Well...

Those promised blog posts didn't really happen.

Stupid hard drive failure.

Not to make excuses, but our laptop's hard drive crashed about a week ago. For the curious, I usually spend the first week of a vacation to "exhale" whatever stresses I might have accumulated, and then use the second to "get to work", whatever that means given the circumstances. Sometimes it's doing homework. Sometimes, as here, it's stuff that I assign myself.

So with a defunct laptop, and, counting a trip to the library, only one chance at Internet until today (we're back in Sarnia now), I couldn't write the blog entries, or accomplish the other computer-based goals I had set for myself for the trip (i.e., mixing some audio, cleaning out my Inbox, etc). And it's unlikely these will get accomplished during the next week too, for what I hope are obvious reasons.

Not like anyone was eagerly waiting for the blog entries anyway. Or that anyone will even read this sentence. Ah well.

P.S. If anyone's curious, the computer that crashed was five years old, ran XP, had a mere 128 MB of RAM, and -- worse yet, perhaps -- 16 gigs of total hard drive space. If anyone can commandeer such a system in 2008, it'd be a nerd like me, but sometimes things fall apart on even the most cautious users. You have been warned. That said, I made a backup before we left, so it's not as bad as it could have been.

P.P.S. Re: the last sentence before the post-script: some comments here would be nice! I suspect that there's at least a couple people reading this. So, in the hopefully-immortal words of Chris Martin, "If you love me, won't you let me know?" I have little free time as it is, and I'm not going to waste it on a thoughtful, insightful blog series if no one's going to read it.

Stay tuned! (aka "My Blog: Seven Months Later")

So my last blog post was in January, and this fact isn't as hard to believe as you might think. A second semester that was absolutely killer in terms of homework (picture this: American History + ISU, Physics, English, and Law), a more-than-melancholy trip to Pennsylvania immediately after my Law exam, and a busy couple weeks here in Brights Grove [sic], meant that this blog shrank to far less than what I had imagined for it.

Next week, though, I'll be heading back to Pennsylvania for what should be a slightly more normal visit. During this time, I hope to not only finish off some of my summer goals, but to write a series of long-overdue blog posts, on topics including my recent experiences and mindset, the presidential race, Windows Vista, ABBA/Chess/MAMMA MIA!, the New Facebook, and beyond.

So don't touch that dial! Before you know it, this pathetic little blog that no one reads will turn into a slightly less pathetic blog that a few more people read.

-JVD

The Glass Menagerie

Let this be a lesson to the lot of you...we stay in hotels frighteningly often (at least once every other month), so I myself have just learned a valuable lesson. (And from FOX News, no less -- who knew?)

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Hotel Drinking Glasses Expose

The environmentalist in me takes great issue with this, actually, because it sort of forces you to use the disposable cups. On the other hand, my Nestea addiction travels with me, and that stuff comes in recyclable tin cans. Of course, no hotel that I've ever been to has had a recycling bin in the room....

 

P.S. OK, so I've sort of neglected this blog, and for that I apologise. Writing more frequent posts is indeed one of my New Years' Resolutions; however, I might have to keep neglecting it until exams are over.