"Tarl Cabot",
We don't have many rules here at the JavaRanch, but we do insist that you use your Real Name and not some sort of "handle" or obvious alias. If you're not sure about this, see
http://www.javaranch.com/name.jsp . Aliases don't just only annoy the Priest-Kings. People tend not to answer questions from pseudonymous users.
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.