It is a well established fact of science and religion both that I have lousy car carma. Which is why I no longer have a car. I owned three vehicles from 1998-2009. Each one of them came to a bad end: crashed (while driven by my ex), stolen and stripped by a bunch of Black thugs (from a block and half away) and then totalled by a drunken (White) truck driver while parked (a block and a half away). During their lives, each of these cars, two Honda Civics and an Isuzu Rodeo were more than once sideswiped or backed into whilst parked on the street. I never once had a moving accident, if you don't count the time the Rodeo just died right in the middle of the intersection of 16th and Mission at midday. And this is on top of the practically inevitable pile of parking tickets that you get in San Francisco. So despite the severe inconvenience and, even more, one more wound to my sense of adult agency during a period of personal contraction, I decided the cost was just too much.
With laptops I have had somewhat less disastrous karma, but it has not been a smooth ride. And here I have to claim some responsibility. The one I am using now was a replacement for one that I destroyed by getting my foot caught in its wires and dragging it off the desk onto the hardwood floor. And that one had previously been rescued after the strap on the bag it was in broke and it wound up on the cement in the NY subway. I could go on, but you get the picture.
That's why, when my Roku up and died, I was not surprised. (Or when my microwave cooked itself to death last summer). My current cellphone, though somewhat moody, is functional. And I have had it since August 2010. Practically a record.
Now this laptop is having graphics nervous breakdown. On and off, the color display goes from normal to a shimmering kind of impressionistic tie-dyed blur. From what I figure, the graphics card is in trouble. And since this is an economical model, it is likely soldered into the motherboard and not replaceable...which means that I will likely have to get another one before long. That would make three laptops in three years.
I'm not complaining. That would be unmanly. I'm jus' sayin'.
With laptops I have had somewhat less disastrous karma, but it has not been a smooth ride. And here I have to claim some responsibility. The one I am using now was a replacement for one that I destroyed by getting my foot caught in its wires and dragging it off the desk onto the hardwood floor. And that one had previously been rescued after the strap on the bag it was in broke and it wound up on the cement in the NY subway. I could go on, but you get the picture.
That's why, when my Roku up and died, I was not surprised. (Or when my microwave cooked itself to death last summer). My current cellphone, though somewhat moody, is functional. And I have had it since August 2010. Practically a record.
Now this laptop is having graphics nervous breakdown. On and off, the color display goes from normal to a shimmering kind of impressionistic tie-dyed blur. From what I figure, the graphics card is in trouble. And since this is an economical model, it is likely soldered into the motherboard and not replaceable...which means that I will likely have to get another one before long. That would make three laptops in three years.
I'm not complaining. That would be unmanly. I'm jus' sayin'.
3 comments:
I had a similar problem with my laptop. I took it into the Gepetto-like computer repair person, and lickety-split, $50 later, it was fixed.
Do not despair, Mr. exCathedra.
Now I understand where my my supposed good luck with cars and laptops originates. It's not luck; it's just that you have been taking all the hits so I don't have to. I am appreciative, by the way. Even hunted on the local Craigslist for a replacement car for you but then decided that was way too stalkerish for anyone's comfort.
Thanks, PNW, for your kind thoughts and your discretion :)
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