yes, I am still around (if you consider a ping as a shake up, and the host as.. well.. me).. life is in the way of writing and creativity. in the background i’ve been toying with music recording, watching the mailing lists on the wp2.3 beta, learning what it means to be a full-time teacher, putting on 600+ miles a week on my car, etc etc.
i’m hoping to be back and writing soon. i have lots to say, a vehicle to say it, but no time 
I went in for day 2 of work today and made the extra-special effort to get all of the technological aspects (username, e-mail, laptop on the wifi, etc) taken care of. One of the questions I was asked (and had to demonstrate as well) was whether I had anti-virus software. I guess I can appreciate the question.. I tend to place myself in the top 5% of computer users in terms of “sense”.. so I often fly sans-av software 
I started pondering how it is only Windows that is exposed to the virus threat.. the answer is obvious.. biggest target. Now that Apple is doing a great job at pushing their own product, you’re starting to see the random OS X virus occasionally. I then started thinking in this same way about linux. Linux is never attacked.. I figured there would be some kind of concrete reason why this is… and I had to step back again. Linux is not an operating system. It is the kernel that you build the operating system on top of. So, you could in theory hit the larger Linux-based OSes.. Fedora, Ubuntu, etc.. but your target audience is small, and they are educated (why else would they be using Linux?!?)..
I wonder if they’d get pissed at my job if I replaced XP with a flavor of linux on my laptop… (it is my laptop… not worried about the whole “messing with company property” nonsense!)
I remember when my wife talked me into joining Friendster back in the day.. no idea what it was about, never had messed with this social networking nonsense, so I figured I would try it out. I guess that was the beginning of what I can only describe as an “up and down addiction”. Fortunately for me, I can avoid the social networking scene and not lose touch with those I care to keep touch with 
Since that first day of friendster, I have cancelled my account on there, and end up living on myspace and facebook more than I should. I try to pull away, but then some long lost distant friend adds me that I haven’t talked to in 15 years, and i’m back.. ugh. So, I still continue in this nostalgic state I’ve been in for the better part of a month. Despite the huffing and puffing, I am enjoying it.
A friend told me about Amie Street today, check it out at http://amiestreet.com/.