Up until today, I never really understood how some people could hate computers so much. It's not like they mess up on purpose; they just do whatever you tell them to do. If a computer does something wrong, it's because you told it to do it that way. Now I'm not a computer whiz, but I can do basic repairs and work through some issues. But every now and then, my computer decides to not play nice. Today was one of those days.
I had a very important meeting at 1:00 pm today. At about 12:10 pm, I realized that I completely forgotten to print something out. But I wasn't worried. I was at home, and home is 5 minutes from the meeting location and has a printer. So basically, I figured I had plenty of time. Fast forward to 12:52 and I'm running out the door, nerves frazzled, praying I don't hit any red lights, traffic, or random construction, and that there's parking right by the front door.
So what exactly happened in those 42 minutes? My computer and printer decided to go on strike. At first, my computer was playing nice. I hit the power button and it came to life. I put on my shoes while I waited for the sign-on screen. I entered my password and walked away to let it boot up while I fixed my bag. Let's say all this took about 2 minutes. But here is where the problems started. I would normally go into detail about those problems, except I have no idea what exactly those problems were. All I know is that it took about 8 minutes to open the folder with the document I needed to print. And then it took about another 4 minutes to open the actual document, only for me to realize that it wasn't the latest draft. Great.
So now I grab my laptop (which was thankfully already on and online) and email myself the final draft. Back to my desktop. I have no idea how long it took to open the internet browser so I could retrieve the email I just sent, but I gave up after 11 minutes. I grabbed a flash drive, got back on my laptop, saved the document, put the flash drive in my desktop, and waited, and waited, and waited. It took another 4 minutes to open the flash drive so I could retrieve my document. Once the folder is open, add another 3 minutes to open the document, and I'm pulling out my hair. In case you're keeping track, it's now 12:42 pm.
So now all I have to do is print the document. This is the easy part, right? Of course! So what's the easiest, fastest, most fool-proof way to print? Hit the print button. You've seen it; it's the one that looks like a printer. But by now, you've probably guessed that it wasn't that easy. I hit print, and nothing happens. I wait. Still nothing. I'm about ready to kill my computer, but seeing as how this will get me no closer to having the document in my hands, I yell at it instead. Yes, I am literally standing in front of my computer yelling at it. After an eternity (or about 8 minutes), those two wonderful pieces of paper pop out and I can finally head to the meeting.
Have I mentioned that I have a dog? Well, this whole time she's been looking at me like I'm crazy. She can tell something isn't quite right, but obviously has no idea what. What she does know is that I'm yelling at the computer, and I don't usually yell at the computer, so it must have done something wrong. Anyways, I digress. The reason I mention the dog is because that's where my last few minutes go. She is confined to the kitchen while I'm not home, so I need to get her in there. I always put her bed and bowls in there with her, and I should have been doing this while yelling at the computer, but I was frazzled and didn't. So now I have to do that.
And that's how it took me 42 minutes to print a two-page document and why I now want to shoot my computer, or printer, or both. And also why I really need to get wireless printing from my laptop to my oh-so-wonderful printer set up as soon as humanly possible.
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