Spook on my Screen

My computer is a year and a half old. It is a Macintosh Performa 467, with a 68030 processor and 4 megabytes of Ram. I have ample room on my hard drive, approximately 160 megabytes. I purchased this micro machine from one of those large discount warehouses. This computer has become my personal electronic surfboard to the Internet.

This home computer ran great, fir a few mishaps with system software conflicts and my beginner’s curiosity. Nevertheless, last summer, the monitor began to act funny. I generally thought it was a hardware defect, so I called Apple Computer for an exchange. I told the belligerent technicians that I had seen black lines and running screens, which made it nearly impossible for me to do my word processing and other functions. I sent my monitor for an exchange.

When my new monitor arrived, I thought my problems were gone. It was the same model as the old faulty monitor. Then after two months, the lines and running screens began to appear again, but this time there was a sickly green glow to the whole screen. Each time I sat in front of my monitor. I began to feel nauseous and dizzy. This time I sent it to a local repair shop. I felt it at the shop for almost a week.

The repairman phoned me at work to tell me that the monitor was causing them problems. It would flash on, even thought it was not connected to a CPU nor an outlet. The technician told me that it was due to extra energy that was collected in the cathode ray tube, and that my home may be higher than normal electrical surges with the wiring.

Then he began to lecture me about computer maintenance. He said that I should always turn off the screen if I am going to leave it for a long period of time. He went on to say that pictures would burn into the screen and leave a permanent etch on it, a footprint of what was on the screen. I felt like a child, during the talk. He advised me to purchase a screen saver.

Then, before the technician hung up, he told me how I had created that ghastly picture of a zombie-like face that was etched on the screen. I had no idea what he was speaking about. I only used my computer for word processing and playing Tetris. He said that the image seemed to be realistic, a gruesome head stared outward with bony hands that grasped the corners as if it were trying hard to get out. I was amazed at what the technician said.