Trying to find a good laptop with an illuminated / backlit keyboard is proving to be difficult. These days of street tuning the miata at night with a normal laptop need to come to an end.

I am not a superstitious person.

I don't believe in fate or karma. I will openly mock those who seek the counsel of fortune-tellers or tarot readers, who play "special" numbers in the lottery, or who claim to have "a system" for winning games of pure chance. I will happily kick a black cat under a ladder across a pool of spilled salt on Friday the 13th, while whistling the score from Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore.

(Well, I wouldn't actually kick a cat unless it was already dead, but you know what I mean.)

And yet I have recently received two fortune cookie fortunes in a row which are so amazingly specific and prescient that I'm starting to wonder if someone isn't stalking me in an extremely roundabout way, following me to Chinese take-out restaurants and bribing the girl behind the counter to substitute Perez-targeted fortunate cookies in my order.

Last fortune cookie i got had no fortune in it. :(

Does this mean you have no future? :eek3:
I guess that is a fortune...

It's single digit temps outside, even without the wind chill. So, the makeup air fan for the building decides to shit the bed, and fill the building with smoke. Naturally, we're all dressed for the office, not an artic expedition.

We just got back in after standing around like human popsicles for the last half hour. My feet are numb.

So you didn't go sit in the car until someone calls and tells you you can reenter?

So the little clip-on lights that shine onto the keyboard and plug into the USB port are out of the question? I believe they are called keyboard lights.

I'm not sure how widespread this is, but it's often possible to install a backlit keyboard into a laptop which did not originally come with one. I think I paid about $25 on ebay for the one in my Latitude.

No keys. Left them in my office, thinking it was just a drill. No hat, either, which was in the locked truck.

I found them at the local dollar store. They were, naturally, a buck each.

I cut off the USB end and hard wired them into the power supply for my mini-mill. Flexible light, right on the work.

Hmm. That may be something to look into.
Big and bulky wouldn't be good though.

The ones I got (single LED, flexible stalk) weigh less than the card/bubble pack they came in.

Excellent, just got my new pair of 24" HD monitors for my work station.

So Joe, I picked up an Intex air mattress. Good move! I've slept awesome the last two nights. Not sure if it's just coincidence as of yet, but so far so good. Topped the mattress with a thin foam pad, and it's sitting on the old box spring.

Thanks for letting me sleep in your bed. :jerkit:

Just to be helpful. If anyone here is ever looking for excellent quality, low price tactical/outdoors pants, try LA Police Gear. $19.99. I was a bit caution going in, but they do have awesome reviews, and I was pointed towards them by a friend. Great purchase. They are comfy, very well built for their price, and are fairly breathable with cotton/polyester rip stop fabric. Plenty of pockets for storage, d rings for clipping things, and elastic waist to allow for a good fit within a several size range. It also makes them a bit more comfortable when bending down and crouching. I've worn these out in the woods on hikes several times so far, and I am very pleased. Can't beat $20 either. I have similar pants that cost 3 or 4 times as much.

They also have other models of pants with equally good ratings.

LA Police Gear Operator Tactical Pants w/ Elastic Waistband

Glad you liked it.

And now, let me apply a curse to you and your new purchase:

For the rest of your days, for however long you shall own this mattress and its successors, each and every time that you engage in the act of fornication upon it, you will think of me.

Well, I did that with my old bed, so there's nothing new about your curse.

Oh, Joe! :pitlab:

Is it just me or is the classifieds section full to the brim with 2-post noobs handing out their email addresses. Seriously, every thread in the section is chock full of "I can't PM but here's my email address/phone number/Social Security Number."

I'm awaiting the very second they offer payment in foodstamps.

I am ashamed by the fact that a citizen of the Netherlands is so familiar with the abuses of the American social-services programmes that he is able to casually make such an effective joke about them.