when bad things happen to good macs

i am about to set a world record called “the most number of countries in which to have mac failure.” the first meltdown came in 2005, a couple of months after I bought my ibook in korea. then in july 2008, my power cord frayed to spaghetti in morocco. now i can add south africa to that list. yesterday, i rested my laptop on a 5-inch- deep ledge in the apartment in order to finagle better wi-fi reception. then trying to lower the blinds to shield the screen from the sun, it was DROP! CRACK! WAAAAHHHH! busted screen with LCD splooge.

of course, this occurred when the service department of the authorized apple dealer in cape town was closed so i spent the night with a lump in my throat (and copious amounts of alcohol trying to dissolve that lump).

at 9 this morning, i rushed to the authorized apple dealer. their quote to fix it: 10,000 rand ($1,000 US). my response: “are you f&*king kidding me? i can buy a brand new laptop for that much.” i wasn’t far off. they sell a new macbook for 12,999 rand. the tech person, sensing the desperation of someone who was about to either bawl her eyes out or choke the bearer of bad news, gave me the number of some guy who deals in used parts. his name is dennis at repairs.com and when i told him my plight, he said he could do it for 850. “eight hundred and fifty rand? really? where are you?” i found out the answer when i got there; he’s in a part of town where the men eye a lone girl like the last piece of meat in a competitive eating contest for vultures.

back to my mac!

i am sooo getting this. read about how “back to my mac” helped solve the case of a stolen laptop. oh, and be careful who you invite to your home for parties…

stolen laptop helps turn tables on suspects from the ny times

By LISA W. FODERARO

WHITE PLAINS — The thieves were voracious, filching flat-screen televisions and computer games, purloining iPods and DVDs, even making off with a box of liquor and a set of car rims in a burglary two weeks ago at an apartment three young people shared here. Luckily, they also took two laptop computers.

One of the laptops was a Macintosh belonging to Kait Duplaga, who works at the Apple store in the Westchester mall and thus knows how to use all its bells and whistles. While the police were coming up dry, Ms. Duplaga exploited the latest software applications installed on her laptop to track down the culprits and even get their photographs.

i come from a broken home

i’m starting to wonder if there’s a curse on my apartment because an awful lot of things break down in it (besides myself, haha). first the ibook debacle, then the humidifier went kaput, and last week the pc had a meltdown. heck, even the TP holder in the bathroom broke off the wall. the latest casualty in our den of defective products is the imoyo, my brand new l’il hair sweeper upper that only arrived yesterday. imo swept a little bit of the living room and decided it’d had enough. “i’m through with pickin’ up yo hair. buh-bye,” it said and sat in the corner.

i ordered the imoyo on-line so i called the GSeshop customer service. i thought, “uh oh, i’ve been down this road before.” but unlike the apple A/S morons, the GS rep was super polite and when she said someone would get back to me by 6 pm, the call came at 5:37. they’re going to send over a new imoyo and take back the old one. easy peasy. thank god because i thought i was gonna have to give someone another ajumma style tongue-lashing.

today’s "to do" list

to do

laundry
call apple A/S
bank
solve world hunger problem
editing appt with dentist

those of you who’ve been following my ibook travails will be happy to know that i finally have some good news to share. i called the A/S center today for the update and the tech guy told me he was able to save all the data on the hard drive. sweet jesus, hallelujah! i nearly cried again, this time out of joy. but i composed myself and instead thanked him profusely. he still needs to replace the hard drive but is waiting for the new one to arrive. it should be here any day now and i’ll get my ibook back by thursday at the latest. can you believe i first took my ibook to that godforsaken chungmuro A/S center on november 14? i’m counting the days til i can start blogging in bed again.

i’m writing an angry letter to steve jobs

i am utterly frustrated about the state of my ibook and after my talk with the yongsan tech guy yesterday, i was sent into a downward spiral of depression. he said that he’s ordering a new logic board and it will arrive sometime early next week. then he told me that he can’t read the hard drive and they’ll have to replace it. that means i’ll lose everything that was in the memory.

i took the news as if he told me he was going to perform open-heart surgery on my 3-month old baby. i burst into tears. “but…i have wedding photos…sniff… and pictures i took on my honeymoon…sniff…i’ll never get those back…isn’t there anything you can do?….sniff sniff… “

as he was jotting, “crazy emotional customer, out of control” in the tech files, he mentioned something about paying $300-400 at a data retrieval service to rescue the files. in the same breath, he said, this process usually comes up empty.

before i hung up the phone i made a final plea. “maybe, while we’re waiting for the logic board to arrive you could run some more tests and save the files?” he said he’d try but it was so unconvincing, he might as well have told me, “no, i think i’ll sit on my fat ass and swat flies instead.”

well, maybe he took pity on me or maybe he feared that this crazy emotional customer would come blow up his office. in either case, i got a glimmer of hope today. the hubby called the tech guy and was told that the hard drive was running for a bit and they’ll try to download any files that they can. hallelujah!

they’re going to hold the ibook for another 24 hours to make sure it stabilizes and i may be able to pick up my baby as early as monday.

he hasn’t tried kimchi yet. what’d you think it was?

jimin (jacco’s wife) and i had language exchange over lunch at a jjajangmyun* restaurant, coffee at starbucks and while shopping in myungdong. actually, it didn’t feel so much like a language exchange but more like two friends spending an afternoon together. a delightful afternoon in which i learned more about the correct usage of prepositions and conjunctions than i had in any korean class. even our shopping adventure was super helpful because i could pick up tips on what to say to clerks from a native speaker. i’m not quite sure jimin got as much out of our exchange as i did but there will be future opportunities.

later on, in my class at the korea foundation, i told the teacher i went to see the 40 year old virgin. the title in korean is 40살까지 못해본 남자 (the 40 year old guy who hasn’t tried it yet). my teacher, who was unfamiliar with the movie, asked me in complete innocence “뭐를 못 해봤어요?” (what hasn’t he tried yet?)

oh! and there is progress on the ibook front. boards were inserted, tests were run, parts were ordered. the tech person doesn’t know what’s wrong with it exactly but at least he’s making an effort to cure it.

