Computer Geeks Rule

I returned home Friday night, dejected and tired. We'd just had our asses handed to us in a trivia night. I hate losing under any circumstances, but especially at trivia nights. So when I sat down and turned on the old PC, I started screaming like a banshee.

For the past two weeks, my home page in my browser has been hijacked. I've tried everything I knew how to do, but nothing worked. So I went to the 'net, figuring some tech-savvy person would come to my rescue.

Twenty minutes later, armed with a little knowledge and foolish pride, I opened my computer's registry and removed the offending code -- along with some non-offensive code. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that at the time.

I knew there was a problem when I restarted the computer only to see that it wouldn't boot up. Panicked, I called David, who didn't answer. What the hell else did he have to do at 12:30 AM on a Saturday? Jesus. Some people . . .

After trying all my tricks - basically restarting the computer in safe mode, I gave up and took it to David.

At the crack of noon the next day, I crept into his darkened room. Light filtered in from the blinds. The dog skulked in behind me, her tail hung low. I walked over to the bed, and shouted "WAKE UP!!!" Incoherent mumble. Growls. Finally, the mound of blankets by the pillow asked me "What?" Supplicating at David's feet, I described the problem and asked if he knew what was wrong. "Yep," he said. "You're fucked."

Six hours later, we (and when I say we, I mean he --- I sat around and played Knights of the Old Republic on his X-box) nearly finished installing all the software, only to hear the hard drive start clicking like a Geiger counter at a plutonium sale. We looked at each other, then at the computer.

David poked at it. Nothing. He hit some keys. Nothing. More keys. Clicking. Lots of clicking. Loud clicking. "Well, there goes the hard drive," he said, resigned to his fate.

Now I'm typing this out with a different hard drive in the PC. David had several lying around. Who knew?

All this is why my brother, David, kicks ass. Who else would have spent two days fixing my screw-ups? Now, I can get back to my important internet work, like researching obscure movie facts and ferreting out movie spoilers. God bless the internet. It's good to be back.