Comic Cuts - 4 June 2021

I'm writing this on my tablet as I'm not sure what's up with my PC. It hasn't died, but might be on its last legs.

First thing Thursday morning, I turned on the computer as normal after our walk. It fired up as normal, but the fan started growling immediately. This has been a problem all week and something that needs to be fixed. Annoying, but not (I thought) so bad that I can't keep working. I just turn up the music.

This morning was different. I checked my mail (a new order in from Amazon, couple of group digests), fired up iTunes and started downloading a couple of podcasts I'm subscribed to, went to check on Facebook... and my internet connection disappeared. Not unusual for around here, as friends will testify, having listened to me ranting about it on many occasions. But this was a little different. Trying to get back online caused the screen to start flickering, a series of thin blue lines then thicker lines, then thin again.

After a couple of minutes I switched my computer off. Then waited as it agonizingly slowly rebooted. Which it thankfully did. I have my desktop up and running, but still no internet connection. I'm a little nervous of going into the settings given what happened last time, so I'm doing a full back-up of my files before tackling trying to re-establish the connection. Just in case.

By coincidence, I was planning to do a back-up at the weekend. I spent the Bank Holiday shifting files around on three external hard drives, deep storing some old back-ups so that I had the space for a new one. Copying from one drive to another takes forever on my ancient computer, so I didn't finish until Tuesday evening. 

Wednesday was another hot one, so we took the opportunity for a trip down to the pub for a boozy lunch - two pints is "boozy" for me, these days - and I was trying to sort things out for the upcoming Bear Alley Books' releases, so I delayed doing the back-up until Saturday or Sunday.

Well, you all know how that has worked out. 

The internet connection is definitely working (that's how I'm managing to write this) and I will likely be able to re-establish the connection with my PC. But out of a sense over overcaution, I'll get the back-up done first.

In between the long hours of file copying, I have been finishing off the latest batch of books. I'm still waiting for proof copies to arrive, but I have my sales page ready to go - bar the links - and, as you'll see from our column header, here's the second cover revealed.

(Since starting this column the fan in my PC has been purring like a kitten and not growling like an old bear with a thin in its foot. I'm being trolled by my own computer!)

Friday morning update: I finished the back-up Thursday afternoon and then switched the wi-fi back on in the settings. The screen froze and I had to do another hard re-boot. Again, it was painfully slow, but everything relaunched OK and I was able to sort out my Amazon order without any problems. I had the machine running until around 11 o'clock last night without any incident. It booted up without any problems this morning and — for the moment at least — the fan seems to be working well.

Of course, it wouldn't be me without a battle with technology. Woke up this morning and wanted to copy off a couple of things I had written on the tablet. Damn thing wouldn't fire up... which is when I remembered that I hadn't shut the darn thing down properly and, even in sleep mode, it doesn't take long to flatten the battery. So the tablet's plugged into the mains and that should also be working OK by the time you read this and I will be fully tech enabled.