Trine Blogs – Technology fail
I recently experienced some horrible computer issues. More specifically, my computer died on me while doing something very important (which may or may not have been playing Civilization IV). I took the approach most computer-deficient people would – freak out completely, press all the buttons, almost pry my computer apart to take out the CD (because that MUST have been the culprit), and fight the urge to call my dad. Because he would, as is in his IT background nature, ask me if I had downloaded something suspicious. To which I would have to toe the ground and avoid his eye (over the phone) and say “… no?”. He would then ask me if I’d taken a backup of all my important data. More toeing the ground, “… no?”. And then there would be the Disapproving Stare. Possibly accompanied by the Dissatisfied Eyebrows (in younger years known as Angry Eyebrows, most commonly presented to me at the intake of plant soil or knocking over of younger brother). Daddy is of the IT school that says “Downloads are bad, mkay? If you download, you get viruses and then the computer DIES!”
Unable to face this hypothetical (but highly likely) situation, I got myself down to the nearest IT store and pleaded for them to take a look at my poor laptop. But since I chose, in my infinite wisdom (and by consultation of daddy dearest), to buy a Dell a few years ago, no one but Dell employees with magic hands can touch it. And the warranty is long gone. So I panicked and bought the first and best external harddrive so I at least wouldn’t lose my thesis drafts. 500 GB later and €100 poorer, I returned home to mull over my most recent purchase. Have I explained the extent of my penny-pinching ways? I would rather e-mail myself every document, every photograph, every important file, than spend €100 on technology I deem unnecessary (even in the face of total laptop annihilation).
Do you know what the saddest part was? As I sat there, last Monday night, watching my laptop fight to repair itself and come back to life, I wondered what on earth I was going to spend my time on if it refused to revive. I don’t have any books here, and I didn’t fancy carpal tunnel enough to knit for six hours until bedtime. I have one magazine that my dad kindly sent me a while ago, but I’ve read that one cover to cover. My friends can’t entertain me 24/7. And honestly… I would rather lick a lamppost in subzero weather than spend more time at the UvT library than strictly necessary. Have you been there? It’s utterly depressing, especially at this time of year. You can practically smell the desperation and overdue deadlines pouring out of every student frantically tapping away at the keyboards. Ugh. No.
So now I try to treat my laptop nicely and refrain from doing suspicious activities that lead to computer malfunctions, such as playing Civilization IV and watching videos of puppies (seriously). I ordered a few books, just in case I watch an offensive YouTube movie of, say, Nicki Minaj and it refuses to cooperate out of sheer spite and bad taste on my part.
After extensive consulting with friends (who deemed the computer had simply overheated), I decided to exchange the 500GB monstrosity for a sleek 16GB USB device instead, at the reasonable price of €19,95. I have backed up my most important data and my laptop seems to be running fine (aside from one instance of Blue Screen of Death). I breathe a sigh of relief for now, and wait for my return to Denmark when dad will reboot it (or whatever it’s called). And I’ll dread meeting his eyes (and those eyebrows) when he asks what on earth all those download files are…
Trine Larsen (23) from Denmark studies Management of Cultural Diversity at Tilburg University and blogs for Univers.
