My computer at home is less than a year old, well built and mostly willing to do as it’s told. We get on fine and I even overlook the buzzing noise it occasionally emits because I’m a reasonable man with a long fuse. Nobody’s perfect, after all. But the other night, without warning, a message appeared saying that Windows was going to shut down as it had encountered a problem. It was like a teenage strop – completely out of the blue, no explanation, and I didn’t have time to save my work. I’d nearly finished colouring ‘Self Assembly’ and lost an hour of my efforts. My initial annoyance then turned to concern, worry and panic as the machine would not restart. ‘No boot device located’. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me and as before, I started to mentally list all the important files that I may have lost forever, grimacing with increasing anguish at each one. Experience told me not to panic though, so I removed the hard drive and gently caressed its casing, pleading to its tiny silicon heart to give me one more chance.
I won’t drag this tiresome anecdote out – it worked. The computer rebooted and I continued on my merry way, although I haven’t used it since and I’m still anxious as to whether long term failure is around the corner. My somewhat laboured point is that if you’re not in the habit of backing up your work on a regular basis, you really should. Even new-ish drives can fail without warning. An online vault is the safest method and one that until now I hadn’t really considered. Think on’t.
Meanwhile, in my ever fascinating fridge saga, the replacement model is being delivered tomorrow within the absurdly vague timeframe of 7am – 6pm. In my job I have to book appointments with people all the time, and if I started quoting 11 hour windows I’d have been shot by an irate customer before now. Is that really the best they can do? It won’t be long before they just give you a ‘week commencing’ delivery date and take the phone off the hook. More unpaid time off. One surprising bonus, however, is that the replacement model they are sending is worth £600 – twice the value of the old one – so what I’m losing in paid employment I’m gaining in fridge equity (and when the housing market finally implodes and we’re all wading through the detritus of our financial ruin, fridge equity could be crucial). So on balance, I’m happy.
3 comments:
while you may well have a long fuse graham, your computer certainly seems as if it may have a short memory...
sorry to hear it, momentarily, took the color from your life altho' the finished product was a riot of hues, shades and tones of eye-candy...
however, to go from utter despair to your own particular take on cyber-sex in one short paragraph was nearly a little too much for this sensitive reader to stomach...
frankly, i almost suffered a 'boot device' error myself...
however, am interested to learn of the existence of online vaults for back-up and will investigate these further today (as, heretofore, had understood that these were only available to unwitting Austrian youngsters who spent a little too much time in the wrong sort of low-level chat rooms; or for the S&M-inclined who, presumably, have special, latex-lined and padded basements set up somewhere on t'internet for this kind of thing (not that i would know where to look, or even have the passwords for these, i hasten to add...); or even for those who spend hours and hours online chasing dragons and ending up in dungeons...
finally, re your moving on and up in the ever-competitive world of fridge-estate, good to know the joneses will be looking over at your new ice-box longingly (if you haven't simply died of old age before the deliverymen get there, and they decide to simply bury you inside it instead) and wishing that they were as cool as you...
oh, and great final strip to story 1, btw. really liked the 'konia' detail, the pic of gran and, horror of horrors, the sisters of mercy gag...
story 2 looks promising too, altho' Amanda is not the most immediately likeable of characters (in fact, she reminds me a little of my sister, which is never a good thing and far from a mercy...) so hopefully the mysterious Roland will soften her up a little (so to speak)...
finally, are you going to update the 'cast' page so the less than asidous among us will be able to work out who is who?
Yes, I will be updating the cast page as and when I am able. Roland is not a character though - it was just a throwaway reference to Roland Rat. Clearly a little too throwaway.
I predict that you will grow to like Amanda. She has 'nerve' and 'verve'.
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