Disconnected Weekend

What started out as a nice R&R weekend for yours truly turned into a harrowing, nerve-wrecking experience when my PC decided to act up again. See, B had to work last weekend so when I found out about it, I made plans to spend my weekend catching up on my sleep, TV time and updating my blogs. I was even contemplating on changing my blog layout, something that I've been putting off for a while now. I had also just finished a busy workweek so the thought of having a free weekend with no translation or copywriting jobs hovering above my head was pure bliss.

I was up quite early that Sat morning. Feeling good about this little "accomplishment", I started the day with my EC round before checking into Blog Explosion to vote for my friends Roxy and LJ. Immediately after this, my screen suddenly froze and refused to load or refresh. I waited for several minutes before attempting to refresh the page again but to no avail. Thinking that perhaps there was a glitch somewhere, I restarted my PC; hoping that a restart was all it needed to kick back into full gear. The same problem persisted and I was still unable to load any of my friends' blogs or even my own Mariuca or MPG for that matter! :(

Refusing to let this little hitch (or so I thought!) get to me, I decided to put off my blogsurfing and EC dropping to check on my Facebook Friends, or rather my precious games, which I have been sorely neglecting over my hectic week. Unfortunately, even that didn't happen as I could not log in to my FB account either! By then, I was starting to panic and decided to go back to basics by performing a simple search on Google, which also failed miserably as the page refused to load as well. :(

I knew for a fact that it wasn't my connection causing this glitch since I could still send out and receive emails. I could also log on to some other websites like PPP and Smorty, but I couldn't view any of my favourite blogs like Listening, Learning, Living, Emila's Illustrated Blog, A Great Pleasure, Revellian, NAFASg, Anything Goes, Mumblings, A Total Blog, First Time Dad, This Is A Miracle, The Painted Veil and so many more. Every time I click on their link, the page turned up empty. My EC round was unfortunately halted and I also missed out on 2 dNeero survey opportunities during this temporary disconnect. Everything was at a standstill and suddenly, the lovely Saturday afternoon that started off so very bright and cheery became very, very bleak!

The problem persisted until the next day. I got up early again just to check on my PC. My heart immediately dropped when I was still unable to visit my friends or surf! After scanning (again!) for viruses and what not that could be causing this problem and still coming up empty-handed, I realized that the only way to solve this problem and not go through another day of heartache, was to perform a complete restore on my PC. This is something I try to avoid at all costs simply because it's such a hassle and time-consuming for me to reinstall all my software and rebuild my PC. Plus, I had just recently started playing Virtual Villagers 3 and a restore would wipe out all my saved game, which only had 3 more puzzles for me to solve before winning! Left with no choice, I reluctantly and angrily went through the tedious process of backing-up my work files, my photos, my important emails and my blog stuff before restoring my PC to its original retail state.

When all was done, the weekend was almost over. I did however manage to fix the problem and Mariuca was back in business! I could finally view all my favourite blogs, I could check into my FB at last and see how badly I've been hit at Triumph and I could resume my daily EC routine too!

So after almost 2 days of worry and grief, I was back to being one happy camper. Any blogger would probably share my sentiments when it comes to PC problems, especially when you're not able to log in to your own blog! And I had to go through it on the first free weekend that I had in a long while. I totally didn't get to enjoy the R&R I had planned for myself and ended up working on my PC instead. To cheer me up and to make up for not being there during my time of distress, B surprised me with my favourite Starbucks Iced Latte and this yummy Vienna Brownie from Secret Recipe when he got home from work! I'm going to enjoy this sinfully sweet, chocolatey, chewy delight without any guilt whatsoever; I so deserve it after my Disconnected Weekend! Anyone wants a bite? :)