The home office is currently in bad shape. After a five-day sojourn to the Hudson Valley, sans broadband mind you, I was looking forward to getting back to some serious blogging, perhaps some story editing, and definitely some long-overdue maintenance of the web pages I maintain. Naturally, that's why I got the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death" on my laptop the very night we returned. For those of you who have not encountered this most lovely of Microsoft phenomena, the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) occurs when Windows crashes - most of the time for no apparent reason - and cuts to a bright blue screen with an indecipherable error message that flashes for all of a nanosecond before the computer automatically reboots itself only to encounter the same fatal error over and over again. At least this is what happens with my laptop. I've attempted to remedy the situation a countless number of times, from Windows XP updates to installing McAfee Firewall to not attempting to open any of the pages or programs that tend to evoke the BSoD, but increasingly there seems to be no rhyme or reason to why the operating system goes apeshit.
Right now I've managed to claw my way back online, after repeated failed attempts to reinstall XP; apparently my computer has a sense of humor and allows what didn't work ten times in a row to magically succeed the eleventh time (the victory is fleeting, however, as the BSoD is want to reassert itself without warning during this period). I'm beginning to worry that this is a hardware problem, and not just a Windows problem, but I'm loathe to ship the laptop off to an undisclosed location for two to three weeks to be poked and prodded, leaving my high and dry in the meanwhile. Maybe I'll try installing Windows 2000. I've had nothing but positive experiences with 2000 on my previous desktop - not one crash, as far as I can remember, while XP has been nothing but buggy goodness since the very beginning.
At any rate, I just thought I'd check in and leave what I hope will not turn out to be an extensive absence greeting. Worst case scenario, I'll see you all on Friday when I head back to the Circulation Desk. For now, however, a safe and happy New Year to all!
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