Pacbell Internet just started requiring authorization to use the news servers. It took me a bit to find this out since I didn't get a message and only found out when I went to the support page to see if there was some problem with news. On a positive note, I can now log into the news server from my Ricochet account. It used to be blocked to non Pacbell Internet IPs. So now I can check news away from home, although it is slow through a Ricochet connection...

There's this almost dead thread on rec.games.frp.misc: "Why did Chaosium split up?". It's interesting reading the various theories that people have spouted. I'm a little closer to the source but I wasn't paying attention when Shannon and Eric were talking about it so I'm not one to ask. Still, someone said that Wizard's Attic had a history of not paying game publishers promptly. Refrained from responding, which is good since other people stood up for Eric, who's doing a great job with his small company...

Just when I was starting to be disappointed with the Kings' performance against the Lakers, they win two games at home to tie the best-of-five series. Game 3 was nice because they came back in the second half from about 10 down to beat the Lakers. Game 4 was impressive in that they lead from the first few minutes to the end of the game. Defensively they stepped up to shackle Shaquille O'Neill and prevent him from killing them. He still scored 20-something points and Kobe Bryant got 30-something points. But the Lakers got little support from their other players and the Kings' bench played well once again. So now it's down to one game at LA, and the Kings have a chance to advance to the second round...

Tonight is the Academy of Country Music Awards, which I'm taping on my bad VCR. I want to make sure I tape West Wing. The one hour when West Wing is on I'll tape the ACM on my other VCR and hope for the best, but even if it doesn't tape I should still be able to see the first and third hours. I'm not too sure who I want to see win, although Faith Hill and the Dixie Chicks have had a good year so far. Shania Twain is still riding the coattails of her third album, and although it's a great album, it was recorded in 1997.

TNN is also going to have a music award show. People could vote for their favorite candidates on the web, although you had to register and give them an e-mail address. I did actually vote, although the problem for me is that in most of the categories I only know one or two of the artists. Luckily Faith Hill was nominated a lot so I voted for her. This brings up the point that having fans vote for awards is just a popularity contest. I don't think many people would vote for someone they didn't think much of, for any reason. Even if I can tell that this person was better in this category than someone I liked, I'm still awfully tempted to vote for the person I like.

While I'm on the subject of country music, I still miss Crook and Chase. I've been visiting their web site and it mentions that they're working on getting their show back on the air. Meanwhile they do host a country top 40 countdown show, although I checked the affiliate stations and there don't seem to be any stations nearby. It's pretty annoying since I got hooked on the show last year and only got to watch it for six months before TNN axed all their country music shows...

Dave just got ICQ, which apparently works through a firewall, at least the NT version. I guess he doesn't log out of his workstation because he left ICQ up so I know it's been idle for the last few hours. If I was an IS person and we had to block certain services, I'd be pretty miffed if people found a way around it. So Dave's attitude towards chat programs that go circumvent firewalls by using the http port is strange to me. Sure, I get around our company firewall with my Ricochet modem. But I'm a user and users always think they know more than the IS folks...

Looks like the road trip to Graceland is getting closer to reality. I was worried that Chris would have to go to Europe with Mom and Steph, but last I heard Mom was having second thoughts. I guess we'll know for sure this weekend, and it has to be soon so I can ask for the two weeks off.

Meanwhile my CoolPix 990 camera is on back order. With only a month left until my brother's graduation I really want to get the camera at least a few days before so I can practice with it. I'll probably start getting antsy if there's no notice on the status in a week or two.