Things not to do

Well, on Friday my hard drive apparently decided that it was going to take its football and go home, so I spent the weekend doing a data retrieval (if you have the choice, never do this voluntarily), replacing the hard drive, reinstalling Windows without using Windows reinstallation disks (because Dell apparently doesn't include them when you purchase a notebook from them), and reinstalling all of my programs.

I got lucky that most of my data could be retrieved. Again, if you have the choice, do not voluntarily do any of that. It's about as much fun as open heart surgery.