I missed yesterday, sorry about that.

I'll let you in on a little secret. Somebody out there, somebody I've never met before, never spoken with, exchanged fewer than a dozen emails with entrusted me with the keys to his server.

Fancy that. There is practically no limit to the amount of damage I could cause were I so inclined, but far from that, all I've done so far is look for the best place to deposit the files it is expected of me to place and done just that. Thank the powers my machine doesn't have any viral type crud that shouldn't be there, no spyware, adware, malware - none of it. I would jump off something unnaturally high if it turned out I'd accidentally buggered this guy's machine.

I'm telling you this because on one hand it's nice to be trusted, but on the other hand, IT'S BETTER TO BE WORTHY OF IT.

Someone handed me a $400 fee for some writing I did for them last week. Then I find their boss issued me a request for another invoice for the same bit of writing. Hmm... $800 for what turned out to be about 10 minutes worth of carefully constructed article. That's a pretty attractive hourly rate for an amateur - $4,800 per hour. Could you imagine the tax on that?

However, I adhere to the practice of being a bastard, not a lying toerag. They'd have worked it out eventually and although I would be happy to treat it as a joke, unfortunately business doesn't operate that way. I presented in person and advised the manager this invoice has already been paid and as much as I would like to have the extra $400, it might be a tad unseemly to take it. I was thanked for personally bringing this to his attention and I watched, albeit somewhat ruefully, as the duplicated thing was binned. I could have rung them up, kept the request then sent them another invoice in a few weeks and I doubt anyone would have noticed until June next year, but it's me that stares back from the mirror and I'd rather know I'm as pure as the driven snow than constantly be wondering when the knock at the door won't be neighbours or salespeople.

Which reminds me, I handed in my model handguns about 15 years ago because I just didn't want them anymore. I handed them in at a police station because they were authentic replicas and would fool anyone. 10 years ago, they outlawed them anyway and the cops came around to ask me to hand them over. Duh. I cheerfully showed them from one end of the house to the other inviting them look wherever they would, in the garage and my car. These chaps were from the large station at Moorabbin, I'd handed my guns in at Cheltenham - a minor station by comparison and apparently the paper work got lost. Makes one wonder what else goes astray from time to time.

I get along well with cops, don't know why. If they knew about The Swamp, they'd probably shoot me on sight. lol.

(Time to compose this edition: 21 mins)