In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (located in the Soviet Union) had a massive melt-down. It was tragic, blah blah…

Nine years ago today, however, myself and many of my friends had our own Chernobyl, if you will. At exactly midnight on April 26, 1999, my computer froze. I thought nothing of it as this was common with Windows 98. I hit the button and off we were with a reboot…or were we? The system booted into a error message that simply read, “Windows Not Found.” I had only had this computer for a year, but all was lost. In a panic, I quickly picked up the phone to call Alex. I heard panic in his voice as well almost immediately. “Dude, I can’t talk now, my computer froze and won’t boot into Windows.” I called my mom the next morning to warn her of this plague. She booted her machine and the same result happened. If only I had known keeping the computer off would have prevented this… I was so emotionally scarred and violated, I took the day off from school. Alex called me to tell me that it had hit a bunch of people at his school. The dreaded Chernobyl virus (A.K.A. “CIH”) had taken hold. By far, this was the most vicious virus I had ever dealt with and still is to date. The following year or two, in memoriam, my friends and I would not allow our computers to see the light of day on April 26.

Time has passed and the smoke has cleared, but I know that I will never forget. This world can be cruel sometimes.