My computer died today, and I was sure I'd die right along with it. When I went to boot it up this morning it just made a few crunching noises like it usually does, and then nothing. The screen was black. My heart sank. I hadn't done a backup in too long. All I could think about was all the photos and videos I may lose if it was my hard drive that tanked. I also wasn't too thrilled about losing my blog entries, but I know I can at least re-type them from the internet (I can't copy anything from it for some reason.) So today was full of anxiety and a bit more stress than I'd like. I went to school and during lunch break I took my laptop down to a PC shop. They said they thought it was a bad hard drive, but I should call Dell support. I called the Dell support center here in Norway and they told me my warranty expired on the 9th of May. I looked up my serial number on their website and it showed that was the ship date, so I called back and said if I had a one year warranty, why wouldn't it start from the the time I received the computer, not from the time it shipped (I ordered it from their website last year.) They agreed to give me a 14 day grace period (first answered prayer). Then I took it to another repair place to see if they could do a backup on it before I sent it in for repair. They took it apart and told me it was the motherboard that was bad, not the hard drive, so that was the big answered prayer. Hallelujah for that! I hate that I trust my computer so much. I should NEVER trust it and ALWAYS back up my files, but I get lured into a false sense of security, like it's my best friend and it just won't let me down. Ha. I'm also thankful Kaleb has a laptop so I can at least access the internet. (His laptop has no software on it so I'm writing this blog in wordpad, so if there are a lot of typos, it's because I have no little red lines underscoring the errors of my ways.)
Kory wasn't too pleased with today either as he stayed home from work and was flat on his back all day. He might be there a few more days, as he is in a lot of pain. He won't go to a doctor or a chiropractor, but at least he's taking ibuprophen to reduce the swelling in his spine. He also broke loose a cap on one of his front teeth today when he crunched on an apple. He's had better days. Kaleb was the only one that was in a good mood, so we are thankful for that. He's learned how to stand on his head so that was our entertainment for the day. He is so proud.
As if all else wasn't enough, school was a real drag today. My Pal Vestina was out sick and no one was there that makes me laugh. Our topic for discussion today was on freedom of expression here in Norway. Norwegians take that freedom to extremes and they allow all kinds of things that would be censored in the U.S. Swear words are never removed from TV or newspapers here. Nude photos are also the norm. Even the youth claim that graffitti is just another form of their right to express themselves, so they don't get prosecuted for it. People are allowed to express themselves as long as it doesn't harm another person, so that's where they draw the line. But one thing that did get censored recently was a movie called "The Life of Brian." I don't know much about it but apparently it was some kind of parody of Jesus. The government here felt it was blasphemous so it wasn't allowed in the country which just made it all the more enticing so people found ways to get it and watch it. Just like the original sin....
I was also bummed out because I read a newspaper article today that said 40,000 teenagers will be Confirmed in Norway this year, and of those, only 37% say they believe in God. I think it's blasphemous that they are allowed to go through with it. When I questioned my teacher on that, she said Confirmation is now just a tradition that came out of Norway's religious background. "They needed a religion in the old days," she said, "because everyone had to struggle so much just to survive. But today we know more and have more information and we don't have to believe what the Church says." How sad. I told her the Church and God are two different things but I'm not sure she understood the difference.
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