Wednesday, October 1, 2008

On Computers and Catastrophe

I felt the need to break the relative silence that has been present on my blog over the past weeks (true, I have not been "in transit" persay, but if that becomes the filter through which i pass the decision to blog or not to blog, then I may never write) to respond to a recent development that seems to be a new trend in my life. Many years ago, as a young Ensign in the United States Navy, I made the decision (perhaps overdue) that I should replace my ailing Gateway computer (yes, I was one of the idiots that thought that buying a computer adorned with cow-hide was a good idea). Beginning the search for a new computer, I felt it prudent to use my old computer as a sort of bartering chip (sell on ebay, craigslist, your mom's house, etc.). Almost immediately after making that decision, however, the battery, plug, and the connection between the battery all unexpectedly fried, leaving the IT on my ship to tell me that my computer was "done for." In itself, a frustrating occurence, but fast forward a few years to 2004 and I was the proud owner of a Nissan Sentra with 35 mpg (oh yeah Leo, I know you can dig it) but had made the decision to trade in my economy package for a new vehicle. Two days before selling my car, I ran into a overturned traffic cone on the freeway (that was black and couldn't be seen at night) destroying my windshield wiper fluid resevoir, my front fender, and effectively lowering the value of my car by $1000 or more. Again, frustrating. Flash to present day (i.e. two days ago) and my decision to upgrade again to a new laptop. While moving into my new apartment, I tripped over the chord to my Powerbook, pulling it off of the TV stand it was on and effectively frying the harddrive.

This leads me to a few conclusions.

1) I am accident prone (I'm willing to admit it)
2) The machines have declared war and I definitely need to go see Terminator: Salvation and Transformers 2: Rise of the Machines when they come out (Thank goodness Michael Bay is around to show me the way.)