On Wednesday night, I sat down with my computer late at night to peruse through my emails, which I've been doing on a compulsive basis since our site's been up and running. Lately, I've noticed an unusually large amount of emails pushing the quintessential email scam - someone from outside the US has declared you the winner of a large amount of cash and needs your personal information to award you with your winnings, or a Nigerian prince has a family account that he needs your help accessing. Really funny emails, to be honest, which is why I took the time to open one up to read it aloud. No downloading of any files or anything, just a look for a larf.
Big mistake. As soon as I closed the email, a strange and alarming window popped up from my web browser, telling me something had gone wrong. It was an unfamiliar message, and I ignored it, hoping nothing debilitating had happened to my computer. But after only a moment's use thereafter, this poor laptop of mine froze up like a trip to Alaska, and wouldn't give an inch after numerous attempts to revive it from its pitiful present state.
$127 later, it's back in my arms, my blue ambassador of mine, virus-free and with all of its many extremely important files safely backed up (thanks, Micro Center). I only wish this could have happened to someone ELSE besides for me, so that I could have learned from THEIR mistake instead of shelling out more than a hundred bucks to pay for mine.
No matter. Luckily for me, I had some time in college to learn about a fellow named Epictetus, whose advice in The Enchiridion (The Handbook) offers alternatives that are clearly superior to the obvious route of, in this case, throwing a tantrum of sorts over spilt milk. Irritating mishaps like these bring me back to the first line of the text, which always puts my head back on straight.
My calamities tossed aside, we can surge ahead with a rapidly shrinking period of planning - only a month and a half. We still have yet to thoroughly research what to do and where on the West Coast, where, I remind you all, I would love to hear your suggestions as to what is a must-do.
The moral: Don't read anything in your spam folder. Just delete it.
-Tom
