October Tidings

Today I signed a three-month work contract to begin on October 26th.  It got me thinking about all that's happening that day and the next.

• Geocities shutting down after 15 years.  Both my first (Gibdon Moon) and second (Cyclone7) website were on this system if you discount my high school web folder that I got from being a student technician.  I can't remember the addresses, but I'm sure I could look them up somewhere.  One got hacked, another I just let go.  Don't worry, the Internet Archive is here to help, but it's under construction.
• Windows 7 released to the unwashed masses: me.  Oh wait, never mind, it's actually the 22nd.  Close enough, right?  And none too soon.  I've been running the beta alongside Ubuntu for nearly a year now.  This particular laptop came with Vista Business, but I gave up on it a couple months after purchase.  Of course, part of the reason 7 is running great has to do with the fact that I've disabled indexing, no virus scanner, no windows defender, etc.  It still thrashes sometimes, for reasons unknown, but is generally smooth.
  

And on October 27th ...

• Torchlight by Runic Games!  I played this at PAX and enjoyed it thoroughly.  My only gripe at the moment would be that it's for PC-only and I like to laze about on my couch with the PS3.  This appears to be the perfect type of game for me to unwind with rather than dwell on.
  
• The Gathering Storm in the Wheel of Time series.  It is the first half of what was going to be a single, final book: number 12.  My friend Cory got me started on this long but satisfying reading journey.  The creating author, Robert Jordan, died before completing it which is very sad.  Knowing he was sick, he shared his notes with his author friends and his widow picked Brandon Sanderson from that group to finish it off.

So there you have it.  A new job and a handful of new happenings.