It's important to back up your data. It's also important to make sure that your backup works. Otherwise, there's no point to having it. Case in point: I got an external hard drive last year, and I used it to back up my data every week until about a month ago, when it stopped working. Since you I can't take it apart without voiding the warranty, I have decided to have the hard drive replaced. This entails mailing it back to the manufacturing company, who will send me a new one and pay me back for the shipping.

In a way, this wasn't a big loss for me. I don't keep anything extra special on that drive... if by "extra special" you mean "things I don't already have on my computer." The downside here is that the opposite is true. Copies of the things I do already have on my computer are on there: my e-mails, snapshots, demo recordings, chat logs, Internet bookmarks, home movies, books, legally downloaded music, programming projects... everything. Luckily, it's all safe and sound right here on the laptop. But the point is, somebody somewhere is going to potentially have a copy of it. And that's not cool.

I foresaw the possibility of losing the data on the drive, but I didn't think I'd have warranty service, which would expose my valuable data to theft, copying, or mockery by employees of the company. I wouldn't even know the thing had a warranty if I hadn't seen the words "One Year Warranty" printed in eensy letters on one side of the box. I'll have to encrypt the contents of the drive next time, perhaps with something like TrueCrypt, maybe. (Then, if I ever had to send it back to the manufacturer again, they'd be all, "No wonder this thing didn't work... the contents of the drive are indistinguishable from random data!" Encryption pwns.)

Last night, as I was trying to go to sleep, I was thinking about things. I was thinking about how I've been home from college for over a month now. I haven't gotten a job. I haven't gotten behind the wheel of a car. And I haven't really talked to anybody. Uh, I haven't really talked to anybody. I mean... well, hold on.

I was thinking about those things. They sound pretty worrying. But they had only just arrived in my mind. And I wasn't terribly bothered by them. I was happy. I was happy not having to worry about anything. I've had a stressful eight months, and it's been nice to have a peaceful month to break things up. I look forward to a few more.

Here at home, I don't have to worry about exams or getting to class on time or scheduling visits to the chiropractor. I don't have to worry about where I should spend my money on food or how long it would to take to walk to the grocery store. What's more, I am not worrying about girls. I bombed spectacularly this year. I probably shouldn't wallow in my past failures as much as I do, but I just have to lay these out for consideration: one two three four five non-dates. FIVE.

The conclusion is clear. Dating: I'm doing it wrong. With each failed attempt, I learn a little more about what I did wrong and what I should do the next time. But seriously. Counting high school, this makes seven dates I haven't been on, and seven girlfriends I could have had. WTF? It seems that the only way to get out of this mess (and believe me, it's not a self-esteem booster) is to undergo some drastic change... like, for example, literally becoming someone else. Can they do that with today's technology?

Oh yeah, uh, anyway, it is really great that I am here by myself.

Four years ago, I took the Yankee or Dixie Quiz to see whether my speaking style was more Northern or Southern. Though I didn't specify my exact score, I recall that it was between 47 and 49%, barely on the Yankee side of things. I just took the quiz again the other day, and my score is now 63%, firmly in the Southern camp, which I find rather odd because there's not a lot of Southern cultural influence here in South Florida. Recently, I've started to pronounce aunt as "ahnt" rather than "ant" and route as "raut" rather than "root." The quiz says that my new pronunciations are favored in the North. I don't know why I changed, but I think it was a subconscious move to avoid using confusing homophones. Apparently I'm a closet homophonophobe.

This is pretty cool: it's an interactive panorama from a hot-air balloon. It's like those crazy QuickTime ones that were popular a few years back, but this one is in Flash, so it will probably work for most people.

Another one from CollegeHumor: If you have trouble talking about Lost, maybe Losticil is right for you. (This is probably funnier for those of you who watch the show.)