2003-02-07 5:54 p.m.

I spent a few hours of my day with Derek trying to get the backlight on my iBook working again. It was failing intermittently, and often the only way I could get the screen to work was to hold the computer upside down and shake it. Since I don't usually hold my computer upside down and shake it during normal use, this was not exactly working out well for me.

So, since we are both electrical engineers working for Apple, we felt pretty qualified to tackle this issue. We opened it up and tried to fix it. How hard could it be, right?

Let me tell you that the iBook is VERY difficult to take apart. It made removing the transmission from my car seem simple and quaint. The last few hours of my life involved lots of prying and forcing and just countless tiny screws of various shapes and sizes, all of which were small and easy to lose. Reassembly was not quite as challenging or confusing as disassembly, but lets just say that we had plenty of extra "stray" parts left over when we were "done".

So we fired it up...and now the backlight doesn't work at all. Ever. None. Even holding it upside down and shaking it doesn't work. Well, I must admit that shaking it does work to make me feel a little better, but it doesn't help with my computing needs.

In other news, the mysterious fingernail clipping guy left a huge stockpile of nail clippings on the floor of the handicapped stall again today. Fingernail Clipping Guy, I want you to know that I love you, whoever you are.

Now it's time to drive home and have dinner with Andie and then decide if I am going to wake up and take the LSAT tomorrow morning or not. I have pretty much lost all interest in becoming an entertainment lawyer after last weekend at Julian's. So, now the only motivation to actually take the LSAT tomorrow is the fact that I already paid $108 for it. Do I really want to wake up at 6:30 AM to take this test, or am I only going for the same reason I try to eat all the food on my plate—the fact that I paid good money for it?


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