I now have DSL at home again. To my surprise, Speakeasy isn't using PPPoE or DHCP to hand out the static IP that I have. While I can't control the reverse-IP mapping, I was happily able to give my home systems a hostname in my domain. Speakeasy feels a bit different than Verizon did -- I'm not certain exactly how to classify it, but the connection dynamic is changed. Computer geeks can usually tell when a system is about to crash by the pauses the computer makes, the frequency and source of them, and a number of other subtle things that may appear superficially similar to when a system is just temporarily bogged down. That fine-tuned sense also makes modems, cable, LANs, T1s, and DSL all feel different.

Yesterday I again saw the cute girl that works at Milky Way, and noticed something about her face -- it's kind of a composite of two faces/people I also find attractive, namely Debb (who has a beautiful face with mostly Semitic and a touch of German or Polish features) and G, who has a really pretty face with mostly Gaelic features. I have noticed that the way that people parse faces appears to vary a lot between people -- I think this accounts for why a lot of people have a tough time differentiating between people of very different ethnicities, e.g. why Americans have a tough time seeing the most obvious differences between two Japanese. Because people don't need to communicate facial impressions that often, instead just developing their own classifications to get by in life, there's a loose convergence in the systems they use, instead of a strong convergence in the way people organize their thoughts in the local language. I, for example, might notice the shape of the skin around the eyes, nose width, skin tone, and variations in head width, while someone else might notice nose height, facial hair, skin tone, and chin shape, and so depending on two faces, we might decide differently on if they look alike or different. This seems to happen pretty often for me.

Arafat says he'll try to create/maintain a public order in areas where Israel is withdrawing. This will be an interesting test of the strength of his coalition within what I'm sure is a very complex political situation. I've been reading a bit about Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi Ba'ath party under his control. For a leader in what I consider the backwards area of the world, Saddam didn't seem to be that bad. Na klar, some people don't have any excuse, being from a relatively civilized place where expectations should be higher.

China has apparently decided that Wikipedia is too much of a threat to public order, and has firewalled it. This is unfortunate.

Finally, I now have the numbers on my blood tests, and they've moved towards better health. My total cholesterol is 175, HDL 40 (35 at last test), LDL 120 (133 last). According to a few websites, I'm doing pretty well, although because they've changed quite a bit over the last few years, my doctor wants to keep an eye on it and do another test in 6 months. Combined with my heart rate, which is continuing to drop nicely, I'm largely happy with my health. Hurrah.

I'm not sure how I'm going to spend today -- I might do some light rock climbing or have a nice run before the 'dinner party'.