Crash! Laptop dies days before deadline!

By Joshua | January 28th, 2006 | 1 Comment »

Yes, I am living every writer’s worst nightmare: right before our book is due, a zapped laptop and lots of work remaining. I need a hug.

It’s not as bad as it could be, since data loss was minimal (I’m a back-up animal after learning many lessons), but obviously, it is frustrating and inconvenient — and it is the third time this has happened to me on the same computer. Yes, fellow Mac addicts, it is the dreaded iBook logic board failure. I’m hoping to petition for a replacement iBook from Apple, or else have to lay down some serious dinero for a new machine — which would be all the money I’ll receive by meeting this deadline (and then some).

My first logic board failure was in Belize as I was completing my guidebook there; the last crash occurred in Lahore, Pakistan, and it took six weeks to reach the nearest Apple support center–in a New Delhi basement. At least this time, in Chiang Mai, Thailand, there’s a Mac shop right up the Doi Suthep road.

Do I try to find a Hindu temple and plea to Viswakarma, God of Technology? Do I pull my hair out, jump up and down, and curse the universe?

Or do I sit straight-backed in yet another Thai cyber cafe, let out a mighty “Om,” spend a few minutes in an online meditation chamber, then get back to work? I think my co-author and editor would prefer the latter, so off I go.

P.S. If postings are scarce for a few days you’ll know why…