Doing my homework on the back of a shovel

Do I have the right to bitch about amazing advances in technology when they don't work, or should I just be thankful that I am not forced to read by candle light?

One of the reasons why I haven't updated here in over a week (besides a lot of school work, obviously) is that I seem to be in the midst of an extended example of Murphy's Law applied to computers.  We have both a laptop and desk top in our home.  I prefer the laptop for many reasons, but a week ago last Sunday it stopped recgonizing the wireless network.  I've had issues in the past where it loses the connection, but it's always been temporary.  This is different.  I've taken the laptop other places with wireless and it works, so I know that it isn't a bad card, and since the network is routed through the desk top and I can get Internet on that, I know it is not the router.  I'm completely dumbfounded.

So any and all Internet activity has been restricted to the desk top for almost two weeks now, which is not all that bad, except that the wireless mouse has been acting up for a bit as well.  I keep replacing the batteries, which works for a bit, but inevitably it stops working again.  This morning, about an hour ago, it got even better: one of the AA batteries in the mouse exploded.  I was a few feet away putting clothes in the dryer when I heard a loud pop and while I was sure it came from the area by the computer I had no idea what it actually was until I saw a white foam leaking from the mouse.  It looked like a mad dog had just licked it.  I cleaned it up, replaced the batteries (again...) and it seems to be working well for now, but I can't help but feel that I should be wearing a HAZMAT suit right about now.

I've updated from the desk top before, as I am doing now, but I have lost the ability to do so when signed directly on to AOL.  For some reason, when I access the journal from AOL, the controls to the right of the title area, where the "add entires, edit entries, etc" tabs are located, are gone.  It's like I've gone to someone else's journal.  I have no idea what has happened, nor is anyone at AOL in a hurry to help me fix the problem.  I guess this is what happens when you start getting service for free.  So I am writing this in Mozilla Firefox, which is fine, except that I can't spell check this and I am uncertain how this will look when it is finished.

These are all things I couldn't have even dreamed about doing maybe ten years ago, yet the aggravation over having it malfunction now is incredibly frustrating.  And as I write this very sentence, the CD I have playing downstairs starts repeating aimlessly.  It sounds like Michael Stipe's voice is suddenly a machine gun.

Nothing ruins the mood to write more than the need to troubleshoot.