I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- the first friends you should make at any job is with the folks in the IT department. I'm having a terrible time getting my Web cam set up (damn corporate firewalls), but hopefully some friends downstairs will give me a hand. Otherwise, I'll just have to figure out which port to use by brute force.

Meanwhile, I'm starting to wonder if I did something wrong to my Sea Monkeys. I don't see a damn thing moving anymore. I followed the instructions to the letter -- at least I think I did -- but I don't see anything. I'm starting to worry. Poor little Sea Monkeys -- did I do something wrong?

Anyway, life's busy right now and I haven't had much time to ruminate on political dogma and what-not. It's all part of a vast right-wing conspiracy to keep me occupied, I'm sure.

But I do want to nip this conspiracy theory about Sen. Paul Wellstone's death in the bud right now. When a candidate dies, especially an incumbent, voters have historically been won over by sympathy and vote for the dead guy or whoever happens to replace the dead guy. Look at the Carnahan vote. Republican facists may be evil, but they're not stupid.