elvenpiratelady | Next on Fox News: When good technology goes BAD!

I've certainly had an... interesting weekend, technology-wise. While getting a computer that doesn't panic when asked to do such a complicated thing as open MS Word is a bonus, getting all the files off the old laptop took a while. Nevertheless, I was happily trundling back and forth from laptop to family PC, filling my USB with files &etc, when on one trip it announced that the USB was full.

Fair enough. It was only 256MB (and I only just managed to fill it this weekend, which should tell you how often I use it).

I say was because it's now sitting on my desk in disgrace. Or perhaps it's recuperating. In any case, it's full and that did something to its brain. It did something to the computer, too. Apparently my old USB is not a USB anymore. It has decided that what it really wants, what will really make its life worthwhile, is to be a CD. And it made the change (internal, I assume, there's been no difference in appearance) without so much as a 'by your leave'.

Hmph.

This leads me to the lessons of the day: 1) technology is a tricksy and conniving thing; and 2) put backup copies of your work EVERYWHERE. Luckily I didn't lose anything I need for uni, and as far as I know there are no fics missing, but I was working on some icons and there seems to be little chance of getting them back. Take my pain as a lesson, children.

However, there is no day without a bit of sunshine &etc, so I now have a new USB.

Her name is Tosh*. She can hold 1GB. She has a pink lid and puts on a little strobe light appearance when I plug her into the computer.**

She is beautiful.

I think we will get on very well together.

*Because she is made by Toshiba. I may very well name the new computer Owen.

**Interestingly, the family PC (the newest) didn't blink an eye when I first plugged Tosh in, but the laptop and the old PC (whose age, I believe, is best measured in geological eras) went into a whirl when I introduced her to them. Suddenly: lights, camera, programs! It was as though each was the curator of an old and obscure museum (something like the History of Stockings or somesuch, I imagine) with dust five inches thick on the ground and who almost goes into orgasmic throes of ecstasy when a visitor arrives, because such things occur approximately once every geological age. And so they bustle around, giving the clueless (and by now, I assume, rather bemused and overwhelmed) visitor an extensive tour of every room, offer them tea and biscuits, and generally hope that they will never leave.

Or, perhaps, it is simply because they are lonely computers and Tosh is female, so the effect is more like the fantasy club converging around its single female member. I prefer the forgotten museum analogy, personally, but let's move on.

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I also wrote more Scarlet and Silver drabbles (here are the first, if you missed them), and this was the first of those things. Start your working week with a fresh dose of fic!

13. forest

The woods of Arcady are dead,
And over is their antique joy;
Of old the world on dreaming fed;
Grey Truth is now her painted toy

- Yeats, ‘The Song of the Happy Shepherd’

Lothlórien is dying.

Celeborn tries not to see it, and for him she wills Nenya to ever greater spells, wishing that the golden leaves will never fade. The mellyrn bloom later every year, the white trunks of her trees becoming like bones. The people see nothing wrong; she is torn between wanting them to notice and wanting to shield them from such a sight. It is a terrible thing to watch one you love succumb to the shadow.

Then she realises: Lothlórien is dying.

The forest is not.

The beeches, oaks and elms will continue on without the golden leaves striking highlights in the foliage. The people will go on, even Celeborn, an it grieve him.

But the golden dream, so nearly gone, was for her, and she will follow her dreamflower home.