The Elusive Robert Denby
Now Playing: RIDING WITH DEATH
What an up-and-down night it's been. Started off well. My new DSL modem arrived from SBC Yahoo. Yep, after about eight years of free dial-up Internet service, I'm finally moving into the 21st century. The reason I've been so hesitant to get DSL is because I have never in my life paid a single penny for Internet service.

When I was a DJ at WKIO, a local ISP called Sol Tec bought commercial time from us and also helped design our Web site. Part of the deal was that all the station's employees got free Internet. Eventually, the station was sold and the new owners dropped Sol Tec for a different ISP for the station's new site. But Sol Tec never got around to dropping my Internet account. Until they did.

Someone from Sol Tec called me about five years ago and informed me that I was going to have to start paying for my account. I said fine and told them to bill me. I never heard from them. A few months ago, I spoke to someone else from Sol Tec who was stunned to learn that I still had an account with them. I think my records were buried in some underground vault...they didn't even know I existed. Again, she said, "We'll have to start charging you a monthly fee." I said, OK, send me a bill. Nobody ever did. To this day, I've been signing on and off using Sol Tec as my ISP and I have never given them a dime.

I can't believe SBC Yahoo charges people $150 to install a DSL modem. It takes just a few minutes, and if I can do it, then just about anyone can. I'm still having troubles with my email though. Does anyone else use Mozilla Thunderbird as their client email? I'm not able to send or receive email using my new sbcglobal.net email address, although I think the problem lies with SBC and not Thunderbird and should be cleared up by tomorrow.

After that GEMINI MAN post earlier this week, I was reminded of the RIDING WITH DEATH episode of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000. RIDING WITH DEATH was a "movie" formed by editing together two GEMINI MAN episodes that had nothing to do with each other and selling it on home video and into syndication as a two-hour feature. The episodes were bad enough originally, but Universal decided to string them together using some incomprehensible and poorly constructed wraparound material that really has to leave your head shaking. It does make for hilarious viewing, however, and the riffs during RIDING WITH DEATH were terrific, making me laugh out loud more than once. That Ben Murphy is really mellow, man.

I learned tonight that a friend passed away this morning. We don't yet know why, only that she was found at home this morning by her sister when she didn't show up at work. She was very young, in her early 40's, and was in good health as far as anyone knows. It appears to have been a sudden heart attack or an aneuryism, perhaps--something immediate. She and I have known one another since 1986, and I know from the many friends we share with whom I spoke tonight that she is already missed.