Reflections on my time without a fully functioning computer

I am alive. I did not (purposefully) crawl under a rock or take a Buddhist retreat. Upon returning from my Spanish conversation night on the 28th of December I discovered, to great horror, that my computer had such a severe software problem that it could not even start up. This is within two days of my iPod unexpetedly failing to turn on as well. Both of these probelms were far beyond me, but I fortunately have resources at my disposal. A trip to the Apple store in Beijing revealed that my iPod had no fatal issue, and although I do not know why it wouldn't turn on then, it does now. Regardless, I once again have a functional way to listen to audio material and get news, translate, look up words in multiple languages, email, send texts and make calls, and find public transit routes, so issue the is more or less solved.

The computer was MUCH harder. Mike is a Jamaican man who works as an English teacher at American House. Upon hearing my computer woes, he mentioned that he studied computer science and he could probably fix it. Due to CD and flash drive problems, internet access issues, and technical issues which are either too complicated or not interesting enough to relate here, as well as an unknown and unresolved problem which prevented Windows XP from being installed, yesterday (January 7) at work I received my computer, fully functional with Windows Vista, from Mike. YES!

I spent pretty much all of Friday night (and into the morning) configuring it, figuring out an operating system that I hadn't used before, and installing and tweaking programs. Getting my music from my iPod to the computer was the worst. It is surprisingly hasselsome to do. It all got taken care of though, and I know I and more or less back online. I caught up on reading (selectively) the blogs I follow, watched the juggling videos that I had missed, and now I feel the urge to write a dozen blog posts.

The time without computer and iPod were pretty different from how I normally spend my time (which is either at work, out and about, in bed [sleeping] or in front of my computer). I resorted to DVDs and the television that my apartment came with (the first time I have touched it in months), and in addition to a movie about compensated dating in Hong Kong, I finished up the last few episodes of Chinese Paladin 3 (仙剑奇侠传三), which I enjoyed a lot. I watched it in Chinese, and since they speak is a fairly classical way in that show I didn't get everything, but I definitely understand enough to get the basic plot and character relations, and the sacrifices and decisions that some of the characters made near the end of the show basically made me cry.

I also ended up reading off of paper a bit more than usual. I recently finished the compilation of various interviews and oral histories that I was reading (China Candid), and in the past week I managed to finish a book about differences in thought patterns between east and west (The Geography of Thought) as well. I have just started Three Cups of Tea, which I am enjoying so far, and about 1/4 through. I hope to get to the rest of it soon!