Samuel Johnson remarked, 'No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.'(From the Gutenberg Project version of Boswell's Life of Johnson.) By some accounts, there are as many as 10,000 new blogs each day. I'll leave it to the reader to estimate the number of blockheads who have revealed themselves.

The football season is heading into its homestretch. The Patriots play tomorrow. The local liquor stores are hoping for a Patriots win because that will boost sales for next Sunday. On my way home the other day, I stopped at the BJ's in Westborough (one of those big warehouse stores). They have a liquor department with a separate entrance. As I was coming in to the store, a person leaving with a 30-pack of beer, for those times, I guess, when a 24-pack case just isn't enough.

I finished the work week on what I think was a good note. In sum, and again, for those of you who care about such things, I've cobbled together a makeshift content management system with Microsoft Access and some shell scripts. I wouldn't show it off at the county fair, but it let me complete a couple of assignments. The work was interesting and, on Monday, I'll learn if it was useful.

The strong winds from the southwest have pushed the temperature close to 60F (15C), the warm fog eating away at the snow cover. We almost don't need a fire in the stove. The cold will return this afternoon, however, so it will be good to have a warm stove at the ready.

Yesterday I stayed at work until almost 6PM. I ran into a couple of technical difficulties, solving one and leaving another for this morning. (Aside to those who care about such things: I've built a database of documentation topics. I can produce a very useful graphical map of the topics, but can't (yet) generate a linked list of topics in the desired sequence so I can build a book.) Some days have you just do the work; other days are about invention. The days full of invention can be more interesting, but also more unnerving.

I've been working at this contract job for six months now and have settled in pretty well. Yesterday afternoon one of the other writers stopped by to discuss an interesting problem. I spent an hour at day's end working on it and some more time thinking about it in the evening. It's still difficult to become involved in long-term projects, but the work that I have is challenging enough. The funding for my current contract runs out at the end of the month, so it's time to have a converation with my manager about a renewal.

We had a nice party for Krista last night, telling stories of what we remembered about that snowy night when she was born. Krista asked Sandra to tell the story about how we got Marley. In turn, Krista told the story of how they got their cat, Smokey.

One of the kids asked me if I knew why their AOL connection wasn't working. I had started work on it last week before I got sick again. I hope to get back there in the next few days. It should be as simple as reinstalling the AOL software, but experience has shown that few things are as simple as they should be.

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal has reviewed the Microsoft AntiSpyware software I mentioned. He spent more time testing it and he's not as favorably impressed as I had been. It's better than nothing, but, when dealing with the bad guys, better than nothing can lead to a false sense of security.

Friday the 13th falls on a Thursday this month.

Happy 9th Birthday, Krista Lynn.

Krista was born on a very snowy night. Sandra and I were baby-sitting the boys at their house. When Mike and Lynn called with the news ("It's a girl," shouted the boys, hopping around the room.), we debated a long time before deciding that it was too stormy to make it to the hospital that night, even in the Subaru. We had perhaps two feet of snow and the old St. Vincent Hospital was on top of a hill. We waited until morning for our first visit with our new little girl.

Mike had (and has) a snow plowing business. Through that evening, people were calling him at the hospital, congratulating him on the birth of his daughter and then asking if he'd be plowing their driveways soon.

Today, by comparison, we have a couple of inches of fresh snow which is now changing to sleet and freezing rain. We'll have rain and then temperatures close to 60F by tomorrow.

I've been using the beta (pre-release) Microsoft AntiSpyware software on a couple of systems and have been favorably impressed. It caught a couple of things that other tools didn't find. Currently this software is free; Microsoft hasn't determined how much, if anything, they'll charge for the final product.

I use several web-based job search tools, such as monster.com, DICE, Yahoo Jobs, and Flipdog. For each, I filled out a form that indicated my areas of interest and experience. Each day I receive an email from these sites with a list of possible job matches. I have been primarily looking for a job in software technical documentation; I'd prefer a management job. So, recently, I've received ponters to jobs as Senior Waste Manager and Senior Executive Secretary. (To be fair, in the late 70's, I worked as an office temp for Kelly Services, "The Kelly Girl People.")

Nerd stuff ahead: In the past two days, two stories have appeared on Slashdot. One, about Rational software, a division of IBM, incited vitriol against its products, including documentation. Another story, about IBM's decision to free up 500 of its software patents, had them nearly dancing in their cubicles. The /. crowd is smart, loud, and fast.

When my mother had a difficult night of sleep and would be tired the next day, she'd pretend that she was tired from traveling.

Today I will try to return to work. As is typical of returning from time off, today I'll focus on getting caught up with email and trying to figure out where I was when I left. I'm not sure where I stand with regard to the next round of deadlines. I worked on our bills last night. While we're a long way from destitute, losing those days of work last week will have an impact. I'm not going to try to work extra hours, though, until I'm sure I'm restored to good health.

Sandra and I got out of the house for a while yesterday afternoon. Sandra's been very patient during this protracted illness and needed a break. We visited with my father and then went out for a mid-day meal. The change of scenery was good. The countryside, covered in snow, is New England at its best.

We have a house rule that, if anything goes into the attic, something must come out. So, to make room for a couple boxes of my stuff, I brought down a crate that contained papers from college and that brief, crash-and-burn semester in graduate school, notes and drafts of short stories, outlines for magazine articles and research projects. None of the material was less than 20 years old and almost none of it was worth saving. (Anyone care for a $4.40 excise tax bill on a 1969 Plymouth Valiant?) There was an article that I wrote on hitchhiking from an alternative newspaper way back when. Rejection letters from publishers filled several Pendaflex® folders.

My papers from elementary school were a bit more interesting. You woudn't expect much humility from a 9th grader's autobiography and that's just what you'd get.

Yesterday's Boston Globe was its semi-annual Big Help edition. The paper runs a special promoion with their business customers and fills up the help wanted section. I've not had great luck with job leads in newspapers, but should make the effort. Sandra has a sewing class tonight, so I'll have a chance to review the ads. I should also have a conversation with my current manager about a contract extension. The current contract runs through the end of the month.