A whole ‘nother level

One reality about the times in life when things happen that just about stop you in your tracks is that the rest of life is content with carrying on. The world? Still spinning. Imagine that.

About two weeks ago, I was walking, casually, down my hallway carefully carrying my laptop under my arm to move it from it’s more permanent place on my couch to this very strange place called my office. I was about six feet from the desk and, just like some kind of magic (read: gravity) the laptop slipped out from under my arm and hit the carpet with a light thud. No big deal, right? This laptop has crossed many miles of land and sea without so much as a blip, so I set it on the desk, plugged in the power cord and a couple minutes later, came back into the room to see this:

And then my stomach dropped to my feet.

So after calling myself stupid several times, as well as cursing the fate that was so obviously out of my control, I collected myself and thought this does not have to be all bad. I didn’t really believe myself, because at that moment in time I knew less than nothing about laptop screens, laptop hardware or anything really to do with this laptop other than how it brings me to the magical Internet each day.

I do have some great geek buddies, though, so the next day, I called one of them and told him what happened.

“Is this your primary machine?”

Ha! He asked with such innocence. As if me, someone who is still amazed by the concept of Wireless, has more than one machine. Yeah, sure… I just keep it here in the lab, with my other advanced technology, like them thar fancy teevee remote controls and that thar fancy ‘lectric toothbrush.

“Umm, yeah, Jason, it is. And no, I do not have an extended warranty.” You would have thought I was burning the computer geek flag right there on the grave of Konrad Zuse himself. I mean, how can you exist in the world without an extended warranty?

So after my buddy got over his shock, he contacted some of his other hardware nerd hot friends while I called HP. Boy, was that a laugh. HP, bless their heart (that is what us polite folk say when we really want to tell someone to go and you-know-what up a you-know-what), wanted just under $1,000 to install a new screen. And the hot, sexy nerds? Well that was going to run me around $400-ish. And while I have no problem paying for some good nerdery, this still seemed a bit much. I mean, $400-ish is a nice plane ticket and dude, have you seen the Farmer’s Almanac predictions for Colorado this Winter? We are going to need to go to the beach.

So I decided to whip out some of my own sexy nerdery and hit eBay. Now, there are a lot of good sites out there that will sell you some fabulous, guaranteed, certified equipment but you have to look to actually get a good deal. And you have to be willing to research to get it. And what better did I have to do with a half-working screen than to find a new, better, working one? Nothing, I tell you. So, I found it.

Okay, one job down. Now comes the fun part, the installation. The hardware buddies, though reluctant, will still work with this unknown, apparently alien equipment. For $75/hour. Considering I’d just spent about half their quoted price on a screen, $75 didn’t sound too bad. Until I did more research, and found all these great geekery forums on the magical Internet that said things like “you can totally replace your own laptop screen” and “I have never touched a bit of hardware in my life and I did this” and “it will take you less than an hour and it’s only like five steps.” I couldn’t believe the thought was crossing my mind, but it was. I convinced myself I could do this. One, I have a lot of time. It is not necessarily open but it sure isn’t $75 an hour. And I know it’s only $75 and I know I had no idea what I was doing, but I also have this little thing with challenge. You see, I can’t resist it.

So when Fed-Ex delivered my shiny, new screen a few nights ago, I was ready to get out my little Phillips screwdriver and go for it.

Incredibly, it was just as easy as the directions said. Seriously, you remove screws, you remove the bezel (woohoo, look at me! New word!), you detach a couple of very delicate but very obvious cables, lift out the old screen and then reverse the steps to install the new one. I am not the most patient person ever, so the hardest part for me was going really slow and making sure I didn’t beat the crap out of anything because, my gosh, HP, why all the glue?! But other than that, it could not have been more simple.

As I put in the last screw, I started to get really nervous. I was about 50/50 on whether or not I’d put the battery back in and the computer, my primary machine (heh!), would actually work. But be still my ever-growing nerd heart, it actually did.

Oh my crap, I did something.

I know this might be the lamest post ever but seriously, how could I help it? I’ve crossed into some new realm of geekery. Behold, the Hardware Princess. Or, you know, something less freakish.

I ran into work the next day and called my nerd friend.

“Jason, I’m sorry to tell you this but I ended up just replacing the screen myself.”

“…”

“Umm, hello? Did you hear me? I did it myself. And it works. Is that not amazing?”

“Wow, that is even beyond MY level. I do not mess with laptops. EVER.”

And while I wanted to tell him that a) is was not beyond his level and b) he could do it with his eyes closed, I also wanted to gloat.

Yes, I can replace laptop screens. And I can also walk in heels, run a two hour half-marathon, and bake fantastic banana bread. BOW DOWN.