Offline !!!

I recently realized, the hard way, that when at home I am well and truly addicted to my notebook. This is an account of the horror I felt when my notebook (and I) was left gasping for power.

I returned home from a R&K’s place (40 miles away from mine) and realized that my notebook adapter was left behind. “Never mind”, I thought. At low screen performance, I should have 5 hrs of power. Reality struck as soon as I powered on. Having used the battery power before, all I had was ONE hour!! Immediately the thoughts were gushing through. How would I

A. Keep the music on
Cannot compromise on this – HAVE TO keep it on as long as I am home and awake
No. of neighbours who have complained up to now: Just 1 - Had my windows open, volume was normal (:P) and ‘twas 11:15PM
B. Check mail
I press the refresh button on my mail 15 times/hr (even though the gmail page self-refreshes periodically)
C. Be online on messengers
What if someone sends a message and I miss it
D. Check orkut
Mebbe some pretty girl left a scrap. Not likely! But I can at least hope, cant I :)
E. Speculate¹
Regular visitor to two poker sites (mostly lose ² ) and one black jack site (generally win here – luck helps…and of course Basic Strategy)
F. Be an armchair strategist (read play AoE)
I haven’t played against human players for the past 2 years so I am a bit rusty now. Andre would remember (though claim otherwise :D) his 6 consecutive losses against me. Nava was fair game (he would claim otherwise too :D), AP Singh was good, Pecky absolutely rocked (read decimated me). Never played against XL or Uncle but I reckon I could have beaten them
G. Read blogs
A few I visit – Kau, Nirav, Andy, Gokhale, Sarin , S Anand, Anand. There are others too but either I dont know them or they don’t write much
F. Download
Isn’t there always some music or movie
G. Shop
Love online shopping even tough I regularly buy useless things. Hate offline shopping
H. Do general surfing - yeah I do this too

Anyhow, I strategised (not the AoE variety). I had to do SOMETHING. Here what made sense

A. Watch VH1 instead of listening to music on comp
Verdict: Not so good - TV sound output is no match for my Bose speakers. Music is ok but cannot match the painstakingly built up collection on my comp. TV has advertisements!!
B. Finish of Grisham’s “The Broker”
Verdict: Non starter- Cannot bring myself to read fiction during the day. Restricted to the nights.
C. Start any of the 4 books that I recently spent $50 on
Verdict: No - Don’t want to start any before finishing The Broker. Starting anything else would mean that The Broker remains unfinished 'cause I am not really enjoying it
D. Get out, camera in tow and shoot stuff
Verdict: Too tired - Just travelled 40 miles
E. Sleep
Verdict: Escapist – Though that’s what I did. For 30 min. Cannot sleep in the afternoons.
F. Eat, drink
Verdict: After that what - Had a beer, then another…now what?
G. Go shopping
Verdict: Sucks – Physical shopping is an act to be committed in case of dire-necessity only. Never liked it, never will. Online shopping rocks but requires one to be connected.
But I did go shopping. Bought an “i GO universal charger” hoping I could charge the comp. The label said the pack was compatible with my IBM X40. Could not make it work with the power source at home and now I am saddled with a $60 piece of junk. I hope Radioshack has a return policy.

Excruciating pain hit me exactly a minute after my comp died. I decided enough was enough. It was time I regained control of my life. And I did just that. I made the 40 mile trek back to R&K’s home and got my adapter back.

¹ Note the choice of words here - speculate as opposed to gamble
² Hence, I think online poker tends to gambling

P.S. Another neighbour came calling that night. It was close to midnight and the volume was normal.