- Michael M.: Too much going on. Life in flux, etc..
- Sunshine: Wow, I was soooo happy to see a new post in my rss reader. I was hopping this is already the comeback! :(...
- gandalf: Did you only get caffeine through Dr.p or did you drink coffee as well? I’m interested, since...
- neeka: nine kilos… wow… :) happy holidays to you, michael, and to all your loved ones! veronica
- m: It was a bargain. No strings attached.
Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Maribor, Slovenia.
Portoroz, Slovenia.
• AlienMelon
• Burger.si
• Heck
• Izklop
• si.blogs
• Sloblogi
• Blogorola
• Natalija Verboten
My computer (above) still has broken beads. (source)
Friends, Carniolans, Spammers, Nigerians looking for investment partners:
The rumors of my death have been kinda exaggerated and stuff. I’m still here, although computer-less.
But in the few minutes now afforded to me, let me quickly put an end to some of the rumors that have been raging in the comments section: First, this blog is not dead. Think of it more as an an artificial coma. As soon as my keyboard returns to my trembling hands, Carniola will be up and running with a vengeance that will make the vengeance in 1981’s "Deadly Vengeance" look like a mere "Forced Vengeance." My vengeance will be like "Scrotal Vengeance" and "Black Vengeance" put together, times a zillion. Except even more vengeful.
Second: I do not have a life.
Third: I can’t believe how long it’s taking my computer to get repaired, but I know that the customer service folks in Austria haven’t even looked at it yet. My impatience is compounded by the fact that the repair is probably very simple. (The power button stopped working.) I feel reasonably sure that I could have cracked it open myself and fixed it, but that would cancel my warranty — something I’m not keen on doing. So, I had to send it to Austria. Getting it there was an outrageous adventure in itself, culminating with a lousy trip to UPS Österreich, where I made the mistake of saying that I was from Slovenia. (I’ve never before seen smiles deflate so quickly, or people suddenly become so unwilling to help me.) It was depressing. I know I’ve complained about Slovenian customer service before, but at least I’ve never been treated like dirt for being a foreigner before. That’s a whole new level of cruminess.
At any rate, I don’t know when I’ll be able to return. I’m hoping to be back in action by July. I’ll try to post more details as soon as I know them.
Thanks to everyone for being patient and the kind words of encouragement.
Over and out,
Majkl
UPDATE: My computer is said to be fixed and on the way. However, the roads from Austria must be dangerous and fraught with peril (requiring expert guides and armed guards) because they shipped it 11 days ago and I’m still unplugged. Amazingly, they initially didn’t even want to send it to Slovenia; they insisted on an Austrian address. This despite the fact that I bought it here, and despite the fact that I’m practically straddling the Austrian-Slovenian border. I’m roughly the same distance from their service center as Innsbruck. Now it’s probably strapped to a mule, lost somewhere in the Alps. So much for ever-closer Union. (More updates as soon as I can)
UPDATE2: Amount of time it takes to drive from Wels, Austria to my home: 2-3 hours.
Amount of time it’s taking DHL to make the same journey: 20 days (and counting)
Comments
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When s.th. like that happened to me I took my computer to a store and asked: “Can you repair it?”
Answer: “Yes. Takes 2 to 2,5 weeks.”
Novala: “Can you give me the spare parts? NOW?”
They could, gave me a CPU, 512 MB Ram and whatever else, and I built the first computer by myself. I was so angry that I simply had to try it for the very first time in my life. Took my ~two hours and it even ran.
Maybe you should have done that, too.
Michael,
You do know that every one of those technicians is watching the World Cup. What you should be hoping for is that your computer is nowhere close to their fissts or their feet. If a team they are cheering is losing, that pc will be fodder for their anger and disappointment. You would have had the pc fixed a lot faster if you frieghted it over here in the States. It seems, aside as a butt for late night jokes, the World Cup is not discussed nor watched at all.
We who do need to watch are more than happy to view it on Univision, the Spanish channel.
Hope all goes well….. Perhaps, it’s a good time to head to the Croatian seaside; just get there before they lose again.
I understand about warentees, you musn’t mess with them! now if it gets to be an old computer or it’s one you built in the first place that’s different.
Everyone knows or should know, that Austrians traditionally do not like Slavs. It’s well attested to over centuries. Pity, there’s no real reason for that dislike anymore. Still it’s there, and yeah the World Cup, I don’t even call my fiance during the World Cup! He’s watching it for SURE and I’d just be an unwelcome interruption, unless I were there in PERSON, and keeping him company. If I call him, though, I become an annoyance!
