I'm not dead, but my old computer is.

So, here I am back from the dead after twenty-four weeks. That means that about twenty-four weeks ago I was in the middle of a two week long visit with long distance family, and it has been twenty-four weeks since the piece of crap laptop I had at the time bit the dust. It just shut down unexpectedly one day and I couldn't get it to come back on. It didn't take me long to notice a smell coming from the thing. For all the world, I swear that it smelled like burned pretzels. Yes, pretzels. I don't even know. After the extremely painful process of prying that laptop open I discovered that, sure enough, fried. Can't be saved. It would be cheaper to buy a new laptop than to replace the damaged parts. And I don't have the money to buy a new laptop.

Not having a computer sucks.

I tried using my cell phone, but it is too old to even open a browser. And I was not about to use any body else's computer. Frankly, I don't want my internet activity in their browser history.

And finally along comes my birthday, and with it a brand new laptop (Why couldn't I have gotten it for Christmas?). You can bet I was super happy. I've spent the last few days setting everything up and getting everything up to date. And now, at last here I am.

On a less than happy note, I had about four chapters of Chaos Rules in the Wasteland ready to go at the time my old computer fried, and A Shadow of the Past Revealed was complete. As anyone can plainly see, those chapters were never published. They were lost on that old hard drive. And the idea of having to rewrite them all over again, even after all this time, makes me unhappy. Partially because I feel sure that they just won't be the same as the original version and partially because I just don't like to have to do things twice.

I also am scared to death that some of you are going to be mad for me leaving everyone hanging and vanishing into thin air. That is why I have done two things. I have taken the time to recreate the next chapter of A Shadow of the Past Revealed and will be trying to finish the entire story by the end of this new week. For those of you who only read my other story, I have to apologize, but I won't be picking that up just yet, although I will very soon. A Shadow of the Past Revealed is going to be relatively short, and I started writing it at the request of a friend, so my finishing it is my top priority. Chaos Rules in the Wasteland will receive my attention afterward.

The second thing that I did was write a silly short thing that I made in a sudden burst of inspiration. Hopefully it will be enough to appease your wrath and prove that I'm ready to keep writing content (and that I'm really really really sorry for disappearing without a trace). I'm here to stay for a long time.