Down to the sea in a thousand black ships.

I recently picked up the new Penguin Classics edition of the selected works of Lord Dunsany, as edited by noted Lovecraft/fantasy scholar S. T. Joshi. Despite the fact that Dunsany had such a profound influence on HPL, it's kind of surprising that heretofore I hadn't read all that much by the man--just "The Gods of Pegana" and related myth-cycle works which one simply must read if one is a Lovecraft scholar. Fortunately, this lovely new book is available, and I quote to you now in its entirety one of the loveliest little prose poems I have ever encountered. No better account of the writer's attitude toward life can ever be found.

( The Raft-Builders, by Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Lord Dunsany )

Microsoft Outlook can friggin' DIE AND ROT

Generally, I love Microsoft Office--any and all versions. Particularly Microsoft Outlook, which prettymuch serves as my auxiliary brain, remembering for me all the phone numbers, appointments, tasks, and activities that my wetware brain simply cannot retain due to its inate forgetfulness as well as the damage done by years of hard drankin'. I'm not so fond of Outlook as an email program, but, hell, since I use it for everything else, might as well use it for that, too, right?

Well, lemme tell y'all....Microsoft Outlook as an email program blows. Not so much because of functionality--it does everything an email program really should do, after all, so I've no complaints there--but because it's just so goddamned buggy. Even the latest version, 2003, is full of weird quirks and screw-ups that come up at random and cause all manner of friggin' annoyance. Just yesterday, in fact, I was sending out a batch of about twenty emails to various friends and colleagues and whatnot, and the program crashed so goddamned hard (for no apparent reason) that I had to reinstall the bitch just to get it properly rolling again. Fortunately, my Outlook data files weren't damaged, and even if they had been it's not like I don't keep frequent backups...but nonetheless, the hassle was the last thing I needed.

Some time today I need to go through my "sent" folder and see if I've received replies to any of the emails I was sending when Outlook decided to commit sepuku because I apparently demanded more of it than it could possibly handle. That way I'll know what made it through and what didn't so I can resend those that never made it out. If anyone ends up getting the same message from me twice, though, just delete the extra.

OK. Back to grading now.