I’m glad you are yourself ok Micheal! You have a wife and a kid, what do you MEAN you have no life?
Hi Mike, great to hear that all is well. Like many others, I am still checking in and can’t wait to see Carniola resume normal service! In the meantime, it is a great opportunity to think of ideas, research material and have a good holiday. Enjoy!
Rule #1 when buying a computer:
NEVER buy an assembled box. Assemble it yourself. This way you have warranties on each part individually and can change everything yourself.
Rule #2 never by computers in a foreign country, unless you don’t care about warranty.
My thoughts are never worry too much about a warranty…the computer will most likely wait till the day after your warranty expired to break.
Nice to once again be alerted to the fact racism still runs rampant between Europeans as well. On the upside, it apparently has led you to spell your name in Slovene :-). Nice, methinks. I suppose the bottom line of this post is ”Vengeance is mine’, sayeth Carniola’ ;-).At any rate, it’s good to once again hear from you, Michael.
I appreciate all the advice, but I like to live dangerously — and that means buying fully assembled Austrian computers and shipping it off for repairs during the World Cup. I also like to live stupidly.
Surely there is nothing wrong with people who like to live….
He’s watching it for SURE and I’d just be an unwelcome interruption, unless I were there in PERSON, and keeping him company.
If by keeping him company you mean bringing him cold beer from the fridge
Yay, Michael is back. Carniola lives!
Celebrate good times … come on!
Good to know you’re still alive
I won’t forget you.
It’s aliiiiiive! :)))
But for all conspiracy theory nuts out there: Poulette and Michael posted new entries on the same day…
But seriously, just some quick unsolicited advice: there are ways of - well - violating the waranty without anyone noticing. And one more thing - when Slovenian companies don’t fix your computer in 45 days they usually give you a new one. You might want to check that out with your Yodelling-computer-wizards from the foggy side of the Alps…
Why the hell did you buy computer in austria? As far as I know, most of the people do not this for years anymore - prices in slovenia are quite competitive, and warranty in .at was always a problem, even more than in .si, due to the fact that computers were sold in all kind of stores (as Hofer in slovenija is doing now).
Why didn’t you buy your computer in, hm, Denmark? Iceland perhaps, that would be even more on the edge! You’d be really pushing the envelope with that…
Hang in there!
By the way: It seems like something is wrong with your feed …
Alleluyah, he’s alive!
How are you posting and commenting if you don’t hava your laptop? That is not the only PC on the world…is it? Don’t you have a job PC?
I suggest you get a new macbook, nothing would have been wrong if you had one already. Ajde, ciao!
Michael, I have to talk to you about the porn on your hard drive,
It’s a little out of control.
I’d reply but I keep getting denied for questionable content.
Hey Michael, don’t be afraid to say you want to quit entertaining bored people. We’ll understand.P.S. You get back here right now or we’ll kick your ass, goddamnit!!!
He’s watching it for SURE and I’d just be an unwelcome interruption, unless I were there in PERSON, and keeping him company. If by keeping him company you mean bringing him cold beer from the fridge
Posted by: somebody at June 14, 2006 02:51 PM
—
Actually in his case, football is so sacred that no work may be performed during the game. The snacks are set up in advance. So there’s already wine, cheese, bread, slanina, or prscut already on a table by the couch. Since I don’t understand the game and don’t awfully care eitehr way, I’m free to read a book or fall asleep or do some sewing, anything that doesn’t involve getting up and down or making noise.
When I lived in Ljubljana, I bought a stolen computer from two Croatian gentlement who were placing ads in Salomonov oglasnik … When it broke, I just threw it away and bought a new one. Much easier than driving back and forth to Graz to have it fixed.
Hm, given Michael’s attitute towards observing the warranty I doubt he’d be willing to handle stolen goods. BTW, knowingly buying stolen property makes you an accessory to theft
But - far be it from me to decry your obvious attempts to save a few tolars more 
See Majkl was a bit too serious with that ‘over-and-out’ ..?
Noooooooooo…..
I guess if he’s not back by the 5th of July, we need to create a Diplomatic Incident!
Maybe the CIA thought he was an “illegal combatant” using this blog for all sorts of anti-American activity and kidnapped him
Still waiting for the vengeance that will make the vengeance in 1981’s “Deadly Vengeance” look like a mere “Forced Vengeance.”
