ok, normal service almost resumed. thanks to all who offered advice on how to treat my ailing computer. hopefully it's more or less fixed - after 5 full days and several nights spent rummaging around in the murky depths of the windows xp operating system.

here's a little poem till i remember how to blog:

My Star
All that I know
Of a certain star
Is, it can throw
(Like the angled spar)
Now a dart of red,
Now a dart of blue;
Till my friends have said
They would fain see, too,
My star that dartles the red and the blue!
Then it stops like a bird; like a flower hangs furled:
They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it.
What matter to me if their star is a world?
Mine has opened its soul to me, therefore I love it.

Robert Browning