Hello and welcome to my new blog. Here I plan to record my 6 month journey to Rome, Italy, where interesting things will hopefully occur and provide cause for such recording. Today is January 8th. I am not in Rome yet and won't be for another three weeks, but I am in Philadelphia and I am writing the first blog post of my entire life. This is my first blog. So far so good.
Today's Story, which, has nothing to do with Rome:
During the final exam week of this past fall semester at Columbia, my computer crashed in a very serious, life-ending sort of way. All of my digital drawings for an already stressful architecture final review were in jeopardy and action needed to be taken quickly to restore any chance of surviving 2007. Luckily, a trusted and computer savvy friend magically answered his phone in this time of panic and offered me help, saving me a trip to the ridiculous Geek-Squad. I stopped what I was doing and headed via subway to drop the computer off at his Washington Heights apartment.
Three long, stressful, and unproductive days later, the computer came back fixed and working, with my design programs reinstalled and my drawings intact. I finished off the semester and all was well...except, the sound didn't work on the computer. This was a problem easily ignored during crunch time, but after finals ended, it had to be fixed. Another good friend of mine suggested that I repair the Windows re-install, which would in turn solve whatever issue was plaguing the sound. Foolishly, I did not back up my files before attempting this seemingly harmless repair. On the night before I moved back to Philly for the holidays, I popped the CD in and executed the repair and headed to bed for my last night in Watt 5B.
In the morning, I turned the computer on. System failure. Windows not working. Chaos. The seemingly harmless repair had morphed overnight into an evil, dangerous beast currently in complete control of my entire electronic life. With the holidays looming and both computer savvy friends headed off on vacation, I was forced to fold up the laptop and place it in the bag until 2008.
2008. I call original friend #1. His phone is not on. 4 days into the new year, I get an email from him. He was on a boat for two weeks with no electricity. And his phone broke. Without knowing whether or not he still had a copy of my original files, I was basically paralyzed for all of Christmas break because I didn't want to do something else wrong and permanently lose my files.
Finally, an email with news: 'I do not have your files. I repeat, I do *not* have your files". Translation: Yes, you are in fact, screwed, yes, you are, in fact, screwed.
On January 5th, the day after receiving that bad news, I knew that I had to seek professional help. I went to the store, bought an external hard drive, and took the laptop to a place that recovers info off of unaccessible hard drives. I brought my computer and the external to the computer guys and they took it. They said it would all be fine and to call on Monday to schedule the pickup.
Monday, January 7th, 9:30 AM. Phone rings and wakes me up. Computer Guy: "Hi Tom. We have a bit of a problem. Someone BROKE IN to the store on Sunday and STOLE your laptop and your external hard drive. You need to speak to the police so they can get some information from you". Tom: "What?". Computer Guy: "Your computer was stolen from our store." Tom: "Are you kidding?". Computer Guy: "No". Tom: "Oh."
Monday, January 7th, 9:34 AM. Complete panic. Go downstairs, complain to Mom. Call Dad, complain to Dad. Mom and Dad are both pissed, which is nice. Going to Rome in three weeks; $1500 computer stolen, 5 semesters of college work in jeopardy, haven't bought a camera yet, don't own luggage, don't have a backpack, need new glasses, low on clean socks.
Tuesday, January 8th, 12:50 AM. There is a slight chance I will survive. Apparently my files were magically backed up before the robbery, and I will be reimbursed to some extent for a replacement laptop. Right now, however, I will for certain be without computer for another two weeks. And until I click on one of the lost files on a computer that I own, I won't know for sure if any of my work has survived this ridiculous chain of events.
My laundry is now done, which means my socks are now clean, which means I must now fold.