Since it’s the bloody austrians that put this blog on hold, should we declare war on them?
O/K., It’s time for an APB (All Points Bulletin) for Mr. Manske.
Check the usual venues for his time of year.
1) Pula
2) Sibenik
3) Graz
4) Split
5) Hvar
My bet’s on Hvar.
Wherever he may be : Majkl, come back! All is forgiven! (if anything needs to be by anyone anyway… at all).
Is this really the end?
I am glad to see and live in the future, that i predicted. And you saved 10ksit. Great, yeah, fri pis
p.s.
please, return the box
nice haircut
Hmmm … maybe Majkl is just watching football all day long
yes, you football freak
Everyone should be such a freak.
damn, the next time just give the computer to me, i will fix it faster. lol.
And still showing signs of life… that’s reasuring.
But just barely. This blog is on life support and if something don’t change soon I’ll make sure that those Austrians will be on life support until the end of EURO 2008 (which they are hosting, by the way).
I’m sure that depriving a blogger of his computer constitutes a gross violation of basic human rights and freedoms and should be reported to the European Human Rights Court.
Heh, i really think it’s our relationship with the austrians, that ultimately determines our balkanized nature. Austrians have a notion of slovenians as balkan barbarians, just like croatians, serbs, bosnians, bulgarians … We on the other hand share our balkan brothers’ opinion of austrians … we think that they are spoiled brat sissy boys, lame on all accounts and utterly uninteresting in every aspect. Yes, balkans we are
We should wait for Michael’s computer for another day or two and then declare war on them austrian sissy lame asses.
rox: “we think that they are spoiled brat sissy boys, lame on all accounts and utterly uninteresting in every aspect”
That barely qualifies as an opinion, I’d say is more of a fact… (God, I hope there aren’t a lot of Austrians reading this blog).
—
Quote
-But just barely. This blog is on life support and if something don’t change soon I’ll make sure that those Austrians will be on life support until the end of EURO 2008 (which they are hosting, by the way). I’m sure that depriving a blogger of his computer constitutes a gross violation of basic human rights and freedoms and should be reported to the European Human Rights Court.
Pengovski
–
Bloggers are a sort of journalist in at least some cases, in Majkle’s case this is so! So it’s interfering with journalism, there has to be some kind of E.U. rule about that!
I guess they have it on the back of a cow, who is being ridden by a peasant girl herding a flock of geese from cow-back.
Michael, it’s strange, but I always secretly assumed you blogged during working hours. Guess you are more scrupulous than I thought.
I guess Michael is just busy playing games on the stock market. No wonder with all the money he makes with the ads on Carniola. Seems we’ll just have to wait for the next crash…
“So much for ever-closer Union.”
Michael, it is in fact - “an ever-closer Union”. Without EU, the Austrians would treat you even worse. It is the EU that makes an apportunity for Austria to develop some civilized culture for their citizens, eventually …
@lale: I love it when people take the optimistic approach
At this point, I’m thinking Majkl has finally run off with Natalija Verboten, leaving us mere mortals to wonder what will become of this blog. I mean, not even the carrier donkeys of the Austrian Alps could be this slow and/or stubborn, could they? By now, a person could have delivered his pc by merely hiking, methinks.
Come on this was by far the best English language blog in Slova.. I mean Slovenia…
Majkl return to us I command you in the name of SRFJ
OK, children, the lesson for today: Don’t use DHL, UPS or any other courier company when your destination is less than 300 kilometres away from you.
While we’re on the issue. Some years ago a then-future-ex-girlfriend had to apply for a college in Belgium. As time was in short supply I called DHL and payed huge money for super-extra-urgent-high-priority-ultra-fast delivery (with full money back guarantee). It took four days for the delivery to get there. It would have been faster if I used Slovene post and payer 1 euro for priority mail. 
Aw c’mon, this is getting ridiculous. Another monday and still no Majkl? Coffee doesn’t taste as good when I don’t have Majkl’s blog to sip through while drinking it…
Cmon. It is not DHL! Ask the repair guys for the tracking number of your package (it is on their invoice, provided by DHL). Use the tracking number at the DHL’s site. I am 100% they will claim that they don’t have the tracking number - since the computer is probably still on their desks. In case they give you the number, and if really takes DHL that long to deliver the package, I would really like to see the route… probably your computer is being shifted between Siera Leone (SL) and Slovakia