Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Not my best day so far ... no, really not at all

Today's sequence of events:

1) The computer in my office did not turn on. Or rather it did turn on -- repeatedly. It got to the "Starting Windows" screen, then turned off and rebooted. And did it again. And again. When this happened the fifth time, I kicked my desk and let loose with an expletive that rather shocked the student outside my door waiting to see my neighbour. IT said it's a virus they're familiar with and will be by tomorrow -- which in MUNspeak is Friday or Monday.

2) Murphy's Law is playing out at full strength: yesterday evening, upon finishing my lecture notes for today and getting ready to go, I thought "should I print them out?" No, of course not! Print them out tomorrow -- when your ^%%$#@# computer isn't working! So, yet more seat-of-the-pants lecturing. Which isn't something I mind doing, except when I've actually gone to the effort of writing the damn notes out in detail. It's fine when I've been swamped with other work, out till 4am or just simply lazy, but not when I've actually been conscientious! Stupid computer.

3) Upon sitting down to hurriedly jot down the broad strokes for both my classes, I spilled my entire coffee over what I'd written so far.

4) Running out to go find paper towels of some description, I shoulder-checked my door jamb with a force that could well have put down Ti Domi ... but unfortunately, the door jamb was unimpressed.

5) Realized about three minutes into my improvised lecture on Doctor Faustus that I'd forgotten my text in my office and had to run to get it.

6) While trying to make a point in American drama on a play about working-class people in the 1930s, asked why is was significant that three generations of a family all lived in the same apartment -- and upon seeing the sea of blank faces, attempted to simplify things by asking, "Ok, let me put it this way -- why do we find it kind of pathetic to see a thirty-something man who still lives with his parents?" ... and then, scanning my students, realized that I had probably mortally offended, or at least deeply depressed, about a half a dozen of the men in my class.

7) Right after class, decided to hell with this, I'm going to go work out now. Which I did -- went through my weights routine, but was really looking forward to running the track to work off the day's annoyances. And thirty seconds into my run, my iPod froze up. It's done this before -- it simply freezes, stays like that for an hour, and then comes back to itself with a dead battery (anyone else have this happen?). But this of course spoiled my run, so I just packed myself up, stopped for a bottle of Jameson and a ready-made dinner on the way home, and turned to the blog for a much-needed rant.

I suppose I should be happy at this point that my car started -- that would have been the cherry on the cake of my day.

But now I've vented, I have a glass of Irish in front of me, a pizza baking in the oven and a cat who seems to sense the mood and is trying to make things better by sitting in my lap and licking my hand. Which makes it really hard to type, but I appreciate the sentiment.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

As Morgan would like to say...."Uncle Chris, "spit" happens!!!"

Paige said...

With the iPod, you have to..
"Toggle the Hold switch on and off (slide it to Hold and then turn it off again)

Press and hold the Play/Pause and Menu buttons until the Apple/iPod logo appears (like 6 times or more)"

The first time mine froze I freaked out. But it hasn't done it since, so yay!

Anonymous said...

It's not that I haven't experienced a day like yours:God knows I have-BIGTIME!!!!! but--- and it's a little but- if it's not life altering, like death,divorce or love-lost, it's just....well...life! As someone you know well says, 'build a bridge, get over it!' By-the-by - Shmoo seems to understand!!!! P.S. 86 the ipod and buy an 8 track-it won't freeze-up unless it's minus 50 and the music you can get for it is better!

The Cooking Photographer said...

Temper problems?? BTW. computers cannot be stupid, it's the people who are.

Sorry to read about your bad day.
Angelika

Lesley said...

You don't know me, and I found your link from UWO, and I try to read your blog on a daily basis (hey, it's cool and my life is sorta empty) which is why I can say that that sucks. Your day? Sucky. Glad you got through it. And anything involving alcohol is sure to cure what ails you. Hope today is better. Oh and can I get a "effing computers!!!"? Cheers.

Unknown said...

As you are having computer problems I will continue my funny word list with computer phrases....

Always on top
dongle
Handheld device
load testing
Mail client
man-in-the-middle attack
Query Analyzer
RIM device
Security Hole
Unit Testing
tooltip