Chinese New Year: Gung hay fat choy !!! The year of the rooster.

... Muslim New Year also.

My mother called Wednesday evening. It's hard to believe it's been nearly four weeks since we last talked. Her trip to England is still a go for early March.

Weather: Spring-like days: some rain and o'cast now and again... and some wonderful blue sky sun-shiny days. The winter pattern remaining relatively warm at our locale.

February: Black History Month. I viewed a couple of programs on the VH1 channel about rap and hip hop music, and black directors in the movies that were quite interesting. It was in the '70's while taking a sociology class, briefly, at Cal State Univ. at Hayward, that I was introduced to a glimpse of black history and contemporary black culture. I'm chagrined to admit that my knowledge is lacking in terms of the "black experience". I have been researching the web & watching programs, on the BYU channel, about LDS black history and current events to gain some understanding within the faith.

Ossie Davis has passed.

The "droopy-pants" bill has been dropped in Virginia. What would Thomas Jefferson have done? Suspender stocks fall to new lows in late market trading.

I'm back to formatting the BLOG in HTML using NoteTab Light... a Windows Notepad replacement that uses tabbed entry and is much more functional than Notepad. Its only drawback is that it seems to crash my HTML editor AceHTML_Pro_6 if I try to run both concurrently. The email posting proved to be disappointing and the "Compose" mode method proved to be a bit buggy... with the HTML that it produced quite ponderous to edit. Also, my sidebar has been flummoxed when viewing in IE6... an edit being warranted... though it appears much better in Opera and Firefox browsers. IE6 has been erratic at displaying my Google Ads at the top of the BLOG... go figger!

And speaking of AceHTML, by Visicom Media, the freeware version, AceHTML 5 Freeware, is being discontinued and will no longer be supported. A new update (free to paid owners of AceHTML_Pro_6) v.6.04.2, is now available for download.

Three critical updates for my Windows 98SE operating system. One each for: IE6, Windows Media Player, and Outlook Express for possible system hijacks. Done and done and done. I think this is the last year for operating system support for pre-Windows XP systems... Win 98SE most likely.

My prediction for the Super Bowl score was pretty close... just one Adam Vinatieri field goal short!

BIG EARTHQUAKES... from the bigquake mailing list I subscribe to:
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake in the Celebes Sea: 5.36N 123.23E Depth 486km Sat Feb 5 12:23:15 2005 UTC
Location with respect to nearby cities:

• 215 km (130 miles) SE of Zamboanga, Mindanao, Philippines
• 230 km (145 miles) WSW of General Santos, Mindanao, Philippines
• 1050 km (650 miles) SSE of MANILA, Philippines
  

My entries... poetry.com: " Poetry in Motion "... & Haiku daily contests:

"Ever True "... A sentimental piece.

"Dim^E " a Haiku: ... The photo for inspiration was of a rushing stream bounded by trees on both sides. I apologize for being obscure, dim being short for dimensional. I often just go with what pops into my mind with little regard for if it makes any sense... I be dim.

"Whence the Tsunami " a Haiku: ... A photo offered of gray skies over a palm tree inhabited island with a view of other small islands... a photo used in the past for fonder poetic thoughts. In the aftermath of the Boxing Day's last tsunami, stories of the sea receding to reveal treasures to luckless beach combers evoked my recollection of reading a book of science fiction by Arthur C. Clarke, "Childhood's End", where a child is likewise enticed - although saved miraculously. I believe I too might have yielded... to my ultimate mortal demise. First "Jaws" and now the memory of the tsunami past... "The sea a hard mistress be".