Well, after months of speculation my laptop finally died. I'm not sure if it was a result of general wear and tear, or if i should actually suspect someone may have tipped water on it - as the Mac repair guys deemed the problem "logic board damage due to liquid spill".
They want $2,300 to replace the logic board, which just makes no sense at all. A new Macbook itself is only a mere $1600. Where do they get off charging more than an actual machine for the replacement of a part? They are basically saying "fuck you, buy a new machine". And like a true auto wreckers, they gave me $100 for the machine as parts.
So here I am, typing this on a PC laptop with missing keys under Windows XP.
It's been a strange disconnected feeling in the past few weeks since I've been out of a machine. For one, I went through that process of ripping all my cd's to HD a while back, and getting rid of the cd's. Now the laptop is gone, so is my ability to play music. It's actually really difficult to get any music happening at all in this situation, except for the remaining 20 or so cd's I actually own - which are more bookshelf ornaments for sentimental reasons than they are albums I would actual feel like listening to.
We've become conditioned to on-demand listening. We know what we feel like listening to, in a very precise way, at any given moment. We satiate that desire by access to our monolithic music libraries at the click of a mouse - I tell you, when that's taken away, it's a very jolted experience to what we've all been used to for the past 5 years.
They are basically saying "fuck you, buy a new machine". And like a true auto wreckers, they gave me $100 for the machine as parts.
Which makes me think - I haven't not owned a computer for around 10 years now. To go from having a computer every day for ten years to not - especially in the world we live in today, its maddening! I would definately say I'm a power user - my mac is decked out in the best and most easily manageable way possible. My mate has lent me his pc laptop - which has sound problems, keeps turning off, and can't access my macdrives. I've learnt that relying on iCal in this situation can be a pretty dangerous thing.
So i'm back to the books. I keep a journal, and make plans in a small diary. I twang away on the guitar. But I can't help but feel naked without my digital counterpart. It's like my brain has been severed in two and I only have one half.
It is, at the end of the day, a very weird feeling. That feeling of progressing through your thoughts through a computer, of 'getting things done' is a very complicated and sluggish task at preset. I really feel that sense of a dislocated digital self Sherry Turkle talks about. I'm completely unorganised.
So, for now - I'm stuck with public computers at University, pens, and a few chords.
Though that's enough ranting - I'm sure I had many more poignant things to say on the issue - many of which I can't remember due to the fact half my brain is missing.
Coming Soon: Anigma DVD 5.1 release, and The Min Min Lights sophomore EP.
Till then,
Buy two computers,
ml
