February 14th, 2018:

	Happy Valentine's Day to the Phlogosphere!

I find it rather amusing that, this year, Valentine's Day falls on the 
same day as Ash Wednesday, aka the first day of Lent.  Hope none of my 
fellow adherents have given up chocolate for Lent!  Har har har!

My wife and I gave up on the Valentine Machine a number of years ago.  We 
both agree that if you truly love someone, you don't need a particular day 
set aside to express that love.  Instead, we celebrate Discount Chocolate 
Day on the 15th (and on Easter Monday)... an old joke, I know, but it's 
also very true.  Seriously, hit the right stores and you can *really* 
clean up!

Speaking of gluttony, I'm putting myself on a diet of sorts.  An Internet 
diet, as it were.  For the next couple of weeks (until March 1st), I'm 
limiting my personal (non-work related) internet activities to the 
services provided by SDF.  That means Usenet, IRC, email, gopher, and web 
(via Lynx and supplemented by surfraw) will all be done via shell on 
SDF... except for Mastodon, of course, for which I'll need my browser.

I don't have any great philosophical or political reasons for doing so, I 
just want to cut down on the noise for a while.  I figure by focusing on 
the community here, I can get some peace and quiet...  and get to know my 
neighbours a little better.

Call it a diet, call it a vacation, call it insane, I just need a break.