THE WORLD OF OBJECTS IS THE DOMAIN OF THE DEMIURGE

[substitute]

1. CAR: Mysteriously jumping out of gear intermittently going between 2nd and 3rd, or sometimes 3rd and 4th. Today, new behavior consisting of the ever-informative CHECK ENGINE light going on, sometimes accompanied by a nonspecific warning from the VEHICLE STABILITY ASSIST program.
   
   
2. DSL: Intermittently out, then totally out. Diagnostics with nice man from Speakeasy resulted in removing the surge protector from the line: margins went from 13% to 18% and now I'm back to normal... ...FOR NOW.
   
   
3. LAPTOP: Power cord now likes to sidle out of its socket, causing power loss, unwanted sleep mode, hilarity.