What a weekend.

[offbalance]

Okay, so. Where to begin?

Thursday night I attended a play with blergeatkitty & tacologic. It was an off-broadway do, one of his hockey friends was involved in the production (and I had to say, I liked her contributions the best, and not just because she was his friend). Afterwards, we had dinner and lots of fun, lovely conversation at a kitschy little Mexican joint on 8th avenue that Jess recommended. Unfortunately, while all of this was going on, my body decided that it was time for the cold I mistakenly thought I'd defeated decided to come on full strength. It only got worse Friday morning, when I got up to do my day of Christmas shopping. I still forced myself to get up, shower, and go to Macy's, despite feeling like ass and being unable to go more than 75 seconds without sneezing or blowing my nose. I shopped, got an ornament for missgyder's party, and headed home. I even took a nap, thinking that would help.

Nope. It only got worse. quasisonic and Puck made us take cabs to the party and back on Friday night (a grand plan), but I was in poor, poor shape. I would have stayed longer - it was an awesome party - but I was really feeling awful. As I did all day yesterday. I spent most of it in bed or on the sofa, unable to even so much as get out of my pajamas. This totally torched my plans with alcestis to see For Your Consideration and do some more holiday shopping as well.

But that's not all!!

My dvr did NOT record last week's Supernatural. I was annoyed, but I have plenty of time to get my hands on the ep before the new ones start up again, so it's not a crisis situation. And I have sources for which to procure it. Puck, being the lovely fellow he is, said that he'd get the new motherboard in my machine so I could get the episode and to cheer me up.

You know how on Grey's Anatomy or House or ER when they are going to give a patient a fairly straightforward operation, and then all of these unforeseen complications arise? During my computer's surgery, the power supply died, the motherboard proved non-viable, and after 3 hours of intense work, the time of death on Phoenix Hermione was approximately 1:05 pm Saturday. It's DEAD. Like a dead thing. Even the hard drive is fucked. I had just done a backup about 2 weeks ago, so my writing is safe, my photos are safe, and about 90% of my music/media files are too. The others, I think, I hope, are replaceable. I'm worried my E music stuff was not in the same folder as everything else, so I'm not sure what to do there (stacyinthecity? Do they let you re-download stuff I've already downloaded without it counting against my monthly allotment, or am I hosed?).

I'm either going to have to look into the software that allows you to take things off of your ipod (which would be ideal, if anyone knows of a reliable one. I know servermonkey had a bad experience recently) or data recovery.

The weird thing is that I'm not as upset as I could be given the situation. So many computers have failed me in my lifetime that I'm accustomed to it, sad to say. I do regular backups, and I've learned to only count on the instability of my machines. The irony of this is that after a year of lusting after and wondering about the merits of a laptop, I've decided to just say fuck it and get one. I spent most of yesterday researching them on CNET, talking to my dad, talking to Puck, and soul searching. The one I'm looking at is pretty sweet. I can get a good deal. Not a great deal, but a very good one:

160 GB hard drive. Intel Core 2 Duo 2.00 ghz Processor. 2GB Shared Dual Channel RAM. 15.4 inch wide screen. 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability. And a docking station. And a whole bunch of other goodies.

It's another Dell. I wasn't going to say who the manufacturer was, but that's what I'm going with. I've heard not-so-great things about HP (particularly their laptops) since the Compaq merger. (and I'm old enough to remember how hard Compaq sucked when they were on their own.)
CNET was really down on the Thinkpad ever since Lenovo bought it from IBM (and they seemed generic to me as well, not to mention ludicrously expensive). Hell, Cnet was the one to advise me that the one Lenovo thinkpad in my price range was an inferior version of the Dell I ultimately chose (and will officially buy shortly). I usually need a day or so before I make any big purchases.

(and before you evangelists click reply, there is no way in hell, heaven, earth, or any other dimension that I'd possibly get a Mac. It. won't.happen, so don't waste your time trying to convince me. I hate the OS. I hate the interface. I hate every experience I've had with a Mac ever. No mac for me. So don't even try. The ipod was a huuuuuge concession. I love it, but it doesn't mean that I'm going to completely turn to the dark side.)

There's no such thing as a good time for something like this to happen, but it's not as bad as it could be. I still have my "rental" that Puck rigged for me. And I have some time. I have computers, but none that are really and truly "mine." There are worse things, I suppose. I think I'm finally feeling better, too. Let's hope.

I suppose this is the best possible time to teach myself how to use del.ic.ious, eh?

Tomorrow. Time for bed now.