This message is kind of a test. The electricity is out for about ten blocks around me, rendering my desktop computer and cable modem about as useful as Nigerian yellowcake uranium. So I'm on the laptop and a dial-up connection and I thought I'd see what it felt like to post to my weblog this way. It feels rather prehistoric — about on a par with pounding laundry on a rock by the river to wash it. But if you're reading this, it works.