author: Nicole J. LeBoeuf

Hi again! So it's vaguely more tomorrow-like than otherwise. Not a heck of a lot of writing happened yesterday because of two things that loomed disproportionately large on my radar, both of which I hinted at the other day.

Thing the first: I had to get Space Invader (my Alienware M15 laptop) ready to ship off to Dell's repair depot. AGAIN. Not because their previous repairs didn't hold up beautifully. They did! There have been no unexpected crashes, no soundcard problems, everything's been great. But. The other day, seemingly out of nowhere, the monitor just sort of self-destructed.

Seriously. I was was adjusting the angle of the monitor, lowering it so that it wouldn't dominate my vision during a conversation, when the thing hit an internal obstruction and went CRUNCH and John said "Stop, stop!" and I said "I know!" and I let go of the thing. The frame of the monitor had sprung open in the lower-left corner, and when we shone a flashlight in it, we saw a bunch of screws and a bit of broken-off hardware rolling around loose in the gap.

So this will probably fall under my Accidental Damage Warranty (which can only be invoked once a year), rather than the Premium Service Warranty (which can be invoked any time shit goes wrong) because I think the Dell techs don't quite believe the machine would do this without provocation. Like, dropping it several times (I swear I didn't!) or being less than gentle with my backpack when it's inside (I mean, maybe?). "We don't have a record of such issues with this model," my Dell Support contact said. The techs at the depot will take a look, decide which warranty to charge, and then they'll fix it. And I'll get it back. And hopefully I'll finish out my first year of owning the thing without further incident.

I gotta talk up Dell Support, though. I had finally finished all the backups and data transfers and the deletion of sensitive material, and I was ready to put it in the box (Note: Dell sends you a box with appropriate protective packaging material inside; Asus, last time I checked, does not), when I read the instructions and realized they conflicted with what my Dell Support contact had told me. So I emailed a question in and just hoped he'd get back to me sooner rather than later. In fact, he called me up not five minutes later.

My question was this: "You said I should include the power cable, but the instructions say don't. Which is it?"

His initial answer was as follows: "It's really up to you, but if your laptop's battery is out of juice when the techs need to turn it on, it would be handy to have a compatible cable right there."

I had second thoughts. "OK, but should I include a note that says, 'The visible, cosmetic damage to the power cable is not what I'm invoking my Accidental Damage Warranty about'? Or will they just include that replacement along with the repairs to the monitor as a single invocation of the warranty for this year?"

"Hmm. In that case, don't include the power cable. Let's not confuse anyone. However, when your computer is returned to you, email me requesting a call back, and we'll see whether I can get a replacement power cable approved as a one-time exception."

Well, that would be splendid. See, the plastic sheathing at the end of the cable that plugs into the computer, where it bends a lot, started sort of disintegrating after only about three months. Again, only cosmetic, but a little demoralizing every time I looked at it. If I get a replacement cable out of this, that would be totally sweet.

Thing the second: ...you know what? This post is hella-wow long already. Let's save the Second Thing for tomorrow's blog post, along with the February Fictionette Round-up.

In any case, after doing the two big-but-not-really things and then walking the package over to the nearby drug store for FedEx pickup, I walked a half block further to take myself out to My Ramen & Izakaya for a late lunch of ridiculously self-indulgent proportions. Then I took my overfull belly home to be pleasantly worthless for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

And that's why you're getting this post now rather than yesterday. Ta-da!