Comments on: Good News and Bad News: Mental Health Parity, Hippies, and Murphy’s Law Redux

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:55:42 +0000

Thanks, Vintage Mommy, for the comment!

Yes, Murphy is always lurking in the background to make new correlates to his Law! Like my browser crashing just as I’m finishing entering my post. Or every traffic light being red when you’re late to an appointment.

A great Murphy’s Law site is, oddly enough, the Murphy’s Law Site. It has a set of his laws for almost every profession and situation imaginable.

By: Vintage Mommy

Vintage Mommy — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:56:36 +0000

Sometimes I think Murphy has taken up residence in my printer; why is it that you *always* run out of cartridge ink when you’re in a hurry for something?

Good to keep a sense of humor about it all . . .

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:47:05 +0000

Thanks, Kim, I am feeling better. The crashes etc. were 3/4 the way through the day, so it was inevitable that I lose work. The worst was when I was putting the finishing touches on an exposure therapy post that I’d spent almost 5 hours on – computer crashed while I was saving, so it was completely gone! I didn’t lose the research, thankfully, but with 11 sources, it was a real chore to put together. I hope to get it rewritten and posted today.

The database I use to write in, DEVONThink Pro, is not entirely a database; it’s also a place to dump anything you can think of, part relational search tool, and part writing tool. The file size is over 9gb, so it takes hours to rebuild. It’s one of the most reliable pieces of software I have, but it was corrupted twice last week. Sigh.

I’m using a 4-year-old Mac Dual 2, which has been very, very dependable up until lately. The hard discs are new, so they ought not to crap out on me. I think some of the memory is bad, but the tests all show everything to be ok.

I’d like to get a new computer, but I can’t afford it right now. So I’ll just have to keep my fingers crossed!

By: Kim Woodbridge

Kim Woodbridge — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:16:33 +0000

Oh Mike – that’s a lot to deal with all at once. I hope you burned some incense ;-)

One day last winter I spent the entire day at a lawyer’s office and at family court due to some emergency custody issues. It was one of the worst days of my life. Then when I got home my computer was locked up and when I rebooted it wouldn’t start up – the hard drive was dead! Fortunately, I did have a backup but I can totally relate to the Murphy’s Law scenario – it was all too much to handle in one day.

I hope you’re feeling better :-)

And I guess all of this kept you from installing commentluv …

Are you going to need a new computer? Or have you diagnosed the problem?