So my HP laptop, the one I just purchased this past June, crapped out on me over the weekend.

It started Saturday night, when out of the blue the wireless network adapter stopped working. While I was trying to fix it, a few minutes later all manner of Windows-centric background programs began to fail and throw up errors. With a hypnotic fascination akin to viewing the aftermath of a terrible car crash on the highway, I watched as more and more error messages started popping up, all the while Windows 7 did it’s damndest to quickly restart the failing programs, even though it was the metaphorical equivalent to using a small bucket to bail water out of a sinking ocean liner.

And then — the dreaded Blue Screen of Death appeared.

It’s funny: In my many years of owning a computer I’ve never once had the BSoD rear its ugly head before. I’ve had other errors and crashes on my machines, sure, but never the granddaddy of all Windows-based Epic Fails. I’d feel more self-important, but it’s not like I’ve joined an exclusive club or anything.

My hope is that this won’t be too difficult a situation to recover from. Like I said, the computer isn’t even three months old, so any hardware issues should be covered by the manufacturer’s warranty, and there’s a HP-authorized repair place about five minutes from Kristin’s who ought to be able to fix it. Honestly, I’m more concerned about loss of data at this point. Windows won’t run for more than a couple of minutes at a time, so I can’t copy the contents from the hard drive. Yeah, I have an external hard drive that I use for back-ups, but the most recent infodump on it was from June, when I switched over to the new computer. So while a lot of my music and video files are on it, a lot of my newer document files are way out of date. Fortunately, I have a friend who does data recovery for a living, and he seems confident that he can save my precious datums.

The thing most annoying me right now is that I don’t have a current version of my essay about the trip I took to Pittsburgh last month with the Broken Dayton Young Communist’s Society (or whatever they’re called). I’m supposed to file the essay on the 31st, and I’m about halfway done with it, but I’m not gonna be able to access it till Wednesday at the latest, and that’s only assuming that Operation All Your Data Are Mine goes smoothly. All of which means I’m gonna have to haul ass to finish it on time.

Ah, well. I suppose there’s a lesson in here somewhere about routinely backing up one’s computer, and most certainly backing up important documents immediately after working on them, but I’ll be damned if I can find one.