Let's touch this up, shall we?

It's happened to all of us.

We're jamming on the computer, rolling along, doing our thing... for many in here, you're probably photoshoping, or putting together a movie of some sort. Some of us might be composing music, maybe. For myself? It's usually writing.

Suddenly, for one reason or another, something comes up, and we need to leave our computer - "just for a few minutes." Well, you know how it is; maybe your burrito has just come out of the microwave, when suddenly some friends pull up. "Dude, let's go knock up a seven-eleven!" And you're all like, "Wicked! I'm in." A few minutes becomes a few hours, and by the time you get back to your computer, the day's over. Also, there's someone else using it.

"Um, hey there. What are you doing on my computer?"

"Oh, I just needed to use it for a sec. But it's okay; I'm done now."

"Yeah, uh.... where's all my stuff? That thing I was working on?"

"Hmm? I don't know what you're talking about."

That's how the conversation always goes. You should have saved, yeah. You could have locked it. You could have hid the mouse, even. but you weren't expecting to be running from the mafia that particular day. Or whatever. And now, you've lost six, maybe seven hours of work, because your roommate, or your parents, or your sibling, is an inconsiderate clod.

Well, the first time you angst about it, and of course that never works. You might even try to bring it up in conversation - immediately, they fall back to "well, you're an idiot for having unsaved work on your computer." Because, you know, that justifies their behavior. They might try, "You've got the only computer in the house" or maybe a variant: "you've got the only computer with internet access; I broke mine - so you need to leave it in a state that other people can use it in."

Leaving a document open does not constitute an unusable state.

Well, in either case, you eventually need to resort to direct methods:



Note the page dimensions - they match the sheet of legal paper it's going to be printed on, so it can be taped over the moniter.

The thing about taping stuff to the moniter is that it might fall off. Or something. The only surefire way to keep it on there is to.... that's right! Set it as your desktop. Well, sure; the dimensions might be a bit off, but it's not really that hard to change them. No, the real problem runs far deeper: That picture is ugly as sin.

So, let's start up a little community art project: Take all those little pet peeves of yours, all those things that idiots do on your computer, be it deleting your files to clicking on pop-ups; spending hours on instant messenger, or saving porn on your hard drives. Take all of these things you hate, and respond to them - than make a desktop out of it. And remember, if it's a desktop image, you'll be seeing it a lot, so make sure you're not going to be sick by the third time you look at it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.