Stupid fucking computer.

It has been another one of those days when I have wanted to take our shiny new (not so new now) iMac and do unspeakable acts of violence to it. Well, perhaps that�s a little extreme. I wrote a while back about how there is a problem with the startup process, how the screen goes weird at any point during the booting up sequence, either it freezes totally, or turns into weird diagonal lines or just a harris tweed pattern (no herringbone, though), or goes all blue (lovely Macintosh blue, but blue nonetheless) and I have to restart it innumerable times before it actually works properly.

The solution I discovered was just to keep the computer on. Period. No turning it off, no letting it sleep (since it would also go wonky when revived), just putting the screen saver on and letting the disks go quiescent. This worked fine until we had a power failure or until I came upstairs this morning and discovered that Hubby had turned off the power bar last night. You see, the desk lamp has no on/off switch. It ceased to work years ago. So my brother the electrician rigged it so that it is permanently on, and you turn it off by unplugging it from the outlet, or turning off the power bar. This was fine when we had the Quadra at this desk, but now that I have this computer with the crazy startup file, it�s not such a good idea to turn off the power bar.

So, after about seven tries to get the stupid thing going this morning, Hubby suggested that I start it up with the system software CD that came with it and reinstall the necessary stuff. I did that. It worked great with the CD. Then I had to update all that software. Then I discovered that the printer drivers were gone and did a mad search through the attic for those CDs. The laser printer driver was no problem, but no matter how many times I install the driver for the inkjet printer, I keep getting the message when I try to add it to my printer list that the driver isn�t installed. I am not a happy camper.

At the UpIands rehearsal this afternoon I spoke to Tim, the guy who made a quasi-pass at me at the last Christmas concert, who also happens to be the closest thing I have to a Mac guy around, and he just suggested that I get the newest OS X, which I had been avoiding doing because it would require an expenditure of dough. It turns out that I can get it almost half-price with the education discount, so I ordered it. But that was to deal with the startup crashes, I didn�t even mention to him the business with the Eps0n driver.

Add to this the fact that I put the computer to sleep before coming downstairs to make supper, only to find that it refused to play nicely when I woke it up from its nap and I had to restart it about five (at least) times in order to get it on long enough to launch my browser to update my diary.

Argh!

Fortunately, Hubby, Buddy Boy and I just watched Grandma�s B0y, which was very funny, so I�m not in a totally bummed out mood.

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