日常 - nichijou, Arawi Keiichi
It's 10:04 pm.
"How did you manage to break all of your fingers and your thumb as well?" Yoshino asks conversationally as they return from the hospital. She's holding a bag containing leftover Daiku Burger fries in her left hand.
"Quiet," Mio mutters. "You didn't tell me you put a wire there."
"But the Internet is a necessity once you have a computer! I took the liberty of installing all of the necessary wires myself before you got home from school."
Mio grumbles.
"You should be more careful, Mio. Be more aware of your surroundings."
Mutter, grumble.
"By the way…" Yoshino pauses with the key in the lock. "How are you going to finish writing your report if your hand is out of commission like that?"
Mio lifts up her right hand. All the fingers on that hand are locked into place with metallic splints. Her sister is right. There's no way she'll be able to finish writing her assignment like this. Also, left-handed writing is completely out of the question.
"Crap."
"Huh? What's that?"
Mio clenches her left fist. "I'll finish typing it as quickly as possible, and then print it. No sweat."
"Ahh, giving the computer another try? Mm." Yoshino pushes open the front door. "Though it may seem troublesome now, getting used to computers is a good investment in this day and age."
Mio flicks on the lights, storms upstairs and slams open the door to her bedroom. She turns on the monitor. She awkwardly moves the mouse around with her left hand, and with difficulty, opens up a new Microsoft Word document.
Typing with only her left hand is going to be trickier, but at least she has a manuscript that is 80 percent complete to copy off of. She sets the lined sheet of paper next to her and begins typing.
It's 10:10 pm.
Suddenly, a pop-up appears.
The list of common French (France) AutoCorrections is not available. The feature is not currently installed. Would you like to install it now?
"What—" But Mio had been in the middle of pressing enter to create a new paragraph, so she had already selected yes.
Preparing to install…
"Huh!?" Mio frowns. "What're you talking about? This is English, not French!" She clicks cancel repeatedly, but nothing happens.
Thirty seconds pass.
Error 1706. Setup cannot find the required files. Check your connection to the network, or CD-ROM drive. For other potential solutions to this problem, see C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\1033\ .
"Well of course not, idiot," Mio hisses. "I didn't ask you to install anything and I don't want any French language... Geez! THAT'S NOT EVEN FRENCH! IT'S ENGLISH! ENGLISH, FRIGGIN' COMPUTER!" Mio slams the table with her left hand.
She closes her eyes, forcing herself to take deep breaths.
It's 10:15 pm.
Mio saves the file.
This file is read only. (C:\...\English Assignment…)
"What do you mean read only?" Mio's voice is dangerously quiet. "I didn't set it as read only. I saved it just fine a minute ago." She throws up her arms. "What the hell, man!?"
After glaring for a while, Mio slowly gets up, goes to the door, and calls for her sister.
Yoshino comes in. "Hm, that's an annoying glitch," she says, looking at the screen. "You should name the file something else and then save it."
"Hn…" Mio grumbles.
"Remember to always be user-friendly," Yoshino waves as she walks out the door.
Mio glares at the computer monitor.
It's 10:23 pm.
"What the hell?" Mio squints at the monitor. "Why's that last sentence all in caps?" She tries to arrow-key over to the beginning of the sentence, but instead, the cursor highlights the sentence as she goes left.
"What. The. Hell." Mio's eye twitches. They're starting to get bloodshot. Finally, she calls her sister in.
"Ah, it looks like your shift button got stuck in place," Yoshino says, jiggling the aforementioned key free. She walks out of the room, making a V shape with her fingers. "Remember, always declare your variables first!"
Mio exhales slowly and shakily, trying to keep her anger under control.
She glares at the keyboard. "Seriously?"
It's 10:26 pm.
"Stickykeys?..." Mio's nose is pressed against the monitor. Her eyes are narrowed slits.
It's 10:35 pm.
"Freaking lag!" Mio is standing up, leaning forward, and giving the computer monitor a death glare.
She's tried moving the mouse and typing on the keyboard, but there has been absolutely no motion at all on the screen for the last five minutes.
Mio begins involuntarily making a hissing sound as the seconds tick by.
It's 10:38 pm.
This program is not responding.
To return to Windows and check the status of the program, click Cancel.
If you choose to end the program immediately, you will lose any unsaved data. To end the program now, click End Now.
End Now · Cancel
Mio hits End Now without hesitation.
Nothing happens.
Hitting the limit of her patience, Mio ducks under the desk and violently pulls out the power cord for the computer. The sound of the computer fan immediately dies away.
Mio plugs the cord back in again, resigning herself to another long wait as the computer boots up again. She slumps into her seat and pinches the bridge of her nose.
It's 10:55 pm.
For some reason, the red and green in the computer monitor have disappeared. Everything on the screen is now shades of blue.
Mio shakes her head. She yanks on the computer monitor wire, slamming it into the edge of the desk. The monitor image flickers, and now everything is shades of blue, cyan, and green. Red is still missing, though.
Mio seethes.
It's 11:15 pm.
Mio navigates the cursor over to the print button.
Click.
Nothing happens.
Click.
Nothing happens.
Mio shoots out of her chair and slams her hands down on the table. "DAMN IT, I clicked on the button! What the HELL is wrong with you!?"
It's getting late, and she's running out of time. She's not sure if her trembling is because of her despair, her anger, or the effort of restraining herself from smashing the computer.
It's 11:26 pm.
Visibly weary, Mio walks into Yoshino's room. "Can you help me?... My computer's not responding. Again."
Yoshino stands up from her desk. "Very well."
Mio's computer monitor had frozen a while ago. Moving the mouse would only elicit a very exaggerated response after a delay of several seconds.
Yoshino bends down to examine the case while Mio stands back and watches impatiently.
"Here's the problem," Yoshino announces, getting back up. "Have you noticed?"
"What."
Yoshino holds up a finger. "It's a lot quieter."
Mio wants her sister to just get on with it.
"The fan must have malfunctioned, so your computer is overheating." Yoshino smiles. "When a computer overheats, its processing power goes way down. No wonder it's lagging so much!"
"Can you fix it?..."
"Mm." Yoshino stares contemplatively at the computer. "I could fiddle around with the internal connections to see if something got knocked loose, or I could go out and buy a new fan and install it."
Mio sighs, clutching her head. "Is that going to take long?"
"There could be a very simple solution," says Yoshino.
It's 11:39 pm.
Fiddling around with the insides was a complete failure.
Mio taps her foot in impatience, waiting for her older sister to finish going out and buying a new fan from some computer store that allegedly stayed open late.
She tries to use the free time efficiently by studying for her test tomorrow, but she's having trouble focusing. Just... ugh. Stupid computer!
日常 - nichijou, Arawi Keiichi
