Reliance

I've been feeling like a lost little child the past few days. All because my computer was down with a virus that made surfing the internet or even working at it impossible. A function that took seconds to be executed was stretched to painful minutes. I felt like my life was slowing wasting away as I watched seconds fly and minutes tick by.

Most of us have a computer terminal at work for our daily use. After staring at the screen for at least six hours of the day, I know that my colleagues don't want to face another monitor when they go home for the day.

I'm different. I look forward to sitting in front of PC (that's what I call her, which is incidentally acronym for 'personal computer' as well as my name initials). I've never denied my reliance on this electronic contraption. It captivated me at 10 and I've totally sold my soul to it since my father bought a 486Mhz unit when I was 15.

For the past 17 years, I've grown with this machine whose prototype was designed by Charles Babbage. I've graduated slowly: from DOS to windows operating systems; from bulletin boards to mudding; from intranet chat to IRC, ICQ and Messenger.

I rely on it now to keep in touch with friends within Singapore and around the globe through email or chat channels. I use it to search for information on the internet. I listen to music through my CD-Rom. I watch downloaded movies. It's so much easier to use than the manual or electric typewriters and word processors. I can even fax documents from here if I want to!

So you can imagine my distress when I couldn't even play a decent game of Minesweeper without the time lag! Don't get me started on emails, surfing and communication with friends.

Out went a cry of frustration, and help. Many thanks to my guy pals that came to my aid. These real computer whizzes patiently provided either steps, web links or anti-virus CD programmes to help out.

Now that my unit is working fine, I'm back with a vengance! Ssssstop me!!! *wink*