Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Sound the Alarm

Today's soundtrack, because why not.

We all use computers here.  Do you have custom noises for things on your computer?
Like when you get an e-mail, or it's time for a scheduled meeting, or your power-down and power up stuff?  When I worked at the college, I used to have the "Link Found Something Awesome" noise from the Legend of Zelda game as my e-mail notification and it made my heart happy every time I got a message spam from a prince in Nigeria who needed help transfering money.

As I discovered a few days ago, The Mister likes to personalize his computer too, apparently.*

The Mister set up an alarm, for whatever reason, on one of his various electronic devices scattered throughout the house, which sounds like a self-destruct siren.  It was sounding every 5 minutes and lasting just long enough that I could not find the true source.

After about an hour of that, one can get a little loopy.  
Here are some of the ways in which I so very reasonably coped with the never-ending sound:

  • Curling into a ball and shielding my face screaming; "She's Gonna Blow!"
  • Pointing over the edge of the couch to an imaginary man in the water to announce "Man Overboard!"
  • Staring at a squeaky bone in confusion, asking "What color wire do I cut?  The red or the green?  Oh God I'm color-blind!  What a world, what a world!"
  • Wailing "I'm too young to die!"
  • Asking Bubba to "Tell my wife I love her!"
  • Diving on top of the dog like I'm going to shield him from the blast
  • Telling Mac and Bubba "Save yourselves!" as I put them in the backyard and then pretend to have one of those really heroic 'I'm making the ultimate sacrifice for you' moments by putting my hand on the door's window and looking wistfully out at them while sinking to the floor/ my death.

*Not really.  The Mister had been signed into an aution-site on his computer, that was set to "alert" him if one of the items he was bidding on was being outbid, or was going for a good price, or something equally absurd that should not require a Chernobyl-style siren erupting from his laptop.  It also turns out there are a lot of movie cliches that include that stupid sound.  Did I miss one?  Let me know in the comments so that the next time The Mister decides he needs to leave his laptop in live e-bay mode while he's at work I have something to do.

What would you have done in this situation?
Have you ever launched a full-tilt search for a mystery alarm?
Tell me in the comments!

And while you're in the comments, I'm curious - Mac and I made this Shark-Sweatshirt for him the other day, and we both think it turned out SUPER cute (yes, those are little teeths on the hood).  Do you have a big dog (I do not have a little dog to help me fit it properly, so I'd only be able to make large dog size.)?  Would you buy something like this if I put it up in the Etsy Monster?  What would you pay for it?  I need to know!


Queen Holly the Magnificent said...

First off, my husband is an audio engineer so he has his laptop hooked up to his super spectacular speakers. He also has Zone Alarm antivirus. Which meant that he would be watching a movie then go to bed without turning the volume down, only for us to be woken up in the middle of the night by YOUR ANTIVIRUS HAS BEEN UPDATED being screamed at us by a robot sounding women.

It didn't take very long for me to show him how to turn it off.

Kellie @ Delightfully Ludicrous said...

I remember on my very first internet capable computer, almost twenty years ago, I personalised it to play Simpsons quotes when I did certain things. I remember that when I turned it off, Chief Wiggam would say "What what what, did somebody say pizza?"

Thirsty, Nerdy, Cats said...

And just as I compose myself after the "cat friendship bracelet" story... I get to this. Tears... rolling... down... my... cheeks... again. I'm so glad I'm not the only one who does stuff like this around the house. Not the crazy alarms but the rest of it.