Ugh... Found out I can't recover my lost hdd at home. If I want some of the photos back, I'll have to send it in to a professional to get it fixed, and unfortunately that'll cost too much. I'm missing most of this year's earlier photos, the last bits of when I was in college. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I wasn't taking too many photos early in my trip to Japan, so the loss isn't as great. I think I've also lost some important documents too... but I think those are somewhat recoverable as I go along.
Sigh... what a pain in the ass.
On another note: Life is starting to settle down and I'm starting to become productive again. Let's see if I can keep it up today.