pixel-putty

As an English speaking American, what languages would you suggest I learn as a second language? It's just for the heck of it with no business or travel plans in the near future. I thought about Spanish just because there's so much of it here in the states, but most all Spanish speakers in the US speak English. I am considering French, German, or Italian maybe. Japanese would be cool but I'm afraid it would be too hard and I'd get discouraged. Arabic, Hebrew and Mandarin would be cool too but those all seem hard as well because they don't use the same alphabet as English. Thanks.

Did anyone out there know your intuos 2 pen can wear out? Apparently mine did and when I try to sketch with it the lines curve and angle differently from what I draw. It really is frustrating and makes you feel drunk. I can't wait till my friend sends me a new(old) pen he's not using anymore since upgrading to an intuos 2. I just can't work with a mouse any more.

I have a 24" intel imac(1st gen white one) and It's been running really hard lately. I went to the disk utilities to repair permissions and in big red letters it says the hard drive is failing. Come to find out the particular Western Digital HD that comes in my machine has terrible reviews and is a piece of junk. Does anyone have recommendations for a new 500 or 750gb SATA Hard Drive? After all my research online it seams as though Seagate and Western Digital both have their fair share of defects.