[2004.11.30 2359h]

   [bgame] the settlers of catan
   [music] south \\ paint the silence

i'm not sure why, but i often seem to have beginner's luck.  it struck me
again this past thanksgiving, when i was playing the settlers of catan for
the first time and i somehow won by a very thin margin.  unfortunately for
me, this meant that in the following game, all the other players were
basically scheming against me, and i ended up losing by a huge margin.

a new hard drive i installed recently has often been making very high
pitched noises before freezing up and making clicking noises.  the disk
manufacturer offered to send me a replacement, but there's a good chance
that the replacement will be a factory refurbished disk.