I managed to knock myself offline for a good bit yesterday when simply rewiring the LAN here at the Blue Tower... I think I may have some flakiness in my hub, there doesn't seem to be any other explanation consistent with what's been happening (basically I can't figure out why I was offline then but am back online now).

While I was acquiring some new cables for this rewiring project (if only I'd been prescient enough to pick up a new hub), I happened through a Target (pronounced, of course, tar-jay) and found the most amazing thing. They are selling a product called the "electrostorm," which is one of those globes that you plug in and the interior fills with little visible electric beams which will focus towards any portion of the globe that is touched from the outside. I'm not doing a great job of describing this, but if you saw it you'd recognize it from science class and science fiction movies as a pretty familiar sort of exotic prop. Anyway, the amazing thing here is just how much the prices have changed on some things over time, because this item, which assuredly would have cost hundreds of dollars in the not-too-distant past, was all of $19.99!! This is definitely worthwhile for those of us who can't seem to get the technique down for Creating a Plasma Ball with our hands (thanks Fletch).