Pays to be nerdy

So here's a little known fact about me: I am a big fan of technology.  Can be a force multiplier with regards to productivity, capable of enabling me to communicate long distances, analyze huge volumes of information, and record important data for posterity.  In reality, it enables me to waste inordinate amounts of time doing mindless, brain-killing activities that all but ensure that productivity is bound hand and foot and sequestered in a dark room to slowly lose its anthropomorphized  sanity.

An ironic exception to this rule is when the aforementioned technology suffers some unfortunate fate due to defect, accidental trauma, or general proximity to children.  It is in these scenarios that my now quite mentally unbalanced productivity is released from its fetters and set against the problem not unlike a Treadstone graduate in a Robert Ludlum novel.

I had the opportunity to experience such an episode today when my relatively expensive and absolutely bad-ass laptop decided to stop accepting electrical current from the charger.  This initiated an intense flurry of productivity as my laptop battery's state of charge slowly ticked down like the timer on a quintessential action movie explosive device.  Having lived through such an event before with a different computer I was fairly certain that one of the soldered contacts of the DC jack had come loose from the motherboard, requiring a fairly comprehensive disassembly of the internals to facilitate either repair or replacement.  So I am now like John McLean in his second or third appearance, annoyed at his run in with yet another criminal mastermind, but not surprised as this kind of thing is apparently just going to keep on happening.  "What the... ok, well I guess here we go.  AGAIN."

So putting my Google skills in top gear I sifted through online tech support FAQs, tech geek forums, and random must-not-be-clicked Chinese domained results and found an Ebay listing for a replacement jack for $3.75 with free shipping.  Ordered.  Furthermore, I happened to find an awesomely produced in-house maintenance video on YouTube detailing disassembly of my model of laptop set to inspiring 80's "how-to" music.

After just one watch-though and with plenty of battery life to spare, I turned off the slowly fading laptop and flipped it over for the procedure.  Here is it in yard sale configuration on my desk.

Let's take a closer look see, and.... YEAH. See that metal bit that is directly above PWRCONN1?

Let me just encourage it with a burning metal pointy bit and some fresh solder...

I forgot to take a picture of the "after," but here's then end result:

Fixed!  For a grand total of zero dollars.  I can do anything that I put my mind to with my ingenuity and tech-handiness!  As a matter of fact, I'm sure I can do other things as well!  Like fix that doorknob and unpack those boxes that have sat around since I moved in this house 10 months ago and maybe even sign up for college classes again and...

Hush productivity and get back in the basement.  I'm going to blog for two hours and then get distracted by cats on the internet.