Some bugger broke into my house yesterday and nicked the TV, laptop, graphics tablet, DS, games, and two digital cameras. I wouldn't have minded so much if the final draft of my novel wasn't on that laptop, which I haven't backed up for about seven months. Crap.

The weird thing is that they took all that but didn't take the consoles.

It really brings home to me that it's not the items, it's the data that's important. The most significant loss is the information on the harddrive.

Oh, no.

I'm so sorry that happened, Mata.

Oh crap. Fucking arseholes. *hugs whilst kicking them in the ball bags with spiky toed boots*

Sorry to hear that, I know you've been putting a lot in to the novel- the final draft.

The swines

I can understand why they didn't take the consoles, though. Theiving types tend to nick stuff that's small (and hence easily lost or broken) and easy to sell, such as handheld consoles, games, cameras, laptops, mobiles, PDAs and the like. TVs are easy, too, because they are almost impossible to trace. However, consoles - apart from the PS3 - are cheap and people tend not to lose or break them, so there's less of a market. Unless you've got a PS3, in which case they're a bit thick.

Anyway, here's hoping that the fuzz get their arses off the M4 and catch the buggers!

Knackers. May your deity of choice rain terrible vengeance upon their light-fingered heads.

I'm sorry to hear that Mata. What a bunch of bastards

I hope the coppers help you as much as they helped me recently.

Sorry to hear that.....errrr read that.

Mata, I did just buy a shotgun (I feel properly white trash). Shall we hunt down your data?

Sorry to hear that happened How are the police handling the situation at this point?

That majorly sucks, I'm sorry. Hope you manage to get your novel back somehow.

Really makes me think about backing up my files more often....

I'm sorry to hear that, I had that happen to me about a year ago. Whoever broke into my place took my laptop and my external drive which had my back up and the funniest thing they took was an unopened thing of orange juice.

That's awful I'm so sorry to here it.

D: That's rubbish. Hope you and Sues are ok and not feeling too violated and Arg! People Were In My House.

Damn and blast them. I was so looking forward to being made to feel intellectually inferior by your book, and now I'm going to have to wait longer! May their syringe needles forever be rusty and blunt.

We're not feeling too bad about it. I think it shook Sues up a bit, but we're getting along okay. The landlords have been really good - we've now got a super-dooper alarm system fitted - and the police have been really nice too. Even the insurance stuff seems to be going smoothly. Hopefully there'll be replacements with us around the end of next week!

Just remember to watch out in about a month, sometimes they come back in a month because they figure you have replaced everything, knew someone that that happened to.

Yep, the police have already mentioned that one. We've now got two extra locks fitted on that window, plus a huge burglar alarm throughout the house which phones us when someone tries to break in. If they come back then their life is going to be a lot more difficult!

And Pat, my book isn't at all intellectually challenging, but I hope it will be a good blast... When I've re-edited it. Sassen frassen...

For you maybe!

Well, it will be for me while I rewrite it. Humbug!

Have to say that my insurance company for my car have been helpful and things have fun (fairly) smoothly. Even the policewoman who helped me rang the day after to check I was OK. Bless 'er!

I'm glad things have been put right, as right as they can be

My insurance people have been amazingly good so far (I get replacements for some of the things this weekend). The police have also been really good, and even my landlords have been very helpful: we now have a brand-spanking new burlgar alarm that phones me if someone tries to break in! The loss of data has been the worst bit for me.

I think Sues has been quite shaken in subtle ways. She said yesterday that she always worries now when she's walking back to the house that the door will be open, or that there will be someone in there. I reminded her that her phone (like mine) would have been called if the alarm had gone off, and I think that helped a lot... I hope it did, anyway.

Aww. I hope she starts feeling a bit more secure again soon.

Theiving scum! Hope you feel more secure with the new alarm.

She said yesterday that as she was walking back towards the house she thought about what I'd said (that her phone would have been called by the alarm) and felt a lot better about it. The phone-attached alarm was a fair whack more expensive, but for peace of mind I think it's hard to argue with the value.

I get replacement stuff today! Woohoo!

I'm car shopping today to replace my little Yaris (RIP!) so I'm excited too. See my Crashed post for a list of cars I'm considering

Hope you enjoy your new stuff

Shinies

I've spent most of the weekend fighting against all the pre-installed crap on my laptop. It's full of junkware! Games I don't want, Norton Antivirus, a rubbish and hobbled trial-version of Office, manufacturer gubbins that are pointless and actually inhibit the laptop from keeping a stable wireless connection. All around, it's a big pile of pants.

I think that once I've finally got rid of it all I might have a reasonable laptop, but there are a bunch of weird design choices that you don't think about checking when you buy the machine:

the power cable is at the back, not at the side, so if you put it onto a table you always have to reach around the back so you don't squash the cable
the side USB ports are really near the front so you can knock them with you hands
the 'del' key is in a really pointless place considering how much it gets used and the usual hand position on a laptop keyboard
other things!

All in all, I think I should have examined the design as much as the technical specifications. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but it's good to be aware of these things for the next time I get a laptop.

