I play my guitar and weep softly.

I think all writers have to be a little pretentious to write well. Very few great authors have truly earned the authoritative tone they use.

I just started eating with chopsticks a few months ago. I bought four pair of stainless steel chopsticks ([www.amazon.com] though everyone says it's easier to start with long wooden ones.

I'm Mormon, so I have a pretty hard time finding one of those when I need it.

I use Microsoft Word when I want to become frustrated and angry.

Actually, I think luck is just confused with intelligence. It's correlative. Assuming "lucky" people are just smart, they would be more observant, quicker readers, and more on the lookout for a "trick question", since every study has one. Since they are smart, they also are able to get more out of life (and for many…

Agreed. Join a small Toastmasters club, as you will have more opportunities to speak and a closer feeling of community with the others. By the time you get your Competent Communicator award, you will be fairly well equipped to meet any public-speaking requirements you encounter.

And one last word. As a beginning developer, you may be delighted by tables as a method for arranging your site. Resist. Pull back. Don't use tables unless your information is actually data that would regularly be displayed spreadsheet-style.

Occasionally I feel like the tips box is just Lifehacker's way of making people feel like they are participating. And yes, that applies to some of the crazy tips I have submitted. I was half-joking with some of them, fishing for a few laughs, and Lh put 'em up in the box. Does anyone else feel that way?

VOTE: Woot.com.

An even cheaper solution is to hang up old CDs. My mom hangs those AOL free trial CDs from our fruit trees with a little string, and they keep the birds away. That's pretty much all they're good for.

A note for beginners: If you google any HTML tag or attribute, a site called "w3schools.com" will be among the first few results.

It have to laugh at the idea that anyone takes "typography" quite that seriously. I understand it's got a surprising amount of nuance and history behind it, and it does make a difference in "marketing" (which no one takes very seriously, either). Don't get me wrong, I really respect those who know a lot about it. But…

chocolate milk FTW.

I'm looking around (long in advance) for my next computer. I love laptops, but I hate how hard they are to open/upgrade/clean. Can anyone recommend a laptop or netbook that is techie-friendly? Something modular, easy to clean, intuitively configured hardware, fairly un-evil. I'd even be willing to build my own if that…

I don't think we should flaunt our connection with Gawker.

Best Christmas ever.

I use Teuxdeux (and it is one of my best friends these days). I like to have one to-do list with simple, doable items (in the top section) and one to-do list with overarching projects and deadlines in the bottom section. I can easily see my progress through the semester by looking at the bottom, and see what I need to…

What's the diff between Pogoplug and Dropbox?

And now the age-old computer question.