grasswire

You know how you have a piece of hardware that simply won’t work unless you give it the right kick, hit it on a particular spot or give it a good ‘ol push? Well, I’m fine with that and have always respected a piece of machinery with its own will but this is just as long as we are talking about vending machines, copiers of basement doors. However once your computer refuses to continue working unless you give it a little shake or a flip to one side, things stop being amusing. Particularly if ones PhD is due in a few months. Well, because of the latter, I have been doing the former – vigorous shaking, tilting, gentle smacks, whatever it took - for over two weeks. But as the level of inflicted pain needed to get it to work passed a certain threshold, I decided to give it to our computer staff. It’s been with them for a week now and I’m thinking they will need at least one more before they fix it. In the mean time, I have been confined to my office computer (which is sooo slow that you can take a coffee break while shifting between programmes, not to mention that all the angry kicking has no effect on it what so ever) and squatting on CC’s laptop after she goes to sleep. I tend to post at night (the most stimulating time for me to write) however lately my graveyard shifts were all thesis-related. But since the chapter is finally on its way to my supervisor, we are back in the game for some grasswired adventures. I’m thinking something Razzman-inspired soon…

The illustration is from one of those Little Golden Book dictionaries from early fifties (part of post-war US aid/propaganda to Yugoslavia). I flipped over them last time we visited my mother (I really love the illustrations) plus it was interesting to speculate which of the words would not make it into current editions.