Warning: Long. rambling rant ahead, read at your own risk!
Here’s the story about how August 12, 2003 went for me. It is a day that shall forever live in infamy.
The dashboard light on my car has stopped working. I drive to work at 5:45 AM and it’s still dark at that time. I can’t see how fast I am going. I doubt a police officer would accept my excuse if I told him that I really had no idea how fast I was going because of a faulty dashboard light.
At 11:30 I leave for lunch. I usually go to Wendy’s. I get about a half mile down the road, only to discover that traffic is backed up for at least a mile. I decide, “fuck this shit” and turn around to go get lunch someplace else. Nothing major, but I barely made it back to work in time because of this.
2:30 PM I leave work. I have to drive through a construction zone since there’s no other way for me to get home. Once past the zone I am ready to make up for lost time, only for some damn bus to pull out in front of me, so I’m pissed as I’m stuck behind him going about 30 miles an hour. There’s not enough room for me to zip past him as I need to turn at the next intersection. Dumbass bus driver also turns at the intersection. From timing how long the light has been red I know I need to hurry to make my right turn before traffic on the cross street gets their green, which will force me to wait out the entire light cycle. Had it not been for the goddamned bus driver who cut out in front of me I would have made it. Four more traffic lights to go through before I get home. All of them are red. All of them.
I thought I was safe once I got home, but the problems I had in traffic were only the beginning. I had read about the new Blaster worm and was concerned that I might have it. I boot up my computer and sure as shit, I’ve got it. I download the removal tool and the patch from Microsoft and all is well again. I curse at my Norton antivirus for failing to detect it in the first place. I then discover that NAV hasn’t received any new virus definitions since 7/19, WTF?!!! I try to download new definitions manually, only to be told that the download failed. I eventually discover that my copy of NAV 2001 is no longer supported, and this is why I was not getting the virus definitions. Never mind the fact that I had recently renewed my subscription for another year. I find out that I need to get an updated NAV. Okay, fine, whatever, I’m desperate. I plug in my credit card number and get the download. The download gets about halfway, only to time out. By this time it’s been about three hours of time that I have lost to dealing with this problem. At this point I snapped. I smashed the fuck out of my keyboard and loose keys went flying everywhere. I shut my system off in total frustration. After I calm down I drive to Wal-Mart to buy a new keyboard and new AV software (McAfee, I say “fuck Norton!”) I attempt to remove NAV first and end up having more problems. I do a dirty re-install of Windows 2000. Lose my Internet connection. Can’t get connection re-established. Call tech support. They are fast and helpful, but I cannot get things set up. Discover that my installation software is out of date and does not identify my DSL modem, so I have to wait until Thursday before new CD they are sending to me arrives in the mail. In the meantime I am stuck with no Internet access at home. I get out my VHS tape of Falling Down to help me put things into perspective. At least my day wasn’t as bad as Michael Douglas’ character’s day was going.