So, yesterday afternoon, as I was about to print off some tickets for an event we were about to go to, when my computer very suddenly died. Like, first my browser froze, so I tried to ctrl-alt-delete to close the browser...and then Windows froze, so I had to do a hard reset...and then Windows couldn't reboot, so my computer just kept trying to restart over and over again...it was toast. The only harbinger of this misfortunate was that last week, we discovered that there's a short in it somewhere (we noticed when I was using my computer and Michael came up and touched my arm and, unbeknownst to me, my skin was all electrified just from touching the case of the computer).
We decided to just go to our thing with the tickets pulled up on my ipod and worry about the computer later. Then, when we got back, I had to leave pretty quickly to meet some friends for dinner and to watch the RS broadcast. So when I got back from that, I was expecting my computer to be as dead as it ever was, but it turned out Michael had been hard at work on it the whole time. He installed a new hard drive (because...that's a thing you can do to computers? and he just has extra hard drives lying around? I'm down with that.) and installed Linux on my laptop (to make it...work? or something?) and then he figured out how to get Vista back on it (the OS I actually know how to use! and the one that is compatible with my note-taking software!) and probably did a lot of other complicated stuff. All I know is that when I came home, he had taken over half the living room with my laptop, his laptop, and his desktop, all connected with interweaving wires and cords, and a few tool kits open and a pile of special screwdrivers and dissembled screws and assorted computer-y parts out. It looked like an awesome hacker den.
So now things seem to be working again, although we don't know how long it'll be until whatever problem is causing the short and the zebra stripes on the screen and the hard drive dying comes back and kills something non-replaceable. But for now, I can study again! And I can bloop around and procrastinate while pretending to study again! All thanks to my smart, full of magical-seeming knowledge husband!
Update: I also forgot to mention what a blessing the timing was with this. I had a big test on Friday, and since I use my computer to do 95% of my studying, and since I do half my studying the week before the test, having lost my computer and/or my files right before the test (or, horror of horrors,
during the test) would have been completely and rightfully panic-inducing. It was so great that this happened on a weekend between blocks, when I had absolutely zero studying to do.
Update the second: Michael fiddled with things some more this morning and somehow, magically, got everything back to exactly how it was, on my original hard drive and everything! Before, my computer was missing some programs/add-ons and my browser settings were back to the default and stuff, but he fixed ALL THE THINGS. This has been a public service announcement letting everyone know that Michael is the best.
