Thursday, March 18, 2010

Do Laptops Mutiny?


Broken Message
Originally uploaded by lrargerich
I am a gleeful techie. I love gadgets, and software, and all the wonderful ways they enable creativity. My computer holds a special place in my day-to-day life because not only are my manuscripts on it…so are all of my children’s grades. So suffice it to say, that even though all my important documents, pictures, and information are backed up…it drives me crazy that my computer is beginning to mutiny.

It started with random shutting off, usually in the middle of grade submissions. Argh! I have a cooling fan under it, I periodically use disk cleaner, registry back up, and I delete my temporary files regularly. So why is the portal to the written world fighting back…more importantly…is there a sale on computers coming up?

I took typing in high-school. It was required and we used actual typewriters. In fact, we fought over the new electric ones because you didn’t have to manually return the carriage. I remember that white typing correction film that never quite did the trick. How far we’ve come, and yet, when things go awry with my laptop, I start to wonder if old school isn’t the way to go. I mean, if something goes wrong with a typewriter, I break out the screw driver and fix it. I don’t have to wait for a guy in a bug to show up, pocket protector and all.

I’m going to take another look at the hard drive and maybe run some more diagnostics on my precious laptop before I start to panic. I wanted to give a shout out to my daughter for getting off the family computer long enough to let me post this. Until next time…gulp…hopefully…rb