It has something to do with the weather, I think

My Acer notebook is dying an accelerated death. Is it the humidity? Or the incessant thunderstorms that also prevent me from getting any sunlight or exercise?

Although it has one last month of warranty left, the idea of bringing it into the service centre is too painful to bear. I'd sooner go to the dentist.

Firstly, the service centre is located in the western bowels of Singapore, all the way in Jurong.

Secondly, the waiting times there are horrible. They can stretch up to 2-3 hours.

Thirdly, the last time (that was the 3rd time) I had gone there, the air conditioning wasn't working.

Fourthly, to add fuel to the fire, a large part of Acer's customers are students and professionals in the IT industry. And many are foreign. And those stereotypes of geeks having poor personal hygiene? They're true after all. And no, don't let me go on about the malodourous tendencies of fresh-off-the-boat foreigners. I'm not being racist, but they really do have different standards of personal hygeine ingrained into their culture.

I really couldn't bear the thought of going there again.

So here's how it all started:

The monitor went splotchy, so I went out and bought a spanking new 20 inch Samsung. They're really cheap these days, it wasn't too long ago when 19 inch panels had cost almost 400.

And now, this 1600x900 behemoth costs only $217. Being the easily-impressed me, I was totally satisfied with my new purchase, and was blissfully using Google Earth when that annoying yellow bubble popped up from the corner of the screen.

The CPU was precipituously close to overheating. Yet again. When you hear of 90 degree CPU temperatures, you know it had gotta be Acer.

So I got trusty Mr Steady Screwdriver and Ms Twiggy Tweezers out and cleaned it out by myself. It was a pain. I think I had lost count after the 10th screw and there were almost 30 of them in all.

After a considerable amount of sweat, 2 oozy cuts on my fingers and thankfully no tears, I got the job done. CPU temperatures look pretty alright this time round, it's about a 15 degree improvement, but the graphics processor still overheats. Probably because the thermal pad had disintegrated in my fingers when I had removed the heat sink. Might have to open it up and add an aluminium shim to fill the gap if this persists.

And then I realised that one of my USB ports no longer worked.

I give up. No more heroic measures. It's like a raging bushfire. Fix one problem, and another 2 pop up.

Not to mention, my speakers need their foam surrounds replaced. A troublesome, but not terminal condition.





Now my desk has as many buttons, switches and bright lights as a cockpit.

And speaking of cockpits (get your mind out of the gutter!), in a month my exams would have ended and I'd be off to a trip to Taiwan, on a Singapore Airlines 777. The agency offered China Airlines, but it's against my principles to support a company that buries about 40 people annually for the past 15 years.

I have a theory. The safety of an airline is proportional to the safety of the country's roads.

Aussie roads are incredibly well-signposted, the drivers are cautious and polite. Qantas has never killed anyone in the past 50 years.

Take a look at how people drive in India and Indonesia, then take a look at the airlines in those countries. You get the idea.

As for Taiwan's China Airlines, I've read many horror stories about the roads in Taiwan too.

==

Revision for the huge ass exams isn't going too good. There's so much, there's so many possibilities that I feel like every single hour spent revising is akin to mucking around in the dark. Very demotivating.

I wish I have Somebody behind me to hurry me along. Somebody behind me to give appropriately-timed pats on the shoulder.

Somebody who cares.

Somebody to love.

Can anybody find me somebody to love? Each morning I get up I die a little.