LNBfree
March 25th, 2001, 12:28 PM
This is not mine but good none the less.
Once upon a midnight dreary
fingers cramped and vision bleary,
System manuals piled high
and wasted paper on the floor,
Longing for the warmth of bed sheets, still I sat there doing
spreadsheets. Having reached the bottom line
I took a floppy from the drawer,
I then invoked the SAVE command and waited for the disk to store, Only
this and nothing more.
Deep into the monitor peering,
long I sat there wond'ring, fearing, Doubting, while the disk kept
churning, turning yet to churn some more.
But the silence was unbroken,
and the stillness gave no token.
"Save!" I said,
"You cursed mother! Save my data from before!"
One thing did the phosphors answer,
only this and nothing more,
Just, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
Was this some occult illusion,
some maniacal intrusion?
These were choices undesired,
ones I'd never faced before.
carefully I weighed the choices
as the disk made impish noises.
The cursor flashed, insistent, waiting, baiting me to type some more.
Clearly I must press a key, choosing one and nothing more, From
"Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
With fingers pale and trembling,
slowly toward the keyboard bending,
Longing for a happy ending,
hoping all would be restored,
Praying for some guarantee,
timidly, I pressed a key.
But on the screen there
still persisted words appearing as before.
Ghastly grim they blinked and taunted, haunted, as my patience wore,
Saying "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
I tried to catch the chips off guard, and pressed again, but twice as
hard. I pleaded with the cursed machine:
I begged and cried and then I swore.
Now in mighty desperation,
trying random combinations,
Still there came the incantation,
just as senseless as before.
Cursor blinking, angrily,
winking,
blinking nonsense as before.
Reading, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
There I sat, distraught, exhausted,
by my own machine accosted.
Getting up I turned away
and paced across the office floor.
And then I saw a dreadful sight:
a lightning bolt cut through the night. A gasp of
horror overtook me,
shook me to my very core.
The lightning zapped my previous data, lost and gone forevermore.
Not even, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
Once upon a midnight dreary
fingers cramped and vision bleary,
System manuals piled high
and wasted paper on the floor,
Longing for the warmth of bed sheets, still I sat there doing
spreadsheets. Having reached the bottom line
I took a floppy from the drawer,
I then invoked the SAVE command and waited for the disk to store, Only
this and nothing more.
Deep into the monitor peering,
long I sat there wond'ring, fearing, Doubting, while the disk kept
churning, turning yet to churn some more.
But the silence was unbroken,
and the stillness gave no token.
"Save!" I said,
"You cursed mother! Save my data from before!"
One thing did the phosphors answer,
only this and nothing more,
Just, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
Was this some occult illusion,
some maniacal intrusion?
These were choices undesired,
ones I'd never faced before.
carefully I weighed the choices
as the disk made impish noises.
The cursor flashed, insistent, waiting, baiting me to type some more.
Clearly I must press a key, choosing one and nothing more, From
"Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
With fingers pale and trembling,
slowly toward the keyboard bending,
Longing for a happy ending,
hoping all would be restored,
Praying for some guarantee,
timidly, I pressed a key.
But on the screen there
still persisted words appearing as before.
Ghastly grim they blinked and taunted, haunted, as my patience wore,
Saying "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
I tried to catch the chips off guard, and pressed again, but twice as
hard. I pleaded with the cursed machine:
I begged and cried and then I swore.
Now in mighty desperation,
trying random combinations,
Still there came the incantation,
just as senseless as before.
Cursor blinking, angrily,
winking,
blinking nonsense as before.
Reading, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
There I sat, distraught, exhausted,
by my own machine accosted.
Getting up I turned away
and paced across the office floor.
And then I saw a dreadful sight:
a lightning bolt cut through the night. A gasp of
horror overtook me,
shook me to my very core.
The lightning zapped my previous data, lost and gone forevermore.
Not even, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"