No matter what language it's in, the above message on one's computer screen is alarming, especially when it is preceded by a gray curtain descending from the top of one's computer screen to the bottom (in the Windows operating system, the screen apparently just stays blue and is known as the "Blue Screen of Death"). Apple prefers the term, "kernel panic". Apple products may panic, but they never ever die.
I asked a techhead friend to describe "kernel panic" in a way I understood. He said, "It's like you're reading instructions for putting together a complicated piece of IKEA furniture and the 18th critical step is left out. You need bolt Q, but it's not there. So the computer shuts down because it does not understand what to do or where to go next."
Don't you wish that happened to humans? Or perhaps it does. Flannista knows that she shut down a good part of the past 48 hours, numb from a seemingly catatrosphic failure for an iMac that is just four months old. What did I do wrong? Should I have shut it down more often rather than putting it to sleep? Do I play Nine Inch Nails music on iTunes too much? Do I use the f-word within earshot of the logic board? Who knows? I will confess that it felt okay to shut down in a new way. A year ago, I would have ranted and wept and stomped my feet. This weekend, I just shut up, tried not to panic. Have patience. Thought a lot about Gwendolyn waiting for biopsy and CT scan results. Then I realized that I was calm enough to do my own pondering and wondered if the problem began when I changed the track pad batteries ten days ago . . . could they be bad? Could the bluetooth track pad be that missing part -- bolt Q? Could my panic be resolved simply by inserting two other new batteries?
It seems it could. Jury is still out, but so far, so good.
I find myself humbled by it all . . . and wondering about how much I have relied on computers for my sense of well-being. Perhaps it's time the gray curtain came down on that need, and a brighter curtain came up on what more reliably enlightens my soul. I don't yet know. I do know that I'm not going to panic about it.
Would not using your computer for a week enlighten your soul? If no, why? If yes, how so?
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