My computer is dead. It worked fine on Monday, and when I tried to turn it on Tuesday... nothing happened. The light comes on, but the computer does not -- no fan whirr, no beeps and bips and boops of awakening, nada. It's a large paperweight. I checked all the obvious stuff a totally non-technical person like myself can check (power outlet works, plug is attached, no cables obviously disconnected inside) with no results. So tomorrow I'll take it to be repaired, hoping it's something cheap and easy (dead power supply?) and do my freelance writing on our ancient (but cute) spare laptop. Fortunately I back up everything important regularly (and I did an extra-complete backup Monday, which I would ascribe to some premonition, but in reality I get seized with the urge to back up things in multiple places every few weeks, so it's mere coincidence). Now I'm terrified my house will burn down and melt my external hard drive and my bag will be stolen along with my thumbdrive, though even then, the truly vital stuff is uploaded to gmail...

I found good reviews online for Alameda Computer Service, and they're five miles from my house, so I'll go there tomorrow morning unless someone from Oakland/Berkeley chimes in with a better suggestion. I know I could get some dude from Craigslist to come to my house and look at it, but I don't want some dude from Craigslist in my house. I have work to do tomorrow. Besides, it may be a hardware problem necessitating new parts, etc.

Isn't this exciting? The universe must have known I got my delivery payment for Blood Engines a couple of days ago, and it feels the need to siphon away some of that money for annoying reasons. Oh well. It's better than having a broken computer and no money to fix it.

But, on the bright side: We're going on a little trip to Santa Cruz soon, to celebrate good news of various sorts (all to be shared when I'm authorized to do so, dear readers), and to see friends, and so on. A dead computer can't take that away from me.