You can see if you look...

I still go home around noon to struggle with the books for the shop. I keep finding omissions here and there. So far, I've uncovered about $200 of charges that haven't been properly logged. Ye gods.

Galina called this morning. The insurance people are giving her a hassle, and the person she needs to talk to is not there, so I suggested she drop the issue for now and get back here (strongly suggested, seeing how Drew and Shannon are leaving for California on...Wednesday? most certainly Thursday?).

I met with my "Ophelia" at the coffee shop this afternoon briefly, and found out that the version of Hamlet being performed by the local troupe is somewhat condensed from Bill S.'s original script. I never thought I'd be caught dead saying this, but I notice that some of "my" (i.e., Polonius') best lines have been cut. (I notice, but do not complain). It's all to the good, I suppose, as the full four-hour production is probably a bit much for most folks to bear, and it's that much less wear and tear on the actors and the director. In any event, I'll be getting the "real" script tomorrow night.

I spent a few minutes putting together a skeleton home page for the troupe, and posting it to the appropriate IP address. The domain registration has not propagated yet, so the only way to view the site is to enter the IP address, which confuses the heck out of most people.

Segue.

A walk past the coffee shop later in the day shows people sitting around a table and playing chess. One of the players makes quite a striking figure: he is a black man with piercing, light blue eyes, wearing a black burnoose held in place by what appears to be a gold chain, in the middle of which is set an amethyst. His proffered name - if I heard correctly - is "Noman" (no misspelling that I can tell, "no-man"). I was not able to tell the level of chess that was being played, but I suspect it was not very high, as Noman had just resigned to his opponent after making a weak move.

I need to get out more...and keep my eyes open.

Cheers...

Cool mail tool...

I recently ran across a freeware Windows mail program called "Kaufman Mail Warrior," and thought I'd pass the word about this small gem of a program.

When faced with using Windows, my preferred mail program used to be Eudora, up until an attempt to "upgrade" to the 5.x version threw my Sony into a conniption fit. Using the ubiquitous alternative - Microsoft Outlook Express - just doesn't do it for me, either, for two reasons.

First, there seems to be no way to turn off HTML rendering, which has been a problem in the past with regard to virus propagation, not to mention the fact that I simply don't like HTML rendering. The Kaufman program appears to limit its calisthenics to scanning for links and then doing some color rendering based on content.

Second, there seems to be no way in Outlook Express to simply check message headers, delete messages without downloading them, or download messages without subsequently deleting them from the server. Eudora pretty much provides this functionality, but so does the Kaufman product, which seems remarkably robust in my Windows Me environment (though it doesn't much like sending attachments under Windows 95; after sending, it commits seppuku).

More details as they develop. After noodling with the product for a couple of days, I like it.

Standard disclaimers regarding any relationship with the program writer apply.

Cheers...