Saturday, May 12, 2007

I return in glory!

Now that I've been back in the US for almost 3 days, I can safely say that I was right in saying that our change sucks. The coins are so damn thin. Also, it's impossible to know what kind of change you'll need to make an exact purchase because of sales tax. I don't mind paying the extra 7.9% or whatever it is; just include it in the damn listed price, please.

Props to Apple once again for providing excellent customer service and freaking me out at the same time. I brought my laptop into get the lip of my slot-loading CD drive fixed so that it would actually allow CDs to pass through its maw - the Apple guy first told me that such cosmetic (bah!) damage wasn't covered by warranty and to replace the entire bottom casing would cost over $600. After dropping this shot of reality like a pigeon over a Ferrari, he watched my internal sputterings with pleasure for a few seconds before suggesting that he take it into the back room and try to fix it with Manly Tools. After about 30 seconds he returned with a fully-functioning CD lip. I wonder if it's company policy to begin by presenting the worst-case scenario and then slowly suggest more appealing alternatives, or if it was merely a technique he used to stay amused at work. In either case, Tom was happy to seek revenge on the Apple Store staff for their amusements by asking questions at them about speculative HD-DVD/Blu-ray compatibility and watertight keyboards.

Re: the posts below:

Avril Lavigne - I actually saw her recently in a movie - she surprisingly turned up in a role in Fast Food Nation, as an artfully disillusioned college-age PETA-wannabe, and was very believable. Who knew.

London economy- According to the illustrious Tim Kidd, the City of London (its financial district; the rest of it is technically Westminster) is actually the world's largest and richest corporation, with something like £2 trillion moving through the city every day. Yowza.

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