What was I talking about?...Oh yeah. About how great Target it. Anyway, I got the printer/scanner thing (this model, which apparently uses too much ink, but I don't plan on using the printer feature that much, and having a scanner with it for the relatively low price of 80 bucks made it seem like a good one to get) and even though it's pretty compact, I still didn't have any room for it on my desk because of the monstrosity that was my unusable PC, a Compaq Presario I got about six years ago. I have been wanting to get rid of the thing ever since I got my iBook, over a year ago, but for a long time I had to use it to send out some emails because I couldn't figure out a way to transfer all of my email addresses. Eventually I managed to do that, but there were still a lot of photos and files I needed to transfer as well. So, needing the space, I finally decided to sit down and clean the computer out.
I was up until 4am.
I will never, NEVER, voluntarily purchase or use a PC again. I should have known the computer was going to lead to nothing but pain when getting it delivered was directly responsible for me falling on my face and getting a bloody nose. (A story for another time.) I knew the machine was hopelessly slow now because of all the adware and spyware I had picked up over the years by doing nothing more than searching the Internet, but I can't believe how evil and insidious that crap is. No matter how many remover programs I used, I could never get rid of all of it. (I'm also so, SO happy that when I started my new job that I opted to use a Mac instead of a PC. The majority of my job requires that I look at a lot of really bad, spammy Web pages, and I can't imagine the horrors that befall a PC when exposed to that crap.) Anyhoo, because of the sluggishness of my PC, it took forever to just boot and open folders, but I managed to transfer all of my photos and files to a Seagate pocket drive. Once that was done, (it took about two hours), I was ready to toss out everything else, and uninstall programs in the hopes that I could then do a restore and "return the PC to its factory condition." Uninstalling things led to a lot of freezing everytime I'd try and unistall some bit of adware. Needless to say, that took several hours, too.
In order to do the restore I needed the restore CD the machine came with. I thought that meant I was screwed, but after some searching, I actually located it. The rest seemed like it should be easy enough. Pop the CD in, restart the computer, and follow the prompts.
Ha. HA HA.
Everytime I would try and restart the computer with the CD in the drive, I got this nice mess.
Basically, I couldn't read anything on the screen, and it would keep flashing on and off. I don't know WHAT the hell that was about, but the whole restore thing was no longer an option. I had to just unplug it and get it the hell away from my desk once and for all. I was hoping I could donate it, but I really don't think it would be usable unless some PC wiz was able to do some kind of voodoo on it. That also leads me to the worry that somewhere on there my email password and other personal info is still accessible, so I might just have to drop the thing out a window and into a giant garbage can.
For now, it is sitting outside my front door, along with an unusable printer, an old typewriter, a REALLY old Mac monitor, and a rotting bookcase. Which leads to another thing. A month ago, my landlord slipped a notice under everyone's door stating that we are not allowed to store personal items in the building's common areas. We had until July 2nd to move the stuff, and anything that remained on that date would be taken to the dump by our landlord. Along with the aforementioned junk, I also keep my bike chained up outside my front door, but that's the only thing that's out there that I'd want to keep. All the other stuff is there because I don't have room for it in the apartment, and don't have a way to bring it to a dump or Goodwill myself. In other words, the landlord would be doing me a favor by taking all that crap to the dump.
I prepped for the second of July by bringing my bike inside, and tossing some of the junk that was easy to get rid of, like boxes and books (which I brought to the Laundromat next door. It's kind of become a little book trading area in the 'hood).
The second of July came and went, and my junk is still out there. I don't know what happened. Maybe they saw my pile of junk and realized that by taking the stuff they wouldn't just be being mean, but would, in fact, be helping me out, and decided, as landlords so often do, that there's nothing in it for them if they do a tenant a favor. Either they're going to show up some day, unannounced, and take it all away--including my bike, which is back outside--thus ruining my life, or send me a notice saying I need to get rid of it all myself. Which just leads back to the issue of not knowing where to bring this crap. I could use a place like 1-800-Got-Junk, but their minimum charge is $129, and that's a lot of cash to get rid of not a lot of stuff.
So. Here it is, July Fourth, and I've got a residual headache and backache from last night, I have even more junk I need to get rid of than I did a week ago, and I blame it all...on...PCs.
Update: One of the sheets was full of stains...Damn you, PCs!!
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