*^*&%$#@$%

That word in the title begins with an F and should be in a 72pt font with about a hundred exclamation points behind it.

This entry was going to be so wonderful but in a split second it went from fabulous to f*&$ed up.

Here's what happened: The urgent need circuit in my home computer kicked in and it kicked in hard. For those of you that don't know, the urgent need circuit is that piece of hardware within every piece of electronic equipment, such as printers, copiers, computers, cars, etc. that causes them to shut down at the point of most urgent need. This circuit is what causes cars not to start in horror movies.

I have been in training since Wednesday. After our breaks, as everyone is starting to trickle in, our instructor has been playing humorous video and audio clips. Several people have asked for copies of some of his clips and his answer is, "bring me a blank CD." Which I did.

One of my hobbies - for SEVERAL years now - has been recording and collecting sound clips from movies - which is why I have a web site full of audio clips. I thought he might appreciate a copy of my wav collection... ALL of it. So, I dumped all of the files into a folder, sorted through a couple of folders and made some minor changes to the folder structure. It was all ready. I had even printed out a label and a jewel case insert. I dropped the blank DVD into the drive, launched Roxio CD/DVD creator, and it froze.

No problem. I'll just reset the computer.

BIG PROBLEM!!!

When the system restarted, it told me...
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM was missing or corrupt.

For those of you that don't understand... yeah, that's a bad thing. I was all ready to just burn the DVD and go to bed (it was getting close to 10:30pm) and that UNC fired up. I only wish I had some pixie dust to counteract the devastating effects of the UNC.

So, here I sit, typing on the laptop as Windows XP setup runs on my desktop computer. I figure I'll get it loaded, load the DVD/CD recording software, record the DVD for the instructor and call it a night.

Great, the system just shot me the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) right in the middle of setup... meaning I have to start over... [[SIGH]]... Setup will complete in approximately 39 minutes...