adventures with my computer

My laptop is 5 years old. It's been holding up pretty well, and I'm very fond of it - not to mention I don't really feel like spending lots of money on a new one right now. So, when the airport started having problems, I was concerned. Very concerned. I looked on mac forums for a quick fix. I found a whole lot of people with the same problem and no sign of relief. I tried all the little things anyway, just in case, but to no avail. So I did something drastic - I switched my operating system to Linux. Those who know me can tell you I'm not particularly computer savvy, so I'm on a steep learning curve with my Ubuntu desktop. But! It seemed to be working! My airport hadn't randomly cut out for days! I had solved the problem!

Nope, not so much. This made me face the hard reality that my problem was not with software, but hardware.

Since I'm in England, and far away from any Mac store or Genius Bar, not to mention the age of my laptop puts it well past any warranty date, I had to find another solution.

So I decided to take it apart to see what was going on. It seemed like it wouldn't be that big a deal. Pull out the battery, peek inside. But to reach the airport card, I had to go a bit further. Well, a lot further. Next thing I know I'm carefully inspecting a teardown manual online (this would have been impossible without access to another computer and the internet), and triumphantly pulling out the set of tiny screwdrivers I bought in Japan Town in San Francisco, knowing, of course, that they would be well worth the $1.50 blanket price tag for every item in the store.

So I took it apart. Really, really apart. 

 

I pulled out the airport card, blew on it, and put it back. Snugly. I inspected the wires leading to the airport antenna hidden in the screen. I found a little kink. So I ordered a replacement antenna online, and spent two days casting nervous glances at the table full of tiny screws and fragile computer bits, just waiting to be knocked over or spilled on or otherwise destroyed. Fortunately, none of that happened.

When the mailman came yesterday, I nervously got to work. It's one thing to take all the pieces apart without visibly breaking one, it's quite another to put it back together so that it still works. There were some stumbles. There was a bit of cosmetic damage. At one point I accidentally stabbed the motherboard with my tiny screwdriver. But, in the end... I did it!

Not only does it look basically like it did before, it turns on! And the internet works! I'm writing these words on it right now! I had a (large) glass of celebratory wine and pondered the two tiny screws that somehow failed to make it back in and the now very mangled antenna that had (hopefully) been causing the problem the whole time. Thank you middle-school shop class.

an ironically foul day

A few weeks ago, Bo and I woke up to some really miserable weather. While bad weather is kind of par for the course here, this day was particularly horrible .

Standing in the kitchen, waiting for the kettle to boil the water for the tea, I was staring out the window with my face all scrunched up (to convey to the weather exactly how I felt about it) when Bo commented that the weather was really grim. Then his face lit up with a massive smile, and he said "actually, the weather is foul, isn't it? I've just had an idea."

So it was we decided to take a day trip to Foulness Island, and revel in all the horrible aspects of the day. I decided it would be an ironically foul day, so I wore a pair of 3D movie glasses with the lenses popped out and called them my hipster glasses.

We looked at the map and took off into the foggy rain, stopping along the way for an absolutely terrible cup of coffee.

We got lost. We wandered around through Southend-on-sea looking for signs to Shoeburyness, then got trapped in the loopy maze of a drizzle-shrouded housing development before finally breaking free and reaching Greater Wacking. Look at google maps, I'm not making these names up. Finally, propped up ominously in front of a cemetery, we saw the sign for Foulness.

It was like being in a horror movie. We drove slowly down the horribly-maintained road, passing houses barely visible in the mist, and a tattered flag writhing balefully in the wind. Finally, we reached the island. A military defence research and development base. But the gate was open and the signs indicated that while we weren't allowed to take pictures (oops) or use firearms, we could actually proceed. A ways down the road, a pair of pheasants stood squarely in the way.

"Do you think they're warning us?" We agreed on the ominous portent of the pheasants, especially when they refused to move out of the road. The island must have been so horrible they were resorting to suicide. Better than becoming dinner for a radiation-mutated deranged killer! Or being used as target practice by suspicious robotic military technology! Yeah, we were going to town with the horror movie suspicions.

Really, can you blame us?

On the way back we stopped at the shabby, run-down sea-side arcade boardwalk of Southend-on-sea, with a funpark and lots of colorful tiny beach huts (because, I assume, one needs a nice warm little place to have a cup of tea when coming to the tiny, pebbly, cold beach). At that point the clouds had let up enough to let the descending sun peek through a bit.

 

Looking at this view while eating fish and chips in the car and licking ketchup off your fingers... well, it was pretty much a perfect end to the day. A deliciously, beautifully foul day.