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June 10, 2008 :: Crash! Bang! @#$%!!!

Yesterday evening, as I closed up shop and got ready to walk 45 minutes in 97-degree hellishness, my PC laptop (the aforementioned 100-pound Dell monolith), was behaving strangely. It was hard-locked, two ticks away from the blue-screen-of-death. So, I shut 'er down and left it at work to have a nice nap. When I arrived this morning, it wouldn't start. I think it was tired. And probably full to popping. So, it took a siesta on me. Likely a permanent one.

This is probably going to sound weird, but I have this innate, gut-feeling 'connection' to electronics, especially computers, especially when I use a particular one day-to-day. Me and the box are linked somehow. I KNOW there are people for whom electronics sputter and fry and blink out in their mere presence, inexplicably. Blake is one of them, and two dead-as-doornail cell phones, two busted laptops, and the death of my stereo subwoofer are in evidence. So, given the opposite-and-equal theory, there must be people who lie on the other end of the spectrum. I'm there.

This diagnostic, connective talent of mine got me a job as NT systems administrator once. I really don't have any formal computer training, but, to put it plainly, computers just seem to like me. They do what I ask, often even if I don't know how to ask correctly. As such, I can also feel them getting sick.

I had a feeling the PC was sick. I had been entertaining getting a backup drive for the last couple weeks, but ran out of cash. And now, I'm out of time. Fortunately, my files were, miraculously saved, and are resting comfortably on a server here at the studio. Since I'm not at its keyboard, I can't vouch for its heartiness, but I trust the tech service here to keep it in the pink.

The empty hull of my beefy laptop probably won't be so lucky, and I may (gasp....and squee!) end up with a new-and-improved model. I'll let you know how it turns out.