I just came back from a prolonged weekend spent at the place of xkatjafx's parents in the Black Forrest. divab and me accompanied her there on Sunday and hung out there until today, mainly to have the chance to go to the Europapark together. I disabused them both of their last illusions concerning my person and proved that certain traits my friend Tina calls 'endearing' are, well, still very much present, e.g. me screaming for lunch at noon, presenting the long list of foods-Allaire-doesn't-like-to-eat etc. They still talk to me, so I guess it hasn't been too much of a lasting shock. <eg> Anyway, I liked it. It truly felt like a holiday.

I slept a lot. I used up a whole box of tissues and half a vial of decongestant nasal spray, and I still feel sick. Ack. I guess I'll better try to get a doctor's appointment tomorrow. I'd rather avoid getting another inflammation of the middle ear.

I. Bloody. Hate. My. Computer.

Useless pile of junk.

Well, it's toast now anyway, right? After it starting each time with ScanDisk since the TARGA technician replaced the defect power supply unit and the fan on top of the CPU unit, it now has advanced further in the so far unknow illness it has contracted -- supposedly it now can't read/write in the Registry, can't burn anymore, can't... oh hell. It can't find the burner anymore -- and not even the Graphic Card! EGA graphic, I love you. Someone higher up must be joking. <kicks computer> So I tried

1. waiting until ScanDisk was finished. Hah. Fat chance. After waiting one hour after which only 10 % of C:\ had been checked, I stopped the program.

2. defragmenting the C:\ drive. Fat chance again. Supposedly an unknown program is still running in the background. My dear computer must be delirious. Too many hours at a too high temperature, I'd say.

3. reformatting C:\ after deleting and transferring all important data to my D:\ drive (I think I still lost all my FTP access data and at least three movie files, damn!) by running the Recovery Version of ME. Fat chance no. 3. Now nothing works properly anymore. Bill Gates, you cheap bastard.

The only thing I got back into working order was the burner. I'll go burn now whatever I can to get back a little breathing space for my D:\ drive; it's full to the brim.

I guess this means I'll have to go call the TARGA technical service again.

Guys, don't you, ever, buy a TARGA computer. Seriously.