Δευτέρα 16 Φεβρουαρίου 2015

Digital problems in Athens

Here I am again sitting at a different table of the same coffee shop in Athens. I am coming here to work since my internship did not turn out as I hoped it would.
And suddently, a Sex and the City episode comes to mind. Of course I am a girl and of course I have watched Sex and the City; twice for that matter. Carrie's work was done mainly through her laptop. A wonderful gadget that has become a necessary evil. Don't get me wrong, I love the internet as everyone, maybe more than it deserves to. All her articles, all her work was saved in this new-age gadget; no paper, no pens.
My work is exactly the same.
One day, Carrie's laptop decides to crash. The PC expert - whom I will call Healer from now one - announces its death. It died and it was impossible to save anything; even the smallest of files. Absolutely nothing.
This is the second time I am in this position. Well almost. A fine morning, which started with sunshine and inspiration, has been a turned to a cloudy noon filled with frustration and anger. My concentration has jumped out of the window (arg, I do NOT want to see this word ever again). My first-day-of-the-week-lets-get-shit-done positivity has vanished as water that is being boiled at 200 degrees (bare in mind that I am not a scientist but I really wanted to emphasize my loss).
My problem, as I said, is slightly different. My laptop decided this fine morning that it did not like to work with Windows (arg!) anymore and could not open them. And though, I did not lose any of my personal data - unlike Carrie did - I lost all the programs I was using and were dear to me.
I lost my whole Office package, to which I no longer have the key because the Healer that installed my Office broke up with the girl that knew the person who gave me this laptop as a birthday present. Confused? Well, that's life.
Except Windows, I have also lost my translation tools (known to the experts as CAT tools). Their restoration is quite as complicated as their use. I have their key number (but I have to search my mails and notes for at least half an hour) and follow complex steps that I do not have the energy to follow right now.
The least important is losing my lovely antivirus that worked wonders, my amazing Google Chrome and my incredibly amazing Start/Shell button (because I run on Windows - fuck you Microsoft - 8). Given the fact that it took Internet Explorer fifteen minutes to launch, open the Google and then the Chrome page, allow me to press the download button and finally download Chrome, I am allowing myself to send a great, filled with irony "Thank you" to Microsoft.
While I am trying to count my loses and put the broken links (pun) of my digital life together, I am saying A "I do not like you very much right now; but that will probably pass soon as I am still able to recognize it is not your fault"; I say goodbye to my work for the days to come and to my productivity of course; I thank my - very surprising amount of - patience; I wish I could go home - to MY home - and hide beneath the covers untill... well for a very long time.

P.S.: I do not have my corrector anymore......