Collecting Contents

When it rains it pours, they say, and I couldn't agree more. It seems like I'm in the midst of a stream of odd events again. Or maybe I'm just more alert, I don't now. Let's see, where should I start? Yesterday evening? Well, that I can maybe talk about later.

But we can begin with my daughter's PC which she bought from Dell last May. It worked fine, until about a month ago. She suddenly couldn't access the computer anymore, all she got was the desktop, but no icons or tool-bar or anything. Her brother tried to start in safe-mode, but it didn't work. Then she had another friend over this weekend, but he came to the same conclusion, only now with the dreaded blue screen telling that the hard disk couldn't be found. Yesterday I helped her to get in contact with the support at Dell, and they arranged to call her up this morning. The plan was to guide her through a recovery of the system.

She called me at ten, and told me about what had happened. The Dell guy had instructed her, she'd followed, but same result. Blue screen, no hard disk. Next step was to open up the machine and see if maybe the hard disk for some strange reason was loose. It could happen. Surprise! There was no hard disk. And I mean, actually, it wasn't there. Think about that for a while. Any explanations? Two possibilities, as I see it. Either someone's stolen it (but why didn't they take her digital camera or other valuables?), or - she's a sleepwalker!

I have two daughters, and the other is living with me, and this morning we went to the doctor. She's got some terrible eczema, especially on her hands and arms, but also some around her eyes. The doctor did his exam and also asked her some vital questions. All but one were expected, and as he looked at her clothing he said: "Is this the way you usually dress?"

"Uh-huh" was all she said.

"You see," the doctor continued "if you're allergic you might also react to the dying pigment in your clothes, and black clothes have the most." So by doctor's orders I might not have to see my youngest dress up like Marilyn Manson anymore. Wonderful!

More strange things? A friend of mine who I haven't seen for a very long time suddenly walked right into me only hours after I thought of her. We have this kind of spooky connection, and even if we don't see each other for months, we know how we feel about each other. Good friends are like that, no need for pretending.

All I need now, and I have a feeling I might just get it, is a really good angling to my paper about "ICT & Learning". If I get out of this fog with a big smile, I think I've collected enough odd things to fill up a whole book...