Breaking Things – I have the worst luck…

Just writing a quick update to share the misfortune that I’ve been having lately. Somehow my personal belongings have just been breaking. Argh-

//Update – June 29 2010: Well it seems like someone else is having the same problem with the MacBook Pro Unibody build quality. I found this ad on eBay as I was looking for a broken MacBook Pro to purchase so that I could switch out my old casing. This guy’s MacBook Pro frame snapped in exactly the same spot, which also resulted in the cracking of his screen. It definitely doesn’t reassure me of Apple’s products, especially in light of all the issues that recent iPhone 4 owners have been experiencing with the phone.

//EndUpdate

Yes, this is my MacBook Pro. I’ve been having problems with this Mac since I first left the States. The night before I left for China, I dropped my Mac from my backpack which I’d forgotten to zip up. There wasn’t too much serious damage- fortunately I had a solid-state HDD so there was no HDD damage, but I did end up with a huge dent that warped the Ethernet port (but who uses a wired connection these days anyhow huh? =p) The fall did, however, warp the screen lid a bit, and I also assume that it also weakened the aluminum frame that houses the LCD screen- because this aluminum frame ended up snapping earlier this month. The snapped bottom part of the frame would push out the front glass covering the LCD whenever I would open the Mac. I’ve been managing to carefully hold the glass down while opening up my Mac, but the glass finally gave way and cracked. It’s still intact- but I have an awesome crack going across my monitor; yay.

I called into the Apple store here in Beijing and they won’t just replace the casing for me. They say it’s only possible for me to replace the whole monitor, which will cost a whopping 6,000RMB; yeah, I don’t have the cash for that at the moment. I’ll just have to keep using my beautiful cracked screen until I finish studying and get a source of income again.
In the mean time, I am looking around on the forums for water-damaged broken MacBook Pros because all the guts of my computer are still alive and kicking- in fact, I checked some of the MacBook Pros for sale on the forums and my specs are still a lot better than what’s on the market- this Mac is still a beast =) I know it’s possible to just change out the casing- there are even videos on YouTube giving instructions on how to do take a Mac apart and switch out parts! I love YouTube =)

Well, that’s my Mac. Next up? My bike…
No, I didn’t get into an accident or anything. I’m fine. Basically, my seat would keep gradually getting lower and lower and I was getting really frustrated. Federico (you can YouTube him “Federico Moro juggling” and you’ll see some of his stuff. It’s pretty impressive!), the guy who put my bike together, told me not to tighten the bolt too much. Well, I didn’t listen and I decided to give the bolt an extra ‘wrench’ to make sure that the seat-post would stay in place- Bad idea! I ended up messing up the bolt. I ended up having to walk my bike out to look for a local shop with a saw and get the bolt sawed off. It was pretty amusing seeing people walking by looking at two guys sawing at a pretty bike. Yeah… lol.

Well, that’s the adventure for today- I ended up dropping by the Natooke shop again and picking up another bolt. This fix wasn’t so bad, just 5RMB =) Being back in the shop did make me start to think about switching out my handlebars and getting a set of bullhorn handlebars. But… I better watch my spending =p

-Duncan