A panic, and relief

[meanfreepath]

So I've been working on installing various things on my laptop this afternoon. I've been in Cornell and used my new lock to secure my computer. It is a combination security lock. So, when I entered my combo as I was about to leave, I was terrified when I found I could not open it. I tried again and again, to no avail. I was absolutely positive I had the combination correct. What had happened was that when I set the combo from the factory default 0000, two digits turned out looking very similar so that the combo I thought I had set was not what it actually was. I was able to find what happened when I discovered that pressing the lock release button while rotating the combinations produced different effects for a correct digit as opposed to an incorrect digit, probably something having to do with the tumblers. So I finally found the offending digit and unlocked the computer.

This whole darn incident, wasting half an hour of my time and causing an unnecessary amount of stress, was a result of my own stupidity in rushing to lock down my computer and not testing the combo a few times once I had set it. I was rushing to return the screwdriver I had borrowed to set the combo, but I really should have just waited 2 minutes and at least resolved the problem right there. One of my worst flaws -- impestuousness. One day I'm probably going to do something really really bad just this way...