Jeff asked me the other night, "How do I get those friendly error pages like what you've got on domesticat?" I told him how, and helped him get set up, and realized along the way that such a package, while pretty simple overall, could be interesting to other people.

Not exactly a site change, not exactly a sleazy update: nautilus-blue.net is now open for business. I strongly suspect that none of you will care, and if so, then I've done things right.

I'd said some time ago that I was thinking of putting together a second site that does nothing but provide a home for the linkfood I run across as part of my daily reading. The posts just don't fit on cat.net, but I was getting really tired of bookmarking and bookmarking and bookmarking endless sites.

Tsk. Can't be having this, folks. Those silly referer logs; they tell me when you're linking to my site. Next thing you know I'll be thinking that the referers mean that someone's actually reading this site, and if I thought that, then I'd feel infinitely more guilty about not posting many updates.

Oh, wait. I already feel guilty.So, yes. I'll tell you a story, see, and you'll all (all three of you!) feel better, having gotten your fix for the day.

Having guests over is one of the best (and, unfortunately, well-worn) excuses for laziness that I've found in quite some time. Got a project that needs tending? "I've got guests coming" is one of the prettiest reasons to toss one's code by the wayside for a few days in favor of infinitely more fun activities, such as sitting up late and gossiping.

I write a lot about the process of actually coding for Quarto, but it's more rare that I talk about the effort that takes place before any code is written. The notebook holds the rest of the story. Not just the story of Quarto, but the story of virtually everything else that has happened in my life in the past year.

The hardback, spiral notebook was part of a birthday gift from friends nearly two years ago. At first brought out only for sporadic scribbling, it eventually began to be used for more than just story ideas.Most of the pages remain undated, but the changing inks and topics give clues to dates. The short notes, scribbled in heavy black ink date from last Christmas, from the last real conversation I had with my father—

"p.1 on left - GM [grandmother] Wilhite's g-pa called 'Doc Bates'"

"—baby next to flowered grave, Edith. Dad says I look like her"

Trust me, it's funnier if you know what's been going on the past 24 hours or so.  The short version is that those of you wanting to jump the gun and position yourself for the goofy madness that is the Quarto unveiling can go to the registration page and sign up to be a registered commenter.

("But, Mom, do we have to?")