A lesson in keyboard repair, mostly
Friday, May 23

Summertime is here! And, to tell the truth, I've mostly been too busy slacking off to update here. Matt and I have been playing our new Wii games, Mariokart and Super Smash Bros. Brawl and on Wednesday added Wii Fit to our collection. Isn't it funny how all the games you've had your eye on always come out at the same time? Matt wasn't too sure he'd like Wii Fit, but it has proven to be super-fun. You use a balance board instead of the Wii-mote most of the time and play exercise games in 4 categories: Yoga, Strength, Aerobics, and Balance. I would definitely recommend this game for anyone with a Wii!

One of the things I got for my birthday was the Vegetarian Times cookbook. I found a recipe for noodles and decided to try making them, since I had always been under the impression that you needed a pasta machine to make noodles of any kind. I cut them with a pizza cutter and they ended up looking like playdough snakes, but they tasted good! These are Matt's (with steak on top stolen from the house).

And speaking of new endeavours, I tried my hand at computer repair yesterday. On Tuesday my laptop was attacked by a bottle of strawberry soda which ran over half my keyboard. Horrified, I rushed my Powerbook to the bathroom and held it sideways over the sink in hopes that the liquid would drain out before it got any farther. I now have two bright pink washcloths, since they happened to be the only thing within arm's reach to wipe off the keyboard with. After getting cleaned up my computer seemed to be fine, except for a horrible stickiness under the keys.

I spent a good bit of Wednesday searching the internets for advice on what to do about keyboard spills, and most of what I found advised me to TURN YOUR COMPUTER OFF RIGHT NOW AND SHIP IT OFF TO APPLE. Also, it seemed that IF SODA SPILLED IN YOUR KEYBOARD YOUR LAPTOP IS LIVING ON BORROWED TIME!!! Yikes. Apparantly, sugar + acid is the worst thing in the ever to get on electronics. Like the inside of a laptop. Also, it can work itself farther into the computer with time.

I wasn't sure how long it would take before my Powerbook's insides succumbed to the strawberry soda, and I didn't want to find out. A friendly user on the Apple forums told me that spills aren't covered by Applecare and that they would probably charge me about $250 to even look at my computer. Another user sent me a link to a page that went into great detail about taking apart an iBook keyboard for cleaning. It looked horrific and incredibly time-consuming, and suggested starting with a key you weren't very fond of, you wouldn't have to grieve so much when it broke.

It there is a key I am least fond of, it has to be the enter key. The one at the bottom, right next to the command key? I don't think I've used it once in almost three years. Now, on most laptop keyboards the keys are held on by a scisssors mechanism with four tiny hooks. Break any of the four, and the key won't work any more. The trick is to slide something very thin, like a nailfile, between the key and the mechanism and gently pop it off the hooks one by one. So, I slid my nailfile in, started prying ever-go-gently (because I just knew it was going to break) and...sproing! It popped right off, tiny hooks unblemished.

Since I had managed to get one key off without any trouble, I decided to go through with the rest of them. First I downloaded some instructions on how to remove the keyboard (to check if any strawberry goo was underneath). Then I proceeded to dismantle half of my keyboard, and it got easier as I went. Every key and every scissors mechanism went into cups of water to get clean, even those sneaky return and shift keys and space bar that are also held on by a metal bar. Meanwhile, I cleaned the area underneath the keys with q-tips and water. (Don't worry, no batteries!) Besides soda residue, you would not believe the incredible amount of dust/hair/fuzz/crumbs that get into a keyboard! So I figured if I was gonna have to take off half the keys anyway, I may as well just get all of them and have a squeaky clean computer. If you were wondering what it looks like under there, here you go.

Those 4 function keys at the top had to be removed to take out the screws holding the keyboard on. Once those are gone (plus one more on the bottom of the computer), it flips right up.

Happily, there was very little strawberry underneath, just along the edge were I tried to drain it. So my Powerbook's insides should be just fine, my keys are completely non-stick, and all tiny hooks are intact. It took FOREVER to take apart, clean, and reassemble my entire keyboard, but it was surprisingly...fun. Who knew that such a feeling of satisfaction could be obtained from knowing that you could disassemble a computer and put it back together again — and it still works?

- Karen

A Very Merry Unbirthday (to me!)
Monday, May 5

Yesterday Matt's family had an early birthday party for me. The new picture to the right is my handmade card from Russell and Shanna. And here is my present from Rachel and Blair:

Unlike Sheldon the Turtle, he did not come with a name or a song...but he is green and cute. And photogenic, apparently. Matt gave me - surprise! - Super Smash Bros. Brawl (a Wii game), which we proceeded to play all afternoon.

As far as the end of school goes, all I have left is a Spanish paper and final, both Wednesday. Then I'm done for the year!

- Karen