The Service Pack 2 Incident

This Sunday the unimaginable happened.

My computer died.

Before I went to sleep Saturday night, I began installing an update for Windows Vista. Service Pack 2. If it's from Windows I can trust it, right?
Wrong.
Blearily waking up Sunday morning, I found my poor little laptop blinking between its start-up screen and the ominous blue screen of death. Not a good sign. I did everything I knew possible to fix it, all to no avail.

Needless to say I freaked out a little bit, as this laptop is really my only means of communication with the outside world. And by "freaked out" I really mean taking turns between hysterical bawling and hurling curse words and lude gestures at Microsoft. Who in the heck could I find in Okuizumo that knows enough both enough English and enough about computers to help me? How could I afford a new laptop? What would happen to the years and years of carefully accumulated crap on my old hard drive? It was not a pretty prospect.

Luckily, there was just the person. The only foreigner in this town besides us three JETS happens to be a nice Canadian guy who has lived here for the last 12 or so years. And not only that, as it happens he is a computer engineer. Ridiculously lucky? That's me.

So now I sit- typing on my newly restored computer, trying to remember how to make it compatible with Asian Language fonts, and thinking how sometimes fortune can be found in an unfortunate situation. The moral of the story, kids, is back up your hard drive, don't trust Microsoft, and make as many friends as possible. You never know when their secret talents might be your lifeline.

Without his help I would still be wandering the streets, clutching my computer to my chest and howling unintelligible pleas to uncomprehending ears.