It's the Blue Screen of Death for me!

This morning, my laptop sang a little song to me. It went like this:

*thunk* *thunk* *THUNK THUNK* *bluescreen*

Huh, I said to my computer, which is nearly four years old and has been giving me fits since the day it landed in my hands, that's a funny little song to sing to me! You must be in something of a mood this morning. Let me reboot you and see what that does! ...It makes you sing the little song again! Isn't that charming?

So I did what any rational person would have done, backed up the last two months' worth of data (mostly music files), and took it to the help desk people at Drew. As luck would have it, I bought a computer with a four-year warranty for a three-year academic program, so even though I'm graduated like a graduated thing, my computer is still covered. This has come in handy, since it has had to go in no fewer than three times since my graduation, and in fact, the warranty is the major thing keeping me from sucking up and buying a new laptop, since I'm loathe to ignore a few more months of free fixins.

It's a bad thing when the people behind the technology help desk know you on sight. I did my impression of the little song for them, trying my hardest to explain that I have heard the click of death before, and this was not the click of death, this was a Wagnerian computer death song. The hooves of the horses of the apocalypse sound less dire than this hollow, heavy, case-rattling strike did. But! said I, I have backed up everything on my hard drive, so you may erase and replace as you will! I think I saw tears of joy in their eyes.

I do believe no part of this computer was originally part of this computer (creating a very that's the same ax that slayed me! problem). It is on screen #2, case #2, keyboard #2, CD drive #2, motherboard #3, video card #2, and I do believe this is going to be hard drive #4. I don't know if the moral of the story is 'never buy IBM' or 'never let me around computers'.

Fortunately, Ashlea has hooked me up with her old desktop, so I may be inconvenienced, but I won't be completely cut off from the internet. I know you'll all sleep easier tonight knowing that.

Depending on how well the tech desk overhauls my laptop -- or, really, how much longer duct tape and prayer can keep it going -- a new computer may soon become a real consideration. Unfortunately, with the upcoming move, I'm not looking forward to spending too much money on any single purchase, especially not one that big. So I suppose me and my machine will toddle on together for at least a little while longer. Until the wheels fall off or the warranty runs out, whichever comes first.

(Also, happy 23rd birthday to Mallory! On Monday, I told a couple of my kids that it was my little sister's birthday. When I told them how old she was, the response was invariably, 'That's not little!' Oh, my children, everything is relative.)