July 23, 2004
Good machine karma
Last night the computer nurse arrived on my doorstep with her first aid kit. She was calm, soo..oo.ooo..oo calm completely self possessed. One could not imagine her taking a bat to the screen, or pushing buttons frantically when stuck, or screaming at tech support that they are torturing old ladies by making them crawl on their belly into a snakepit , like yours truly has been known to do. She must have had a secure attachment to a good enough mother. She doesn't go nuts when she loses a connection, she gets curious, thinks, and methodically proceeds through all the things she knows how to do in order to get the results she fully expects. I, with a more ambivalent attachment, am certain that there is no hope for reconnection and have no tools with which to continue. I operate entirely with my groundhog brain ; my frontal cortex is nowhere in evidence. I am left dependent on the kindness of tech support in virtual orphanhood. No wonder I'm frantic.
My nurse told me I had good machine karma, everything she tried or installed, worked. She has other clients for whom this is not true. This was a very good thing to say to me. It gave me hope.
Then I awoke this morning to find my computer was jammed in a mid-copying process, and I had to reset it. It insisted on doing a Scan Disc . What's a girl gonna do? Disobey? Not when an internet connection is at stake. So I went along with it, and saw a few messages about invalid something-or-others being eliminated. I couldn't stop the thing. It was determined and invulnerable . Then, when it finished, it gave me no options. Eeks. After I pushed a few buttons frantically, as is my wont, the screen went blank and that's where it stayed for fifteen minutes. I thought it was a goner . I did not panic. I simply moved to my laptop, knowing that I have a nurse on call. I glanced over two minutes ago, and the screen is on. Good machine karma at work.
Two more machine related incidents this week. My suitemate, who is on vacation, phoned to say that when she called in to get her messages,she pushed the button that subsequently erased her outgoing greeting, and then said "Oh shit!", which was duly recorded. Now her greeting says "Oh, Shit!". Since she's away for two weeks, she asked me to change the message. She was relieved to reach me, since she was sure that if it stayed, her professional reputation would be`ruined.
My friend's husband, C., gives a virtual international training seminar on Wednesdays from their living room. C., unwisely, let the dog out of the kitchen , it got into the trash , and was friskily spreading debris around the house. C. called her urgently downstairs. When she rounded the bend, viewed the disaster, and the fact that he was just standing there watching the dog frolic, she exclaimed "This is a SUCKY vacation." Then she heard him say into his headset "No, my wife's a teacher, and this is her summer break. " and realized that she had just participated in his international seminar.
Photo note: The closest I could come to a picture of machine with good karma
Posted by Dakota at July 23, 2004 06:15 AM