The new TV is lovely though

Aaahh you have your high def back Mr Floppity and Pascale will be pleased.

Sorry to hear about what happened I'm glad that the financial side of things are getting sorted promptly, and i only hope that emotionally you all feel secure again soon.

Should have gotten a Mac

Yep, because if I'd got a Mac there wouldn't be any spamware on it... Or any of the other software that I do actually want either

Cheers Hobbes: I think the burglar alarm has settled Sues' concerns. It's still annoying, but I think the new shiny replacement things have gone down well!

And yes Cath, Mr Floppity and Pascal are very happy indeed about the new HD TV, although I'm not sure they deserve it. They kept their eyes closed the whole time and couldn't even give us a description of the robbers!

You can run Windows on it! >.>

But still not all Windows software, and a Mac iBook with a screen 5 inches smaller than the one I've got costs £350 more than this one did. Sorry, I've enjoyed using Macs when I've had the chance (my first regular experience with a 'modern' computer was a Mac), but they're not practical for my needs!

I had someone get into my flat and nick my mobile phone charger a few months ago. They hit a couple of my flatmates too, but only for a particular model phone (the cheapest one you can get). Best part was, I had my MacBook, mobile, iPod, and a professional-grade camera all sitting out on the desk with it!
But noo. They just went around nabbing chargers and left the rest. If it hadn't been so inconvenient and skeezy, it would have been hilarious.

Glad things have worked out for you, though, despite your thief's greater sense of motivation...

It is weird the things that robbers take. They took the laptop, that's not very easy to sell for more than £50, but left behind the Wii which you can easily flog for three times as much (not to mention the consoles and games). Very, very strange. A very large part of me was concerned that they'd try and get in again the next day for the rest of it. I'm much happier knowing we've got a decent burglar alarm now!

Apparently they usually cut all the cables at the back of TVs to get them out faster, but they didn't do that with mine. I'm really happy about that because it would have been a serious amount of inconvenience to get all those replaced.

The alarm did scare the daylights out of Sues though: it phones you when it goes off, so when a guy from the letting agency came around to fix up some wiring it called her and told her we'd been broken in to! Still, she's happy to know that it works

I should imagine that, once they've boshed some teenagers and had it away with their phones, they've discovered they are more desirable with the chargers, so they've probably hit a few places close together to get them. So now you've got one person with a charger and no phone, another with a phone but no charger, and a third person with a phone and charger, both of which are stolen.

My advice to anyone who asks (and plenty who don't) is that, if you're offered a deal in the pub that's too good to be true, chances are it's knocked off. If nobody bought anything this way then there'd be no market for the thieves to exploit.

Ehh? Who buys a mobile in a pub? Better yet, who wastes their drink money on a mobile?

Laptops are mostly bundled up and shipped off to India, so the police tell me. There's a big market for cheap hardware out there.

Kind of a blessing in disguise, they stole all my Mum's jewellery from QVC, left all of the more expensive rings and trinkets left to her by her mother and ignored around £2000 worth of laptops as well as a digital camera and various other electronics in the adjoining rooms.

It is strange indeed. Years ago, back in Ye Olde 90s, somebody got into my parent's car and nicked a Shania Twain cassette but left the car and everything else in it. Some theives are just not that clever (or are simply masochistic, I guess).

Sorry to read about your break-in.
We had an attempted burglary last year, the damage to the patio door and feelings of insecurity from that were bad enough.






From where they send us plenty of spam in return.. Untracability and stuff.

Tell me about it. I had a friend whose car was broken into one night whilst we were all out. The thieving oik took a cigarette packet with just two ciggies in it, but ignored the car stereo and portable CD player (this was in the 90s as well) that were stashed under the seat. I guess some do it just for the crack of breaking into stuff. Just to prove how great they are at thievery. Morons

When I had my car done last year, at least they had the good grace to steal something of value. But then they also took a bottle of Coke Zero from the glove box and a pair of sunglasses that I bought in Rome for 3 Euros. The police told me the coke would give them a sugary boost - although how that works when the product is devoid of sugar is beyond me - but were mystified by the sunglasses.

Very sorry to hear that about your draft, all the material objects in the world together have no value against bodies of your own work.
How could anyone even think of breaking into the Mata residence? I'm sure there is a circle of hell devoted entirely to the crimes against Mata.

One of my old phones used to send me a text message whenever it crossed a border, once it was stolen I kept being told where it was. It spent a lot of time circling western Africa apparently.

Did you try replying to any of the texts?

Nice to see you again MrT. How's life been treating you dear chap?

No, no one was around to goad me into such a thing. I'm sure there is a parallel universe where another Teapot did reply to the texts with hilarious consequences, unfortunately it did not go that way in this world.

Things are fine, I've been up to things. You know, the usual.

Ah, things. I hear they can be very time consuming.

Well, there is a lot to say. We're all young, there is plenty of time to find out.

However, I vouch that I am more interested in this book of yours. Is it fiction? Will the generations of children to come be reading it in Mata-studies at school?

It is fiction of the cyberpunk-esque kind.