My computer is working... again

I am, for the first time in too long, typing on a computer which is (as far as I am aware) not stricken with any fatal problems, can access a wireless network, and is owned by me. I had a few brief days of use about a week ago before a hard drive problem necessitated the purchase of new hardware and the subsequent installation of a new operating system: Windows Vista.

The whole process took much longer than I had hoped it would, as I bought the new hard drive Thursday January 13^th, and today (the 19^th) is the first day I have been able to use my computer since. First Mike, a co-worker who knows computers, told me that he would install the hard drive and Windows XP over the weekend. Come Monday mike informed  me that the version of XP he had was apparently the Chinese version, so he would try and get the English version ASAP. On Tuesday I accompanied Mike to ZhongGuanCun (中关村) to find a pirated (daoban/盗版, for you Chinese language learners out there) English-language version of Windows XP, and Wednesday I get my computer back with Windows Vista on it (he said he couldn’t find the right drivers to install XP on my computer).

Although it took several days, this method was undoubtedly cheaper, as my co-worker, Mike, did all the work free of charge. This means that rather than paying several hundred yuan to some guy in ZhongGuanCun to fix it, I instead bought a pizza for Mike.

Not that I have been completely cut off from the outside world since the new year. Anyone who has kept an eye on my online action will have noticed that I stayed active (increased my activity actually) on Twitter, and I did a few things via email and Facebook as well. Using my iPod touch to type is not as convenient or comfortable as using my computer though, and reading is also easier when the text is not so small.

On the upside, I have upped my rate of reading over the past few weeks which I been semi or completely lacking my computer. I finished the book China Candid, started and finished The Geography of Thought, Three Cups of Tea, The Zen of Juggling, and today I finished Foreign Babes in Beijing. With my computer back in action, half a dozen blog posts I want to write, a few update emails, and the continual roll of new blog posts to read, I have great doubts that I will finish four books in the next month. I will aim for one book before the end of February: Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell.