When in a certain state of mind, it seems that every single move one makes is cursed, and dead batteries is just one more of many irritations (edit: maybe “frustrations” would be a better term) that come in a string of them.
One can repeatedly say, “luck has run out on me today,” or “I am under demonic attack” as equally valid ways of expressing the seeming statistical anomalies at how many things get in the way.
This is especially true when a person is trying to be compliant and do what he/she is “supposed” to be doing in any given setting. It isn’t even that the “world” is interfering with your plans, but plans you are only doing because you have to and not want to.
Sometimes when I’m in this mindset, I think that there are actually thought processes (like computer “daemons”) that intermittently block us to the extent that “bad luck” or “demonic attack” become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is very difficult to pull out of this mindset, because even as one recognizes it and tries to “lighten up” things don’t automatically get better until after the mood subsides, while the mood is driven by the happenings.
Alan