Today did not actually start out so bad. All the bad things happened in about the space of 15 minutes...but they were awful enough to color the rest of the day and still be on my mind at what is, for me, a pretty ungodly hour (11 pm OMG).
(Note: This is LONG. I ramble on and on and on. Be assured that my day sucked if you don't want to read it all.)
As all of you should know, my computer is my most prized possession, somewhere below my cats and above food (Tass is slightly above or below the cats, depending on his actions from day to day). My computer, however, has always been sickly.
Today it decided that, after months of giving me sound for my music on a regular basis of whenever-the-hell-it-feels-like-it, it would give me NO SOUND AT ALL. Lovely. So I call Toshiba Tech Support, also known as They Who Do Not Give A Flying Rat's Butthole. They ran me through a couple of different things, and finally decided that my computer's sound card was shot and I would need a new one. They gave me the phone number and address of Jade Technologies, a reputable repair center in my area, so I pack up my computer and head out.
Jade Technologies is a teeny-tiny apartment in the basement of a building with no sign on the front saying that they are there. The sign is on the back, once you've already gone past it 7 times and driven in endless circles. I did find it though, and found my Helpful Computer Dude, also known as Oh My God This Person Will Actually Help Me.
He ran through a bunch of diagnostics, and my computer magically began to play music again! Like a small irritating child, it was behaving PERFECTLY when out of the house, but I knew if I got it home it would be a little brat again. He then rebooted it a couple of times and noticed what I had always thought was a "feature"--namely, that my computer does not listen to the 'restart' command and instead goes to a blank black screen without actually shutting off, necessitating a manual shut-off and rebooting. He said this was BAD.
So his advice, to save me money and time, was to use the Recovery Disk that came with my computer. It would wipe the drive and reinstall the operating system. First, though, he told me to go get an external hard drive and back up anything I actually cared about. This I did, as I have masses of stuff on my computer that is basically my life's work and I do not want to lose it.
I get home, plug in the new harddrive, move all my stuff onto it, try to use the Recovery disk. It won't load. I try booting from the Recovery disk. Nothing. So I call Tech Support again. A guy with a horrible accent walks me through booting from the CD (oh, NOW it works, little bastard POS). Everything seems to be going just fine until...
Intel Boot Agent
TECHNICAL CRAP HERE MEANING YOUR HARD DRIVE DIED A FIERY HORRIBLE DEATH AND ITS CORPSE IS LAUGHING ITS FAT ZOMBIE BUTT OFF AT YOUR MISFORTUNE
Remove or Replace Non-System Disk
Well, not only is my hard drive dead, but my CD/DVD drive is now explodey with fire (not really. It just made awful whirring noises that scared even Helpful Repairman Man.) and also very dead.
I go back to Jade Technologies and the guy says..."Your system is basically a very large, very expensive paperweight. I need to replace the motherboard (since the sound card is not actually a card but a tiny piece of it that can't be separately replaced), the DVD drive, and the hard drive. If Toshiba has all the parts and can send them on time, you might get your computer back at the end of August. Good thing it's under warranty, eh?"
Uh...yeah. As far as I know the warranty expires on September 17, the anniversary of the date I bought it. But if it's been such a POS till now, I should expect it to always be a POS. So I call Toshiba to extend the warranty.
"Your warranty expired in May. Your 90-day grace period to extend it ended Monday. Have a nice day." They wouldn't do anything to help me, and basically I was screwed. So I call back Jade Technologies guy.
"Yeah...fixing this thing outside of warranty will run you about $1000. Why don't you spend the extra $100 or so and get a brand-new, non-POS computer?"
Why not indeed. The reason is that my father is a jackhole. He will not a) pay nor b) help me pay for a new computer, and in fact c) forbid me to buy a new one even if I paid for it completely by myself. I was made aware of this in a 30-minute phone call that was basically him yelling at me and me crying. He also said if I went and got a computer anyway, he would basically cut me off--not pay tuition, not pay the mortgage on the house I live in, etc.
I dried my tears and called my mom...who basically said "Go ahead and get yourself a computer if you're paying for it by yourself. I'll take care of your father." I wish I could believe this, but I'm worried. And my dad is no longer speaking to me.
Meanwhile, my jaw and impacted wisdom teeth still hurt like a mofo, and I don't get the good drugs till after I see the oral surgeon, and even then not unless I get the actual surgery, which I don't think my parents can afford. Although at this point, I'm on muscle relaxers and a retarded amount of Advil just get through the day, so I hope they can scrape up the money for it and that insurance will cover some of it.
Because the last $1200 in my savings is going to cover the cost of the Sexatron II, my uber-sexy new laptop that I am buying tomorrow because I cannot be without a computer for school, work, etc.
And I also had a job interview today, so hopefully some money will come out of that.
