When All You Have Is You

*From my old Friendster Blog site written on March 2, 2007.

I've been pretty much offline for almost two weeks now. My laptop got sick - the LCD screen went dark for some reason. I did some research, called the repair guy and he said it'll cost me $120 just for the service, not including the brand-new $200 Widescreen Dell LCD screen. Whoa - I thought to myself, "Man, you're officially broke again."

While doing further research regarding the problem, I read online manuals on how to take my laptop screen lid apart but I wasn't sure if I should give it a try. I can still remember being a computer geek in the past but that was like lightyears ago. I've stopped paying attention to computers (Maybe because I'm starting to pay more attention to girls now).. Being a poor, low-income college student, I really had no other choice. With no experience in laptop repair skills, I was determined to trust myself for the sake of saving $120 (I figured I could use those for souvenirs for this June's trip home). And so there I was - I had nothing else but only myself to help me get thru the problem.

Courageously, with my bidan terjun "skills", I changed the FL Inverter (costed me $51) myself. Unfortunately, the first 'operation' didn't solve the problem - reason: replaced the wrong 'organ'. But I didn't have to pay $120. And the good thing was this - I learned a new skill; a skill that's worth $120. Even better, I now know how to even replace the keyboard myself should there be any problems in the future.

Since the FL Inverter killed my hopes, I had to finally replace the whole LCD screen set. I got one from Ebay. Costed me $175, and it arrived yesterday. I replaced the 'organ' right away. Thank God, that was the right organ my computer needed. Saved another $120 on the second repair service. So, in total, I think I just saved $240. Yeay!!!

So, from this event, I learned that there will be times when the going gets tough, no matter what the problem is, all you actually have is yourself and no one else. We just have to have faith in ourselves and just go for it. Eventhough we could fail along the way, I'm sure we'll get something out of it.

And Mr Dell Inspiron 8600 is now healthy as before. Hopefully it'll stay healthy until I graduate.... Whatever it is, I'm one happy young man now. Yeay!!! :D