over the weekend i had the brilliant idea to download some cool movie trailers and clips, and take my laptop to class and use the trailers as part of my lessons. so i downloaded the new "lord of the rings: the return of the king" trailer and packed up my computer and headed off to class with it today, feelin' pretty cocky. i showed it to each class, the kids were all thrilled and quite fascinated... good move. they asked lots of questions - not just about the movie but also about the computer and computers in general.

leaving the laptop on sleep, i just opened the lid every new class and viola! the movie was showing in seconds. i was most excited about showing the clip to my adult class tonight, they are all movie buffs and regularly head off to shinjuku or kofu to check out the latest films. minutes before their class i lifted the lid on my baby and went out to greet them....

when goddamned CALAMITY struck!!!!

on my return, a big nasty black screen with a small blue window. "hardware malfunction. complete system failure. see your service provider"

holy s**t......*

crap......*******

bloody muddaf****r.............

every other filthy dirty expletive known to a pub-going australian SCREAMED through my head (all the while maintaining my sweet polite english teacher in japan facade in front of my extremely polite middle aged students).

i quietly hit the off button (which surprisingly worked) and shut the computer down. not surprisingly i immediately lost all interest in the lesson, my students, and showing them the LOTR trailer.... the hour dragged through like eternity as i corrected sloppy pronunication of "really", "rooms", "refrigerator", "live".... the clock seemed to sit on 8:40 for an hour and a half.... as images flashed through my head of a life without a computer.

driving home in the cold car, teeth chattering, i tried to keep calm and controlled. got back to work, parked the car, quietly said my otsukare sama-deshta's and walked home at a nice even pace... all the while imagining this life without my baby. sure, i could get through the pile of books by my bed, i could start studying japanese again... but.... no immediate contact with my friends and family... no playing with my photos (why the hell didn't someone tell me earlier about saturation and the unsharp mask?)... no watching the ABC news or rage from home... no checking out what fellow bloggers around the world are up to.... no access to my MP3's... no researching whatever topic takes my fancy on the spur of the moment.... oh mi god, i could see my entire next paycheque all going to correct this desperately unfair and barren situation...

the key turned in the door, in 6 strides i was at the desk, baby out, all connected, sighing, my heart full of dread, i hit the on button and stepped back to watch, ready to sink to the floor and start howling.

i watched. first screen up, ok. then a blinking white dash.

blink.

blink.

blink.

goodamn, hurry up, i'm about to die here!

blink.

"welcome to windows XP".

eyes closed in thankful relief, i vowed to never take my laptop to class again.