All Things Uncertain

Forgive me, but:

Oh.  My.  God.

My computer’s had two weeks of accidental down-time, ten or so attempted XP re-installs, an examination from an extremely attentive Aled, countless scans for viruses or malware and more besides.  To no avail at all.  The real kicker was that safe mode seeemed to work fine, and I’d have happily lived with it if I could get to my printer and sound card from there; but no joy.  As a self-confessed technophile, the last thing I wanted to do was take it to a goddamn computer repair store but I was this close to swallowing my pride and dropping a few hundred £££s in the process.

Then, a clicking.  The last thing I’d run before all the trouble was an Avast! Antivirus boot-time scan.  I’d assumed it had damaged some crucial Windows system file as it was routing out all the virus scum, and with every XP install blue-screening, I couldn’t see the way back from that at all.  A little late-night detective work later and it occured to me that maybe, just maybe, I could stop Avast! in its tracks and see where that got me.

This mess has had me over the coals long enough that I’m a little insulted – and humbled – that Google had the answer all along.  But that’s medicine I’ll gladly swallow if it means my little Batcave is back in working order, and twenty minutes of blogging assents.

Yes, this is a test.

But don’t be insulted, dear Uncertainites.  There’s a review here that some of you might enjoy – not to spoil the ending, but it features the first perfect score I’ve given anything – and now that things are on the up and up, there should be a few more along shortly.  For starters, Irish crime novelist Tana French’s much anticipated follow-up to In the Woods, and after that, some brilliant fiction from Riverhead, to say nothing of one zombie novel to rule all.

And rest assured: Murakami week will return – after these brief messages.