  Yesterday my laptop blue-screened in a very alarming way, but after rebooting herself under her own recognizance, she worked fine in the library for 3 or 4 hours. When I got home, I backed up everything important onto CD, and as soon as I was done the damn thing started freezing.
During startup, 2 minutes after startup, 30 seconds after startup - she just wouldn't work. Now, I'm fairly proficient when it comes to solving most of your everyday computer malfunctions. Laptops are more difficult because you can't crack 'em open as easily. Laptops that simply freeze up - those are my white whale. Because what can you diagnose? "Uh. It just stops. " She's not crashing or blue screening (anymore - and that first one was a very scary relative of the less-scary Blue Screen Of Death that most Windows users have experienced) it just freezes completely.
Today, of course, it hasn't frozen at all. Perhaps this is because she knows I emailed Gateway and am about 24 hours from sending her back to get a completely new something-or-other. But this is absolutely the wrong time for such malfunctions, since I have FIVE finals to take and would really like to use my laptop. What's more, I really need a functioning laptop because if the damn thing crashes during a final, it's like the apocalypse. Marek had this problem and it meant his harddrive was failing. I would rather that wasn't the case.
But repair is difficult to consider, now that I'm in that gray area of time before finals. It's like when you're just far enough away from a light turning yellow and you hesitate for a few seconds too long, and you end up having to speed up or slam on the brakes. I'll either have to rush job fix this, or not use it at all during finals. Because I needed more on my mind right now. Stupid technology. 
