the data body

Yesterday, after a particularly rough day at the office, I came home and went to turn on the computer.... But wait, let me backtrack.

I have only ever owned one computer, in about 1999. It was a machine that my mom had built, it was old and shitty and we had dial up modem. It broke after a while. I don't even remember what happened to it.

A couple weeks ago, I got two computers in one week. My mom gave me her old one and Josh Highland gave me his brother's old one. The one my mom gave me apparently had some weird boot error (whatever that means) but had a good monitor and keyboard. Josh's had a huge old monitor and a plain keyboard, so I decided to use Josh's base with everything else from my mom.

I started downloading lots of songs off of www.bsidesrus.blogspot.com and began making the holy mother of all mixes for Erakuh. I got some REALLY good stuff. I didn't really get to do much else because we don't have a desk and sitting on the floor is not comfortable when working on a computer.

So last nigt I came home and went to turn the computer on, to finish the mix and burn the cd. I even got really cool paper from the scrapbook store to make a cover for it. I pushed the button and heard a really loud POP like one of those things like looks like a sperm that you throw at the ground, and the computer ceased to be on. Unplugged it from the power strip and straight into the wall.

Push the button.. Wait for it... POP accompanied by a faint smell of smoke.

Do I give up? No. I put a new power cable in, plug it into the wall and push the button.

This time, it sounded like a brick of black cats going off, with visible sparks coming out of the back of the machine. Toast.

Josh said the hard drive is most likely unaffected, but I can't switch the stuff into my moms computer by myself. I tried to turn my moms computer on this morning, and of course I didn't have the password for windows.

So I never got to make the mother of all mix cds, which took me a week to compile.

This, coupled with the new version of Notpop's inablility to properly load on my sidekick, has made for a boring week in cyberspace for me.

I did encounter a cool blog though. I think its called FUTUREGIRL dot com or something. Its all about crafts.

It reminds me of the line from CREATION IS CRUCIFIXION... "technology is our iron lung". Those dudes were so ahead of their time. Amazing music, amazing lyrics... such a good band.

One time when they were out here on tour, they ended up at my house on the afternoon before their show. I couldn't tell you how this came about, since I think I may have only had contact with one member previous to this. Maybe its because we had mutual friends in RACE TRAITOR. Anyway... they came in my house and immediately found the nearest phone connection to do something or other on the internet. Ill never forget the site of the band all huddled around a laptop, using words I'd never heard before and adjusting their glasses and other nerdy-type behaviors.

Paul N., the guitar player was a super nice guy and I stayed in contact with him on and off throughout the years. Scott went on to be the steadiest guitar player of ZAO. I wish the band continued to make music.

The Luddites were right
I'm a machine
I am not alive