Glowing Screens
The guy at the computer store was either calling me "Madam" or "Mate" both of which made me feel strange, as I am not his mate and far to young to be called madam. But I think he was just trying to be nice to a freaked out foreigner with a dead laptop. On tuesday morning lappy broke and wouldn't turn on properly. After attempting to boot in safe mode and running some futile tests, it became clear it was beyond my skill to heal.
I then fell into an uncharacteristic panic, but after a time, rational thought overtook me and I took it to lappy hospital. I am overjoyed to report that it is back in action after £70 worth of work and all of my data and files were recovered. I have spent the last few hours sorting out my preferences and programs. And having it fixed in the UK now means that my keyboard does cool stuff like the 3 is now £ and not #. And my clock is now on military time. Quirky.
As I wandered through the library yesterday it seemed everyone had a laptop in perfect working order, shiny Macs and Windows 7 machines casting a warm glow on their owners faces. Last night, defeated and feeling infinantly sorry for myself, I plopped down in front of our huge community TV to eat some (more) chocolate. After four months of not watching TV, I was reminded of just how annoying it is. Its giant pointless screen was mocking me in my boredom.
For the last 40 hours I was sans computer, and without it, outside of lost files and work, I felt embarassingly lost and sad. Until now I ignored my dependence on it, but without it, waves of terror struck me between lost pictures (over 2000 unprotected pictures in fact. supid, stupid, stupid!), no communication, research, music, entertainment. It was horrorfying. Of course, I am more dependent on it here than I am at home, but I guess that after being raised in a minimalist household I never believed that I would become a modern person, glued to some kind of glowing screen all the time.
The computer is an amazing and vexing peice of technology.
This morning I didn't even want to get out of bed because I 'had nothing to do' but it was really lappys absense that was bringing me down, and the overwhelming dread that all would be lost. But I did get up, of course, and for the first time in years put pen to paper and did work toward my assignment. Never far from modern technology, I was listening to my Mp3 player with its 21st century glow and whirring hard disc.
But I was honestly far less distracted than usual, and made notes on things to look up later as opposed to falling into the never ending cycle of googling. I really forgot how to be a diciplined student (I was never very good at it anyway.) I'm not glad lappy broke, but it has helped me to remember when to shut the screen and go back to the simple life.
I then fell into an uncharacteristic panic, but after a time, rational thought overtook me and I took it to lappy hospital. I am overjoyed to report that it is back in action after £70 worth of work and all of my data and files were recovered. I have spent the last few hours sorting out my preferences and programs. And having it fixed in the UK now means that my keyboard does cool stuff like the 3 is now £ and not #. And my clock is now on military time. Quirky.
As I wandered through the library yesterday it seemed everyone had a laptop in perfect working order, shiny Macs and Windows 7 machines casting a warm glow on their owners faces. Last night, defeated and feeling infinantly sorry for myself, I plopped down in front of our huge community TV to eat some (more) chocolate. After four months of not watching TV, I was reminded of just how annoying it is. Its giant pointless screen was mocking me in my boredom.
For the last 40 hours I was sans computer, and without it, outside of lost files and work, I felt embarassingly lost and sad. Until now I ignored my dependence on it, but without it, waves of terror struck me between lost pictures (over 2000 unprotected pictures in fact. supid, stupid, stupid!), no communication, research, music, entertainment. It was horrorfying. Of course, I am more dependent on it here than I am at home, but I guess that after being raised in a minimalist household I never believed that I would become a modern person, glued to some kind of glowing screen all the time.
The computer is an amazing and vexing peice of technology.
This morning I didn't even want to get out of bed because I 'had nothing to do' but it was really lappys absense that was bringing me down, and the overwhelming dread that all would be lost. But I did get up, of course, and for the first time in years put pen to paper and did work toward my assignment. Never far from modern technology, I was listening to my Mp3 player with its 21st century glow and whirring hard disc.
But I was honestly far less distracted than usual, and made notes on things to look up later as opposed to falling into the never ending cycle of googling. I really forgot how to be a diciplined student (I was never very good at it anyway.) I'm not glad lappy broke, but it has helped me to remember when to shut the screen and go back to the simple life.
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