Well, it seems the hard drive in my not yet three year old computer is failing, and by that I mean it has pretty much failed and I will be lucky if I can retrieve the data I hadn’t yet backed up from it. Surprisingly, I’m not freaking out too much. It is what it is.
When I turned on my computer yesterday and heard the repeating clacking noise coming from the tower I knew right away things were not good. I logged off, rebooted just to be sure it wasn’t a fluke, then shut down. I went online to hunt for an affordable replacement which I found at NewEgg for $70. The drive should be here on Monday so in the meantime I’m relegated to getting my Internet fix via my iPad and iPhone. It’s not horrible, but it really is easier using an actual computer for everything other than casual web surfing. I can’t edit or post any photos taken with my SLR, track our finances (I use Excel), and some content just can’t be viewed on a mobile device (someone explain to me the reasoning behind certain YouTube videos being blocked on mobile devices – these days that seriously hinders the number of views you’re going to get). Many apps for services aren’t fully functional (I’m looking at you, Facebook, although you are getting better) making an actual computer a necessity instead of an option. In other words we still have a long way to go before we can forgo buying actual computers or laptops altogether. I would like my next computer to actually be a laptop but I can wait a couple of years to make the switch since by then my desktop will be really outdated.
In other sucky news, we received a letter from our mortgage company yesterday letting us know that as of February 15th they will no longer be our mortgage company because they are bankrupt. The letter was dated February 6th and stated all payments made after the 15th need to go to the new company. Since I had a payment pending for the 20th I logged into my account to cancel it. I then went to the URL provided for the new mortgage company only to be presented with a “coming soon” page. Are you kidding me!!?!? You give people less than 10 days’ notice and the new company doesn’t even have a functional website to make a payment? Wow. I feel like we’re in for some real headaches with these clowns. If I wasn’t currently unemployed I’d be shopping for a new mortgage company.