Danny O'Brien 
references the observation that when you let a third party get involved in transactions with other people, you lose whatever claim to privacy you might have had -- that's what lets the FBI or whoever scavenge through your phone bill without requiring a warrant or even the requirement that they tell you that they did it. I remember seeing the FBI testifying before congress about carnivore a couple of years ago and thinking that it was a good rationale for running your own sendmail on your own machine. It's also a good reason to buy your own big disk and keep your mail on that. Still, I've wanted something to maintain mail archives in for a long time too.
Today I finally decided to get a digital camera. I decided I had to have a camera to document our Gettysburg adventure. I've had my eye on the Canon SD110 (or the SD100 earlier) since it came out. I already have some SD cards and an SD card reader for my laptop, so getting a camera that uses SD cards was a no brainer. But for the longest time, Canon didn't have one.
I took about 50 pictures today to get the hang of using the camera. It takes great pictures! Here's a picture of my faithful dog Plato.
I'm really excited about going on this trip -- everyone is making fun of me for being so excited, but I don't care. It was my idea and its just simply wonderful to have it all coming to fruition. I'm going to have a great time.