Nah, you've just got really bad flu

[sovay]

An incident this evening with a badly shimmed coffee table and a mug of goat milk left me frantically cleaning my ancient (ten years old!) and beloved laptop with very small amounts of water and much more rubbing alcohol, talking reassuringly to him all the while. spatch now claims that "Hang on, Bertie, and don't catch fire!" is his favorite music-hall song.

Comments

[pameladean]

Very best wishes for a goat-milk-free recovery. P.

[sovay]

Very best wishes for a goat-milk-free recovery.

Thank you. I flipped him upside down almost at once, but he's only ever had water spilled into him before, and I am a little nervous.

[sholio]

Having poured both a glass of wine and a cup of tea into one of my previous laptops, I can relate to the panic! Hoping for a speedy recovery. (My old laptop survived those incidents with just a slightly stuttery CD drive, so I think Bertie's prognosis is probably good.)

[sovay]

(My old laptop survived those incidents with just a slightly stuttery CD drive, so I think Bertie's prognosis is probably good.)

I appreciate the reassurance! I am hoping, too. Bertie Owen is the only computer I have ever named; he has survived three keyboard transplants, the permanent death of his CD drive, at least two hard drive replacements (the SSD was the one that finally took), at least one battery replacement, and he goes through chargers like Kleenex. Technically he is still a 2009 MacBook Pro with a 15-inch screen, but he is also the ship of Theseus.

(His namesakes are George VI and Owen Pugh. In 2012, I took him into the Apple store because we thought one of his fans had died and discovered much to the surprise of everyone, including the dude in the utilikilt who pulled out the specs to make sure, he had only ever had one fan in the first place. He was supposed to have two. It explained the chronic overheating. I named him after the first two one-lunged people I could think of.)

[sholio]

That is both an extremely charming reason for the name, and a fascinating computer parallel to the instances of humans, for example, going in for surgery for something else and finding out that they only have one kidney.

I hope that Bernie will turn out to have another decade in him! He sounds like a tough old guy.

[sovay]

I hope that Bernie will turn out to have another decade in him! He sounds like a tough old guy.

Thank you! He's been remarkably stubborn. And while it is true that I could not afford to replace him, it is also true that I don't want to.

[moon_custafer]

I named him after the first two one-lunged people I could think of.

Thanks for the explanation— having googled Owen Pugh, I’ve now read Le Guin’s “Nine Lives” for the first time, and also seen reports from late 2018 of a possible movie adaptation starring Johnny Lee Miller and Common (presumably as Pugh and Martin respectively), though there doesn’t seem to be any more recent report of it.

[sovay]

Thanks for the explanation— having googled Owen Pugh, I’ve now read Le Guin’s “Nine Lives” for the first time,

It's one of my favorite stories of hers; I can't count how many times I've re-read it. It gave me a useful image for an important thing. "What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?"

and also seen reports from late 2018 of a possible movie adaptation starring Johnny Lee Miller and Common (presumably as Pugh and Martin respectively), though there doesn’t seem to be any more recent report of it.

Oh, interesting. I never thought about it as a film, but if faithfully adapted, there's no reason it would not make a good one. There's no reason it would be faithfully adapted, of course.

[kore]

I named him after the first two one-lunged people I could think of

<333

[sovay]

<333

I would have had to be around in the 1920's to say accurately that I liked George VI before he was cool, but I did have one of the single most pretentious forms of that experience when The King's Speech came out in 2010 and all of a sudden there was an AO3 fandom for this historical figure I'd gotten fond of all on my own and photosets all over Tumblr and it was hilarious. And then Jared Harris played him in the first season of The Crown (2016–). Who held a casting call in my id?

I am not sure Owen Pugh has ever had a fandom, but I still like him.

[kore]

Wait, JARED HARRIS is in the Crown? Shit I might have to watch that. (We became Harris groupies after 'Chernobyl.')

[sovay]

Wait, JARED HARRIS is in the Crown? Shit I might have to watch that.

He's in, like, two episodes of the first season! (I tapped out at the end of the first season when, at the last moment of what had heretofore been the kind of show where you could finish watching an episode and then research all the biographical details it had committed to representing as correctly as the facts are known, it dramatically falsified a point where the reality was stranger and far more compelling.) But he's excellent in them.

