Want to have a little fun around the office? Want to disturb and distress your co-workers? (I know I do/did!) If you run a PC with Windows or NT, then try the following:

1. Download guts.zip (85 KB).
2. Open the zip file and extract guts.bmp to your Windows or NT directory.
3. Go to Display Properties and choose the Screensaver tab (right click on the desktop and choose Properties).
4. Choose 3D Pipes (Open GL) and click on the Settings button. (Note: this screensaver may not be available for your video card or drivers.)
5. Choose the following settings:
   • Pipes: Single
   • Resolution: Max
   • Pipe Style: Flex
   • Surface Style: Textured
6. Click on Choose Texture and select guts.bmp from the list of files.
7. Set the delay on the screensaver and close the Display Properties dialog.

Wait a few minutes, then presto, intestines galore! (The texture map image was created from an actual photograph of Annette's stomach lining.)

For the truly rebellious, it also makes a lovely desktop wallpaper.

My father sends the following email:

Our street is completely ripped up [major water and sewer work]. Last night there were two backhoes in front of our house. We went out about 7, it was dark, to go for a walk and were standing on the porch when some dork in a Jeep Cherokee drives from the street to the sidewalk at about the Hill's driveway, sees our sidewalk is kind of blocked, so drives onto our lawn and back on the the sidewalk and then the street at the Henry's side. If I had had a rock he would have had it - preferably through one of the windows.

Which pretty much confirms my opinion of most SUV drivers.

Here in Berlin, it's world championships time. F.D.F. (I'm still not tired of that nickname, and happily, neither is she) and I went to the track last night to watch a few hours of racing. It was very, very cool. I won't go on, I'll save it for one big explosion next week. I'm riding up this morning to watch the Canadians attempt to qualify in the Olympic sprint, then we'll go again tonight to watch sprinting and team pursuit. Two friends of mine are riding for Canada, so I'm attempting to get a message to them in the hopes that they need a tour guide, either for a road ride or a sight-seeing expedition.

The only problem with today's plan might be the cold or sinus infection that seems to have returned in the past 24 hours. Riding over cobbles makes my teeth ache.

There are cycling clothes on sale in the velodrome lobby, warm winter gear that I will need soon, at very good prices. But alas we have a temporary liquidity problem, so I must think seriously about this.

Good news! The woman with the studio in Kreuzberg called last night. Alles ist in Ordnung. [Everything is in order.] She was out of town for a few weeks and had disconnected the answering machine. My paranoia was for naught - by definition, isn't paranoia generally for naught? We'll be moving in sometime around November 15th. This is an excellent development.

I'm getting some ideas about what to do next, what to call it, how it should work, what it should look like. I need to finish off the last of the portfolio site and send out some job letters, then I'm free to design away.