Computer breakdowns can be a nightmare. It can be a total pain when your electronic writing partner is in the shop or offline while you try to find the needed parts or even replace it. Here are a few things you can do to stay online while your computer is not.
FIND ANOTHER COMPUTER
If you have email to keep up on, especially if you are expecting some important music news or work-related information, you will need to get online. Check your local library--many offer free computer use, even if only one hour at a time. If you have a pal who can let you come by and do a little catching up, even better, but they might be just as needing of time online as you. You might see if there are any cyber cafes in your area, too. I'd stay off of work computers if at all possible--many companies don't think twice about firing employees over this, and I've seen many cases of the local IT person spreading gossip about what you do online all over the workplace. It has happened, and is more common than most will admit, so best to just don't. You might even check your local pawn shops or freecycle or yard sale boards for a free or cheap one you can buy or borrow until yours is fixed. It may be cheaper and even easier to do this than your one hour at a time at a local free use computer.
DON'T PANIC--PRIORITIZE
If you will only have an hour or so on another machine, make sure you know what needs to be done, first. Log into any picky accounts that require activity or they will shut down while you can't get online. If you have any weekly things that need doing, do them and write them up manually beforehand so you don't waste your precious online minutes. Bring a blank disc and cut and paste email if you need to or forward it to a less full account so nothing bounces. Unsubscribe and/or resubscribe mailing lists you are on to those less full accounts, or even set up one of the free huge ones on Yahoo!, Hotmail or Gmail if you can and use that one for now, especially for your really busy message boards, or go "no mail" for a bit and just check them online for a while. Hopefully, you have been backing up everything on your computer. Find your backup discs, just in case, as well as any hard copies of things you have done and see if you can simply recreate what you put on the computer while it is fresh in your memory, especially if it was a lyric or music you've written.
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