So where the heck have I been for the last month and a half?

Languishing! 

That's what I've been doing for the last month and a half.

LANGUISHING!

On the evening of March 3, 2004, I went home over my lunch hour. Earlier that afternoon I didn't quite get the review of The Zodiac Killer done, and wanted to finish it up before returning to work.

I went downstairs and realized the first hint of trouble when my screensaver was seized up. Upon closer inspection - it was seized up and frizzed out. Oh, this doesn't look good. I hit the power button to reboot but the monitor self test came up okay, but that's as far as it went. I stared at the flashing letters for a while until it sunk in.

After seven years of faithful service, long after the extended warranty had expired, my old Gateway had rebooted just one too many times. Depressed, I trudged off back to work.

I got a second opinion, confirming what I feared, that the old girl had officially moved on to PC Nirvana. The good news was everything important, including all the files, caps and graphics for 3B Theater, had all been backed up on disk. Who knew being that anal at the end of the month would prove so fruitful. So the only real casualty was The Zodiac Killer review. But at the time, that was the least of my worries. Because the bad news was, I needed a new computer. Stat!

So my machine was dead and I needed a replacement. Stat! My tax return was on it's way, I had just made my last college tuition payment last month and my last car payment goes out this month. Meaning my budget could withstand the hit it would take to replace it.

So what to get? I got the usual - PC sucks - Macs sucks - rhetoric from all of those that I shared my tale of woe. But to be honest, working with Macs at work, and a PC at home, I can say, without prejudice, that both machines are equal opportunity crashers.

The deciding factor was that all my software is for PC. Now I can afford to buy a new computer - but not a slew of new programs. So PC it is. (Sorry, Chris and Scott.) The fact that I get a 10% employee discount on Gateway products was another clincher.

A lot of people don't like Gateways. I had my old one for seven years with no real trouble and what little I had they were always eager to help fix. So I buried my old Pentium II powered G6-266 in the backyard and went computer shopping for a new Gateway.

I wound up spending a little more than I wanted to - but hopefully this new one will last me another seven years. For all you techno-heads out there, I wound up with 510XL series.

• Intel Pentium 4 Processor 3.00GHz with Hyper-Threading Tech

• 512MB 400MHz DDR SDRAM

• 120GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive

• 128MB NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200G with TV Out Graphics

• DVD+RW/+R/CD-RW and 16x48xDVD-ROM Drive

• And the 19" Flat Panel Monitor (It was a free upgrade!)

Now if someone will explain to me what all that means, I'd be grateful. The nice salesman assured me it would do all I needed it to do.

So I have a new computer. But I had to wait three weeks for the delivery. ^%#@*!

But it's here, now, and I'm back on my feet. Couple the new system with an upgrade to a DSL modem, and this website is going to be rocking and rolling again real soon.

Thanks for your patience everybody. I'll try and make sure you won't regret sticking around.