Ask Mr. Wizard Wednesday

I'm not sure I'm ready to call last week's open call for questions a success, but we did get a few interesting questions (and hopefully interesting answers) out of it. So here we go again...

Questions about me, advice for the lovelorn, software questions, writing questions, questions about the annual cinnamon harvest in Sumatra...ask 'em and I'll answer 'em. I make no guarantees of the quality, veracity, or utility of the answers, but you'll get *something* either useful or funny.

Ask your questions in comments and I'll be posting your answers through the following days. This will keep you coming back and keep me more actively engaged over here. See? We *all* win.