The registrar that I initially registered with was bought out by another company and in the process all records of my purchase were lost. Since the domain was locked, I couldn't transfer it. Also I couldn't find the hardcopy of the purchase reciept that I would need to convince the new company that I was the valid owner of the domain.

Of course, the punch line here is that I didn't know about the problem until about two days before expiration because I am paying more attention to school than micromanaging my domain. Without enough time to find the paperwork and convince the company, my only option was to backorder. Unfortunately, I was second in the backorder line to the domain clearing house eNom. Thus they got the name and all I got was elevated blood pressure.

I've since registered a new domain, mizore.org, with Network Solutions (I figure they probably won't get bought out), but I haven't gotten around to updating the site to reflect the change. At least I don't have much of a following to worry about.