions and then spend more money on expensive speakers for them so they can play music louder than the noisy machine. Seems silly to me. I want more computers to come out like the nOrhTec GP+ or the Apple G4 Cube. Both are cool, quiet, energy efficient, fast machines. Neither runs the crap operating system from Redmond.