Most people who met him said that very same thing--what a cool cat.

So now he's gone.

He seemed to rally in past weeks, but I think he was just holding on to stay with us. He just fell apart this morning, to put a kind face on it. He struggled through the day, and I took him to the vet at eight tonight to put him to sleep.

The hard part today was when Drew broke down crying. He didn't want Dart to die. We told him that Dart wasn't coming back, but he said he thought things might change. He made Dart a little get well card and sent it with Dart and me to the vet.

Dart was in even worse shape than we thought. His circulation was so poor that they had to use a leg vein for the shot, and try three times to get the needle in properly. I skritched his head, and he purred right until he went to sleep. Forever.

I thought I would be OK, but I broke several times. But even the doctor teared up.

We've had three cats, but Dart seemed like he was more. He was different.

He was a cool cat.

I guess that's all I have to say.

You know, Tom Cruise's first film role was as a whacked out cadet in Taps. I knew his evil streak would return. This short movie download made me laugh. Especially after today, I needed it. Here's the link--Sith Lord Tom Cruise fries Oprah.

(So maybe Scientology teaches you some valuable side skills, huh?)

Someone has waay too much time on their hands again:

You know, I think it was a good thing that Saddam Hussein's rule was ended. I also think that Hussein pushed the UN far beyond the point where they should have reacted (without us looking like the bad guys charging in). But this webpage is right--the mission definition in Iraq has warped over time to meet political expediency. And that doesn't take into account the way that the case for Iraq was framed in context of 9/11, when it had nothing to do with it.

The war was won, I think. But even some of my conservative friends are becoming unhappy with the way that the "peace" is being lost.

" If you watch the movie without doing the prep work, General Grievous - who is supposed to be one of the most formidable bad guys in the entire "Star Wars" cycle - will seem like something that just fell out of a Happy Meal."

Neal Stephenson on Star Wars 3.

I should read Snow Crash again.

Especially for 50's aficionados:
The Tack-O-Rama clip art website.

After all, where's a good Mailomat when you want one?

If you set your expectations pretty low, that is.

And if you can stand Journey's Don't Stop Believing.

Cause it's like, the entire song. See for yourself.

Still not as good as MameJump, though.

You know, the online community is roiling with comments and suppositions over this Intel and Apple thing. Now I read Bob Cringely and others writing that Intel is going to buy Apple.

Now that's just silly. Everyone knows that just isn't so. How can Intel buy Apple when the truth is that Apple is going to buy Intel? :-)

That's right, you heard it here first. Although I should more properly say that NeXT is buying Intel, since NeXT were the ones who bought Apple for all practical purposes in 1997.

I was going to take him to the vet to be put to sleep on Thursday. I even text chatted with Kevin about it Thursday just before I went home.

Then when I got home, the little guy was eating again. After sipping cat food gravy and tuna juice for a week, he's started to eat food again.

He's still rail thin. This is a cat who was 18 pounds, and now he's down to about 9. But he's actually beginning to resume normal activities.

Maybe it's just a calm period before he takes the Big Journey, I dunno. Or maybe he read the Celestine Prophecy and he's working on the 10th life/level. Or maybe he heard us talking about the final vet trip and decided that he wasn't that sick after all (insert Monty Python skit here--"I feel MUCH better now!").

But for as long as it lasts, it's good to have him back.

We still can't figure out the lump/mass on his neck. The biopsy said it was benign skeletal muscle. Maybe he got a bug bite on the neck that he was really allergic to? Maybe it's an extra mutant brain?

As usual, Dart is a mystery to us. I swear the dude surfs the Internet and stuff all day when we're gone ("darn non-opposable thumbs").

I've been hearing how the president's approval rating has dropped to an all time low.

I'm surprised at how annoyed I am by this. It's just ridiculous. I mean, has anything changed substantially since November? Not really. So to the "shifters" my question is this: if you voted your morals last year, have you just lost them now? If you have your morals now, then why did you vote for the guy then?

It's irritating to me that people don't like the guy now, but they voted him in last election. The public is fickle. If you felt so strongly that you had to vote for President Bush last November, then you might as well stick by him now. Don't bother to give moderates and liberals dangling hopes that you've "seen the light" (although frankly, they'd be fools to buy into it).

I don't think after last year that anyone should trust any "trends" in the public and politics. Or polling, for that matter.

I mean, seriously, what is up with these people? Stuff on my cat? Weird. Poor cats.

The remotes one was funny, though, have to admit.

[D'oh! Already slashdotted. It's down. Deservedly so.]

Denise and I have watched several movies this past week, which is somewhat unusual. Pretty much all of them have been stinkers, which is also unusual.

But tonight, we watched Jersey Girl.

What a really, really good movie. A story that's actually well written, that doesn't stoop to cheap tricks or Hollywood glitz. And for a Kevin Smith movie, very light on dialogue and strong on visuals. I can see why Smith's traditional audience missed this gem--it's not at all his usual comedy. Highly recommended.

Apple is really using Intel Pentium chips in its Macs beginning next year. The Mac faithful are reeling. Some of them really think the sky is falling.

Seriously, folks. If you're simply offended that Apple is moving to the "Dark Side," you really need to rethink what makes Apple innovative. They use IDE drives. They use PCI cards from ATI. They use USB. The list goes on and on, industry standard components that are used in PCs everywhere.

The fact is that yes, Apple is a hardware company, but it's always been the things it does with the hardware that make it great. It's both the form and the function, and if Apple decides that Pentium chips make OS X function better, it's a good bet that they know what they're doing.

And an even better bet that they have some tricks and surprises up their sleeves to make this move look like magic in the making.

The poor cat is 15 years old now. This week was a crisis for him. He has a mass on the left side of his neck that has grown into his throat. He was having trouble breathing. The vet did a spectrum of tests and xrays, and got a sample of the mass for a biopsy. He thinks it's cancerous.

Dart isn't eating. He's pretty quiet, a bit lethargic. The real shame is that cat or not, 15 years old or not, Dart is the coolest cat I ever knew (and we've had 3). He really seems like a human trapped in a cat body.

The biopsy comes back within 7 to 10 days, so we'll know then. He's reacting well to antibiotics, but in a week I may be taking him in to the vet for a final visit if he goes more downhill. Poor guy.

An acre, wooded. We're really excited.

We chose a house to build on it too. A real nice plan.

Pretty cool. The next 10 months will be interesting between the rental by I-283 and the house in the middle of the woods being built.