My Computer Ate My Homework!
I’ll never forget that horrible, horrible feeling that sank into my bowels when I saw the power go out on my computer. It’s not that my work wasn’t saved - I always saved my work, but this was a complete power outage and my computer did something strange before it completely gave up the ghost that night.
I work for a major insurance company out of east London and after five years of busting my head for what seemed like a couple quid a year, I finally got the option of making a presentation to my team leader that I thought would take us in a great new direction. I’d been working on this presentation for two weeks solid at home, getting it ready and doing lots of research. Three days before the presentation (and before payday), I was working late when all of a sudden, all of the power goes out in my flat. But my computer doesn’t just die, right? It does this weird flash of the screen a split-second after the juice is gone, leaving me wondering what had just happened. Then I caught it: the faintest whiff of ozone.
Of course when the power came back on everything else in my house lit up just fine, but my computer just sat there like a deaf, dumb, mute. I tried hitting the power button but there was no response at all. Panicked, I called an expert the next morning who came in and charged me my last £50.00 to tell me that the power outage had surged through my computer and fried the motherboard. I asked him about the hard drive and he ran a quick test and told me that it had fried as well. All of my work on that presentation had been on that hard drive and now I was just three days out and likely to end up looking like some kind of half-wit in front of my whole department. The computer repair guy said he knew someone who could probably retrieve data off of my hard drive, but that he charged over £100 just for the effort of trying with no guarantees. I’d just paid my last pence for this bloke’s useless advice and didn’t have a dime more until payday which was also three days away.
Paycheck Advance
In desperation I went to the local library, used the computer there and applied online for a paycheck advance. I was approved that day and at midnight, I had money deposited into my account that I was able to use the next day to pay the expert to come in and take a look at my hard drive. After a few moments and hurried prayers, he gave me the good news that my data was recoverable. A short while later, he handed me a disc with my complete presentation on it up to a few minutes before the power outage and left. I went to the library, finished my presentation there, and was ready for work that Friday.
