For those who don't know, my beloved 9 year old computer - Alma Shitboxington II - died on Friday. She coughed, spluttered, shat herself, and died.

RIP Alma Shitboxington II.

Long live Alma Shitboxington III!!!!

Or so I thought....see a while back my younger, fitter, more grown up and employed brother gave me his old PC as he didn't need it anymore. Bare in mind that this is a machine that to him is dustbin fodder and is to me a shiny metal box from ze futures! and that says somewhat on my current position on the social ladder. But I'd only just got Shitboxington II, paid for with my own savings (£100 for a computer? What could go wrong!?) and was a little hesitant to simply chuck it away for my brother's cast off...this may have something to do with pride; I'm 5'9" and my brother is 6'5" and has been taller than me since I was 12. If you went through high school wearing your little brothers hand-me-downs then you'd probably feel the same about this as I do.

So when Shitboxington II died I initially thought "Great! Now I have an excuse to use the shiny metal box from ze futures!! It has Windows 7, a badass new graphics card, and 4GB of RAM! That's like NASA or some shit!"

But then my exitement turned to frustration...below is a list of the problems, the amount of time they took to fix, and the effect they had on my mental health.


1 - Wired motherboard into case incorrectly - took about 1 hour to fix and caused no more than a bit of light swearing and headscratching.

2 - Broke power button with my fat sausage fingers - took 5 hours to travel into town, buy a new one, and fix that in as well causing more light swearing, my getting wet in the rain, and my being called "Charlie Manson" by some cunt on roller-blades ( I have long hair and a beard btw)

3 - Sound not working - ongoing problem given my motherboard's sound chip decided to not make Windows 7 drivers. Caused me to smoke a heavy amount, purchase a £10 sound-card from Amazon, and assault a rose bush after finding out it will take until Friday to arrive (and no, compatibility mode won't work)

4 - Internet not connecting/wireless dongle not recognised - took about 2 hours to fix and caused me to drag my Dad into the madness which caused us both to swear a lot, shout at things, and drink heavily.

5 - Scanner drivers not compatible with Windows 7 - took 4 hours to fix with a lot of help from two ex-Define Cynicalers. This problem caused me to nearly eat my own face with frustration, anger, and made me miss lunch.

6 - Graphic tablet installation CD missing - took 3 hours of faffing about looking for the drivers on the Wacom website which is as easy to navigate as the Thames in the Exxon Valdez. This problem didn't cause me too much grief until I realised that I DIDN'T EVEN NEED TO FUCKING DO IT in order to finish my comic....


But here we are. Finished. Done. The first Woods for the Trees of the new year is up! woodsforthetrees.comicgenesis.com Everything's working (except the cunting soundcard) and I'm starting to dig Windows 7. Was it worth it?

No. Nothing is worth that. Bring back Windows 95 I say.