a lame, lame day

I'm blogging this from the office, having managed to drag myself over here to do the lesson planning I didn't do yesterday.

Today was essentially a repeat of yesterday, so I missed the actual wedding, this time. Head pounding, especially the back of the head. The pain feels a bit like a glowing spider wrapped around my skull, its cephalothorax and abdomen somewhere near my cerebellum. I've been taking 4-aspirin doses to ease the pounding.

I've also developed a weird little twitch in my upper right eyelid. Lovely. Could be caffeine-related, but I haven't had that much soda in the past few weeks. It's one of those bubbly little rapidfire spasms, not a huge flutter, like Clint Eastwood's comically twitching eye in "City Heat."

It's a gorgeous afternoon outside. Hot. Sunny. A few clouds decorate the sky. Great day for a wedding; I wonder how the weather was this morning. I wouldn't know: I didn't leave my dorm until about thirty minutes ago.

Am only here to finalize lesson plans, catch up on emails, and to announce the sudden death, after six years of faithful service, of my Mac's hard drive this morning. My folks called me around 11:30am today (about 10:30pm the previous day, DC time); I was still in bed, contending with my skull. Right after my conversation with them ended, my hard drive-- which I often leave on-- started making funny noises, and then died. I clicked on the monitor: nada. Image frozen.

So I tried restarting the computer. The hard drive wouldn't boot up, but it did make those funny noises. Imagine the sound of a glass marble dropped repeatedly onto a hard plastic surface. That's approximately what the noise sounded like. It was as if a part had come loose inside the drive. I'm hopeful that I can take the computer to a Mac center and get the drive repaired. That, or get it replaced. Not a big loss, in terms of data: most of my important data are over in my new 150GB LaCie hard drive.

What this means for Hairy Chasms readers is that, until I get my drive repaired:

1. Blogging will continue, but will have to be done from the office. Most of my coworkers are aware of my blog, so I'm not too worried about blogging in front of them during free time.

2. I won't be slapping up any of my own photos, nor anything Photoshopped. Unless I grab something from online, the Hairy Chasms will be picture-free for a while.

3. Emails can only be accessed and answered when I'm at the office (no way in hell I'm paying money at a PC-bahng), so expect longer-than-usual delays in response.

"Apologies for the inconvenience," as they say. Or as the coke addict says: "Please excuse our dust."


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