Setback

[vaneramos]

Last night the new computer went into cardiac arrest, an endless loop of rebooting. Windows would only start in safe mode, and still reboot when I tried to do anything. This is the same problem Bruce had before, and had thought to fix by rebuilding it. It worked like a charm for 24 hours, then zzzt!

So I'm back on my old machine. Now that I've spent an evening playing on a better one with my own files and software, I cannot justify the long hours and evenings previously spent sitting here waiting for 64 M of RAM to process dozens of 4 G images. It's fine for word processing of course. Maybe I need to spend the winter concentrating on that.

I haven't been hit by the same sense of creeping dread as early last week, but neither am I particularly hopeful. This weekend when he comes, Danny will take a look and tinker with the other computer to see if he can figure what's needed to repair it.

I am reminded of this remarkable bee-like beetle that visited us Thanksgiving Sunday. We had been enjoying hors d'ouevres on the deck when it landed and started munching on the last wedge of naan. We left it. All afternoon, while Mom, Dad, Brenna and I played euchre there in attenuated sunlight, the beetle gorged itself, preparing for hibernation perhaps. Once we looked over to see the bare piece of bread lying there, trembling and heaving. The creature had crawled underneath and was pushing it across the table with all its tiny might. Eventually the insect finished—or gave up whatever it was trying to do—and disappeared, leaving the chewed slice and a pile of crumbs.

I don't know what I'm doing half the time, but like the beetle I keep going until it's time to sleep.

Turns out this is Nicrophorus tomentosus, a species of carrion beetle or burying beetle. In flight it resembles a bumblebee. Apparently this individual was confused over its food. Adults in this genus look for a mouse carcass, bury it, battle over it, mate, lay eggs, defend it communally against ants and fly maggots, wait for their grubs to hatch, then feed them pieces of rotting flesh.

Maybe my own endeavours—to raise ideas to maturity—are more purposeful than they look or feel. I must just make sure I'm working on a dead mouse and not a piece of naan.

Comments

[missprune.livejournal.com]

My eyes caught your last sentence first and it was a wonderful bizarre mind-bend! I'm still grinning...

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I much enjoyed writing that sentence. :-)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I just don't want to spend money unless we know for sure what's wrong with it. Don't worry, Bruce. I'm no worse off than before, and I've learned a few things. At the very least, the monitor you gave me is much better than my old one.

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

hopefully it's not the motherboard but the PS. Sometimes they won't produce quite enough juice to properly run things and thus reboot.

They are easy to replace and don't have to be expensive, but if Bruce has replaced it already, then he may be right, the MB or possibly the RAM is bad. have Danny check the RAM sticks to be sure they are seated right as in transit, some things may have worked loose, if so, that's it, no money spent.

Good luck with it though.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thanks, good points, which I'll mention to Danny when we check things on the weekend.

[token-otter.livejournal.com]

Well I hope the computer issues solve themselves, I know how frustrating they can be.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I doubt that they'll solve themselves, but perhaps with some help? ;-)

[token-otter.livejournal.com]

Oh you know what I mean :)

[lichtgespinst.livejournal.com]

too bad that the new computer is causing problems!
I do hope Danny will be able to fix it. Danny is the computer-whisperer...;-)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yes, I hope so! If the computer will agree with anyone, it will agree with Danny!

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's dead mouse tikka masala flavoured naan?

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Hehe. Apparently these beetles have an outstanding sense of smell (look at those antennae). So whatever flavour it was, apparently our bread smelt dead!

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

That's a great story and photo about the carrion beetle.

For some reason it all reminds me of Yeat's poem about the long legged fly, one of my favorite poems about Meditation.

xo Shimmer

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thanks for mentioning that poem. I just read it, with some interpretation, for the first time.

http://lardcave.net/tig/hsc/english.3u.yeats.longleggedfly.html

Confusion and struggle might themselves be forms of meditation.