My job gives me a laptop(an IBM thinkpad, which I love), a pager and a blackberry. I am not completely computer illiterate, but it's close. I'm also hard on shoes, if you know what I mean. Really, I'm hard on everything, which is why we have no nice glasses in my house. Needless to say, I really should not be entrusted with a thousand dollars worth of technical equipment. When they asked what type of new laptops we should buy, I immediately thought of this. You know, for my busy lifestyle. My busy, klutzy, lifestyle. Florence King had a word for women like me, a slew foot. As near as I can figure, it's a sort of female Mr. Magoo.
Anyway, now whenever the IS guy sees me, he gives me that look. The look that says, "So, what have you broken today." And here's the thing, I had broken something. Or maybe my daughter did, but that's still my responsibility and now I have to 'fess up. My power cord won't fit snuggly into the damn laptop and it won't charge unless I hold the cord in an awkward position and then stay like that for 8 hours until it recharges. All right, that's not too bad, you say. Except that it's now the second time this has happened with two different computers and I try and tell him that I don't pull on it and I generally treat the cord nicely, and now he's giving me that look again.
I am on my second laptop because I learned the hard way that diaper bags are not meant to hold computers. I went to swing it onto my shoulder, the top was secured(I mean, it just closes with a little tab of velcro, sheesh) and as my bag hit apogee the laptop came flying, nay, soaring out of the bag. In slow motion, it seemed, it flew in an arc. I thought I could hear the sound effects from the Six Million Dollar Man when he used to throw something really far. "Nnnuuun, na, na, na." Then it hit the driveway like a ton of bricks. A small shower of black pieces flew up and it might have left a crater, but I was too afraid to look. Now, here's the amazing thing...it still worked. It didn't look great. But I was happy with it. However, when Mr. IS saw it, he said he had another he could give me and now, here I am with a NEW laptop and a power cord that won't fit in the little hole and recharge. Really, I think they should just give me safety scissors and fat crayons to play with. Sigh.
9 comments:
I'm hard on my belongings too, so I can relate to this!
Re shoes: my new favorites are Keen water sandals, which I own in three colors and wear all year round, with socks when it's cold. They're waterproof, machine-washable, tough as anything and incredibly comfortable. They're a little dorky looking, but the comfort makes up for it. And so far, I haven't been able to wear them out! :-)
Trust me when I tell you that you're not the only ORC out there who is hard on electronics. Every office has at least one. I can't offer any shoe advice, but I can tell you that you should invest in whatever isurance is available for your Smackberry. I once ran over my (uninsured) Treo with my motorcycle and the consequences were...expensive.
On desktops I'm hard - I download new themes for windows, sign in pages, I cram the harddrive full of pictures, videos, music, programs that I'll never use. After all, if it goes boom I get it replaced or fixed and it's covered under warranty. They can't prove I did it purposefully. But with my laptop, my poor 30 gig laptop.. I'm much more careful. I've had it for a year and a half now and it hasn't been in the shop. My old desktop? Within 4 months it was in there six times. :)
The problem is - laptops are more expensive to fix. $80/hr or something like that. I'm a poor MT so I can't afford to have my computer in the shop for a week while the geektards try to fix it. So, I take care of it - most of the time. It's gotten a few good slaps when I'm angry with it and more than once I've dropped it but.. it's tough.
At work I've been labelled Ms. Fixit - I've fixed half the computers in here and more than once I hear "Oh SuperStenoGirl! My footpedal aint working!" -twitch-
pj - about the running over your Treo - I accidentally (honest) dropped my last cell phone (a Motorola Razr, same as I have now) into the river. I was trying to take a picture of a seal and.. sploosh. :(
I haven't even told y'all about the cameras I've broken. Super Steno Girl reminded me-the last one I dropped in a stream while backpacking and before that I put my finger through the shutter after taking on ONE picture of Stonehenge. Doh!
Ok - how did you manage to put your finger through the shutter? lol
Hmmm I know Pj is talkign about me: I am that "one". I finally have a new laptop which I cherish. But the power cord wont fit snugly in the back... maybe a thinkpad issue not ours? And I have ruined 3 card slots on the laptops, 2 cards themselves, 2 CD burners/drives, my previous laptop was so messed up i couldn't even use it for email. I have ruined 2 treos, now using a razor until bossman coughs up a new treo for me (anyday now...hint hint). All this not to mention my pager broke AGAIN today. This makes pager #5. I can't tell you what happened to the previous 4, but it wasn't pretty. I wont even go into the shoe and car thing... this job is bad for speeding tickets. :)
Sabrina, you make me feel better. A CD drive? They trust you guys with a CD burner/drive? I'm jealous. God forbid I should put a new program on the damn thing. I practically had to beg for the new flash player. As for the shutter, I'm just a klutz. (how did I ever work in an ICU?)
tc,
that's VERY comforting - what hospital did you say you work in? :)
so we are technochallenged. do you think the IT nerds can pull off a seven, or even better eight, organ donor? probably not. in the grand scheme, the computers could go away and we could still to donors but vice versa? probably not. ~kelly
p.s. i just had to get a new pager and phone.
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