Saturday, September 5, 2009

My Sick Computer (In More Ways Than One...)

On Sunday afternoon, my computer randomly started pulling up Internet Explorer pages with... shall we say, adult, addresses. It also began incessantly popping up a variety of windows posting messages such as, "A virus has been detected", "Click here to scan your hard drive", and "Would you like to fix this problem?" However, the titles and logos on the pop-up windows were unfamiliar.

Turns out, the websites popping up, as well as the various windows to "fix" a virus, were all part of- surprise!- a virus.

Sigh.

It took several days of calling Dell back and forth to get the problem completely cleared up. The end result was a laptop wiped clean, reverted back to all its original settings from the factory, the hard drive wiped clean.

Sigh.

There is one bright spot amidst all this sighing though! I discovered while not being able to use my laptop or the internet for four days how much time I actually spend on the computer! Wow. Eye-opening.

I suddenly had boat loads of free time in my day. I was surprised by the sudden inflow of time to spend playing with my girls, reading, even watching a movie. And the biggest surprise of all- get this- writing by hand.

Yes, it was shocking.

Honestly, I try not to spend too much time on the computer. I generally try to keep the laptop closed when my girls are up. I check it during nap time, and then when my husband and daughters go to bed, I usually have at least an hour that I can spend catching up on my social networking and a little bit of writing.

I guess my perceived minimal amount of time spent on the computer is what led to my surprise to begin with. Nevertheless, after a what turned out to be a blissful four days with no computer, I think I'll probably be cutting back even more.

I would much rather enjoy the here and now and these beautiful (short!) years with my girls, than be a productive member of the online community. And hopefully with my less time spent online, I'll learn to be even more productive with the time I do spend here.

See you around!- albeit a little less...

2 comments:

  1. I'd much rather be on the computer than watching TV any day. It's so weird, I spend all day on it at work and then I'm eager to get home to my personal computer. I guess it's b/c I'm a writer at night and on weekends, and I'm supposed to be building an "online marketing platform", but still...it consumes way too much of my time.

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  2. I know! Look at me- here I am after not checking my blog for two weeks, but I've still been on the computer every evening. What's a mom to do? ;)

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