I'm Baaaaaack

At last, my computer is FIXED! It's strange how incomplete I feel without my laptop. While my computer was on the fritz I realized just how much I used it for everything. I needed a phone number, usually you just search the internet, right? Not when your computer has been taken over by aliens. I could have called 411, but I learned the hard way that Sprint charges for that service. Whoops. I could have gone the old school route and looked it up in the phone book... if I knew where the phone book was... if I even HAD phonebook.

Once my keyboard finally arrived at Apple I had to make another appointment to take my book in for the repair. When I showed up I was really just expecting the Genius behind the counter to pop off my old keyboard, plug in some wires, slip in the shiny new keyboard and send me on my way. Well, that's not how it went down. Mr. Mac said he would send it down to "Repairs" and that it should be done by the end of the day that day and someone would call me to let me know it was ready. As the end of the day approached still no phone call. I decided to be patient. I had already gone a good 3 weeks with no computer so what was the rush now? Sunday morning I decided to call.

Me: "Hi, I brought my laptop in yesterday for a keyboard replacement and they said it should have been done yesterday and they would call me to let me know. Well, it's the next day and I still gotten a call so I just wanted to check on it."

Apple Genius: "Yeah, they should definitely call you when your repair is ready for pick up."

Me: "...... Um...Ok... I understand that part, but the other part of that conversation was that it was just a keyboard repair and they said it should have been done yesterday so... can you check on it?"

Apple Genius: "Oh...yeah sure... hold on...."

(John Mayer hold music... I enjoyed it...)

Apple Genius: "Uh... mam? Yeah, it looks like they're still working on your computer."

Me: ".......And?"

Apple Genius: "And.... I guess they'll call you when it's ready."

It's a keyboard replacement! I could have done it myself! Whatever... Despite the runaround I did get lucky because the guy working on my computer was great. Once he finally got around to diagnosing the problem he called me often to give me updates. After several days, and several other technical issues including me almost losing everything on my computer, I finally got the call that it was ready to go! And it only cost me 40 bucks because they waived the labor fees! Woo Hoo!!

Well, I took it home and at least the aliens had left and the keyboard worked, but some of my applications are missing. Photoshop and QuarkXpress are missing, but I think I still have those disks so those shouldn't be hard to reinstall. But, word, xcell, and powerpoint, all of those essentials are missing too? I never had disks for those, they were just on my computer when I bought it years ago so I called the Apple store yet again for their help. The guy I talked to told me that those programs don't come on the computer automatically and have to be bought separate. Sigh... must I argue with this man? No, not worth it. So, what do I have to do? Well, if I can find the original disks that came with my computer I can try reinstalling the original operating system, I can bring it in and they can see if they can find it in archived files, or I can just buy the software. It never ends.

Regardless my computer is BACK and I'm happy.

frustrationatitsfinest

hello,andwelcometomypieceofcrapcomputer.yeah,thisiswhathappenswhenyoutrytotypewithalaptopthatdoesntbelieveinspaces.notonlydoesthespacebarnotwork,butneitherdoesthedeletekey,tab,orscrollbars.awesome.letsjustsay...imfrustrated.

whatgoodisacomputerifyoucanttypeonit!imgoingcrazy.nottomention,imareallylazytypersogenerallyiusethedeletekeyoften.maybethisissupposedtobealessontoteachmetoslowdownandnotusethedeletekeyasoften.well,lessonover.imdonelearningandithinkyouremethodofteachingsucks.

ivebeenusingalotofgooglelately,mainlybecausegoogleisprettysmartandusuallyknowsthatwhenitypelikethiswithallofmywordstogetheritseparatesthewordsoutforme.howniceofgoogle.

ialsojustdiscovered(whilewritingthis)thatmyapostrophekeysdontworkeither.fantastic.

iinitiallytriedtoself-diagnosetheissue.ithoughtmaybeiwouldstumleacrossawebsitewherepeoplehadsufferedfromthesameRIDICULOUSLYANNOYINGPROBLEMthatiamcurrentlyexperiencin

g.istartedbysearchingthingslike(ispilledwateronmymac)or(macbookkeyboardnotworking)etc.thisleftmewithsomesolutionsthathadworkedforusersinthepast,butiwasnthavingmuchluck..naturally.

fromhereisearched(myspacebardoesntwork)andtheresultsmademelaugh.therewereseveralpostsfromothermoronslikemyselfwholiterallysearchedthesamething,minusanyspaces.ihadtolaugh.(goahead,lookitupforyourself)

oh,whoamikidding.thispostisjustmakingmedizzy.surelynobodyisstillreadingthis.ifso,pleasemakeanappointmentwithyoureyedoctor.ifeelsorryforyou.

itriedtakingmymacbookintothelocalapplestoreforservicebutapparentlyihavetomakeanappointment,asifthisshellofplasticandmetalweremychild.needlesstosay,ilefttheapplestoreintearswithnoresolve.

atthispointiamtryingthistheorycalled*wait*.yeah,yousee,imthinkingthatmaybeifi*wait*theproblemwilljustcorrectitself.untilthenihaveresultedincopyingspacesthatiseeonapageandpastingitwherenecessary.

gladipaidoveragrandforthispiece.thanksforspillingthewaterbingo.thanksforbeingsopopularapplethatyouretoobusytohelpmeinmytimeofneeduntilsaturdaynightat8pm.andthankstothepersonimborrowingspacesfromuntilicangetmyown.muchappreciated.

Damn Cat

how ironic that my previous post was about silly animals... this one... not so silly...

Dear Two Faithful Readers,
My sweet, jovial kitten thought it might be a silly little game to knock over a glass of water in the middle of the night.... all over my laptop. I didn't think it would be a problem, but I guess when your computer sleeps in a pool of liquid overnight it starts acting a little crazy. Initially it wouldn't even startup. After a mild freakout I decided to give it what seemed like an eternity but was more like 10 minutes and it did some silly "safe boot" that I have never seen before. Now it looks like it's working, but good luck typing. I guess it has a mind of it's own now because at random it will capitalize letters, the space bar doesn't work, the scroll keys don't work, and a handful of letters actually type a different letter than what you're actually typing. Awesome. I'm glad Macs aren't expensive or anything. Grrrr....

So A', being the sweet, helpful man he is, attempted to calm my fears and inspect it himself to see if he could fix it. Usually I would have said no way to the screwdrivers approaching my precious laptop but at this point the thing is pretty useless anyway, I doubt he could do much more harm. And to his credit he did go to a computer tech. university for a few years. Well, after searching for some kind of device to pop the back off and pulling the keyboard off he decided that maybe we should just try and let it dry out over night- that should fix it.

This morning as I was getting ready I saw my poor, crippled laptop starring at me from the corner of my eye. I didn't have the heart to test it out to see if drying it out actually worked. I couldn't bear starting my day knowing I was going to have to shell out a couple thousand dollars for a new one if indeed I wanted one (and let's be honest, I'm pretty obsessed with my Mac) I guess I'll just wait to hear from A' when he wakes up as to the verdict.

In the meantime, I'll try to post from work if I can, or maybe I'll just charge a brand new baby to my credit card. It's just money right? Sigh.... such is my life.

Silly

Here are a couple of videos that made me giggle.  I hope you enjoy silly animals like I do.  Stay tuned for an actual post because I have lots to talk about!  Happy 2009!!