A dear friend is hurt.... :(
Don't worry, it's not a person....but it is someone very close to me. It's my computer. My computer is currently in the shop - I don't exactly know what happened, but I'm pretty sure I fried something. Let me break it down for you.
This morning started normally - I walked to school and greeted Brandon and Emily in D309 - one of the few classroms at school that has Flash installed on its computers. We normally spend the first hour or so of the day just surfing, finding random stuff to show each other, like new YTMNDs to laugh at (OK, that's usually just me) or new Digg articles to read and ponder. Jeff Greer came in to class this morning and showed us some trailers for a couple of new movies coming out:
Wall-E: The geniuses at Pixar are releasing a movie this summer that they've been planning to make for years - this little robot has been in their plans since they released Toy Story. I don't know all the details, but Wall-E is a little robot that is charged with cleaning up garbage on planet Earth (it looks like the humans have taken off to go and pollute some other planet). Over the years, little Wall-E has developed a personality, and he starts to long for something greater than the garbage-collecting life planned out for him. I don't know much more than that, and frankly I don't want to know more than that. I didn't know a thing about The Incredibles before I saw it, and I was glad to have had such an unspoiled experience. (The Incredibles is easily my favorite Pixar movie - the subject matter was right up my alley.) Pixar can do no wrong in my eyes - I've enjoyed every one of their movies. Even Cars. And I hate cars. I can only imagine how awesome Wall-E - by all accounts a labor of love for the studio - will end up being. It'll take a lot to supplant The Incredibles, though.
Hancock: Will Smith plays an alcoholic, homeless superhero. Do I need to go on? Well, alright, if you insist. This movie is a no-brainer for me. Will Smith is God, and it is only fitting that he take on a role that befits his omnipotence. I'm glad to see him heading back to comedy as well. I tried not to watch the whole trailer, because I've managed to not even hear about it until today, and I don't want too may preconceptions going in. Jason Bateman is also in the movie - I think he's some sort of PR guy that tries to help Hancock out. I linked to the trailer for you if you're curious to see more.
So, after that we walked to my place to work on the game. Brandon was working on a piece of code - I was trying to help him, so I suggested he put the Flash file on a USB memory stick so I could put it on my computer.
Now, before I continue, I need to tell you a little detail from yesterday's work session. I had the memory stick plugged into my USB port yesterday while working. Brandon and Emily were working on tables behnd me, so I was frequently swinging around back and forth, to talk to them and then return to work. Well, on one of those occasions, I swung around a little too quickly and my knee caught the memory stick. It went flying out of the USB port, and the piece of plastic that holds the metal connector pins inside the port snapped off.
I was pissed, but I shrugged it off and simply plugged the USB stick into the adjacent port. Within an hour or two, however, I did the exact same thing and snapped the exact same piece of plastic in the second port. The USB stick was remarkably unscathed.
So now I had two broken USB ports in the front of my PC. One of the ports, however, looked less damaged, and so I hesitantly tried to connect my memory stick into the USB port. And, lo and behold, it worked!! Ah well, I thought - , at least. I can get the USB ports fixed any time.
Fast forward to today. Brandon hands me the memory stick, and I unthinkingly plug it into the broken-but-as-far-as-I-know-still-functioning USB port.
As soon as the port's exposed connector pins touched the pins in the memory stick, I heard a loud PHOOM - like the sound you hear when you turn off speakers and they're turned up loud - and my monitors went black.
I stared dumbfounded at my computer for a few seconds. The lights are still on, the fan is humming away - but there's nothing on my screen. OH SNAP. I turned my computer off and on. Still nothing onscreen. The horrifying realization slowly crept into my conscious mind - I just fried the insides of my computer somehow.
I'm pretty sure that one of the pins from one of the broken USB ports was touching the case, and when my memory stick touched the connector pins, it completed a circuit and the current was able to jump through my case and cause a ruckus. I suspect I killed my video card, but I'll find out tomorrow for sure. All of the components are still under warranty, but I dunno for sure if it'll cover this particular bit of stupidity.
So, after two days with my baby back in action, I killed it. And that's pretty much how I feel - like I accidentally stabbed my child in the stomach. I got my fingers crossed for good news tomorrow.
Oh, on a lighter note, I may have a job lined up for the summer that doesn't involve the military, and Christine and I are much closer to finishing the unpacking. Which reminds me: I should probably get back to it. In the meantime, please pray to whatever gods you believe in for my computer - that it'll come back to me good as new, and that it won't cost me too much.
Oh Will Smith, please hear my prayers.
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