For the last few months I’d occasionally been hearing mini-explosion sounds like those bang snaps that I remember from my semi-pyromaniac youth. I finally figured out they were coming from my computer—a custom PC that I built in 2007. After another explosive pop yesterday, the graphics on my screen started to look like they were drunk. I opened up the PC case and my 2 SLI graphics cards were literally like a million degrees! I let them cool a bit, then pulled them out of their PCI slots, and, as you can see, nearly all the capacitors are blown out.

I was actually a bit relieved. I had been worried it was the motherboard—a much harder swap out. Needless to say I was going to need to replace the card, and, since I use my computer all the time, I was going to need to replace it pretty fast. I went to Staples and ended up dropping $120 on a new one, a GeForce 9500 GT, which I had to split between two debit cards because neither of my accounts had enough to cover it on their own. Problem solved for now—fingers crossed—but if any generous hearts would like to help me and the site out by contributing to the repair fund, please write or PayPal to virtualmusictv@gmail.com and in return I’ll hook you up with some free advertising and/or a mention on the site. I’ve stoked about a really sweet new article that’s an inside look on a new music startup, so stay tuned for that this weekend—I think you guys are really going to like it—and for the dads out there (not me!), happy Father’s Day!