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January 11, 2008

Not Guilty.

I didn't do it. I swear. I hadn't touched the computer for at least ten minutes and I was standing at least six feet away when it happened.

From the corner of my eye I saw it. It was so fast. So frightening. It was horrible. It was...the...the...Blue Screen of Death.

I'm on the road. I need my computer for work. The fruits of an entire week's labours and another week's yet to come were at risk. More, actually. I (stupidly) haven't backed up my computer in a month.

What could have caused this atrocity? What could have caused the Blue Screen of Death?

One cool summer morning, when I was eight, I went to go get a friend at her house. We were going to play tennis at the new tennis courts that had been built by our neighbourhood.

As I approached her front step, I heard a thump against the giant picture window. It was a little yellow bird, which was now lying stunned on the ground. I took off my yellow hat; my very favourite hat, and gently scooped the injured bird inside.

Carefully, I walked home with the poor bird cradled in my cap, careful not to stir it. It was so fragile. So helpless. I hoped that it would be all right - that it wouldn't die.

In a way, that's how I feel now, with my computer.

After a few hours of struggle, I think I've got the problem figured out, but I'm not sure. I've just lost a bunch of work time and am going to bed much later than I wanted to.

Halfway home, the bird recovered, pooped on my hat, and flew away.

Who knows what the computer will do...

5 comments:

Shockr said...

Why don't you install a backup program called "Time Machine"?? That'll solve all your problems.

Peter Tyrrell said...

I think Time Machine is limited to Mac OSX Leopard.

I rely on continuous offsite backup through mozy.com at $4.95/mo. Your stuff gets uploaded to mozy servers so you don't have to worry about hard drive failure, you can retrieve files from any computer with an internet connection, and you don't have to remember to perform a back up.

Shockr said...

I knew that... I was teasing him cause he thinks Mac's are "all hype". I was his troubleshooter over Skype last night.

Meandering Michael said...

Don't mind Norris. He's trying to be funny. So, here are a few points of clarification:

1. I never said that Mac's are "all hype".
2. I have no particular loyalty to PCs or Microsnot's crappy software products.
3. I DID say that I wouldn't enjoy wasting time to learn a new OS.
4. Norris wasn't my troubleshooter. Fawn was. Norris spent the whole time trying to convince me to buy a Mac. It was very annoying and not the least bit helpful.

Shockr said...

Looks like my number is going to be automatically forwarded to Fawn's when you call for PC help...