It's alive. IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!! Yep, got the computer up and running again. 2.5 days from laptop to paperweight to laptop again. Not all bad. Even if it is something of a barren wasteland, at least the new hard drive works. Loaded a few things back onto it, including the most recent back-up of my MS stuff. Back to writing tomorrow. For now, time to consume more alcohol.

Whew. So I survived my defense this morning. (I think it went well...thanks to my boss Eric) Despite a total technology breakdown yesterday. That's right - approximately 20 hours before my Master's defense I discovered that I had a very expensive paperweight rather than a laptop. A laptop containing my presentation, several week's worth of simulated data, and the 26-page rough draft of my paper. Thank God for back-up copies. Let this be a lesson to you - BACK UP YOUR WORK!!!! Yesterday was still incredibly stressful, and I spent more than a few minutes curled up in the fetal position weeping, but after that passed I realized that I had saved a copy of my entire rough draft, and that I had backed up my presentation just two days earlier, meaning that I needed to spend the afternoon re-creating about 5 graphs, not the entire presentation. So, that crisis was averted, but it looks like I'll be spending the weekend installing a new hard drive on my laptop. After 2 hours on the phone with Dell tech. help it was determined that the thing was kaput. That's a technical term. Which reminds me, bless you Jennings, once again, for knowing exactly what I needed to hear, before I could even ask. That's all my news for now, I'm off to an anti-war teach-in, then Ahalya's poetry reading, an appearance at opening night of Grand Hotel, and then it's time to consume mass quanitites of alcohol. I do believe I've earned it.

Hmmm...we'll just have to see about that whole "I'll be more fun next week" thing. Turns out even after I finish my presentation on Thursday that I'll have a moderate amount of work to do on my paper before April 11. Not to mention my midterm on Monday. Sounds like I might be spending most of this weekend reading entrepreneurial bullshit. Blarg. Ah well, one thing at a time. Gotta get through Thursday morning first. 53 slides in 36 minutes = TOO FAST!

Ah, the many ways we find to procrastinate. Anyway, just wanted to let people know that I haven't gone completely insane (at least not yet) but this week is going to be a little rough. Friday night I was up writing until around 3 am, I spent most of yesterday at my office working on my presentation (hanging out in Yost on a Saturday night until 10:30 should certainly earn me a new level of nerd-status) and that's pretty much what life will be like until this Thursday around 10 am. Anyway, this is just my little disclaimer if I'm a little rude to you this week, or don't return your phone calls, or ignore you completely...just be patient and I promise I'll be more fun next week.