Traveling in a fried-out Kombi, on a hippie trail, head full of zombie. I met a strange lady

And now my Sunday at L.A.con IV photos are online. Click on eric_in_elevatr to see them.

Fly, robin, fly; fly, robin, fly. Fly, robin fly; up, up to the sky. Fly, robin, fly . . .

LASFS meetings and Aftermeetings, part 269 (31-Aug-2006) et seq.; Maria and Lynn at Claim Jumper (01-Sep-2006); Lux After Dark/Space Cadet LARP Wrap Party (04-Sep-2006); Party at Elaine and Dale's House (16-Sep-2006); and Our tenth anniversary: Queen Mary and Long Beach Aquarium (23/24-Sep-2006) photos are online now. Click on colleency rocking out on DDR to see the wrap party pictures.

I'm just about caught up!

I didn't make a big deal of this at the time, but... Earlier this year, I was driving along and I had my laptop (in its carrying bag, I believe) in the truck with me. This is the computer I bought the purpose of collecting photos and preparing them to upload. I had considered putting it on top of the box next to me, but I was worried it might slip off and crash to the floor if I had to stop suddenly. Ordinarily I'd put it on the floor of the backseat, but I was in the truck that night and didn't have easy access to the back. I figured it would be safer to put it on the floor of the passenger seat.

There was a detour off of the 57/60 freeways that night, and I had to come to a sudden stop. And I realized that I'd left something out of my calculations: that box on the seat next to me contained twelve one-liter bottles of Tejava iced tea. It's heavy. And it tumbled off of the seat, landing on the laptop.

So now I've got a laptop with a busted screen, which reduces its value to near nil. It actually still works if I plug another monitor into it. Theoretically it could be repaired; the replacement value, though, is exceeded by the cost of parts plus labor.

I've got another used laptop on order now. I'd like to thank everyone who's donated to the Hazel's Picture Gallery maintenance fund, including (most recently) Jeanne, Francesca, Lisa, Kirstin, Peter, Mike, and Naomi, because that's making it possible for me to replace my poor busted Powerbook. I've been using a PC laptop, but it doesn't have all of my Unix picture processing tools.