I returned to work this morning from a week's vacation. I sat at my desktop and noticed a screen full of error messages that didn't make any sense. I pressed “enter” and a login prompt appeared.

I tried to log myself in, and about ten lines of the same error messages printed. The command line disappeared.

Several control-alt-delete reboot attempts failed, so I turned off my computer the manual way (holding down the power button), waited a few seconds, then turned it back on. I stared at the start-up screen for over a minute before I decided that it should have progressed by then. I rebooted once more.

This time, it skipped the start-up screen and went straight to the “insert boot disk or drive” screen. That can't be good, I thought. I found the Linux guy Bob and asked him if he was doing anything with Everin, to which he replied negatively.

We walked back to my office. With one look at the monitor, he knew the computer was toast. When I returned to my office a little later, the monitor was off and the computer was open and undergoing surgery.

Bob warned me earlier this summer to buy a back-up drive, but I didn't. I don't know if anything is salvageable. Luckily, I didn't lose anything that I can't reproduce (I hope). It's a good thing Pete copied some of his archived files that he needed two weeks ago; I hope he didn't lose anything valuable. I now need to gather opinions about what kind of specs I need for the new work computer that I will be getting.

I spent the rest of the day signing paperwork for my fellowships and attending two of my classes. This semester I am taking Classical Dynamics I and Electromagnetic Theory I.