*i ordered the special 유미 짜장면 at lunch. you hear that, eumi? there’s a bowl of noodles with your name on it. you’ll be happy to know that it was delicious.

day 3 without the ibook

at 10:00 am on the dot, i called the damn bastards who are holding my ibook hostage.

apple dude: apple A/S

me: hi, i’m the person who brought in the ibook yesterday. i’ve been trying to get in touch with the tech person but he hasn’t called me back yet.

apple dude: oh, he’s occupied right now.

me: can you ask him to call me?

apple dude: yes, yes of course.

me: thank you.

3 hours later. i get on the horn again.

apple dude: apple A/S

me: (in an annoyed tone in my voice) hi, i’m calling about my ibook. i still haven’t heard from the tech person.

apple dude: ah, yes. he’s out of the office and it might be hard for him to call you today.

me: (in a more annoyed tone) well, is there someone else who can look at my computer?

apple dude: he’s been assigned to your computer so he has to look at it.

me: (getting ticked) he was supposed to look at it yesterday. what’s taking so long?

apple dude: are you in a hurry for it?

me: (in full-on angry ajumma mode) of course, i’m in a hurry. i have vital information i need to retrieve from the hard drive.

apple dude: sometimes we have to order parts from the US and it could take longer than two days.

me: (in my are-you-a-f*cking-idiot? tone) you don’t even know what’s wrong with it yet. how do you know you have to order parts?

apple dude: i’m just here covering the desk for a little while.

me: (back to angry ajumma mode) is there a manager i can speak with?

apple dude: a manager?

me: (more ticked) yes. this is my fourth time calling and i want to know why it’s taking so freaking long to get a status update on my computer.

apple dude: i’m sorry he didn’t call you. he’s been really busy. we don’t need to get a manager involved. how about i give you the cell phone number of the tech person?

me: (deep sigh.) fine.

anyway, this is a condensed version of a 6 minute call with the apple A/S center. i tried the cell phone number he gave me but it didn’t work (i probably wrote it down wrong) and when i called back the center, the line was busy. i had half a mind to march down there to rescue my ibook and take it someplace else but (a) i wasn’t sure i’d get better service elsewhere; and (b) was afraid i’d get arrested for strangling some poor computer geek.

the hubby said he’d call these retards tomorrow to see what’s going on. maybe i will call them again too, just for fun.

cold, cold, cold

went down to chungmuro today to have someone resuscitate my ibook. after traipsing a three-block radius, i finally found the apple service center and got a chilly reception. (note to the apple A/S management: try to hire customer reps who have a pulse, preferably people who can respond when you say “안녕하세요” to them.) i had to leave my baby there overnight. i’m worried. what if something happens to it? you never know how much you’re attached to something til your jonesing for it. and the freakin’ tech person won’t call me back to give me the status report. (note to self: call them at 10:00 am on the dot and get ready to unleash some unholy ajumma-style terror on their slacker asses.)

later, i trekked up to hongdae to have shabu shabu with hae-sun. we ordered the 쌍추쌈 shabu which came with these pretty little lettuce wraps. turns out that cold, bland rice on green leaves is not so tasty. i did, however, like the broth and the super-attentive service from the staff.

there was a big, fluffy white pooch in the house. i love dogs but i don’t love ‘em so much in restaurants. unless they’re on the menu – just kidding.

we strolled around the nabe, browsing in the super trendy boutiques. i couldn’t resist a fuzzy pink angora scarf and a hot pink leather business card holder. hs had to get back to work and i had to get back to more shopping. i headed over to lotte young plaza in myung dong to see if i couldn’t find a bday gift for the hubby (and maybe some cute gloves for me) and wouldn’t you know it? today was another one of those random mondays that lotte was closed! what is this, the fourth time already? got cold-dissed, again.

there’s no place like our place

a really awful thing happened last night. my ibook died. i was going through pictures on iphotos when the screen made a “pop!” noise and went blank. i haven’t been able to turn it on since. i tried the command-option-p-and-r keys, holding down the power button, and all sorts of voodoo. nada. and just my luck the service centers are closed on sundays. god, i hope i didn’t lose the 2085 photos i had stored in there.

on a brighter note, i had the most excellent meal at our place in itaewon. the upstairs terrace has a new vinyl roof and we could hear the staccato of the rain tap-tap on it as we lingered over our dinner. a candle on each table was the only source of lighting which made everything look all hazy and romantic – and that’s even before the wine took effect.

i started with a serving of liquid gold in a soup tureen, the french onion soup. every element was sublime, starting with the floating crouton smothered in gooey melted cheese to the deeply-flavored broth full of sweet onions beneath it. my next course, seafood pasta in fresh tomato sauce, was another winner. it arrived studded with fresh, perfectly-cooked shrimp, mussels, clams and squid.

we had a lovely end to our meal when the party at the next table sent over two slices of their birthday cake. there’s something about our place that makes everyone that much more civilized. i think it’s because the owner is always incredibly warm and friendly to customers and sets just the right tone for the restaurant. sigh, i wish every place could be like our place.