Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Why I Went Bananas Last Night

So last night I sat down in front of this screen at shortly after 11:00, much the same as I'm doing tonight.

I didn't have much on my mind, but I had to fill my quota for the day.

I was going to discuss bananas and peanut butter, and what an incredible snack they make when combined. I mean...this was riveting stuff I was going to deliver. I had plans to promote creamy over chunky (the only way to go, peanut butter-wise), and that, while I'm not necessarily a choosy mother, most times I also tend to choose Jif.

"Perhaps a word or two about other great combinations," I thought to myself as I was putting together my post in my head. "Gotta mention peaches and cottage cheese, too."

Instead...my screen was unresponsive, and I got nothing when I clicked around the page.

So I logged off and got back on, and...

...wait. Check that. I tried to get back on, with no success. And then I tried again. And again. And again and again and again.

It was about 11:15 by the time I'd made several unsuccessful attempts to reconnect, and while my internet provider has been incredibly stable for all the years I've had service from them, I've had a handful of glitches like this in the past. Nothing to worry about. I said a few choice words in the direction of my monitor, read a few pages of Bryson, and tried again to log on.

Nothing.

"As long as I get on with 20 minutes to spare, I can knock out a quick and dirty blog post and stay in the game," I thought. By the time my clock read 11:40, I was more than a bit concerned, and my swearing had turned to begging. "Pleeeease connect, just for a few minutes." Uh-uh. Nope.

My last attempt to connect was at 11:58, and when that one failed, I pushed in my keyboard tray and took a well-deserved breather from the frustration, leaving "Monday, March 10" conspicuously absent from my blog.

Oh, don't worry. I realize that the sun will still rise, the earth will still rotate, and Brett Favre will still be retired, whether I blog every day in March or not.

But it still leaves me feeling a bit defeated.

Whether I vow to write three blog posts a day for the rest of the month, or meet a thousand-words-a-day goal...I'd still finish the month as a thirty, out of thirty-one.

You win, oh powerful and stubborn Internets. You win.



"Technology...is a queer thing.
It brings you great gifts with one hand,
and it stabs you in the back with the other."
—Carrie P. Snow

5 comments:

  1. So sorry that your little ol' 'puter didn't want to work for you! I was SHOCKED today when I logged on to see your daily musings and it was blank. Glad to hear that it wasn't anything major - like emergency surgery or a tragic accident - just a little technological "blip." Welcome back to March!

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  2. On my first day as an I.T. Admin for a car dealership, I was tasked with setting up PC's for the sales staff. As I constructed a workstation for a big lug of a guy named Mikey Moreno, he told me, "If I ever have trouble wit dis ting, you and it are goin' out da' fuckin' window."

    Knowing how, um, well Windows based computers work, I was constantly sweating bullets and gave his particular PC constant preventative attention.

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  3. I didn't have technical difficulties on Monday, just regular "I can't think of anything to write and I'd rather eat bananas with peanut butter and jelly rolled up in a tortilla instead." So I wrote five words and did just that.

    You're still in the game, Gregg.

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  4. Rebecca...Emergency surgery sometimes necessitates two, or possibly three, consecutive days away from a blog screen. So yeah...it was more of an inconvenience than anything.

    Jeff...Sounds like you were doing IT work for mobsters. Are you sure most of those car sales were legit?

    Here's hoping that during your tenure there you always managed to exit the building through a door.

    SBW...If you're sporting enough to give The Refreshments a try based on my recommendation, then I might have to sample jelly-filled tortillas.

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  5. Got bad news for ya' bud. After working in the auto industry for five years, I can honestly say there is no such thing as a legit car sale.

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