Computer Flu...

My computer is sick! I'm afraid it has a virus, and like most contagious diseases, you never quite know where it came from. Was it a link on Pinterest? One of the apps I got from the Chrome store? The Marvel Avengers Assemble game? ...I happen to think it's the last one. I broke one of the cardinal rules and clicked on an advertisement on a Youtube video. There is a reason you shouldn't.

It seemed like it was ok - for an hour, I was Agent Tanya, and I was saving the city from the evils of Hydra, Poison Ivy, and Viper. Iron Man and I even got the jump on Whiplash... Oh yeah people, I was on a team with Iron Man, Black Widow, & Hawkeye! Thor even came and helped us out when we were in a pinch. Captain America personally thanked me for defeating the bio-terrorists and he gave me a purple ion crystal. I felt like I was totally rocking the superhero thing! Then I tried to check my emails. And it wouldn't let me in. So I did the Number One Rule of IT training - turn it all off, count to ten, and turn it back on. It only got worse! Now I can't even log into my own user account!

This all happened at 12:30 last night, and since I couldn't freak out and tell someone (they all go to bed at a decent hour), I decided that maybe I should just go to bed. All those superhero-like feelings that I had surging through me only moments before slowly oozed out and I laid there thinking about every single file I had modified since the last backup. Doesn't really make for a good night's rest. 

I woke up this morning and discovered that Mom and Dad had left to help some people move. There went my backup IT guy... So, I took a deep breath, "You can do this! You are a certified A+ tech, aren't you? This is what you were trained for, just like in the book!" Except it wasn't very reassuring, because my instructor had told us that in most cases you just backup what you can and reload Windows, because finding all the corrupted files was much more difficult than simply starting off fresh again. I have been through pages of Microsoft support forums and I'm doing my best to avoid a reload, but I see it looming up in the distance...

For now, I'm using Mom's computer to write this, so I may not be writing consistently for a few days. Hopefully I'll be up and running again soon! In the meantime, be kind, smile at a stranger today, and whatever you do, don't click on popup ads! The price of being a superhero is too high for us mortals...