Abort, Retry, Ignore

Once upon a midnight dreary,
Fingers cramped and vision bleary
System manuals piled high
and wasted paper on the floor
Longing for the warmth of bedsheets,
still I sat there, doing spreadsheets
Having reached the bottom line,
I took a floppy from the drawer.
Typing with a steady hand,
I then invoked the SAVE command
But got instead a reprimand; it read
"Abort, Retry, Ignore".

Was this some occult illusion?
Some maniacal intrusion?
These were choices Solomon himself
had never faced before
Carefully, I weighed my options.
These three seemed to be the top ones.
Clearly, I must now adopt one--
Choose: "Abort, Retry, Ignore"

With my fingers pale and trembling,
Slowly toward the keyboard bending,
Longing for a happy ending,
hoping all would be restored
Finally I pressed a key--
But on the screen what did I see?
Again: "Abort, Retry, Ignore"

I tried to catch the chips off gaurd--
I pressed again, but twice as hard.
Luck was just not in the cards,
I saw what I had seen before.
Now I typed in desperation,
Trying random combinations.
Still there came the incantation--
Choose: "Abort, Retry, Ignore".

There I sat, distraught, exhausted,
By my own machine accosted;
Getting up, I turned away
and paced across the office floor.
And then I saw an awful sight,
A bold and blinding flash of light,
A lightening bolt that cut the night
and shook me to the very core.
The PC screen collapsed and died,
"Oh no-- my database", I cried.
I thought I heard a voice reply,
"You'll see your data-- Nevermore!"

To this day I do not know
The plac eto which our data goes
Perhaps it goes to Heaven where
the angels have it stored.
But as for productivity-- well,
I fear it has gone straight to Hell.
And that's the tale I have to tell--
Your choice: "Abort, Retry, Ignore".


Author Unknown







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