nothing makes you feel more stupid than receiving a text message that tells you that all you needed to do to revive your dead laptop is to jiggle the battery a bit.

that's the short version. here's the longer version:

my pre-Ben laptop refused to be roused from sleep one monday morning. i tried out all the suggestions everyone had: leave it plugged on, jiggle the cord, etc. the power button simply refused to work. after trying to turn it on every single morning for a week, i gave it up for good and began calling laptop repair shops asking if they can fix it.

apparently most repair shops give up a dying laptop for good. since that laptop contained a whole lot of pictures, a decision yet to be promulgated, and a whole lot of things i hadn't had a chance to back up, i wasn't ready to give up on it. so i pulled some strings and asked a friend who headed techsupport in her office to have someone look at it.

ten minutes after i left it with her, i receive a text message basically telling me that after they jiggled the battery a bit, the pc was ok.

i hit the pc, i kissed it, i talked to it, i bitch slapped it. i did everything, except jiggle the battery.

now if that doesn't make me look dumb, i don't know what else will.