My computer is broken. As I type this, an official "your computer is broken, you silly human" pop-up window refuses to go away. It officially says "Microsoft Internet Explorer has encountered a fatal error and must now close". When I hit okay, it does not, in fact, close. A new Explorer window opens, and a new pop-up appears. Right now I have seventeen Explorer windows open, and 16 popups. I just keep on typing. That's what I like to call a "workaround".

Sometimes I can magically fix things that I don't fully understand by running the defragmenter thing or Scandisk or uninstalling and re-installing programs. I have tried all of these "surefire" plans of attack over the past three days, and alas - once I think I have the problem fixed and begin merrily typing away, I get another popup window. My computer hates me.

To be honest, this machine has reason to feel bitterness towards me. After all, it just celebrated its five-year birthday by refusing to turn off a week ago. Five human years is equivalent to at least 75 years in the computer universe, especially if said computer is an E-Machine. Basically, I’ve worked this poor machine into the ground - filling the hard drive with 400 programs (many redundant), hundreds of songs and JPEGs and EPS files and dramatic poems. A few years ago, I suspected that it was counting the days to when it could play Solitare and The Sims with a nice 14 year old in need somewhere. I kept pushing it farther every day, running the defrag, saying sweet things and pleading with it to last just another year (or three). Unfortunately, I think I'm heading quickly toward the day it will finally say, "Screw you! I'm retired!" and burst into flames.

I guess I should start planning for a new computer, a nice shiny Dell maybe. Until then, my Outlook email box just froze and won't let me access any of the 442 emails it just downloaded this weekend. Perfect.

Lucy loves you |