Vista's a bitch.

Um, just very quickly: Can anyone remind me what I used to do to fill the hours before there was this interwebthingy here? No, not that. I mean obviously I must have done things like reading, playing/singing/writing/listening to music, eating, going out, doing stuff... But I still do all of that so there must be that bit of extra time that came out of thin air for the simple purpose of being filled with emailing, facebooking, blogging, youtubing, blogrolling, sucking you down into the world of dependency... you know... (Well, if you don't, good for you, just be very careful: You are reading a blog as we - well, I - speak!)

See, the reason I ask is that...(trembling lower lip)... my laptop is dying on me! It's been acting up on occasion lately, refusing to start, pretending not to recognize its own battery, then suddenly being fine about it all again, feigning innocence. Yesterday, however, it gave off all the signs of a real nervous breakdown - it took me 13 attempts, one thanks-for-nothing windows-boot-up-repair-programme and a 14th attempt to persuade it to start at all - and those were some scary two hours, I can tell you! It was Friday afternoon and apart from all the usual see-above internet stuff I always do, I had planned on finishing that bloody ancient paper, with a weekend of unwinding in front of a good few BBC miniseries (or something, I'm not fuzzy when it comes to light entertainment) afterwards and in between. Fat chance on all counts.

Well, it decided to work eventually (staring at me with that accusing, you-don't-understand-me, blotchy-faced look - or am I just imagining that?), but what do I do now??? My brother-in-law promised to sedate it sometime next week, kill its evil Vista heart and transplant a good-ol', reliable XP one, but until then? I left it on all through last night, but I intend to leave the house at some stage today and don't feel comfortable doing so with electric equipment still running. (Is this what it's like to have a sick dog/elderly parent to mind??)

So, it's really just a question of overcoming my internet obsession and switching off this thing (or I might have nothing to eat next week, if I don't go shopping).

Go on, press the button, you can do it!

(whimpering slowly fades out...)