When I moved into this apartment (about four years ago) there were pretty much no other people with wireless connections nearby. And I know this because I desperately tried leaching off any stable connection I could find. And I could never find one.

But these days there are around ten at any given time, not including Minneapolis’ wireless service. Which is a pretty cool thing for the city to do. But I have a planet to run, dammit, and it just wouldn’t feel right not having a “planetclaire” network available to me and only me. I am a megalomaniac after all.

But the other day I noticed an odd entry on the list of available connections (Illustration 1). Because… well really, what the hell? I even tried to reason out what it meant. Did this person previously have an open connection and now feels the need to explain why it is no longer open? Did their ex leach off of other connections and got busted? Is this person really insane? The mind boggles.

Then it got me thinking. Perhaps the wireless connection list is the newest method of online communication. Little messages passed back and forth over the wires. It’s almost… well, sad. But kind of interesting. I’ll have to monitor the wires.

In other news, I was at mom’s yesterday making cookies (ginger snaps) and while I was there a friend of hers was installing new locks on her doors. She claimed it wasn’t because she was trying to keep me out, but I have my doubts.

Anyway, for some reason she turned to her friend and said, “Criminy Dutch! I can’t believe I broke the lock”. Or something.

What an awesome phrase. Say it with the same feeling as “Fucking shite!” and you get the idea.

Criminy Dutch.