Tuesday, September 04, 2007

*&^%&&^$#!!!**$&^^^$ and also Contest Winners.

My computer at home?

Dead.

I mean, dead. Dead dead. Blue screen of death dead.

I called Dell Support and the guy laughed. Seriously. Laughed. Told me it would cost more to fix it than to buy a new one.


Jason came home around 7pm on Friday night and I was sitting on the couch weeping.

"What's wrong?!!?!" he asked, alarmed.

"My computer!" I sobbed. "It's dead."

He nodded sadly. "I tried to play solitare last night. It gave me the blue screen too."

I wept on.

"Honey," he said. "Don't worry. We'll get you another computer."

"I know," I wailed. "But I had five years worth of pictures saved. I had my novel. The one I've been working on since November. No back-up. I had all my writing in there. Everything."


I know he doesn't really understand. Not really. But he really tried. He looked very stricken for me.

Anyway. I know someone who is going to see if they can save anything off the hard drive. In the meantime, I'm shopping for a new computer.



In other news, the contest was pretty fun! For me anyway!


The first story was: TRUE.

That was also my favorite submitted story and submitted by none other than my sweet thang Liz from Lizarita. And yes, she and I do sort of have the same writing style, which leads me to believe we act a lot alike in real life too.

Except she has better hooters.


The second story was: TRUE.

This one actually happened to me. Yeah. The guy not only smelled of me, he told me I smelled like his mom.

*Note to that guy: Not a good way to impress chicks.

He, fortunately, was not a co-worker. He was a client when I was a credit counselor. And he was certifiable and showed me the paperwork that he was carrying in a big briefcase.


The third story was: FALSE.

I totally made it up. Did you like it?

The first person to correctly identify the true stories was: CHELLE.

So Liz and Chelle, please email me at thatchickoverthere@gmail.com with your real names and/or aliases or whatever and your addresses and I'll send you your groovtastic prize!



Thanks everyone for playing!

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

*Moment of silence for the computer*

My deepest sympathies. I hope my new one arrives before my current one takes a blue screen crap.

Unknown said...

So sorry about your computer - I'm hoping my new one arrives before the BSOD does. It'll be a close race, methinks.

And yay for winning the contest - I never win anything!! Thanks!! I'll email you shortly!!

Dawn~a~Bon said...

Oh no honey! I hope that your tech-savvy friend can save your pics and your novel!
:o(

*HUG*

Patiently waiting said...

Ugh, sorry about the computer. Hopefully you can get what you need off of it before it goes to the computer scrapyard. Yay to the winners of the contest. It was fun :-)

frannie said...

I am sure you can retrieve the stuff off the hard drive. It may take some work, but it can be done.

Anonymous said...

Apparently your computer ran off with mine a la Thelma and Louise, because mine died too.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about the computer. That right there is my biggest fear when it comes to my computer. Congrats to the winners of the contest!

Randi said...

I'm so sorry about your computer! I SO understand that feeling. It's like losing your mind.
And then losing your mind, because you lost your mind.

Rachel (Crazy-Is) said...

Lol, I knew that Liz had sent you story A. I've heard first hand, stories about that crazy lady she works with.

Happy Working Mom said...

Stuff can always be gotten off your computer...it just depends on how much you want to pay for it sometimes. Hubby gets anything off computers...I'm sure they'll be able to get your pictures and novel!

Unknown said...

I certainly hope before you bury the computer, you can find everything you wanted/needed. I'm sure it will all work out. I'm sending you some optimism. Did you get it?

M said...

OMG I need to get the hell away from all you people with your BSOD! I cannot afford mine to die!

I'm sorry yours died. Reminds me that I need to figure out how the hell to save my pictures onto disk.

*sigh* I'm sorry. I'll cut your computer for putting you through horror. xoxo

Lizarita said...

I won BITCHES!
(I kid.)

Sorry about the blue screen of death. It sucks big time. But look on the bright side. You get a new computer?
Yeah...I know..it doesnt make it any less crappy....sorry...I tried.
xoxoxo

SJINCO said...

So, so sorry to hear about your computer. Hopefully your friend can get your stuff for you and then you can move on and made a new life with your new computer.

It sucks so bad, I know.

Congrats to the contest winners!

Unknown said...

Congrats to Chelle.;)

Sorry to hear about your computer. That sucks. I really hope your techy friend can salvage the photos and your book (at least) from your hard drive.

When you get your new computer? Get some back up, Chick. Seriously. Zip drive, tape drive or spare hard drive.. Sumthing! ;)

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

What a horrible loss, Chick. Hoping and praying you can salvage some of those precious memories.

Jocelyn said...

Nice job feigning excitement about the contest when

damn

your computer died. The novel? My heart stopped for you.

The photos? NOOOO.

We had the same thing happen, with unretrievable data, and I still actively rue that I only have ONE photo of my son's first birthday.

I'm no help here.

But I'm bummed for you.

my4kids said...

So sorry about your computer!!! I hope they get everything off of it!

EE said...

I feel your computer pain. My computer went down and I lost my Itunes purchases.
Hope they can save your stuff. I now upload all my pictures to Kodak Gallery as a backup.

Edie said...

Sorry about your computer, but I totally think you should be able to salvage most of the stuff that was on your hard drive. You just need to take it to someone who knows what they are doing.

Also, from now on, back up your stuff! :) Hardware is much cheaper these days then it used to be... Office Depot had a **FREE (after rebate)** 512MB key fob in their sales flier over the weekend. That's enough to hold your novel and quite a few pics.

Amy W said...

Same Damn thing happened to Ray's Dell...and nothing was saved...I hope yours turns out differently.

Anonymous said...

Ok, so I was second. Don't I get a consolation prize?

Anonymous said...

April 07? motherboard dies in #2K+ laptop. For third time.

Now? Stupid fucking recliner ate my new laptop's cord.

Welcome to my world! It's called computer hell.

I got a Lenovo laptop (made by IBM). Its fantastic and reasonably priced. Check them out... and order an extra cord while you're at it!

Dell Customer Advocate said...

I am a customer advocate here at Dell headquarters in Texas. I found your blog and wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help with your dead Dell. I also wanted to apologize for the fact the support tech laughed about it. While he may have been right that a new system would be less expensive, depending on what exactly failed, he should not have laughed about it.

If it is just a software problem (corrupted files, bad driver, broken Windows) then it should not be difficult for a techie to save your pictures and novel. I would expect that just requires connecting the hard drive up to a working computer and copying the files off the drive.

From the little you describe the problem could easily be just software. Depending on the error you got the system might actually be fixable without having to do a lot to it (although reinstalling Windows would probably be required).

If you would like me to see what I can do, or if you have any questions for me about the system or error, feel free to email me (customer_advocate@dell.com with 'ATTN: Larry (dead Dell)' in the subject line to ensure it gets to me). Either way, I hope the new computer does everything you need it to.

Larry
Dell Customer Advocate