For all intents and purposes I discovered him with The Terror (2018) which I loved so much that I have never managed to write about it and that was that, but technically I noticed him first in The Notorious Bettie Page (2005), charmingly singing a bawdy song.

[kore]

OMG, that looks hilarious. "I believe in Jesus (in cruciform pose)." "Of course you do, my dear."

[sovay]

OMG, that looks hilarious.

It was directed and co-written by Mary Harron; Gretchen Mol stars as Page; I saw it when it came out, because I could do that in grad school, and I liked it a lot. I keep meaning to rewatch it. I seem to have one LJ-note from the time:

"Some of the friends with whom I saw Bettie Page had mixed feelings about the film, perhaps because it's not a particularly explanatory biography—but for me, that wasn't the point. As a snapshot of 1950's attitudes towards sexuality, kink, and what wasn't quite yet the porn industry, it's terrific. There's very nice use of black and white cinematography contrasted with the occasional sequence in what looks scarily like Technicolor. And the supporting cast is half the fun: particularly the business-minded brother and sister who introduce Bettie to the world of fetish modeling, and a neat little near-cameo from David Strathairn as a smut-investigating senator. (All books can be indecent books, though recent books are bolder / For filth, I'm glad to say, is in the mind of the beholder . . .) I would definitely recommend it."

(David Strathairn is in fact playing Senator Estes Kefauver, which since I had almost literally just seen him as Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) was either funnier than or exactly as funny as it was meant to be.)

[kore]

That is a charming note!

Senator Estes Kefauver

LOL OMFG yes he was one of my dad's heroes (New Deal, mafia hearings, taking on big pharma IIRC) so it would definitely be a XD moment for me too.

[gwynnega]

Hang on, Bertie!

[gwynnega]

If it's not a music hall song, it could be a version of "Hang On Sloopy" by the McCoys.

[sovay]

If it's not a music hall song, it could be a version of "Hang On Sloopy" by the McCoys.

By transitive property I am now stuck listening to "Snoopy Come Home."

[thisbluespirit]

Heh. I trust Bertie is okay?

[sovay]

Heh. I trust Bertie is okay?

He's working this morning!

[lemon_badgeress]

you’re okay, bertie, you’re okay. it’s all okay now!!

*crosses fingers*

[sovay]

you’re okay, bertie, you’re okay. it’s all okay now!!

So far today, so good!

[kore]

Ohhhh man HANG ON BERTIE HANG ON

[sovay]

Ohhhh man HANG ON BERTIE HANG ON

He turned on and I am on the internet!

[kore]

FUCKING YAY! (not hyperbole) (also my superstitious Hungarian grandmother would love this, "It's a good omen!")

[sovay]

FUCKING YAY! (not hyperbole)

I don't take it as such! He's important to me! Thank you.

[pameladean]

Hooraaaaaaaaaay! *whew* P.

[davidgillon]

Fingers crossed! My previous laptop survived a glass of red wine with only some interesting tinting in the upper left corner of the screen.

I suspect milk being a bit thicker than water might work in your favour and have limited any penetration into the innards before you could take action.

[sovay]

I suspect milk being a bit thicker than water might work in your favour and have limited any penetration into the innards before you could take action.

I shall hope so. At the moment, keyn-ahora knock wood, he seems to be working all right. The trackpad is making a softer click than I am used to, but it's clicking.

[movingfinger]

Olivia Jaimes sees you

[sovay]

Olivia Jaimes sees you

Thank you.

[a_reasonable_man]

So Bertie is OK?

I learn so much from your posts. I did not know the story of George VI's one lungedness

Speaking of wobbly tables, I assume you've seen this?

[sovay]

So Bertie is OK?

Cautiously, he seems to be.

I learn so much from your posts. I did not know the story of George VI's one lungedness

I mean, he started out with two. But he did have a pneumonectomy, so it sticks with me.

Speaking of wobbly tables, I assume you've seen this?

I had to extract the link because it didn't work in your comment, but no, I have not, and I will now!

[a_reasonable_man]

Sorry about the link not working! But I've found this technique helpful not only for wobbly tables, but chairs.

[choco_frosh]

Oh wow.

[sovay]

Oh wow.

He seems to be working and I'm trying not to push my luck.

[nineweaving]

"Hang on, Bertie, and don't catch fire!"

Nine

[sovay]

"Hang on, Bertie, and don't catch fire!"

So far, no fire!