Computer Woes
After downloading and installlng a batch of IrfanView plugins, my desktop decided that it was no longer on speaking terms with the Internet. Fortunately, the wireless laptop connection through the router still gets online, and I was able to re-establish contact between the desktop and laptop by assigning a static IP to the desktop's Local Area (Ethernet) connection. For now, I'm backing up all documents from the desktop to the laptop in case I need to steam-clean and reinstall (after six months, Windoze probably needs that anyway, but I would prefer it to be some time other than a week before Conterpoint -- it won't actually fubar any convention-related stuff, but will be a significant loss of time and energy that's needed in other places).