--William Lyon Phelps

It having been some time since my last original entry, you may be wondering what I've been doing with myself lately. The answer is, not much.

• I never did post that message I'd promised to post on the Mouth Organ message boards.

• I haven't done any proofreading for Clean Sheets.

• I haven't started writing the first installment of my camp paper.

• I haven't revised my resume.

• I haven't read the Task Force to Eviscerate CUNY's final report -- in which, predictably, they called for the evisceration of CUNY -- nor have I written an analysis and rebuttal for possible publication somewhere. And, as they released the thing on the Saturday before last, I suppose it's already too late for any forum other than the college paper. News gets old fast.

• I haven't proofread the book of the professor whose book I'm supposed to be proofreading. Which may be just as well, because, otherwise, I'd have to find something else to call him in this journal.

• Nor have I gotten any more money, but that hasn't been wholly within my control. I'm still waiting for the payment on that bond to come in the mail, not to mention those writing awards... although I did get some nice laser-printed certificates for the latter, today. But not the money. Yet. So the bank account is down to 68 cents.

Surfed the Web, mostly. And slept. And lounged around listlessly. And answered some of my e-mail. And found a few more online journals to get hooked on. Far too many of the last, really; there's no way I'm going to be able to keep up with them all.

And, then, after sucking away so much of my time, what does Karen do? She e-mails me about the fact that I need to update my journal. Which, admittedly, was an important catalyst in my finally catching up last night, but still... she's gonna pay one of these days. :-)

Then I noticed that I'd gone back and read every last entry in the archives, and had signed up for her notify list. Hmmm. I'm not sure how she managed that. The wave of the future, I guess: Stealth Journals. They hook you when you're not paying attention, and make you keep coming back. :-)

Sure, you say. A corporate newsletter. More spam for the mailbox. Who in their right mind would want that?

But, see, Yoyodyne Entertainment News wasn't your normal corporate newsletter. Wendy Hall, its writer, wrote about her life, her dating experiences, her cats, and her favorite TV shows. In between all that, she threw a bit of hype for the current Yoyodyne contests, ran a weekly hidden contest, and featured a few other writers; most notably, fashion consultant Indira and advice columnist Karen. But, at its core, it was an e-mail-based online journal, and a darn good one. I looked forward to it every week.

And then it closed down. And, following what's looking like the usual pattern for Internet companies, Yoyodyne got bought out by Yahoo! shortly thereafter.

But back to Wendy. Her original gameplan had been to continue sending out newsletters to those signed up for the reincarnated version, on a biweekly basis. But then she had some trouble with her mailing list software, and her new domain name, and, well, life in general got in the way, and, well, she got sidetracked.

But she's back! Web-based, for now, and on GeoCities, but I'm not about to quibble. I get to read about her cats again. I am content. :-)

(As an aside, the Yoyodyne Entertainment News archives, linked to above, is missing the final five issues of the last incarnation. I have copies, should anybody want 'em...)

So. If you haven't read Pamie's latest entry, do so with all speed. This one's a classic, in more ways than one.

Finally... I've successfully lured another journaller to Internet Trash. Welcome aboard, Elizabeth!