"This, madame, is a faithful narrative of every event in which we have been concerned together..."

The following is a faithful transcription of every thing that I wrote whilst I was without the use of my computer:

It is currently 21:25 on Friday, 23 February 2007. I am sitting at the large table in my room; with my back to my computer. I am writing this by hand. Do not worry, your eyes have not mislead you: I said by hand. The reason for this [as you already know, due to my earlier posting] aberration is that my computer finally lost its battle with terminal hard drive warping, brought on by a dysfunctional cooling system thanks to the ineptitude of Dell. For the record: Because of this, I am never going to purchase a Dell again. (On a side note, a song by Herbert Grönemeyer, very popular German crooner, that we had to sing in German class in high school is currently playing on the radio.)

As I was saying: Never again Dell. This was a great machine, and because of business decisions made by Dell, I have had to put up with a dying computer for the last two years and a half years (note that they computer is not quite three years old). At first this was not too bad, just a Blue-Screen-of-Death every once in a while, until it finally escalated to the current issues. Fortunately I have been able to nurse the poor thing along, hoping that I could get it to last through university, as it got increasingly worse. And, instead of dying some time inconvenient last semester, it just had to hang on long enough that there was no hope of getting things fixed before I left the country. It just had to wait until I was out of the country, where the warranty does not hold. And, even better, I still have at least two months on my warranty.

Things like this are completely typical for me. It is a good thing that I am not superstitious, because if I were, I am sure that I would be hunkered down somewhere, waiting for Armageddon. This is just the crowning glory of what has been a chain of interesting events, that, if I had been State-side, would have just been a passing phase that I would have looked at as being rather amusing. Since I am abroad these things tend to pile up a little bit, and, while trifling, are a little more irritating. ‘Good grief,’ says Charlie Brown. No wonder. If my luck continues like this, I will take up ‘Good grief’ as my mantra.

I am now getting powered into reviewing-my-options mode – similar to the mode that our esteemed president was in at the time of the State of the Union Address. Hopefully my reviewing process will yield better fruit than his “process” of review did.

Speaking of politics. As much as I enjoy following politics (why did I not major in poli-sci? – Do not ask me, I have yet to figure it out), I am already starting to get worn out by the constant presidential/Hilary/Obama coverage. You would think that it was currently January 2008 and we were gearing into the first round of primaries. It is my hope that every one will chill out over the summer and we will not have constant coverage of who is running for president. And, frankly, if the media focused more on who WAS NOT running for president, it would take a lot less time. [Except, that would include Al Gore, and every one has a lot to say about Al Gore.]

Enough of politics (who talks about that stuff anyway?). If anyone is keeping track: I had an altercation with a door today. It won, of course, as the doors always do. I will never understand why I have so much trouble with things like door handles, especially the lever kind. (Note: German door handles are all levers, I have yet to see a knob.) You would think that, since I just used the door handle to open the door, I would know where the handle is and manage to keep my arms from getting caught on it. Apparently not.

25 February 2007
I will begin today’s commentary by relating an observation of mine from sometime last week. First, I will tell you that the DLR has some programmes for school children, and once a week or so, two teenaged boys, not older than fifteen can be seen getting lunch in the canteen. On the day in question, as I was taking my tray to the kitchen, I noticed that these two boys were sitting at a table. They were finished with their meal, since the table had nothing on it. This was not remarkable in itself, except for this one detail: What were they doing while sitting at the table? They were not talking, or doing any conversing with each other. They were sitting at the table, playing there handheld gaming things. [I recently heard the PSP mentioned in an article, and this is what they were playing]. I tell you this because it was completely something you would see teenaged boys doing, but it was so out of place in a company cafeteria that I could not help but chuckle when I saw them.

Now, if you ever had any doubt, you know how awkward a story tell I am, and why it is probably good that I have recognised this and do not harbour any wish or have my heart set on (using two well worn clichés) being a writer. Truthfully, this journal (ok, yeah, I have succumbed to the craze, it really is a blog, but since I am currently composing this with pencil and paper, humour me.) is the most non-lab-report/technical writing that I have done since the research paper days ended in early high school (oh, how I miss those paper days…).

Another amusing thing. The student residence that I am living in has a ‘clubhouse’ on the premises that has a little bar in it. They put flyers up in the buildings to try to get people to come. This week’s flyer says (translated, of course) that most of household accidents happen at home. It then shows a Venn-diagram like picture, all filled in and captioned: Household accidents at home: 100%. At the bottom of the flyer is says, Better that you are not at home. This is quite a persuasive argument, and completely factual.

27 February 2007
That is the end of my… ok, not so faithful narrative, but you got the gist. I will now update you on what has been going on since. We were able to get my computer to function again by taking out the hard drive and then putting it back in again and pushing it very firmly into the case. Not so technical, but it worked. I am still going to get a new computer, I have had quite enough of this one. This one will get sent home with my father when he comes in a couple weeks, and will finally get sent to Dell. (By the way! Dad is coming! He has a meeting or conference, or something like that, in Norway, and is coming to see me a few days before that. We are going to go to Berlin, and maybe San Souci in Potsdam.) In summary: I have a working computer which will make finding a new one a lot easier and I will be able to stay in contact with the world until the new one arrives.