Back in Business- A general update

I'm back.

Several weeks ago my computer fell ill. I feared that my impressive machine would be reduced to paper weight, but fortunately it has seemed to recover well enough to return me to the blogosphere. The sickness felt by my HP Pavilion 9515y was not the result of a virus or other malicious infection, but rather the consequence of neglect and abuse on my part. I knew things were bad when my monitor would continually shut itself off during normal use. Without being able to interact with the computer, I was forced to manually shut down the machine time after time. My operating system has almost certainly sustained permanent damage and my tower may require surgery to replace a faulty video card still. It appears I was able to remedy some of the issues by simply cleaning and cooling the inner components of the computer (good advice from a friend). The last monitor shut down was more than three days ago and I'm hesitant to claim victory just yet, but the people have spoken....they need more Cocktails.
In my short life I have experienced four catastrophic computer crashes.
The first came way back when I was in high school when our home computer became unable to process any kind of task faster than I could by myself, thereby rendering it useless. My parents still possess the computer-not for any good reason.

The second computer crash I ever knew occurred during my freshman year of college.
I lived in the San Rafael dormitory at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The fifth floor was made up of a collection of suites and an enclosed hallway of single dorm rooms. I lived in a single. The hall of singles served as a singles hall, we mingled. Everybody in the hall spent time with each other and in a way our hallway became one large living space which we all shared.
In the middle of the hallway there was double room shared by two girls named Christie and Amanda(I guess it was not strictly a singles hall, but it really feels like it was) I would get to know both of these girls fairly well in time, but at first I was left limited knowledge of who they were. What I knew about Christie: She never seemed to be home. Christie rowed crew so she had to be out on the lake really early  and in to bed before too late. What I knew about Amanda: She preferred to be called Mandy.
At some point during the year we all learned that Christie's computer had taken a turn for the worse. Despite her best efforts, Christie was unable to resolve her computer problems and decided to buy a new machine to replace the broken desktop. By this time the group of us had become easy friends and there was much discussion amongst the bunch as to what Christie should do with her useless computer. It was determined that no valuable data could be saved from the machine and it seemed only obvious what needed to be done with the device. We would throw the powerless tool off the fifth floor balcony, into the middle of the dormitory courtyard, at 2am of course.

My friend Sean holding Christie's computer moments before stepping outside to toss it overboard.

The third major computer crash I have experienced was a game changer. It is referred to now as the crash of 2007/2008. At the end of 2007, I was still attending UCSB and living at the Sesame Tree Apartments in Goleta, CA. One day in December, my computer was unable to connect to the Internet. After troubleshooting the issue with technical support, we were able to diagnose the problem as a bad Ethernet port. The problem could be resolved with some time and money, but I saw it as a sign. At that time I felt as though it would be best for me not to use the Internet for a prolonged period of time. I had become dependent on the constant flow of information and sensory input provided by the web. This was evident by the feeling of hopelessness I felt in the first few days after the problem started. I told my roommates that I would pledge not to use the Internet for one year starting on Jan. 1, 2008. And so it began...

My computer was rendered incapable of internet use, but it was not useless. The multimedia capabilities of the machine still made it useful for archiving digital photos and playing DVD's. I had created quite the catalog of images from my years at UCSB and most of those were lost in an instant. One day, the computer just decided it was not going to work anymore and all my data was lost after a few bad shut downs. I tried to restore the hard drive, but it was gone.  When 2009 finally rolled around, I had spent a year off the net and several months without the digital screen as part of my daily routine. It was nice. The time spent away from the computer had two outcomes I had anticipated, but needed to experience anyway. The first thing I took away from 2008 was how much our world has become dependent upon the computer and the Internet. Going to school was more difficult without the aid provided by our super technology. Simple conveniences I had grown accustomed to were lost when I wasn't able to find information with the touch of a button. The second thing I learned from that time was how our time online should be rationed. It had become far too easy for me to spend my days in front of the computer screen and it was not until I was forced away from it that I realized what I was missing.

The most recent computer crash in my life is the episode I began this article with. I suppose it wasn't a full blown crash since the machine seems to be working now, but it still left me without a line of communication to the digital world I had found a home in. I took a vacation of sorts.

Hopefully the computer problems are over for now because there is much to be said...