Bricked

The lappy started to behave weird a week or so ago.
I suspected that there may be some bugs and when I found out that I was unable to download any antivirus software, I became quite sure.
When, on Tuesday, my eBay account was stolen for the second time, I became paranoiac and had the surprisingly intelligent idea of backing up most of my data. In fact, those hard to restitute things, such as the scarce notes for my doctoral thesis, had been backed up last Friday when the first account theft appeared and the computer showed signs of sickness.
All the Tuesday night, I and IT Joe were trying to find a way how to get some computer pesticide into the computer without downloading it from the internetz. The good ole ftp worked - and then the bugs didn't let the applications to be installed. Another several hours we, or rather Joe, tried to find something that doesn't need installing. At midnight, I had it in the lappy, let it run and it killed several viruses, ate 144 faulty files.
The next day, lappy worked better and then bricked. Apparently, the software equivalent of DDT ate part of the windows themselves. I managed to run the lappy after a bajillion of restarts to shout for help and then gave in.

Now, the installation discs for windows and whatever else I may need are arriving from several directions, unless the Italian Post eats them - I told mom to send Photoshop and some rather antiquarian software I'm using with EMS because that does arrive in a reasonable timespan. At the time being, I'm waiting for mail, reading trashy magazines, knitting, watching paint dry and doing other things that were forgotten in the times of internet as the main entertainment hub.

I'm perusing the school network and it sucks because the access to eBay is blocked here. I can live without shopping for a few days but I have due payments and I hate to have due payments. Since I'm computer-free, there won't be any pictures for a few days either.

It's my birthday today so now excuse me, I need to go for a shopping spree.