Last night I went to a midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I'd never been to the movies at midnight, but surprisingly, I wasn't tired. I didn't even get hungry. The movie was really good. I think I can safely reveal some key plot points because everybody who wants to see the movie has already read the book on which it was based. That being said, I think the movie was pretty fast-paced, which made it seem shorter than its 2 hours and 18 minutes. They could have take then the opportunity to flesh out certain key elements such as, say, the Order of the Phoenix. They didn't seem to have as big of a role as they did in the book, although I might be mistaken. Also, Sirius's death was pretty underdramatic. I think I just made up a word there, but it felt right. Other than that, the movie was really engaging, and it was about as good as the book.

Since my future roommate asked whether I had a Facebook account, I decided I'd better get one. All I can say is: wow. Actually, I can say a little more than that. MySpace introduced me to social networking almost two years ago, but Facebook really belongs to a higher echelon, and here's why. While MySpace bills itself as "a place for friends," Facebook is about relationships between friends, and that's really what social networking is all about. When you add a friend on Facebook, you can specify how you met them. When you upload a photo of you and your friends, you can identify each person in the photo, and photos of you posted by your friends will appear on your photo page. It's simply more social and more networked. Another strength of Facebook over MySpace is that while you can add various extra features to your profile, you cannot make it look as outlandish and ridiculous as the AOL Hometown page you had eight years ago. Although I won't be leaving MySpace for good, Facebook is quite a diversion.

Friday is my 18th birthday, so this will probably be my last post as legally insignificant person. Thanks to all of you who have supported me throughout my legally-insignificant-personhood.

It's been discovered that some color printers print tiny yellow dots that, when viewed correctly, can identify the serial number of the printer and when the printing took place. The ostensible purpose of the dots is to thwart currency counterfeiters, but it could also pose a serious threat to your privacy. Here's an incomplete list of printers that do or do not display tracking dots.

A bunch of teenagers in Las Vegas were asked to draw outlines of the United States. What they came up with reveals a lot about their personal senses of geography. For example, almost none of the students acknowledged the Great Lakes, which suggests that they don't really care about that region of the country, I guess. A fair number of them drew Baja California, though.

Find out why music really is getting louder.