Did you ever have one of those days when you really shouldn't have bothered to get out of bed in the morning? After oversleeping due to unsettling dreams, finally arising to discover yet more snow, shoveling said snow for forty minutes in the rain, and then spending an hour on the phone trying to talk an extraordinarily stupid person through accomplishing what should have been a mind-numbingly simple task (turns out this person was running the 68K version of Netscape on an iMac, despite the fact that every iMac ever shipped has a PowerPC version of the software preinstalled), we're just generally in a foul mood. You know the type of mood we mean: the one where, despite the fact that you've got food, shelter, health, people who love you, and any number of other blessings that several less fortunate people would bleed for, you still feel like the whole world's against you just because of a string of petty annoyances that pale in comparison to the real problems that others face. And then you feel worse for letting a pile of such trivial troubles bring you down. That sort of mood.

Well, as you probably know, when saddled with a mood like that, counting one's blessings does absolutely squat to improve matters. Instead, it's best to count the misfortunes of others. For example, right now we're grateful that we aren't waiting for a PowerBook G4. You already know that while Apple did indeed manage to start shipping its latest portables by the end of January as originally promised, demand for the sleek little buddies still far outstrips supply. Well, the latest development in the saga is that people who ordered custom-built PowerBooks are now going to have to suffer for at least another couple of weeks before attaining titanium nirvana. As faithful viewer Adam C. reports, though it's been a solid month since he placed his order at the Apple Store, Apple just sent him email as follows: "We appreciate your recent order for our new, exciting custom-configured PowerBook G4. We realize you are anxious to receive your new PowerBook G4, and we are very eager to ship it to you! This email is to inform you that we have incurred a delay and that we now expect your custom-configured PowerBook G4 to ship by February 24th."

According to Apple, the additional delay is due entirely to "high demand," which, unfortunately, isn't any more informative than Steve's description of the PowerBook's demand as "gratifying" a week ago. All we know is that people are ordering more PowerBooks than Apple can put together. If Apple's making a ton of them, that's good. If Apple can only crank out, say, three a day, that's not quite so good. We won't know for sure until some actual sales numbers start to surface. In any event, at least the delay is (allegedly) due to high demand, and not some nasty design flaw that Apple only found at the last minute. If you're waiting on a PowerBook G4, sit tight; Apple claims to be filling orders "in the sequence they were received." In the meantime, you're improving our mood by allowing us to be happy that at least we're not in your place.

Of course, the reason we're not one of those poor suffering souls that's doomed to wait another two weeks for a titanium Slab o' Joy™ is because we're not getting one at all, which, come to think of it, isn't any great reason to jump up and down while cheering and waving a little flag. Hmmm... Maybe we should be focusing on the fact that at least we've got cable, instead...