It seems the fires are abating. And last week someone returned me garbage bin. Things are looking up. For the first time I can actually dimly make out a mountain pass leading up to and over the summit of the alpine range of my workload. There are some considerable foothills that need to be crossed first [and now comes a long list which is not interesting to anyone apart from myself, so just stop reading now and close this window]:

• some administration that must be done tomorrow, come hell or high water,
• some finances to sort out,
• tax and license fee (!),
• proofreading for Jean,
• and my all important phd reports that must be finished in March.
• For the work I’m now doing with my Finnish collaborators, I must polish off a paper tomorrow and finish my implementation. We can still make SPIN if I get results by Friday.
• Somewhere in March I must prepare a presentation for the OSS paper.
• The book I want to write with Henri must be gotten underway: once we get the ball rolling, it may be easier.
• I have to write a large amount of it in any case during April-May for my second semester course.
• Ditto for the software engineering course (and perhaps the graphics course),
• and if I can finish up the CS website it would be great.
• My personal homepage is almost done.
• Oh, my brother wants me to do contract work,
• and I must set up the framework for the idea Willem and I had last week.
• My idea for the novel is coming along, but I’ll have to schedule nightly session for that and for this blog.
• Then some other research: automata, the e-algorithm, genetic TSP, and more model checking.
• Dentist, optometrist, fixes around the house, read more books.

I think that is enough for now. [If you reached this sentence, I'm sorry, but I told it wasn't worth it.]