Rant Of The Day is where I get to mouth off about whatever I feel like for however long I like. Theoretically, I'll update my whinge/opinion piece every weekday; in practice, maybe not so often.

Yeah, I really needed this

My day started badly on Tuesday when the flu which had been lurking in the lower reaches of my torso decided now would be a good time to kick in in a major way. As soon as I got out of bed, I knew that going into work wouldn't really be an option. Fortunately, I thought, my new telecommuting setup on my just-two-weeks-old PC would enable me to get some stuff done in the comfort of my own home. I settled in for a day of quiet writing and continuous phlegm.

That in itself does not constitute a really top-notch day for me. In the evening, I was forced out of the house to go to dinner with my mother before she left Sydney to return to rural seclusion. That was fine, mostly, and it saved me cooking dinner. The fun started when I returned home and decided to check my snailmailbox.

As I was standing in the street pulling out the gas bill and other sundry annoyances, a car drove past. For no obvious reason that I can fathom, somebody threw an egg at me from a passing car. I was lucky it bounced straight off my back (must be all the Maccas) and fell to the ground before exploding. This could be a good topic for a rant, I thought to myself.

However, the real and bitter disappointment was to come when I went upstairs and switched on my PC. Nothing happened. Then, eventually, a handy error message informing me that my disk controller had failed popped up. Just what you need at 10:15 at night. I spent the next hour confirming that the controller was cactus, and then decided to get some sleep (the hotline for support didn't open until 8am the next morning).

Unfortunately, even sleep was long in coming. I don't know why my neighbours decided to let their under-five children run around screaming until well past midnight. I don't know why one of them was rehearsing on an electric organ until even later. I do know it made it hard to rest.

Aside from my own psychological instability, one outcome of this situation was that all my Gusworld updates for the next day or two are trapped on a machine that I can't use. I apolgise for the interruption in service, especially when this week's Cheese Watch is such a doozy. A man is coming around with a motherboard soon, so live in hope. And trust your body when it tells you you are too sick to get out of bed.

Go back up a level

Return to Gusworld Central