Crunch: The Reboot
Crunch: The Reboot
Writing Exercise #28
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Enjoy!
Crunch: Write about computer troubles
I waited till nightfall. It was dangerous in the fallen city during the day, too, but at night at least it was harder to be seen.
In the outskirts of town, I had been sifting through pre-collapse landfills. Cities back then used to produce mountains of trash, and societies back then liked to collect them in one place. I was looking for computer equipment—I was going to trade the computer to a collector in the city, for some food, maybe for a gun. My stomach rumbled. Focus.
The streets of the city were perfectly dark—only a few scattered lights hinted at the presence of people. A fire on the 12th story of a leaning tower; a flickering electric light kluged together by someone with enough know-how and probably armament to not be afraid.
I had my computer—or at least, my computer parts. I had met with the collector earlier in the day, to tell him I would be coming.
At last: “About time, feller. Come inside.”
I followed behind the strange man, and put my bag on the counter while he walked behind.
“Show me what ye got in that bag, there.”
I pulled out some junk parts, and then: the computer.
“Wow!” He plugged the computer in and pressed some buttons. Nothing happened.
“Uh, kid, you said you had a working computer.”
“It, uh, it does work.”
“This ain’t workin.”
“It’s got all the parts, though!”
“Maybe it does, it ain’t workin!”
“Did…did you try rebooting?”
(250 words)
Talk to me!
Your feedback helps to improve my writing. I would really appreciate a comment on your thoughts on this writing exercise. Consider telling me your thoughts about:
Has IT ever told you to try rebooting?
Everyone check in as “safe” on facebook after the Crowdstrike thing last friday?
What’s the oldest technology you own and still use?
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy! Come back next week for another writing exercise!
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Thank you and God bless!
I'm glad you chose to write about the literal process of rebooting a computer and not the metaphorical rapaciousness of the Hollywood version.
I love the word "kluged". It sounds perfectly descriptive for that situation.
1. I think it has, at one point or another; I know I've had to restart any number of work laptops over the years to take care of updates and whatnot.
2. More or less, although I'm really only on FB these days to connect with a few friends and relatives who don't live in the area. Half the time it's all random posts and TV spoilers.
3. Up until a few months ago I would've said it was my phone, which was a Samsung Galaxy S7. But that too has been replaced so... my library card, maybe? Does that count?