Hmm, hopefully I have intrigued you enough to read a post with a title like the above one. A little back story to this post. My sister and I were dying to read Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (Book 7) and we wanted to read it on release day. I found that if you order the book at www.amazon.com then you could get release date shipping. My family was going down to my sister's house and we figured that we would both read the books once they came. Unfortunately we (my family) was trying to help her getting ready for a move into her new house. My dad and my sister's husband (Cory) wanted to keep us focused on moving and not on reading HP 7. They happened to be outside when HP 7 was delivered and proceeded to hide the book with no intention of telling me or Kristen until they had extracted proper amounts of work from us.

Anyway, I, about 30 minutes after all this went down, decided to see if there was tracking information to tell me when my book would arrive. I found tracking information, went to UPS, and discovered that UPS said my book had already been delivered. What?

So I checked all the normal places UPS would leave a delivery. It was nowhere outside, nowhere in the garage, etc, etc. Then I figured it must have been hidden. Going inside I went straight for dad's luggage. Guess what I found...two copies of HP 7---one for Kristen, one for me. Dad and Cory were particularly surprised and how quickly I had found the book, especially since they thought they were the only ones aware of its delivery.

It only goes to prove that the magic of Harry Potter and the not-so-magical package tracking trump parents and husbands any day.

Well, I would love to make a huge post about vacation, but sufficeth it to say that enough vacation information (plus pictures) can be found on the blogs of my family. Allow me to share an equation or two regarding vacation. Vacation = family. Family = awesome + fun. Vacation = family(awesome + fun). Family(awesome) + family(fun).

So there you have it.

On a side note, Harry Potter (Book 7) comes out at 12:01am on this Saturday. Crazy, eh? Not to mention, the Potter series has sold 325 million copies worldwide. And www.mugglenet.com has 40 million hits per month.

I'll admit to be completely taken in by Potter mania. I'm as eager as the next guy to get my hands on the last book. In fact, to prepare for the final book, I reread the 6th book (Half-Blood Prince is the subtitle). However, I underestimated my own ability to regulate my reading. Starting at 8:30pm on Saturday, I had finished all 650+ pages by 5:30pm on Sunday. I know I have a weakness when it comes to reading books, but I had no idea it had gotten this bad. I literally could not stop until I finished it.

However, this has taught me one valuable lesson. When I do get my copy of Harry Potter 7, I must turn off my cellphone, shut off my laptop, and stay in my room until I finish it. And make sure I remind my mom to come in and refill my food IV from time to time.

Although partly a rehash of previous ideas from an earlier discussion, I present to you the most useless key on any keyboard---the tilde/backwards quotation mark thingie. Yes, have you ever stopped to look above your tab button and below your "Esc" button? A few spanish speakers/typists may use the tilde from time to time (albeit rarely I imagine), but I know of no one who uses the backwards quotation mark thingie.

My question is, did the people who decided what goes on all keyboards just run out of stuff to put on here? I mean, my laptop keyboard is a condensed version of a full-size regular keyboard and the keyboard people certainly found enough room to put the tilde/whatever on here. Hmmm.

Now that I'm through with my rant, I have a question---have any of you (the readers) ever used either of these buttons? I guess the real question is, are they truly useless? And with great power comes great responsibility. Now that you know you have a tilde button and funny looking single, oddball quotation mark, you must find ways to use them. Just kidding. By the way, happy 4th of July everyone. More from the "Useless Series" tomorrow.

I apologize for the misleading title. I have invented a new "level" of spam e-mail. Vienna sausage e-mails. Vienna sausage e-mails are those e-mails you get when you buy one item from one online store once. And receive e-mails from that store for the rest of your life. You know what I'm talking about, that $7 ink cartridge replacement from circuit city seemed like a good deal at the time, but now your paying for it with a sludge of vienna sausage in your e-mail inbox.

Now, obviously, this e-mails are useless, but here's the real reason behind their ultra-superfluous nature. These e-mails (most of the time) promote the exact same deals as the store has on their homepage.

Don't get me wrong, if you buy often from online stores, then these e-mails may not be unwanted, I'm talking about the store you buy from once and then regret it every time you see "Bargains: The Perfect Gift for anyone this 4th of July" in your inbox. Who buys gifts of the 4th of July anyway? These sausage e-mails prey on those helpless enough to get sucked into the black abyss of e-mail advertising.

Alright, useless series, part 2. So what do I have on tap for today? Gift cards. Let's think about this for just a second. When picking out presents for someone for a birthday, everyone wants to pick out something personal and yet useful. Money is too impersonal, while personal gifts are often stuffed under beds. So people get gift cards.

Gift cards are, essentially, money that can only be spent at one store and expires if you don't use it in 6 months. And gift cards cannot be exchanged for cash. Why??? Don't get me wrong, gift cards aren't bad, its just that money is better.

Now, think about it. Some gift cards are for stores you like, some are not. Either way, money is a safer route. And while gift cards seem more personal, money (at least to me) is just as personal.

So, the question is, what is your opinion on gift cards? Useless, or useful. Cast your vote today.