Miss Ginger Survives!

You've all heard about it!  Some of you may have even seen it!  Very few survive it, but Miss Ginger has survived the Blue Screen of Death!!

A lot of people bitch about the Windows operating system, and it does suck that they are allowed pretty much a total monopoly in PC operating system world.  But, computers are very complicated machines, and, contrary to what Mr. Jobs may wish you to believe,  Mac OS operating systems crash, too! 

This time Miss Ginger was lucky, as her machine seems to have bounced back, healthier and happier than ever!  And Miss G learned some lessons along the way, which she will share now in random order.

1.  If you suffer TBSOD, succomb to its demands!! Read the parts that aren't gibberish, and FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS! (I know this will be hard for you real men out there!)  Typically, they will instruct you to shut the machine down and restart. When you do, read the screen and FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS!!  Windows may offer to recover for you, in which case you are blessed.  If not, it will at least offer to open in "safe" mode, which usually puts the Gods of Microsoft in a better mood, and will then allow you to recover.  If you are lucky like Miss G, and patient (unlike Miss G) you will be walked through a series of updates, downloads, and restarts that will get you up and running again. 
2. A few things to remember: "safe mode" is your friend. "Restore points" are your friend. "Driver updates" are your friends.  TBSOD is typically caused by a faulty or outdated driver.  If you are patient (and lucky) with the Windows recovery process,  it will detect the bad driver, find an updated version, and install it. If you FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS!  And say a few Hail Marys. Or drink a few Bloody Marys.  Choose your own poison.
3. "Windows Updater" is not to be ignored.  Yes, it tends to pop up and offer it's services at "climactic moments" in your browsing life. Yes, they are time consuming and annoying and often require at least one restart of your system. Yes, they are just another way that Microsoft Corporation monopolizes our time and our lives. But, they have us by the balls, so to speak. So do yourself a favor and install them.  Don't let 6 or 7 updates pile up the way Miss Ginger did. That makes the Gods of Microsoft very angry!
4. Use a backup drive! And Miss Ginger means USE a backup drive... don't buy one at Sam's Club,  plug it in once, and then forget to plug it in again the next time you move your computer!  Miss Ginger uses has the "Clickfree" drive, and it's really cute and tiny and easy to use.  All you have to do is plug it in... hence Miss Ginger's problem.  They now have a wireless version, so you don't even have to plug it in.  For the extremely lazy. Like Miss G.

So there you have it... computer advice from the most computer illiterate drag queen on Earth!