Brighter Later

[Muddypause]

Last night, quite late, my computer packed up. No picture. I turned it on, and waited and waited and waited. I turned it off and on again. Several times. It would play CDs ok, and I could hear the disc drive whirring away when I pressed keys on the keyboard. But not a flicker of a picture. The monitor seemed to be working OK, because it goes through a sort of self test routine when you turn it on.

So I spent half an hour crawling around on my hands and knees under the desk, trying to sort out which wire went where. Eventually, I pulled the box out, took the cover off, blew the dust out of it, and muttered threats. I pulled bits out, and put them back again. At 3am I concluded that it was probably time for a new computer anyway.

This morning I turned it on to see if it was feeling any better. It wasn't.

After a cup of tea and some breakfast, I returned to my desk and spent several minutes just looking at the blank screen. For no particular reason that I can remember, I reached out and checked that the brightness control was turned up...

You can guess the rest, can't you?

It seems that the brightness control had been knocked to its lowest setting. You should see the clutter on my desk - it's no surprise really.

You may now spend the next several minutes laughing and pointing.

[ina]

Well, I must admit that a little smile crept on my face... More because this situation seems so familiar. And it's just so great to hear that others experience these embarrassing things, too. I remember that time when I managed to swipe everything off my hard disc exactly at midnight... (Back in the good old times when that was possible.) Oh, and over the last week or so I've been carrying buckets and watering cans full of water to the polytunnel - maybe I should have checked whether the water tap was actually working, before I assumed it wasn't? (Mind you, the person who fixed it could have told me! Grr...)

[Andy Hamilton]

Realising that the cooker is not switched on when cooking is one that I do all the time.

Computer related, when I got a router I went round the houses trying to configure it when I realised that it all had been done automatically.

lately I have been weeding out some of the plants I am actually trying to grow.

Yep I think we can all relate to this and have done some thing equally as daft. Did make me laugh though, cheers.

[alcina]

I used to work as a computer technician at a University. As we didn't have enough staff we stated that we couldn't provide instant callout service, but we came out as soon as and definitely within 24 hours. Anyhow...I had a call from the Head of my Department who had received a call from the Head of...well...let's call it the Department of Some Big Money Earning Subject...insisting that someone had to go round *now* to fix their computer because it was totally not working and the Department of Some Big Money Earning Subject would be losing the College vast sums of money by his computer not working for 5 minutes. I was told to stop whatever I was doing (so much for the poor person who worked for the Department That's Not So Popular and had politely waited an hour for me to arrive) and sort out this computer.

I walked into the room. There were various College Big Bods there (that explained the pompous phone call). I walked over to the computer. Stared at it for about 5 seconds. Switched the monitor on. And walked out. Bizarre thing is, no-one batted an eye lid!

Happens all the time.

I've had to interview various technicians over the years, and it's always a question I ask: "You go to a computer that's allegedly not working. You swith it on, the screen stays blank....talk me through the things you'd check". A surprising number hove straight in with things like "I'd take out the video card....". They invariably don't get the job!

Alcina

[The Chili Monster]

I house sat for my parents the year before last; I returned home one night, proceeded to cook my dinner, all the while thinking, something's not right, something is missing.
At some point I gazed out the living room window across the smallish lawn and the carport .. something registered ... no car.
In a desperate panick, I dialled 999 and asked for the Police. Everything went swimmingly; I gave my name, the address, even the make of car (an achievement for me since I don't drive and have no real interest in cars). They police were very kind, attentive (at the time anyone would thin k I was reporting a murder and made appropriate reassurring noises before asking me the dreaded question, "what is the car's registration number?". Like I'd know ...
Anyway, the cops gave me a reference number and asked me to call back when they had something tangible to work with ... So, I rang my brother ( he sometimes borrowed the car ... "That's it," I thought, "he'd know the registration number, surely"
So I asked him;a lengthy silence ensued. Then finally: "It's having it's MOT ... the mechanic picked it up earlier..." (delivered in a tone of utter disbelief).
I'm not even going into the conversation I had with the Police when I called back ... ...

[Stonehead]

I'm doing it all the time at the moment:

Popping some sausages in the microwave to hurry up the thawing process. Open the door when they ping and... the sausages are gone! What? We don't have a dog, I was the only one up and the snags are gone. Have a hunt around and can't find them, decide I must have imagined the whole thing and decide to have porridge for breakfast instead. Open the door of the cupboard above the microwave and there are four sausages...

This morning I got up, started getting the breakfast things ready and began filling the stove-top espresso make with coffee. Then started putting the water in, only to realise I'd just filled the water section with coffee and was now pouring water into the filter...

Must be age!

Mind you, the OH saw one of her work colleagues speed off out of the car park today without collecting the eggs she buys off us. The OH was getting into her car when she spied her friend's daughter and asked her to take the eggs home as her mum had forgotten them. The daughter replied: "I'm not surprised - she forgot me too!"

Stonehead