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Even though it might be after Dec. 25 by the time you read this, it is still not too late to make that last shopping run. This year, especially if you live in the Midwest, your excuse will work even better:

"I ordered your present online, and it hasn't arrived yet."

That simple sentence should give you at least an additional week to make purchases. And with the 236 inches of snow some areas have received, there's no telling when a present, even ordered after Lincoln's birthday, will appear.

If you are going to be away from your computer for an extended period of time during the holidays, you may want to check out a site before you go.

I've always wanted my own island. Wouldn't it be nice to just have a place, surrounded by water, where you could go and hang out and be left alone, at least until someone built a bridge to it? Apparently I missed my chance the other day when someone bought an island online for $26,500. That seems pretty cheap.

Oh. That island is only virtual, in a video game called Project Entropia. So imaginary islands are going for over 20 G's these days. Maybe I should invest in something else, like a virtual bridge.

I'm getting extremely close to finally publishing the book I've been writing for at least five decades. I feel like there are just a couple of things left to do, but at the same time, I'm not quite close enough to smell the paper on the newly printed book.

Here's another sample. Actually, this is from the beginning of the book. I will have a couple more updates in the near future regarding the book, including how you can get a free copy. Hey, I need to figure out some way to get people to read it!

Google, never to turn away from indexing searchable material, is working with leading world libraries to catalog a ridiculous number of books.

Harvard, Stanford and Michigan university libraries, the New York Public Library and the Oxford Bodleian Library are lending their books to be scanned into the Google Print project. Melvil Dewey, the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System, could not be reached for comment.