Didn't want to drop in without a big hello from Christmas Past to my FTM pals! I hope your lizard lives are going well, and that adventures abound.

Ha! I meant to cross that out, but hit the slasher thing instead. OTOH, it does seem oddly in keeping with my post on Magic slippage, and the spoilage more appropriate than not.

You're cryptic as ever, LadyJ! I've got to mull this over, although I'm not sure that'll help with meager clues like these...

Hmm...I suspect Sheba Judith meant that though her intention was to invoke a strikethrough of MFI, she clicked the adjacent (and more than a little bit similar) spoiler button instead; then, appreciating the symbolic value of an input error in a post made to say hello while here seeking help with a device generating input errors, she decided to let that particular inadvertence stand.

Hiya, JM!

Say, nobody would complain if you didn't wait 355 days before again gracing us with your presence.

Thanks for that explanation. Even though it's Saturday evening I managed to get it.
That said, your background check took a bit less than 100 days per minute, not bad for the weekend. And as to the meaning of that particular yearlet interval, I'll wait for the official announcement...

Tis murky, my bad!
It could have been worse, of course.
Could have been haiku.

Please, let's not go there!
Too many fond memories
float desolately.

I spent most of the summer getting ready for my daughter's simple wedding in the mountains three hours away from everything (to the son-in-law of a mother's dreams, fortunately). I figure that only leaves 265 days unaccounted for, which is pretty good, really, considering how much faster the clock ticks than it used to, no? Seems like you were a newlywed yourself, just yesterday, or last week, or month, decade? Think I've got the hang of it, now.

As seconds they fleet
Those years I used to cherish
Still without number

Floatin' around just ain't what it used to be is it? Computers are a whole lot more fun though! Have you retired as many of them as I have since then? Or do you just replace your own innards?

Digital photography is my siren now. I took a break from my usual closeups of decay to put together a Deconstruction slideshow this spring, on the site where my studio is supposed to go. Alas, I suck at editing, and haven't figured out which half of the pix to trash.

Retired? (Can you eat that?) I may have to before long, but can't really afford it yet: my innards decided to get a life of their own, and the floating has been better...

Btw, I loved watching that slideshow! The ones that struck me were the very first [bite], a face or two, some of the debris in the dirt, a 'mech-head' excavator shot, to name a few. What you ditch in your edit obviously depends on the story you want to tell and the slant it needs. I know, it's easier said than done.

That first Christmas tree
is now ten or twelve feet tall.
Robins nest in it.

+ + + + +

Say, that's quite the detailed photographic documentation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics there! (Wonder why it is that old plaster walls in houses confronting the wrecking ball claw are always fuchsia or canary yellow or lime green?)

Got working drawings for the replacement?

Actually, I was thinking about collections of retired computers gathering dust in basements.

Glad you enjoyed the slides -- you're also dead right about the dueling storylines. They're harder to choose between than the pix! At last count, I had about 5 of them fighting for air. It's soooo much easier to whittle down when there's no obvious chronology in the running.

But enough about me!

Great entropy links. Whenever I run across the word, I always seem to have forgotten precisely what it means. Too busy living it! My very first email/screen name was ChaosChaos.

The studio drawings are definitely on the table, or rather still on the table. I'm hoping to demonstrate that the bigger the container, the less susceptible to entropy it becomes.

Would I be right in thinking that you talked about that first Christmas tree at the time?

With all my misunderstanding I should slow down and pay attention, it seems... Yes, after I entered it into Mactracker's My Models recently I realized my collection is larger than I thought. Time for some Fall cleaning, perhaps.

As to replacing digital innards, that depends a lot on your model Mac. Apart from externals I feel it's often not worth it compared to a replacement upgrade of the Mac itself. Now, it would be nice to replace my wetware innards before terminal decrepitude sets in, but without something like a cortical stack option that's just muddling in the margin. Heck, you can barely get wired for sound these days.

Btw, if you've got different story lines that vie for attention, why not develop them all (at least in outline) and see where it leads? That is, of course, if you've got the time to spend.