Saturday, June 24, 2006

Sleepless in Singapore

It' almost 2am in Singapore and I'm in front of my laptop furiously finishing a report for my work in Manila. And since I am blogging, it means I am obviously not "working." Why so? Well, I need to get through my grief process. You see, my Mac died on me the first night I flew in to Singapore (a week ago). That's a Mac iBook G3. My shiny white handsome companion for the past three years. I had budgeted for it to last me 5 years and I had high hopes that this would be the case, since I have been told Macs never crash. So much for a committed long-term relationship. Sigh.

When I walked back to the guesthouse after being told this bad news by the lady at the Mac Clinic, I was emotionally numb. Carrying my Mac in my backpack and walking past shop windows along Orchard Road, I stared stupidly at myself and thought I looked good. I walked on and thought what a good thing I brought my umbrella as I felt a light drizzle. I was numb. Funny how the Lord makes us numb when "tragedy" hits us...maybe that's His way of administering anaesthesia to my poor pained soul.

Then I thought hit me..hmm...good thing I wasn't able to name my iBook, that would have made its dying more painful! When I got back to my room, I put the shiny white iBook on the table and decided to press the power button and see what happens. After trying gazillions of times (probably my way of working through my grief), it did a Lazarus! It blinked on for a while and allowed me to go and save my personal files (yes, I admit to the sheer stupidity of not backing up files!! At least the personal ones...) After that, it came on again a few more times (after pressing the power button another gazillion of times). It's fierce grinding noise as it came on convinced to me that it was in the throes of death. Maybe coming on was its way of saying goodbye to me.

I don't have much time to grieve, not with work breathing down my neck. So I was off to Funan Centre and Sim Lim Square to find a new PC (I will be declaring bankruptcy very soon...) when my iBook was pronounced clinically dead. After much asking around and pretending I understood what the salesman was saying about RAM, DVD Multilayers, blah blah, blah, I decided to go back to PC. I would have given Mac and Steve Jobs a second chance to prove themselves but they didn't have stock. As Singaporeans would say, "What to do, lah!"

So I am now in front of my Toshiba laptop, and able to thank God that my iBook died on me while Singapore is in sale season, thus able to get a Toshiba at an incredibly low price (plus rebate) that I would never be able to get in the Philippines. This eased my grieving a bit. But am now a little bit more cautious about developing a personal relationship with machines. So I don't think I will be naming this one...

7 comments:

Beng said...

I'm sorry to hear about your MAC's demise. :-( So that's why it conked out on you the night before you left. Good for you nga that you didn't name it. Now, I'm thinking of the wisdom of what I did to April boi, my April boi. I'd just have to guard myself from loving it too much.
Anyway, I'm happy to know that you were able to get a new PC (and the circumstances under which you were able to get it). I hope you'd have less of the sleepless nights in Singapore.

Gypsy said...

Thanks, Beng. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away! Am already enjoying this one--hmmm--hopefully not too much!

sillyserious said...

awww... it's always sad when a trusty gadget slips to electronic limbo. my condolences on the passing of ur unnamed iBook. dwell on the good memories (*sniff, sniff*)-- the deadlines u beat together, the secrets u shared, the music u played, etc. hehe.

all said, i still think u should name ur new toshiba :) how about "jojieba"? it rhymes with toshiba. haha!

p.s. reynold dropped by the office last week. sho-ti diay nimo sya?? after all these years, i never made the connetion! hehe.

Gypsy said...

Thanks, Leks...sorry am not naming this one either...parting may not be sweet sorrow, u see. So am staying safe and protecting my heart. :-) Yup, Rey's my bro..he got his good looks from me, didn't u notice? BWAHAHAHA!

Anonymous said...

didn't know it resurrected for a while. could it be that the people at the Mac shop made a mistake to declare it DOA? :) am i grinning? maybe you should have given it a name so we can give it a decent burial. if you named it MacArthur, we can ask for a space at the libingan ng mga bayani. am i grinning again? hope my humour is ok? seriously, welcome back to the PC universe. now, at least, I can be of better service to you in case of need. just holler. up up and away!

Gilchrist

Gypsy said...

As a matter of fact, I haven't tried resucitating it again, but the past couple of times, it hadnt come on as it should. Well, if by some miracle it comes back on, I will name it LAZARUS! :-)Grin away!

Anonymous said...

Gyps, I have an idea. Bring your Mac back home and let me try to butingting. If I resurrect it permanently, can I have it? Huweeeeeee. If you still love it and cannot give it up due to separation anxiety, your toshiba will do just fine. Awooooh.