RANDOM MUSINGS OF AN INSOMNIAC

Some nights it just doesn't pay to go to bed. When I was in college, pulling an all-nighter was no big deal. Sometimes there was even studying involved - no really, once there was definite studying - books, reading, note taking - it was all very Hollywoodish.

In the Navy, all nighters were pretty standard fare. I flew as a crew member on a Douglas A-3 Skywarrior, I was young and stupid, and it was an adventure. My standard mission was from midnight to 6:00 am flying over what the Navy referred to as "extreme western South Vietnam". I know that lots of people believe that kids today are geographically challenged. Well this was the whole government that couldn't get it right. Let's just say that it was another country that rhymed with Taos.

When I got back to the States, I worked for the Armed Forces Police in Washington, DC (and no we weren't MP's or Shore Patrol, we were much higher up the food chain. That's my story and I.n sticking with it). And, you guessed it all-nighters, three days out of six.

Married with kids - all nighters. School Board meetings - only half the night, but it seemed like all night sometimes, especially during negotiations,

So why am I up all night tonight? There are a number of reasons, none of them good.. waiting for an e-mail from a foreign customer that is very time sensitive, pressures of running a business and the likely winner, trying to keep up with the spam on our Discussion Forum.

After polling a number of people about how to keep the junk, we made some changes a few weeks ago. From the user point of view, it is almost completely without spam. From my point of view it still takes several hours a day to scan those who have registered and dump the spammers. We had one slip through tonight mostly because he had one semi-legitimate post early on, then a few questionable ones and tonight he was pushing prescription drugs, and now he's gone.

We're going to do whatever it takes to keep the Forum clean and useful. Please join us at

www.graphicchemical.com and click on the Discussion Forum buttons at the bottom of the home page. I look forward to chatting with you.