It only seemed like Grand Central Station...

The tech from Comcast arrived at 11 am to set up the cable modem, and everything went well until the time came to complete activation of the account. It turned out that not only did I have to sign up for Yet Another E-Mail Account™ - an annoyance, certainly, but no show-stopper - I also had to download an executable whose ostensible purpose was to install a bunch of proprietary utilities before I could get past the Comcast welcome page.

Horse puckey, and other like epithets.

Fortunately, the file I downloaded was, in turn, a downloader, whose job it was to send me the actual installation file, but once I started to receive the main 32-MB installation file on my Aspire netbook - and I was dreading having to install proprietary software to get at the service - my VAIO laptop suddenly found itself on the Internet.

I terminated the download in midstream.

The tech from the gas company showed up while I was out depositing checks and picking up a UPS package that had already accumulated "three delivery attempts" before settling down to wait at the League City facility for me to show up.

* * *I had thought that I had pretty much seen every conceivable form of PowerPoint idiocy and presentation slide abuse over the years, but today's translation file stands as firm evidence that the font of wickedly stupid things that can be done with PowerPoint - including subtle touches that embody the concept of "translator-hostile" - is far from dry.

I would go on, but after laying down 6,700 target words down on LCD, I'm just too tired. Tomorrow's translation file - more PowerPoint - appears to offer a "light duty" day after today's effort, with only a mere 34 slides.

Cheers...