Isn’t
it just typical for technology to not work when you most need it to? As I’m
sure many of us has experienced at one point or another, technology like; your
computer, cell phone, internet, texting, cell phone calls, anything really, has
not worked or has stopped working at a time when you have most needed the
technology to work. Well this was the situation I was in on Sunday night.
After a
long fun weekend of visiting my friend at Philadelphia University I came home Sunday
night, and had to write a research paper for my SED 335 class. While I got most
of my work done before I had left one my mini vacation, I did not have the time
to get started on my research paper. So with that in mind I came home Sunday ready
to write. Needless to say, this is where my story begins.
I sat
down at my computer around 5PM. I had eaten some dinner and had relaxed a bit
since arriving back at my apartment and now I was ready to type! I clicked open
my internet browser in order to start getting some research, but what happened
next really sent me into a meltdown. Naturally I went to open up my Microsoft
Office, this is the program that brings up all my aspects of Microsoft, like
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. What did I
find? A blank screen with no options to open up Microsoft Word. I stayed calm,
my computer had been on all weekend but had not been used, maybe the program
just needed to be restarted. I went to click the lovely little red X at the top
of the screen to close out the program and what do I see? I see an awesome
message saying “Windows is not responding.” GREAT. So I decided to shut down my
computer and give it a little 5 minuet rest, maybe then it would work.
5
Minuet rest came and went. I went to open up Microsoft Works, and what do I find
again, another “not responding” message. Well awesome, it’s already 5:30 at
this point and I’ve got nothing. I tired shutting the system down and
restarting two more times with no success. It is now 6PM.
I call
my mom freaking out; I’ve just wasted a valuable hour of homework time. We
decided to call my uncle who works with computers and can probably help me fix
my issue. On the phone with my uncle we try to repair the whole program
Microsoft Office. But hey, guess what! I get an even better message than
before, this time the message says to me, “Not able to repair.” SWEET! So glad I
just wasted another 30 minutes for NOTHING. In case you can’t tell, I’m really
angry and upset by this point. It is now 6:30PM.
So my
uncle and I decided I can try a system restore on my computer, I know how to do
this myself so I thank him for trying to help and get off the phone. I go to
start the system restore on my computer. I wait another 15 minutes for the
stupid thing to start doing whatever it is that it does. Finally It asks me
what day I would like to restore too, so I chose last Wednesday, that seems
like a fun option. Oh but hey another 15
minutes goes by and guess what cool message I get this time, can you guess? “System
cannot restore.” OH. MY. GOD. Someone has to be playing a cruel joke. It is not
7PM.
So I
resort to the last thing I can think of. System restore with back up. I go and
get a blank disk and save all my school files, because that’s right, I’m one of
those people you hear the horror stories about, I have none of my recent work
saved to a flash drive yet. So 15 minutes later the computer ha me put my blank
disk in and I save my files. WOOOHHH!! Well at least I got the important things
saved, but oh yea its 7:15 and I still have nothing for a research paper. I am
becoming more desperate by the second. Well after 30 minutes of trying to click
the okay button to tell the computer I had all my info backed up, I gave up. The
computer would not accept that I had my backup disk and therefore would not
start the restore. 7:45.
I call
my mom crying, I’m stressed, I NEVER leave things like this till the last minute
and now I’m tired on top of it all. We decided I must buy Microsoft 2010. I get
off the phone at 8PM. Seeing the new Microsoft office costs $120 annoys me, and
at that moment I get a brilliant idea. Maybe if I type in Microsoft Word into
the search bar after I hit the start button I can open it alone without opening
the whole Microsoft Word option. I find Word and drag the icon onto my desktop.
With breath held, and fingers crossed, I click the little icon hoping to god
this program opens.
8:30PM.
A MIRICAL HAPPENS! Word opens and all my files are there with it. I proceed to
do this with the other programs like Excel, and PowerPoint. I am so relieved
but quickly become annoyed with myself at the fact that I could have solved my
problem so easily. Well I guess that’s what stress does to someone, make them
think irrationally or something like that. Immediately I save every single one
of my flies onto USB. I will not be caught in this situation again. I realize it is now around 8:45 and need to
start my research paper, so I take a deep breath and begin.
About 3
or 4 hours later I finished. But you know what, isn’t it just typical of
technology to not work when we most need it. Luckily out of this experience I now
have two backups for my files, but I would never wish this experience upon my
worst enemy, it was awful, but I’m so glad I survived, it’s over, and that
everything got finished and handed in on time. But guess what, this will happen
again, to me or to someone else. As a teacher I vow from here on out to be prepared
and to have backup copies and backup plans for when inevitably technology will
not work when I need it to!
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