The Little Computer Geek Within

So last week, my computer decided to play possum. It shut down on me early last week, and when I tried to boot it up last Friday, I got a black monitor and the sound of silence from the mini-tower.

Not having any weekend plans - and h0ping to spend what part of the long weekend I did have catching up online - I was faced with the possibility my microchipped piece of crap may have given up the ghost, and that I might have to spend the next several days without a computer. Like in the good old days.

So first, I panicked. And then I panicked some more. And then on Saturday, when I tried my computer again and it still wouldn't boot up, I called my friend Lee.

He came over on Sunday, checked it out and found the problem: the power supply inside had blown a fuse and that I'd need a replacement. It was lucky for me that that happened; had it continued to work, it actually would have exploded and started smoking from the back.

Briefly forgetting which day it was, I inwardly panicked again, until Lee mentioned that we had just enough time to hop in his car and boot it over to Tiger Direct to buy a new one.

Little did I know this would be the beginning of the odyssey towards my untapped inner computer geek. Kinda.

I'd never really set foot inside a computer parts store, being - for years - of the ignorant opinion that your spare computer parts came from the place you bought your computer in the first place; parts were for crazy computer geeks who excelled at calculus in high school and majored in computer science at university.

Was I wrong. I couldn't believe it. This place was a gamer's paradise. Flat screens. Flashy computer tower casings. Keyboards with Bluetooth technology. Crazy aerodynamic mice. You name it, they probably had it. I really didn't realize that people used some of the things on sale to soup up their computers, much in the same way some people pimp out their cars. It was nuts.


Not only did we find my brand-new power supply, we actually strolled around the store. With each aisle we travelled down, I felt a growing, irrational need to soup up my own computer. Replace that clunky monitor at home with a sleek new LCD flat screen ... toss my loud, clacky, squeaky keyboard with something sleeker and quieter. Get some new speakers. Maybe trash the mouse, too. My brain was working overtime.

But I managed to restrain myself, and just buy what I needed. Now my computer runs much better now, in comparison to its former narcoleptic self. But I'm saving a little money for when I'm going out to that shop the next time. And there will be a next time.

(If you're a stranger visiting this site - that's not me in that picture. But pretty good that I found her, hey? Check out Dedi and her geeky friends at Geek Speak.)