Modern technology....

Remember back when you wrote a paper and it was on lined paper and there was a red line on the left hand margin and their were three evenly spaced wholes, and when you erased on that paper, it would get a hole in it and you'd get demerits for having a messy paper? Or as time advance there was the IBM Selectric, my all time favorite typewriter. First there was the gray eraser stick with the green brush to wipe away the eraser crumbs, and then there was a white powdered film to type over the error and later was white out.. As technology advanced there where computers with their reams of paper that had tiny holes on the side with perforations. and later printer copier paper and even paperless systems. Ahhhh, what would we do without our laptop computers? While technology has streamlined the writing and communication process it has it's drawbacks. Yes, yet again doing a final paper my lovely Inspiron 9400 has had a seizure, fallen ill, collapsed, suffered a stroke or one of many other maladies. In other words it's broken, it spazed out, screen went black, the blue with light blue squares followed by a blue background with a pattern of two lowercased a's with apostrophes over them all over the screen. Yes, delightful. This started on Wednesday night after a very busy day. My legs hurt so bad and I was midway through my final paper for research when the sudden onset of computerviralitis occurred! I was at first most shocked, then perplexed, followed by terror, angry, dismay, panic, and tears. Son to the rescue. It was almost midnight and he called the Dell computer help line and worked with them for two hours only to get it to do a little something in the safe mode. No I could not save anything, nor could I put in my memory stick, nor could I get online to email to myself...no, I was stuck! What is worse, the document didn't save all the new work! It just kept the old file. How sweet is that? NOT!! Well I go to work on Thursday and it was a buttkicking day no lunch no break no nothing accept go, go, and go. I got home and there was a delightful message that the parts were being sent. I figured Tuesday. Not I get home tonight after a horrendously busy day and find to my delight the computer has been repaired, it is up and running I'm told. I was gleeful! I ate my dinner, showered and settled in for a long night of putting all my paper back together. Hmmmmmm I can log in, mouse works well, then it was time to type. beep, Beep, Beep, an annoying hash ear piercing sound jolted me, no words were appearing, no symbols, nothing just the noise. Can't get on the Internet, can't get the words to appear on my stark white page on the screen. NO this will not do. I went through the path in the control panel, I tried my darnedest to mend this minor set back, only to have to resort to calling Dell yet again. Of course I'm on hold for what seems forever listening to some woman tell my I could do this online....well fine and dandy if the keyboard worked! Dell cares about me. I bet they care about me more than you, they said so on their recorded message, I feel loved! Yes, I felt loved for over 20 minutes and a person came on the light to help me, only he couldn't. Sigh. It was then sent into the worked of unknown airwaves to be transferred to another teckie somewhere in the world. I learned a great deal tonight. I learned how to turn my computer on and off. I learned that once the Dell word appears, I can actually hit one of those "F" keys and other words pop up! Not that any of that helped. I was lead through the ever tangled road of some unknown area of chips and no, not dip... stuff. (of course for a lack of a better word). Where ever I went, it didn't work. I got to then get out my tool box, yes my tool box. I not only needed a little Philips head screwdriver, I needed a flat headed screwdriver! I learned how to take out my battery, disconnect from the AC (active current not air conditioning) but I've done that many times. Then, I got to open up my lap top to flatten it and take off a pane with the flat headed screwdriver ran use the Phillips head screwdriver to remove two screw and then lifted ever so gently the keyboard and then the tape thingy-ma-bob that attached to some board in the computer with metal things and other wires and bits. How and I suppose to know how to open the stupid plastic whatchmacallit holding the tape thingy-ma-bob that is attached the the keyboard. Geesh! Well, I'm proud to say I was able to open the lever, cracked my nail doing it, and then I had the task to put the tape back in and close the lever, okay so this is where I get put on hold, maybe the man needed a break, I was doing all the work! I did it, I did it! I put the whole darn thing back together and by the time the man got back on the phone I already rebooted (no I did not kick the computer...that's a vicious rumor). Well, I got to go here, there, and everywhere only to be promised that if this doesn't work we'll send out a new part. Two hours pass. Long story short, I get not only another new keyboard, but a new disk drive, because that too, isn't working, it won't open!!! At one point I was asked to put a disk in it, to which I had to reply, "well, I could try to do that, but I don't see how that is possible when the drive won't open up just like I stated before". To which I hear a little chuckle. Well, I'm still without my computer. My partial final research paper is tucked safely in a file in my computer and ummmm, I can't finish it. It was due at 11:55pm tonight, and guess what, I'm late! While I struggled to learn many terms and concepts in this research class, it has been a bear and this just tops it off! So, I write this on the old clunky outdated computer where my memory stick will fit in, but this computer can't read it. I think that in the long run, the old white notebook paper, you know, the one with the blue lines and the read line in the left margin with the three evenly spaced holes....would be my best bet, so off I go, back in time to do what all college student write their papers....time travel, technology, cyberspace, it's a whole new world, I'm not sure I'm liking this too much....