Nerdly Advice, Part The First

Nerdly Advice, Part The First

Aug 25

Welcome, true believers, to the first of what I’m hoping will be several thousand installments of Alert Nerd’s newest feature, Nerdly Advice. This week, I’ve got a pair of lurid queries that I’m going to boldly navigate, dispensing sage wisdom in my wake like a Pez dispenser that has wisdom in it instead of candy.

Let’s start, shall we?

I have approximately a year-plus of a certain well-regarded superhero title that I am behind on reading. Because of the subscription policy at my comics store, as long as I don’t tell them to stop, the issues will keep coming.

My question is: At what point do I admit defeat and take myself up the sub list for the title? Do I just hang out and wait for the creative team to change and use that for an excuse? Call in sick to work on day and try to catch up? Help!

Signed,

Issues With My Back Issues

Dear Issues,

Without your support, New Avengers will certainly fail.

If you aren’t passionate about the book, drop it.

If you can’t find the time to get caught up on it, drop it.

If you’re going to drop it, do it now. Sometimes you gotta tear the band-aid off. If you’re unhappy or unengaged with your partner the book, there’s no reason to stay in your relationship with the book except for momentum and pity, neither of which are rational excuses to indulge in 4-color self-flagellation.

In a market where an increasing number of books are making the price jump to $3.99, there’s no good sense in handing over your comics budget for something you aren’t even going to interact with.

There is a certain mindset among fans that your lack of enjoyment might now be your fault, some change in your character. You are likely not to blame here, and even if you were, blame is not equivalent to obligation. Issues, you need to take back your life, drop the book and move on. When you’ve healed, you can add a new book to your sub list.

In our second missive, Alejandra wants to know:

I’m ridiculously illiterate when it comes to computers. And I haven’t been able to get me a bf that can help me in that department. So I need to know how to properly and regularly maintain my computer so it doesn’t die on me 🙁

I could use any advise I could get,
Thanks Darling!!

Alejandra,

The best advice I can give you is to get yourself a computer-literate boyfriend. This is difficult, because they tend to be shy misanthropes, but informing them that you’re ‘LFG’ is a good way to let them know you’re interested.*

In addition to having a good firewall and anti-spyware/anti-virus software, I recommend running Scandisk once a week and do a disk defragment on a monthly basis. Of course, backing up your hard drive regularly is a good idea (and a good-sized external drive can be gotten affordably these days), though that’s a preventative measure more than a preemptive one.

On the hardware side, clean your computer regularly. Open up the case and clean out dust and dirt with compressed air or a soft-bristle paintbrush. Keeping your tower clean is going to cut down on overheating and power supply malfunctions. Keeping your computer elevated can also help in this regard – don’t shove it in a corner or on a carpeted floor, for instance.

For any bigger hardware malfunctions, it’s probably best to take it to an expert unless you can Google the problem and feel comfortable attempting the repair yourself. It’s much easier to fiddle around inside a desktop tower than it is a laptop; I’d always recommend letting a pro handle laptop problems.

*It isn’t.

And that’s all she wrote for this week. Use the comments to chip in your own advice, criticize mine, or toss out a question for next week. And remember, you can always drop an email to nerdlyadvice@gmail.com, too.

Til next week!

Jeff