Apocalyptic Addendum

Apr 14, 2004 16:13

So, last time I booted up my computer I got the black screen of death, covered in incomprehensible bone-white characters. This screen flickered momentarily, then resolved into a single, despair-inducing line:

Unable to read fixed optical drive.

The computer promptly restarted itself, showed me the same series of screens, flickered again, restarted again, did the same thing again and turned off. I stared at it for a minute, pushed my CD-ROM further into its port, powered it up again. The computer started up, normal-ish, with the load up screen-which then turned black, and asked me how I should proceed (it recommended last good start-up settings, which I followed). After checking my fat32 file (there were errors on the hard drive-those chains have been converted to files), my computer started normally. I sent an error report: the computer was unable to read my hard drive.

According to our friends at the Microsoft error reporting office, this was apparently no big deal-for some reason the computer couldn’t read the hard drive temporarily, but it shouldn’t happen again. If it does, I should report it to the manufacturer of my hard drive.

I, however, know different. I’ve seen this screen before-it haunts me. It stares at me from my closet while I'm trying to fall asleep. I met this screen shortly before my previous CPU’s untimely demise-just days before I began having to flip it upside down to get it to start. According to Microsoft, the errors are unrelated, but I know that message for what it is: An omen of dark days to come.

The thing about waiting for the other shoe to drop is that you just don’t see it coming three or four shoes into the process-I only have two feet. If there’s another shoe out there-another big, heavy, muddy shoe, with cleats, well, it's probably best just not to think about hat.

I see the scratch marks. I hear the howl.
I’ve had enough of this. Time to go catch a bus.
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