Computer Woes

Everytime I start a big project, my computers go wonky. It never fails.

When I started putting together the Dark Conspiracy project on the old site, I moved to where I couldn't get Internet access (due to zoning laws, I'd have had to put it on my landlord's line, and it would have tied up his phone all day); when I started writing a book (which I've yet to finish) a few years back and plopped down the money for a nice writing program, the power pack blew and I had to spend even more money (which I didn't have) fixing that; last night, I spilled coffee all over my keyboard and now nearly every key sticks...

Technically, I could just unhook this one and carry it in the other room, but that's not only a pain, this one isn't very good either. You have to all but bang the keys -- really punch them -- and I type fast, so it's a hassle.

The money that fartcatcher stole was supposed to go toward a new computer or an upgrade on one of these, and since I have no idea when I'll get it back (the woman I talked to at the county clerk's office said that repaying me would be part of his sentence), I can't afford to run right out and barter with it. With computers as cheap as they are nowadays (I've seen some recently going for as little as $200, brand new!) I may be able to tighten my belt a little and wiggle some things around so I can afford one.

With all the computers I have around here, I could Frankenstein a really good one, but it takes time and I have to get a lot done before they come to do the fire safety inspection Thursday. Maybe after that's out of the way, I can put a decent box together -- something good enough to get me through a few more months, at least. Actually, if I could just get one together that can handle this SCSI drive, I could network it to the one with the site on it, download everything onto that, then reformat that one and just buy a new keyboard.

That's actually what I was going to do with this one, but I forgot how small the hard drive is on it, so I have to go through each directory and pull out exactly what I'm sure I want to save. I'm patching through it by uploading some files to the site and sending some to myself through e-mail, but it's driving me nuts and it's damned confusing.

Everyday it's something different and I'm trying not to let it get to me. Right now, I'm focused on getting this place spic and span clean so they have no reason to say anything, much less fine me! And I'm sick to death of reading documentation online. If I had enough ink, I'd print it all out just to save the strain on my eyes...