A slate wiped clean, a fresh start, whatever

Read: Back up your stuff, kids.

I spent five hours with my dad tonight trying to make my laptop work again, with the end result being that my computer has just been reborn like it just popped forth from the factory womb. Complete with every shortcut known to AOL, McAfee, and everything else under the sun. But, my lesson has been learned with relatively minimal damage. Here is my list of the top ten reasons crashing my hard drive was not as catastrophic as it may appear.

1. I can still walk, breathe, and drive.

2. All of my family and friends are still alive and walking, breathing, and driving.

3. Most of my "My Documents" folder was backed up to a dvd prior to the hoopla.

4. While losing itunes and all of my music files could seem terrible, I do still have my ipod, so I'm not songless. And, apparently there's software out there for those of us who like to live on the edge but get bitten in the nose that will enable me to transfer my songs from my ipod back to my computer.

5. I'm back sitting in front of my tv with my computer on my lap.

6. I had downloaded a number of games for the sole purpose of mindless drooling and procrastination. Those are gone, so theoretically I can get some work done.

7. There's something about a fresh start. When I got the computer, I didn't have a relationship with it. We hadn't bonded. Now we're intimately familiar and I can maximize the pros and minimize the cons. (hey, it's late. it makes sense to me.)

8. I'm over that spazzy "hey I just got new technology" stage so I won't be downloading things just for the sake of having fun.

9. My writing is all on my jump drive. If I lost my writing, I'd be very very sad.

10. Wake up calls are good. I'm a big believer in the idea that becoming too dependent on technology is a negative thing. It's good to remember that people lived relatively comfortable, fulfilling lives prior to the Internet running everything.