The other reason for my silence…
A funny thing happened while I was making lunch on Monday. As I was rushing around doing three things at once, a pop-up box appeared on my computer to tell me that there were new updates available to be downloaded and installed. Now, normally when that happens, I sit down and read very carefully what Microsoft wants to do to me but I was ‘busy’ and in a moment of weakness (OK, insanity) I clicked the OK button… A few minutes after that, as I was passing my computer again, I saw that the updates had been downloaded and installed and my computer needed to be restarted. So, I restarted.
To make a painfully long story short, it turned out that Mr. Computer wouldn’t restart in anything but ‘safe mode’ and that anything I could do in ‘safe-mode’ (i.e. system restore, uninstalling recent programs/updates) wasn’t fixing the problem. So I eventually reinstalled Windows, found my drivers corrupted (which necessitated a lengthy search for a Mouse-port adapter for my USB mouse), re-established my connection to the internet, updated my software and video drivers, etc. etc. etc. This all took about 8 hours over two days (because late Monday afternoon, Mr. Migraine came a-calling) just to get me back to the same level I had been on Monday morning (when, BTW, I had run my weekly full-system virus scan and daily system Spyware scan).
I believe it was Nietzsche who said ‘that which does not kill us, makes us stronger’ which is a typically Teutonic way of admonishing one to learn from your mistakes. So, what did I learn?
A funny thing happened while I was making lunch on Monday. As I was rushing around doing three things at once, a pop-up box appeared on my computer to tell me that there were new updates available to be downloaded and installed. Now, normally when that happens, I sit down and read very carefully what Microsoft wants to do to me but I was ‘busy’ and in a moment of weakness (OK, insanity) I clicked the OK button… A few minutes after that, as I was passing my computer again, I saw that the updates had been downloaded and installed and my computer needed to be restarted. So, I restarted.
To make a painfully long story short, it turned out that Mr. Computer wouldn’t restart in anything but ‘safe mode’ and that anything I could do in ‘safe-mode’ (i.e. system restore, uninstalling recent programs/updates) wasn’t fixing the problem. So I eventually reinstalled Windows, found my drivers corrupted (which necessitated a lengthy search for a Mouse-port adapter for my USB mouse), re-established my connection to the internet, updated my software and video drivers, etc. etc. etc. This all took about 8 hours over two days (because late Monday afternoon, Mr. Migraine came a-calling) just to get me back to the same level I had been on Monday morning (when, BTW, I had run my weekly full-system virus scan and daily system Spyware scan).
I believe it was Nietzsche who said ‘that which does not kill us, makes us stronger’ which is a typically Teutonic way of admonishing one to learn from your mistakes. So, what did I learn?
- Downloading an update without thoroughly checking it first is not unwise (as I had previously thought), it’s bad, BAD, BAD!!
- While computers often save us time, increasing our productivity, they can also cost us time, leading us to spend many hours on something that’s completely unproductive.
- Working on a computer for many hours without being to pause to surf the internet, check e-mail, news, etc. is a burdensome experience. That’s ‘working’, not playing Civ, Duncan...
- Reinstalling my computer is a lengthy, frustrating process that can cause migraines.
So, is this a fancy long-winded excuse for not invoking the 'first' strike for not posting for three days? All, I can say is ‘Perhaps’. In other words, if strikes 2 and 3 come fairly quickly, then I probably will count this one too, if not, then I’ll probably forget about this one. Think of my 3 strike rule as part of the ‘Pirates’ Code’, they’re more like guidelines, anyway…
posted by Quynn at 11:57 a.m.
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