I left my connection active and refreshed every ten minitues until about three AM local time; hoping that it would suddenly return and I could get off my dreadful low. Wrote a book report in between my refreshes and realized how bad other message boards are. I’m glad that SD is back. 
I spent the time getting in horrible fights with dear friends. It was great!
Had to spend time actually doing stuff at work. 
Actually I ended up lurking a lot at other boards and spent entirely too much time on ebay (at home) much to the detriment of my bank account.
So what did I do?
[ul]
[li]I went to the other boards that I frequent (the Unaboard, Twinstuff, Bonehead of the Day Award, Fathom…)[/li][li]went over here a few times to see if it would load… alas, it did not[/li][li]went to a birthday dinner, where we spent five hours at Red Robin’s (woo!)[/li][li]bugged a bunch of people on IM[/li][li]read a few books[/li][li]phoned a few people[/li][/ul]
F_X
You know, the name “Straight Dope” is beginning to take on a creepy irony here…
Unaboard and snopes.
I went and read the Page O’ Flames, but I did so while eating and got a bean lodged in my sinus cavity somewhere from laughing with a mouthful.
[sub]Dammit… baked friggin’ bean in my nose![/sub]
Worked! :eek:
And spent some long overdue time at FFF.
Esprix
I got to lurk more than usual at Ars Technica Open Forum (I wander around there when the SDMB is slow). I got a good laugh over their thread on public proposals for rebuilding the WTC - some very odd proposals (“I propose building a Birthing Stadium I shall call a Birtharium”) on the CNN site. While at Ars, I also learned about
How did I miss this gem??
I bought some furniture.
I actually sank to gasp! working at the office (between checking to see if SDMB was up yet).
At home I reverted to my other addiction, CIV3.
Of course, I should have taken advantage of the downtime to catch up on the housework…
And unfortunately, the blackout had to come during a slow point in my work, so I couldn’t even do that.
I wrote a few more plot summaries for imdb.com, then went over to howstuffworks.com and learned how cars run.
Let’s see…
Read a lot of Cecil’s columns.
Made blinis and ate them with cheap caviar. Yum.
Checked my e-mail a lot.
Researched hotels for January’s NYDopefest. Yay!
Played some Diablo II.
Brushed my cats.
Watched a few movies (Rob Roy, The Siege, Reindeer Games, and Saving Private Ryan).
That’s about it.
Spent time at Fathom.
Read a couple of books, including Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven to see how it was better than the recent A&E movie it inspired.
Played a lot of the Empire Earth RTS computer game…kicked a lot of ass, but only after having my ass kicked around for a couple of hours first.
Planned out a round-the-world trip in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 using a Beechcraft King Air 350. Flew the first three legs, which went from Hillsboro to Salt Lake, then to Wichita Kansas, then to Charleston, West Virginia. While the plane was in flight, I had Microsoft Word opened in another window and worked some more on my novel.
Tried to ignore the terrible withdrawal symptoms I was experiencing, with limited success.
Played a lot of games at the Shockwave site - my favorite at the moment is Dynomite
Grim
I worked on my custom figurines. I managed to finish my “Dr. Anton Phibes” and “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.” I would have started on Lenin’s Crypt, but I didn’t have enough plastic.
Aside form that, I’ve been building unholy implements of destruction in my flight simulator, which is going to support combat in a few months. I think I built the first working Main Battle Tank in a flight simulator. And they said it couldn’t be done…
Ranchoth
I studied. I got drunk.
I hate to say it, but I’m thinking I was better off without it.
I began a new relationship with a real-life human being.
Ouch. This one is a candidate for that “unspeakable truths” thread that got mercifully killed by the Big Gulp (or whatever we’re calling it). I got a lot of sleep, read books, and actually interacted with people for a while. I felt great.
The site was down? I was away at an Army FTX since Tuesday, so I missed the whole thing…
Jman
I was over at Fathom too and became strangely obsessed with wolverines and sniper towers.