#311 - broken

february sucks. this time last year i was just starting an awful three week painfest with shingles. this year february started with an infected cyst, moved on to a broken car door, then a broken computer, and we're not even to that damn valentine's day yet, sheesh!

well, at least that gross thing on my back is finally healed (i haven't been able to go to the beach in like a month, which is kinda okay because it's been too cold, but i feel like a sloth now), but here's what happened to my computer, it's not that interesting, but it seems to be kind of a common problem so i'm here to inform and (hopefully) protect. i really liked my computer when i got it, way back in nov. 2006, it was a pretty sweet machine back then, but i should've known from the beginning i was gonna have problems with it... the day i got it, i unpacked it, set it up, and there was no sound. i couldn't figure it out for awhile but i finally returned it and luckily got completely new one. then i had more trouble with it when vista came out and they sent me that update (it was running on XP, which, in retrospect, i should've kept). then last year the whole thing with that broken hinge happened and i had to take it in again, they sent it somewhere to the mainland and it took over a month to get back, grr. and so last weekend it was doing a windows update and all of a sudden it went to blue screen... grr, saying something about an error updating the display driver. fine, whatever, i restarted and tried again. after a few cycles of that happening i tried to turn it on again and then i got nothing but a black screen. grr... i ended up connecting it to my parent's monitor to be able to see what was going on and luckily for a span of a few hours i was able to boot into safe mode so i could at least retrieve my pictures and music (thankfully!), but after that it totally crashed and now it doesn't boot up at all. GRR!

the worst part of all that? like an idiot i bought the 4 year warranty that expires in nov. of this year. but i bought the warranty from circuit city. guess who went out of business last year? circuit city.

so now i've got no computer, all my files and photos (by the grace of God) saved across four flash drives and 3 dvds, and no idea what kind of computer to buy next. i'm thinking i want to stay away from hp definately, and i completely don't want to switch over to mac, so i'm considering dell, toshiba, or that new asus brand (it's so much cheaper... and i'm thinking i don't want to LOVE my new computer, because then when it inevitably breaks down i can just dump it).

but... that's only one major money-eater this money, the second is my poor, old car. i still love it, but damn it's costing me tons in new repairs every month. this month the door handle broke and i spent $628 so that i could actually open it again (along with new brake pads/shoes, CV joint, a bunch of little things here and there). grr.

but to top it all off, today when i went to best buy i was driving out of the parking lot and the FRICKIN' MUFFLER DROPPED OUT! geez! and this is the second time it happened. well, the first time (which was also almost 4 years ago, right about the time i bought my laptop) only the exhaust pipe fell off in the parking lot at work, this time the entire muffler just plopped down on to the road and i drove off. GRR!

so there's another repair i've got to pay for tomorrow and i will have no money left for the laptop. grr.

and valentine's day is on sunday. grr.

i don't like this post.

grr