I am now about three-quarters of the way through Myst V: End of Ages. As I suspected when I was half done, the remaining parts are the ones that are harder for me. I made almost no progress in the last week and a half, until tonight when I noticed a detail I hadn’t noticed before—and I’ve been spending the last week looking for such details—and was able to finally complete correctly the part of the game that I had previously solved accidentally.

Unfortunately, the part of the game that remains is not only probably the most difficult (since I’ve left it for last), but also seems to be the most taxing on my computer; the interface is getting very sluggish and slow to respond, which makes the gameplay much less enjoyable.

On the positive side, I haven’t opened the strategy guide. Yet.

I went to the Cingular store this morning. They gave me new SIM cards, and both phones seem to be working so far. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Mainly just to be ornery, I called Cingular customer service and asked them credit my account for the two days the phones were unusable. They told me they can’t give me a credit until my bill comes out, so I’ve made a note to call them again next month.

The Cingular store I went to was out of replacement Treo styli, and I couldn’t find any at Fry’s either, but I went to a different Cingular store, and they had some. For some reason, the replacement Treo 650 stylus that Palm makes is not the same as the one that comes with the device. I suppose it’s better; it’s got a metal body, and has a built-in ballpoint pen, but it’s not the same color or feel, and I liked the old one fine.

On the way home, I stopped at San Antonio Hobby, which is having a going out of business sale. The owner is retiring, and the store is closing December 10th. I haven’t been a huge fan of the store, but at 30% off, I figured maybe I’d buy something. Of course, most of what I’ve thought about buying there in the past had already been sold. I spent a few minutes looking through their collection of train books, but even at 30% off they were too expensive. Last week it was twenty percent, though, so maybe I’ll go back if they get to forty or fifty.