M is for Meltdown

Yesterday I realized that it is possibly, perhaps even likely, that people might read this blog. Frankly it kind of freaked me out. With the exception of Moose-L (which has absolutely nothing to do with mooses, except that Tom is from New Hampshire), I am the kind of Internet user who rarely speaks up and makes her presence known. On Moose I am a bit of a loudmouth on occasion, rambling on about my personal and professional dramas. Then again, I know many of the moosers in person and have for some time. Even though I don't read everything posted and haven't for some time, even seeing a moose message is a welcome distraction from the rest of my work-related email. But I digress.
I almost panicked and took the blog down but then I forced myself not to do it. I mean, if the whole point is to de-lurk, don't I have to give that a bit of a shot? So if you are reading this I hope you aren't terribly bored or wondering where the funny is. It comes and goes.

Back to the M is for Meltdown bit. I am beginning to wonder if there is some deeper meaning to the portentious technological failures is my life. I seem to have a knack for destroying laptops, usually at times when having a laptop would be handy, useful or downright key to my productivity. And since I'm more of a girl than a geek I tend to only own one computer at a time, not having a working laptop poses problems. Two weeks ago I was typing away at a list of places I want to make sure I see when I am in southern California (like the Margaret Herrick, La Sirena, Pulp, Larchmont Beauty Center, MOCA, etc.). I decided I would go work in my office and be a productive person so I put the computer to sleep (as is my custom). As soon as I did I noticed a distinctive burnt metal smell and extra-hot laptop sensation. Of course when I tried to restart it, nothing happened, except me swearing and panicking a bit. Then I took the computer to the folks as LS&A IT, who immediately commented on its distinct aroma. They were actually quite great about fixing it, especially after the staff from CRLT called them on my behalf because the Teaching with Technology Institute was starting and I had a) no computer b) no access to any of my files b/c they were not backed up. Before you go clicking your tongue at my foolish lack of backups, please note that almost all my files had been moved to a folder named "May 2005 backup" and I was planning to pick up my new flash drive that had just arrived so I could perform the aforementioned backup.
Anyway, the IT people gave me an ibook loaner, which I had for most of the Teaching with Tech Institute thing. Then I got it back on the second to last day and I had to transfer everything as best I could from one laptop to another. Blah. This is hard to do when you only have access to one laptop at a time and when you have been importing movie files for several days in a row.

When I got my computer back it was like it had undergone some kind of computer sex change. Or personality change. Or something. It has a new case, new screen, new processor. The only way I could tell that it was my computer was that it had my greasy, food-trapped-underneath-in-unseemly-way keyboard. Even my kickass Rockstar sparkly sticker is gone. But at least it still runs and it is probably running better and happier now than it was before. I'm trying to be more careful with it and I'm going to order one of those venting laptop trays for it.
So why do I suspect that I suffer a Curse of Ill-Timed Laptop Death? My first laptop was a nifty and unexpected Powerbook Duo that Tom rescued for me and gave to me for Christmas sometime in the late 1990s. About a week after he gave it to me I tripped and stepped on its screen while grading finals.
Then there is my iBook, a lovely orange and white creamsicle of the computer that sits dormant on my desk at home. Steve just called it the Laptop of Fire, which it was one day in early 2003 when the AC adapter connection to the laptop caught on fire while I was using it. This was quite alarming. Unsuprisingly the computer itself stubbornly failed shortly after that and I still need to recover its hard drive since it holds pretty much all my grad school work and rough dissertation drafts (and I'm absolutely sure those will come in handy some day, right?) I just got a class action settlement thing from Apple the other day b/c I qualify to get some of the money I shelled out for AC adapters for my clamshell ibook back.
So, gentle reader, do laptops hate me? do they fail when I need them most? Is this a black pox upon my project?
ugh. whatever.