♠
“That scared the fuck out of me, man!””

~
Monk had his fill of reading for the day, and as it is late in the evening, he thought that maybe he does still have a place in his life for his computer games. So, he jacked into Liberty City.

The game froze on him, in the way that Vice City tended to do. When he tried to get out of it, Monk got a different response. He was actually able to unfreeze it, but when he leaves the game, he gets a notice that his graphics driver was updated. This sounds like a major operation to him, and he is scared shitless, especially since his screen is badly out of whack. Everything is blown up big!

Desperately, in a cold sweat, Monk tries the ol' reboot thing. Everything still comes out big. However, he gets a balloon message from his tray telling him about adjusting his resolution, which is what he was thinking about, so that this strengthens him in that resolve. It looks like it was indeed just a matter of resetting his resolution. Everythng seems cool anyway.

Maybe Monk actually has a better graphics driver out of it, but he is still shaking, as though he came out of a bad car accident - just hoping that his life is still intact.

xXx

♠
Monk sees Yahoo offering a link for people to download IE7. Monk's brow furrows in frustration. He never has gotten that promised update from Microsoft that would automatically give him IE7. It has been two weeks.

He has not gotten any Windows updates since that promise. Monk was left wondering if his new hard drive might have botched things, but he vaguely remembers getting automatic updates since getting the hard drive. Maybe it is a long rotation. Pop has not gotten it either.

I hope Microsoft has not changed its mind. I do not think Monk will work up the nerve to download it himself, especially with that promise hanging in the air.

xXx

♠
Monk falls back in his chair, looking at the white screen of death. Actually, this time it was color bars, which is prettier but just as dead. Monk holds the power button down, "Well, it had been a while."

He is thinking that it is the wireless. This has been happening across two computers and three hard drives. It never happened with our first computer, and it has not happened with the computer that is now in the office.

Monk was in the middle of the The New York Times. He is running late, even though he woke up at six-thirty. Since he is between books today, he knows he has more time for the Internet and news harvesting, ready to make a leisurely day out of it.

xXx