You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Last year, in response to a self-inflicted power outage that lobotomized my computer, I invested in an uninterruptible power supply. Basically, a big honkin' battery that sits under my desk, and provides power to my computer if I suffer a power outage, long enough for it to undergo a controlled shutdown.

This morning, at about five, the apartment suffered a momentary blackout.

And my uninterruptible power supply ... was interrupted.

That, in itself, was annoying. What graduated it to worthy of a fit of screaming obscenities was the God-alone-knows-how-many-decibels alarm that started screaming and would ... not ... shut ... up.

I powered down the UPS, only to discover that I couldn't power it up again, either.

So it looks like I may have to do some shopping. And carrying a battery backup from a store down by Syntagma to my apartment halfway up Likavitos is a [censored by the Department of Homeland Security].

Those suckers are heavy.

Over-gadgeted

So last week, I was issued a Blackberry by my company. It's a phone, not just an email device, and I suspect it'll be nice to be able to do business-related calling without worrying about draining my personal cell phone's credit.

(Aside: note to anyone who's writing stuff with an international flavor. It's only called a "cell phone" in the United States; in most of the rest of the world, it's a "mobile".) (ETA: and apparently it's also a "cell phone" in New Zealand. Not sure about Australia.)

Anyway. This morning, I tossed my Blackberry into my briefcase, put my cell phone on my hip, and went out to do an errand before work. Suddenly, my phone started ringing. I answered it.

And from the echoes, I found out very quickly that I was getting a call from my own Blackberry; I'd forgotten to lock the keyboard before tossing the thing into the briefcase, and had bumped the buttons to call out.

And the last call out from the Blackberry? Yep, to my cell phone to test it.

Grr. Stupid me.