Hey, almost half the day is shot... :^)

Just kidding, sort of. I feel like the grunt in the old recruiting commercial that challenged potential recruits to join an outfit that gets more done by 9 am than other people get done all day.

It started with a 5:30 am wakeup, by mutual consent between me and Shiloh. Whereupon we went for a walk "down" to our mailbox, which is nearly a mile away, which made for a nice almost-two-mile walk that yielded nothing of importance.

I then moved my office downstairs, because I've been noticing that it's all too easy for me to get up from my seat upstairs and wander a few steps to where the refrigerator stands. Granted, the fridge is still there, and it's not as if I've placed an insurmountable barrier between myself and caloric goodness, but at least the thing isn't right there, within my line of sight.

To avoid turning tomorrow into a nightmare, I'm going to have to do the shorter of the remaining contracts, along with the rework promised for tomorrow evening. Then tomorrow, I'll have to plow through the last (and longest) contract, leaving me to do one of the remaining assignments early on Monday for delivery later in the day.

Golly, that sounds like a plan!

In between, I shall amuse myself by restoring all the stuff that I threw - somewhat willy-nilly - into boxes to bring downstairs.

Cheers...

Doing a little dance...

Attentive readers will note that my plan for the next few days, set forth in my previous post of earlier today, ended with the following step that almost sounds like an afterthought:

..., leaving me to do one of the remaining assignments early on Monday for delivery later in the day.

Attentive readers with marvelous recall will think back to an earlier scribbling of mine, posted on the 18th instant, wherein I stated:

I opened a jury summons thinking it was old, and it isn't. I'm on the hook for next Monday.

When I realized the inherent contradiction between what I had planned and what had been planned for me, I have to tell you, I had a bad moment or two. However, something in the jury summons came to mind, whereupon I hunted down said piece of paper (no mean trick considering this morning's move of the office and all associated papers) and called the number printed therein to hear whether there was any trial going down downtown on Monday.

There's no trial scheduled, which means that I'm off of that hook.

Today's major effort is done. I have about three hours in which to shoehorn, I think, any more work, a nap, a shower, and a spot of shopping before going "out" for dinner.

Cheers...

Oh, for the love of...

From the Wired Blog Network:

The Motion Picture Association of America said  Friday intellectual-property holders should have the right to collect damages, perhaps as much as $150,000 per copyright violation, without having to prove infringement.

I bet you don't hear much about this on network news. But frankly, the MPAA and its ilk are pikers.

I'll wager you won't hear much, either, about the sweetheart deal that Congress is putting together for mortgage lenders, most certainly not in the context of how the Congressional leaders in charge of such dealmaking have been, in the past, recipients of "VIP treatment" and campaign contributions from said lenders. (Being Democrats helps in keeping the noise level down, it would seem, because if the Congresscritters leading this effort involved were Republican, I'm sure this item would lead the news morning, noon, and night.)

To add insult to insult, a provision has been included in the lender bailout, without debate, to require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government. (Sounds logical, right? Bailing out mortgage lenders goes hand in hand with tracking every credit card purchase made in the country.)

This provision is intended to raise over $9 billion in revenue over 10 years. On the other hand, consider just how much more - and more complete - personal information will now be harvested by the government and how it can be used, sold, lost, etc.

Why is there no outcry about stuff like this?

Cheers...