Why have the Laptop gods cursed me?

So, because my laptop is broken, I am blogging to you from my “smart phone”. My BlackBerry happens to have the capability to view Word documents, so I’ve typed this on another computer and e-mailed it to myself. I also can’t really update my 365 Project, because even if I take pictures, I have no where to post them or save them. So I haven’t taken any pictures since Friday.

Isn’t technology amazing?

Sometimes. The reason I have to now blog from my phone is because on Friday night, it stopped working. I haven’t dropped it, deleted system requirements, rearranged anything – since I got it about 2 years ago. I remember buying it for myself with gift cards for my birthday in 2007. The only thing that has happened to it is that I spilled a drink on it just over a year ago, and it’s been working fine. My keys have been sticky or stiff at times, but that’s it. I also somehow managed to break my disc drive by closing it too fast around the same time and now it’s off the track and won’t read discs.

But I don’t feel that either of those would have led to my current issue.

I had left my computer on, and Justin wanted to watch a movie that I had downloaded earlier. So I opened the screen and starting getting it ready. I loaded it into the Windows Media player, and realized there was no sound. It’s not unusual for me to mute the computer, so I thought that was it – nope. The mute was off. So I thought maybe the volume on the computer or player was down low? Nope. Perfectly fine. In the time it took me to try these things out to try and get sound, my computer got really slow, and pretty much just freezed – but the movie kept playing. So I couldn’t figure out why the stupid thing wouldn’t play sound. Then I did something I’ve done a million times before. I held the power button down until the computer just turned off. Then I waited a few minutes and pressed the power button again to turn it back on. Past history proved to me that it would just let me know it was turned off improperly and would I like to continue in Safe Mode? That definitely did not happen this time.

This time, a black screen with simple white text asked me that first question. How would I like to continue starting up my computer? I let it select the normal mode, knowing (based on history) that it would be fine. It thinks for a minute, then tells me it cannot perform that function, because something is missing or corrupted. So now I don’t know if something happened to it because I downloaded that movie, or because I held down the power button too long one time too many for the laptop gods. So computer gods – how can I fix this? Oh, just put in my start-up disc and reload? That would be great – if my disc drive worked!!!!!

I’m out of luck. Computer repair is expensive, especially if I have to retrieve every picture I’ve taken since late 2004, and over 2,500 songs. Not to mention all of my programs and settings. And a new disc drive. But if I don’t, I don’t have any of those things anyway. Even if I could afford a new laptop, why wouldn’t I just get the one I have fixed with that money, and the new one wouldn’t have my pictures and music.

I can live without out if I have to, but things like my pictures, my resume, my songs, and other things are on there, and I’m going to want to look at them again at one point.

I’m hoping if I leave my computer alone for a week, that I will go back to it and all of a sudden it will be working again on it’s own. But not if it’s missing something or if something is corrupted. Someone needs to fix it. It will be a few months before that happens.

Hump-Day Update

That almost rhymes!

So I finally got my new phone - and boy is it orange!! BURNT orange! My brother would be proud!!

It has rained almost every day for the last month or so. I always thought the weather in Dallas was unpredictable and bizarre. I apparently had never lived in Colorado Springs.

I love snow, so I am of course thrilled during the winter months when it randomly snows, and snows for hours, much to the chagrin of my co-workers. However, it doesn’t seem normal, or it didn’t before 3 years ago, for it to snow through late May and early June. But apparently that’s an annual occurrence in the Springs.

Once Spring hits, you have a few weeks of nice weather in the 70’s and 80’s, but you better enjoy it. Once Summer hits, you get a nice day or two maybe in a row, with rainstorms in the afternoon and evening that you could set your clock by. Wonder what time it is? Check the storm clouds. If a system is moving in, it’s 2 pm. If it’s just ending, it’s 3 pm. Then in mid to late summer, you better be prepared to not make any plans past 1 pm or on the weekends, because that’s “rainy season”.

Case in point: The Broadmoor has a webcam attached to the top of the building I work in, aimed at the main entrance of the hotel, so guests can always see what’s going on. I have no windows in my office, so since my desk is aimed the direction the camera is aimed, in theory, the webcam is like my window. I check it every now and then to see how the rain is looking. Here is the activity from this afternoon:

3:15 pm:

3:45 pm:
In just 30 minutes it went from a downpour to nice and sunny. And then again when I left at 5 pm, nice and sunny at 5:45 pm, and now (6:30 pm) the thunder is rolling again! The mountains are also so cloudy they look like snow clouds!

At least it’s not 105 degrees. I don’t know if I’m ready for that again!! I just love the rain!!

Ahhh...technology.

Right now, I have a Blackberry Pearl through Sprint, and it is not functioning properly.  First of all, it takes FOREVER to load – like a computer.  I understand that BlackBerries are essentially hand-held computers, but it pulls up the spinning hour glass when I “wake” it up from sleep mode/try to open my contact list/take a picture, etc. And that shouldn’t happen.  I’m also afraid that the little scroll part on the front is minutes away from falling off, because it’s very loose.  Any BlackBerry owner will tell you if your scroll-ball isn’t working, you might as well not have a BlackBerry, because that’s the driving force behind its features.  It also has a well-known glitch to where, without any notice, it erases my call logs and my message logs – just “poof!”, gone.
 
It also has a weird habit of pulling up a blank white screen with a teeny-tiny warning message in the middle of the screen, which is a problem of the phone.  I’ve already gotten a free replacement out of it because Sprint (or BlackBerry?) is aware of the problem.  And to top it all off - it’s kind of beat up because I drop it a lot (oops!).  Which might explain all the technical problems??  Maybe.
 
But - YAY for good things!!!  I did some research on the Sprint website, and I am eligible through Sprint for a $150 rebate on a new phone if I sign up for a new 2 year contract.  So I thought, bummer, because if I have time left on my current contract, that would just be stupid to renew my contract and just start all over right in the middle of my current one.  I checked my account for my renewal date, and found out I was about a month away from my current contract expiring anyway. 
 
So I went ahead and “bit the bullet” and upgraded my phone! 
 
I am able to get a better *newer* Blackberry but get this – it’s going to be ORANGE!  They actually call it “Inferno”.  It’s a Curve, so it has a wider screen and a full “QWERTY” keyboard so I don’t have to double-tap on my phone to get certain letters.  Yay!  I should be getting it within 2-5 business days, so hopefully by this time next week!  I figure, I’m a girl and I’m fun, right?  So why not go “crazy” and get the non-traditional color?  In any case, if I don’t like it or get sick of it, I can always either buy a case of a different color to go on the outside, or they actually sell the “shell” of the phone in different colors and designs. 
 
But I think I’ll like it!