dear friends,

always always always always back up your work. my laptop has crashed in a more-than-usually-serious sort of way, and considering the $1500-2400 i've been quoted for data recovery, i'm shit outta luck.

goodbye, yearlong compilation of personal journal (think 200 single-spaced pages).
goodbye, two semesters of grad school work (think 150 single-spaced pages).
goodbye, collected journal articles in institutions and political psych.
goodbye, ten or twenty large datasets.
goodbye, eleven days' worth of music.
goodbye, 600 pictures of my nearest and dearest.
goodbye, email addresses and phone numbers.

goodbye, clementine. they have extracted your broken brain, and are exchanging it for a new one. will you still be you without the same hard drive? i will still recognize the scratches on your back from sitting on my dirty table, but i won't know you any more.

sigh.