Alexandra Bogdanovic's Blog: That's life... - Posts Tagged "technology"

A wise man once defined progress as "man's ability to complicate simplicity.” I recently learned that the hard way.
It all happened while I was working on my laptop in the middle of the night a few weeks back. Much to my dismay, the screen began flickering. Then it turned pink. And purple. Panic quickly set in.
Oh, no. No, no, no! Oh (expletive deleted), no!
I turned the machine off -- and prayed the screen wouldn't be blank when I turned it back on. Taking a deep, calming breath, I hit the round button in the top right corner of the keyboard. The computer took forever to reboot, or so it seemed. Finally, the machine came to life and everything on my desktop appeared as if nothing ever happened.
Phew. Maybe it was just a fluke. Maybe it was the proximity to the fan. Perhaps it has to do with the heatwave. It can't be broken. I haven't even had it for a year.
Deciding not to push my luck, I turned off the machine, put it away, went to sleep still hoping it was just a glitch and praying I wouldn't have to deal with any more technological drama.
I awoke to find that wasn't the case.
After breakfast and my daily power walk, I returned to my home office, sat down, opened my laptop, punched the "on" button, waited for the machine to start up and gasped when I saw flashes of pink. And blue. And wavy lines.
Oh, expletive deleted, expletive deleted, expletive deleted!
I left a frantic voice mail for my computer guru, turned my laptop off -- and prayed. By the time the computer specialist returned my call, it seemed my prayers had been answered. The computer screen appeared normal once again.
The joy was short lived and my frustration resurfaced when the computer tech told me there was no point in sending the laptop to the repair shop unless there was evidence that there was really a problem. I assured him the pink and blue flickering screen with the wavy lines was not a figment of my imagination.
What you're telling me is that I have to wait until it breaks completely before it can be fixed -- even though it's still under warranty, I said.
He told me that wasn't really the case, and advised me to take pictures if and when the screen went kablooey. With no other choice, I heeded his advice and once again hoped for a miracle.
I almost got one. The machine behaved -- for two whole weeks. Then one morning, when I least expected it, the dreaded pink and blue flickering screen with the wavy lines returned with a vengeance. As instructed, I grabbed my digital camera and took at least twenty pictures of the screen and e-mailed them to my computer guy.
Being a man of his word, he called me immediately and arranged to bring the laptop to the repair shop. He said he couldn't guarantee anything, but figured the repairs would take about a week. I figured I could live with that.
One thing led to another. A week became ten days. I used the tablet I'd jut gotten to surf the 'net and send e-mails, but it wasn't the same. So I made daily trips to the public library, where I was forced to use unfamiliar machines with finicky keyboards and other quirks in order to get any work done.
By the time I finally got my own laptop back, I wanted to hug my computer guy -- and bitch slap the hell out of the people responsible for creating all of these modern "inconveniences."
Until next time, "That's life..."