Aaaaaand....anyone who's read this far, please send me money.
Love, Whorli
(Note: This is LONG. I ramble on and on and on. Be assured that my day sucked if you don't want to read it all.)
As all of you should know, my computer is my most prized possession, somewhere below my cats and above food (Tass is slightly above or below the cats, depending on his actions from day to day). My computer, however, has always been sickly.
Today it decided that, after months of giving me sound for my music on a regular basis of whenever-the-hell-it-feels-like-it, it would give me NO SOUND AT ALL. Lovely. So I call Toshiba Tech Support, also known as They Who Do Not Give A Flying Rat's Butthole. They ran me through a couple of different things, and finally decided that my computer's sound card was shot and I would need a new one. They gave me the phone number and address of Jade Technologies, a reputable repair center in my area, so I pack up my computer and head out.
Jade Technologies is a teeny-tiny apartment in the basement of a building with no sign on the front saying that they are there. The sign is on the back, once you've already gone past it 7 times and driven in endless circles. I did find it though, and found my Helpful Computer Dude, also known as Oh My God This Person Will Actually Help Me.
He ran through a bunch of diagnostics, and my computer magically began to play music again! Like a small irritating child, it was behaving PERFECTLY when out of the house, but I knew if I got it home it would be a little brat again. He then rebooted it a couple of times and noticed what I had always thought was a "feature"--namely, that my computer does not listen to the 'restart' command and instead goes to a blank black screen without actually shutting off, necessitating a manual shut-off and rebooting. He said this was BAD.
So his advice, to save me money and time, was to use the Recovery Disk that came with my computer. It would wipe the drive and reinstall the operating system. First, though, he told me to go get an external hard drive and back up anything I actually cared about. This I did, as I have masses of stuff on my computer that is basically my life's work and I do not want to lose it.
I get home, plug in the new harddrive, move all my stuff onto it, try to use the Recovery disk. It won't load. I try booting from the Recovery disk. Nothing. So I call Tech Support again. A guy with a horrible accent walks me through booting from the CD (oh, NOW it works, little bastard POS). Everything seems to be going just fine until...
Intel Boot Agent
TECHNICAL CRAP HERE MEANING YOUR HARD DRIVE DIED A FIERY HORRIBLE DEATH AND ITS CORPSE IS LAUGHING ITS FAT ZOMBIE BUTT OFF AT YOUR MISFORTUNE
Remove or Replace Non-System Disk
Well, not only is my hard drive dead, but my CD/DVD drive is now explodey with fire (not really. It just made awful whirring noises that scared even Helpful Repairman Man.) and also very dead.
I go back to Jade Technologies and the guy says..."Your system is basically a very large, very expensive paperweight. I need to replace the motherboard (since the sound card is not actually a card but a tiny piece of it that can't be separately replaced), the DVD drive, and the hard drive. If Toshiba has all the parts and can send them on time, you might get your computer back at the end of August. Good thing it's under warranty, eh?"
Uh...yeah. As far as I know the warranty expires on September 17, the anniversary of the date I bought it. But if it's been such a POS till now, I should expect it to always be a POS. So I call Toshiba to extend the warranty.
"Your warranty expired in May. Your 90-day grace period to extend it ended Monday. Have a nice day." They wouldn't do anything to help me, and basically I was screwed. So I call back Jade Technologies guy.
"Yeah...fixing this thing outside of warranty will run you about $1000. Why don't you spend the extra $100 or so and get a brand-new, non-POS computer?"
Why not indeed. The reason is that my father is a jackhole. He will not a) pay nor b) help me pay for a new computer, and in fact c) forbid me to buy a new one even if I paid for it completely by myself. I was made aware of this in a 30-minute phone call that was basically him yelling at me and me crying. He also said if I went and got a computer anyway, he would basically cut me off--not pay tuition, not pay the mortgage on the house I live in, etc.
I dried my tears and called my mom...who basically said "Go ahead and get yourself a computer if you're paying for it by yourself. I'll take care of your father." I wish I could believe this, but I'm worried. And my dad is no longer speaking to me.
Meanwhile, my jaw and impacted wisdom teeth still hurt like a mofo, and I don't get the good drugs till after I see the oral surgeon, and even then not unless I get the actual surgery, which I don't think my parents can afford. Although at this point, I'm on muscle relaxers and a retarded amount of Advil just get through the day, so I hope they can scrape up the money for it and that insurance will cover some of it.
Because the last $1200 in my savings is going to cover the cost of the Sexatron II, my uber-sexy new laptop that I am buying tomorrow because I cannot be without a computer for school, work, etc.
And I also had a job interview today, so hopefully some money will come out of that.
Aaaaaand....anyone who's read this far, please send me money.
Love, Whorli
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