I bought a new toilet seat
Finally got rid of that damn wooden one. It is plastic and white — and just about the only thing I own that works right now. Let me explain.
It is very hard to be a writer — let alone a writer with a website — if your computer doesn’t work. Well, as readers of this site may recall, my computer doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked since a fateful night two months ago in Gansu, the halfway stop during The Trip. My girlfriend was visiting me. So was my iBook.
Details of the night in question are purposefully foggy. Let’s just say after all was said and done, the only thing my iBook did was flash a question mark — over and over and over again. The kiss of death (especially for an idiot who had a good bit of a life’s work on that hard drive … and never backed much of it up).
You may have heard rumors that the question mark was flashing because of my fist. That may or may not be true. But at least one expert, who recently had the exact same thing happen to him (minus the fist), believes the damage was done before I may or may not have laid into my laptop. I, for one, believe him. (You tech geeks out there can keep track of my iBook’s specific problems here.)
I need to write. I need a computer. I need it now. This simple problem led me to think of a simple solution: Buy a new computer. But another simple problem — I have no money — led me to think of a previously unthinkable solution: Buy a PC. They are cheap. China is a PC country. Hell, let’s face it, it’s a PC world. So, I thought about buying an affordable desktop PC, something I could use until I figured out how to fix my iBook.
Then a friend, an Apple friend, talked me off of the ledge. Why not have someone take a look at the iBook? he asked. If the hard drive is damaged, why not just replace it with a new one? That would be cheaper. And, actually, I already had another hard drive that would work on an iBook. So I gave it a try.
I’m always hesitant when asking for product-related help here in China. I’ve had some awful, awful experiences dealing with certain companies and their employees. Customer service just hasn’t really caught on here. But the guy at the Apple retail store was pleasant enough. And the people at the repair center he passed me off to were easy to deal with, too. The place was crowded, but I didn’t have to wait at all — I, not surprisingly, was the only person there to see the Apple specialist.
Everyone’s hope was that the hard drive simply needed to be reattached to the iBook’s logic board. When I may or may not have punched the computer, the connection may or may not have come loose. Well, they reattached it … and the question mark reappeared. Again and again. Their conclusion was a brilliant one: My computer was broken.
And so I had them remove the old hard drive — the one containing a Word document filled with pages of notes for a screenplay I have been thinking about off and on since 1998 — and replace it with the other one. The computer recognized it right away. I paid and went home, prepared to start from scratch.
While re-installing the system software, I tried to talk myself into believing that a clean slate was a good thing, that those old files and documents — some that pre-dated the Clinton administration — were just cluttering up my life, that a screenplay six-years-in-the-making was probably never going to get finished anyway. This was freedom! Just think of all the free space on that new hard drive! So much room for new stories, new screenplays … and porn!
Um, yeah. And then my computer went totally black.
It was OK before that. The operating system was installed. I was using the internet. I was trying to re-download my life. And then boom. Black. The power button was useless. A couple hours later, it started up again. And a couple minutes after that, it went black again.
And now I’m back out on that ledge, considering purchasing a PC. I need to write. I need a computer. I need it now. I can only use by girlfriend’s iBook at night. And I absolutely hate internet bars.
Sigh.
But I do have a new toilet seat. That is cool. And I am sleeping in my own bed for the first time since July. That is comfy. And I did buy a Christmas tree. That is nice. And my girlfriend did cook a tasty Thanksgiiving meal. That is rare. And I did get my old mobile phone number back. That is miraculous. And the sky has been blue an awful lot lately in Shanghai. That is a freak of nature.
And Henry, my trip contact from Guizhou, was in town last week. We went to dinner at Da Marco on Yandang Lu, home of the best pizza in Shanghai — hell, it’s the best pizza I’ve had in China.
And Andrea, my trip contact from Xiamen, is in Shanghai right now. Tonight we went to dinner at Afanti Restaurant on Quyang Lu, the best Xinjiang restaurant in the city.
But I need a computer. I need to write. Not quite sure what I’m going to do.
A man can only sit on a new toilet seat for so long.
12.01.2004, 3:28 AM · Diary
12 Comments
yeah-if you sit too long you might get stuck to the seat. Or even worse get a permanent ring around your butt. Although I remember hearing that the great Billy Wilder sometimes got great ideas in the bathroom. Just watch out for that LOST WEEKEND!(great movie)
I agree-highly probable that computer was doomed before the TKO knockout punch.
It died??!! Oh man. Condolences.
Where’s the graveyard going to be? Probably the graveyard for all punched iBooks. It was expensive *sigh8. Technology can be so unfaithful.
dan, you can’t write in a pen, or a ballpen, or a pencil, or a something else? what if you have to live without a computer for one year?
Hmmmm. Let me check, Bingfeng. Yes! I can do it! I can actually write with my hands!
You may be surprised to know that I really can be quite prolific with a pen and a piece of paper. I filled dozens of little notebooks with notes during The Trip.
But those are just notes. The last time I actually wrote something extensive by hand was back in high school. I think it was a paper on A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court for Bernie Wolf’s Honors English class. And I think I got a pretty good grade.
But that was some time ago. I think my family actually still had an Apple IIe back then, which explains why I opted to write it out long hand.
Since then, though, I have become so accustomed to typing my stories with a computer keyboard that I really think if I tried to handwrite a story, it would totally change my writing style. (Hmmmm. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.)
But, even if I were to revert to the pen, I still would have to type it in at some point. I’d rather get it all over with at once. Besides, I’d have trouble reading my handwriting.
So, if my computer woes look like they will continue indefinitely, I will opt for the internet bar, not pen and paper.
And as to your final question: What if you have to live without a computer for one year?
I think this website would suffer greatly.
Dan
A computer update: My iBook — still dead — is now at Shanghai’s authorized Apple repair shop … the same place I visited yesterday. Looks like I qualify for a new logic board. I should get my iBook back within three to five days. Wonder if that will do the trick.
This still does not help my old broken hard drive, however. I keep thinking of new things that are on it. Things I really don’t want to lose. Frances has already emailed me with a possible way to salvage some files. I might try his suggestion … as soon as I figure out what the hell he is talking about.
My laptop was stolen in the school lab two years ago and I lost almost all the papers and analyses I wrote during two years’ B schools, but even worse, almost all the photos are gone.
dan, if you want to buy a new laptop, i suggest you buy a heavy one. why? here is the story:
a friend of mine went to spain and bring his laptop with him. every morning he took his laptop to the school and one day he was robbed by a spanish man, the thief ran and my friend also ran, chasing after the thief.
luckily the thief is fat, but unfortunately my friend is also fat, but luckily the thief took the laptop and it’s heavy. after about 10 minuts running, the thief gave up and throw the laptop.
see, better to have a heavy laptop :)
just don’t buy a pc.
On Dec 3, 2004 9:02 PM, frank said:
just don’t buy a pc.
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if you have to buy a pc, buy a heavy one :-)
Bingfeng, you make me laugh.
And that’s not easy.
Have we all learned from this? Back up your music, back up your pictures and most of all back up your work. Don’t ever think it won’t happen to you.
One of these days I might even take my own advice…