Strange goings-on at the Snoopy borg

My plot to re-instate chat has taken an interesting turn. After months of not working, my Lotus Sametime chat app has sprung back to life.  But Gmail chat remains dark so I'm assuming it's permanently FUBAR. Sigh.

However, for anyone who wants to be creative and is on a PC, the chat app Pidgin will work with (drum roll) Lotus Sametime. So while I cannot reach out to others, others can reach out to me.  Pidgin is a free download.

On a different subject, I'm planning to re-invent this blog soon, so don't touch that dial. I'll put a link to the new one here, so it's not like I'm trying to pull a disappearing act; I just want to set up something a bit more akin to my current state of affairs.

chat or bust!

Perhaps it's just a temporary quirk, but earlier today I discovered that my Gmail chat wasn't working any more. The Snoopy Police use a blocking application called Websense, and I'm guessing that the IT folk recently installed an update that killed Gmail chat.

This annoys me for several reasons. Not only can I not enjoy the occasional hot chat with ODD*, I'm blocked from the more mundane but still necessary chats with friends and colleagues who hate Lotus Notes and its crap chat client, Sametime, as much as I do.

My Sametime app hasn't worked for months. When I called IT for help, I heard the ages-old mantra:  "We don't support the Mac." But then our freelance Mac tech insists that he can't fix it because it's a server problem, and he can't change server settings.

I've decided to install one of the multi-chat applications, Adium, and see what transgresses. It's basically Trillian for Mac users. I may even be able to justify using it (or at least have a good excuse if IT busts me) as it connects with Lotus Sametime.

* See Key to Characters at right.

How I spent my President's Day vacation

We're almost done - the only section of bricks that still need to come down is that last bit by the neighbor's fence that's surrounding my kitchen window. This is tentatively scheduled for next Monday.

Ian is trying to preserve the brickwork shown at right, as it's the outer layer of my fireplace chimney. It's too bad you can't see what a good job he did removing the adjacent bricks.

busy, tired, squirming

Even though I kept telling myself it's because of the snow days and bank holidays and weekend, I found myself missing O.D.D.* this afternoon. Sigh.

In the meantime, I still haven't recovered from yesterday's massive brick removal project from the west side of Chez Melina. Although my kind friend Ian assisted and did the tricky/hard stuff, I'm still worn out from knocking masonry off bricks, picking up bricks, and stacking bricks. Lots of bricks. Lots and lots of bricks.

Photos to come if I don't fall asleep and forget.

* See Key to Characters at right.

confession time

In case anyone's wondering, I have already ordered mine.