One thing that is not talked about much is the use of data mining and analysis. My institution is going towards gmail as I peck this post out. Student privacy is of no concern to the administration because, as Cory points out in this excellent talk, it's packaged with the ole... 'the kids do not care' notion.
I hear it all the time, that "they are posting all sorts of stuff about themselves, why should we care?" Certainly, posting about your latest break up, binge, or fetish is done arguably by choice. What I do not think folks are aware of is that we are also subjected to text, "click" and related analysis. I wonder how many behavioral psychologists etc. google has on staff? How much will Google or MSN be able to discern about me just from what I click and how I write? Am I insurable? Am I a good loan candidate? Job candidate? What happens if/when my other data, health info, financial, work history etc can be correlated?
Certainly lots of this stuff is in its infancy, but there will be googles (sorry) of data to crunch once the technology improves and our apathy is absolute.

My employer will soon force me to use gmail as well, and I will be subjected to the scrutiny of Google's logic engines, like it or not. In a recent meeting I actually had someone say to me... "well, we are employees here" subtext: "don't like it? there's the door, gtfo!" It IS a civil rights issue, I should not have to surrender my privacy to participate in society, but it is becoming harder and harder to do so.

My brother and I visit the flea markets a few times a month, and these things are usually abundant. You can get yourself a decent "vintage" model hand drill with some character for as little as 2 bucks depending on how abundant they are on any given day.
Essential hand powered tools... well a variety of hand saws, a push drill, or "spiral screw driver" (think elevator scene in blues brothers) is handy as well, and anything with ratcheting action baby.