That's All She Wrote: life in the negative

These days, you can travel across the world and still feel like you're right next-door. To anyone! Between facebook, ichat, skype and plain old email, you're always linked in. (Humor me.) As long as you have a trusty laptop. I left California over a month ago with my little MacBook, trusting her as my lifeline to the rest of the world while I live and work in Bali for the summer. And then one day I opened her up and BOOM! The screen was only half there. From the middle down it was a sea of rainbow and above the picture had flipped to the negative. Here's what I'm looking at now:

As you can see, the negative when you're in a word document means the background is black, the words are white. That's on a good day. Sometimes the words are so white, you cannot make them out. In ichat, because the words are on a colored background, it's almost impossible to read. When you're looking at photographs, it is the same as looking at a negative. Remember those? I remember developing a roll of film and then going through the pictures and choosing those I'd like dupes of. I'd then try to match the pictures with their negatives so I could drop them of at Thrifty's to make copies. (And of course I would get two scoops of Chocolate Malted Chrunch on my way out.) Sometimes, if I wasn't careful, I'd pick the wrong shot. It was never crystal clear as to which number went with which shot. Or maybe it was my eyes. At any rate, viewing photos in the negative feels like trying to watch a movie from behind a sheer black curtain. It's fucking frustrating!

So that's where I'm at now. My computer is in the negative. It stared a while ago. I assumed it would be temporary, but clearly this is my current fate. I spoke with Apple - and while it is covered under my Apple Care, nothing is covered out of America. Really Apple?

Sometimes I have to hit the screen a bit and play with it to get the entire screen to show. And even when it is as good as it gets, if someone hits the table, all could get fucked up again. Other times I am left to work with the top third of the screen. Sometimes I cannot see where my arrow is going but I can launch programs from the bottom. I just have to remember where certain program icons live on my screen. This is a fun game. I click around with my eyes closed guessing with sheer precision. It's like a game of Memory. I always end up launching what I need. Sometimes it takes several tries. And so I have adjusted. I guess.

Facebook is less fun without pictures. I mean, what's the point now? Choosing pictures to post on this blog is dangerous… You're never quite sure if you want to share what you're posting. Skype is less enjoyable. But it is better than nothing. Wow, to be able to talk to friends while looking at them! Amazing. I have skyped with some of you. All of you look great in the negative, by the way, even if you were three seconds delayed.

And so things are a bit challenging at the moment. But thus is life. And I'm still happy to be living this one.

I'm taking a chance, but here are a few recent pictures...