I feel like I'm living in Brazil. No, not the nation, the film.
Two lamps in my house have failed, and both are so old and poorly wired that repairing them has been a real pain (and they're both still broken as I type this). My EVDO modem has been really flaky for the past three or four weeks and it's been a crap shoot, each day, as to whether I could get online.
Today I did a lot of uninstall/reinstall of the modem drivers, but it didn't help. I've been suspecting that it's a problem with the hardware. A few minutes ago, trying to remove and reseat the modem's USB connector, I pulled the device gently from my laptop, only to have the modem come out but not the connector. Has it been failing due to some kind of physical defect? Maybe, but now I'll never know. I doubt my vendor is going to accept a return on something that looks like it was physically mistreated.
So, I called work to say I was going to have to order a replacement and then started to bring up 3GStore on my iPhone. While I typed, the keyboard froze and my music started to skip. I tried and tried to power down, but nothing happened. I thought, "I'll have to call a friend and ask how to turn it off in this situation!" but of course then I remembered that I can't call someone when my phone is locked up. Fortunately, I had the iPhone User Guide on my laptop which (knock on wood!) has not been failing. Once I reset the phone, it announced that its battery was in the red. What?!
I really hope that the next thing to break down isn't the bus or, worse, the car right in front of the bus.
At least I don't have a pacemaker.
