Hmmm....

In that word cloud thing I did the other day, the word "star" appears -- but the word "wars" does not. That seem right to you?

Anyhow, sorry about the lengthy (for me, anyway) break from posting. I didn't have much to say on Thursday, and I spent quite a bit of last night and earlier today downloading and running some free apps that (I hoped) would help get my computer running better again. Not that it's been running disastrously badly, mind you, but in over four years on this computer I've never once cleaned the registry, for one thing, and I've tired of relying on web-based virus scanners to replace my old, expired anti-virus program. So I ditched my old security software and got a new firewall and anti-virus program, along with another program to perform generic "cleaning" tasks (like the registry) and the latest versions of AdAware and SpyBot.

Things seem to be working pretty well now. I've heard a lot of horror stories about other people's computers dying after a couple of years, so I'm frankly amazed that my machine is apparently still going strong after more than four years. But then, we're pretty stable in our computer usage -- mostly word processing, the Web, doing stuff with photos, and the occasional game for The Daughter. My hope is to squeeze one more year out of the current machine, and then upgrade sometime next winter; and if this machine is still going strong even then, I may just strip it down to nothing but the MP3 software and OpenOffice, move it to my writing area, and make it my main writing machine (i.e., no Net access).

(The new programs I'm using, by the way, were recommended here. If you're looking for good, and free, utilities to keep your PC running well, check it out.)

(And yeah, I know that I wouldn't have to worry about any of this stuff if I had a Mac, and my golf game would improve and I'd suddenly be surrounded by buxom vixens. I like PCs. So there.)