Aaargh.

My computer appears to have died. It's clearly getting power, but the monitor just blinks and says "Computer? What computer? I'm not connected to any computer!" and the happy green light that normally comes on when you turn on the power button is instead an unhappy red. Also, I find myself thinking, "Wait, didn't my hard drive used to make more noise than this?", but that might just be my paranoid imagination.

I am, needless to say, a bit freaked out by this, but am making myself feel better by imagining worst-case scenario situations and convincing myself that I can survive them. So, the worst that could happen:

1) My computer is totally fucked, to the point where there's not much for it but to get a new one. OK, I really don't need any more major expenses right now, what with the whole house thing, but if it came down to it, I could buy a new PC and put it on the credit card. A little bit more debt isn't going to make much of a difference at this point, and I don't have anything charged on the card currently, anyway, so the interest wouldn't kill me. (This, I think, is unlikely. However, hideously expensive computer repairs seem all too likely.)

2) I lose all my data. This would suck, but perhaps not catastrophically. I think I've got most of my important files backed up, and the ones I don't, I have hardcopies of or have sent copies of to other people and can ask to have sent back to me. My saved e-mails, however, I'm pretty sure are not backed up, and I'd lose all my addresses and bookmarks and stuff. Which is a highly annoying thought.

3) I am without a computer for several weeks. And, yes, this is actually the possibility that bothers me the most. The withdrawal symptoms when I'm deprived of the internet are not metaphorical.

Best case scenario is that there isn't a problem with the computer at all. I suddenly remembered on my way in to work that the last time I had a problem vaguely like this, it was the UPS that was at fault. I kind of doubt that's the case this time, as the computer's been generally a little flaky lately, but it could be. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I'll test it out when I get home.

In any case, part of what this means is that I do not have access to my primary e-mail account at the moment. If you sent e-mail to my SDC account after about 9 o'clock this morning (MST), I haven't seen it. If you sent me e-mail before about 9 o'clock this morning, I've seen it, but I can't get to it. For the moment, anybody who really wants to get in touch with me via e-mail should use my gmail account: happynova at gmail dot com. I can access that from the computers at work.

Sigh. Somewhere, Murphy is laughing his ass off...