Laptops & Tea... Don't Mix!

I bet you didn't realise that did you? That an electrical device and liquid do not make particularly good friends?

Picture the scene...

I was sat last week with my laptop on my knee and a cup of tea in my hand. Now I have a stand type thing to put my laptop on, mainly to let air circulate under it. It tips the laptop up so there is a couple of inches gap between the top of the laptop where the hinges are and whatever you have the stand sat on.

There is a sort of lip at the end nearest you to stop the laptop sliding towards you.

However on occasion I have accidentally sat the laptop on top of this lip... this was one such time.

So I'm sat, laptop on knee, mug of tea in hand, when the laptop suddenly slides towards me and then changes direction and heads to floor. Which of course meant that I tried to stop it falling to the floor (I did succeed in that). However in doing so I jerked the hand with the mug in it and sloshed tea all over the laptop.

Panic station!!!

I quickly mopped it up as best I could, switched the laptop off and put it to one side with some pieces of kitchen towel (paper towel) on it.

Cue the next day when I went to check it... the kitchen towel was now damp to start with, but I couldn't see any other liquid on it.

So I turned it on, and it came on OK... so far so good.

Then I went to log in to something and it was telling me my password was wrong.

That's when I realised that the 'Caps Lock' was randomly turning itself on and off. I then discovered that if you pressed the '9' above the letters I also got a letter 'o'. And if I pressed the 9 over to the right I also got a '#'. Now I kind of understand how I got an 'o' as that is just under the '9'. But a '#'? That's nowhere near either '9'.

Anyway I was googling, cos although the '9' thing would be annoying I could live with it, however that caps lock thing would end up with the laptop going through the window.

Long story short I ended up with the laptop propped upside down, sans battery for 24 hours.

Luckily it seemed to work - I even opened up a word document when I finally switched it back on and pressed every key to check that they were all working properly and that the caps lock wasn't still doing its own thing.

So a word to wise... be careful with liquids around electrical equipment... but you already knew that, right?

Oh Blogging Hell!

I felt a little stressed earlier today. I have recently become more active in the world of blogging - to the point that I noticed that I am currently following eighty blogs, a lot of which I have discovered in the past two to three weeks.

It does appear to be my current obsession - first came Youtube where I watched endless videos on how to do my hair, my make-up, how to make clothes etc. Of which I have probably had a go at about 15-20%.

Then there was Facebook where I sat and incessantly played games until I became mind numbingly bored - my computer solved this problem though - if my laptop is plugged in and I stay on Facebook for too long my laptop overheats and shuts down.

Then there was Etsy, which I will explain a little more about in a future post. But I basically spent loads of my time trawling through things I'd love to buy but couldn't afford, items I was waiting until payday to get, and items that I wouldn't want in a million years.

And now I'm hooked on blogging... which was supposed to be a bit of fun but I got minorly stressed out by it today when I wanted to take part in half a million things, for which I'd need three and a half dozen blog posts and I'd have to join Twitter... which would probably end my blogging addiction but then I'd be a Twitterholic instead! I have to keep telling myself that 'I don't have to take part in EVERYTHING!'

So I thought I'd wish you [and myself] some Happys:

Happy International Women's Day - for which I will cheat slightly and redirect you to someone who has put a little more effort than me in to their post - I give you CarolB at Carol's Corner - you should go and see this... Daniel Craig is involved! ;-)

Happy Shrove Tuesday... or as I know it Happy Pancake Day! And very nice my pancakes were too... even if they did come ready made and covered in ice cream.

Happy The Day After My 11th Diabetes Diagnosis Anniversary - try saying that when you've had a few!

And Happy Penultimate Work Day... for me anyway - I'm at work tomorrow and then I'm free for the rest of the week! YAY!

I think that covers just about everything. Just remember don't let blogging stress you out.

Getting Your Fingers Burnt

One of the bulbs in my light fitting has just gone. I knew it was going to go soon. It was flickering a couple of days ago so I knew our time was short.
Now changing the bulb in a light fitting that only has one bulb is fairly simple.
You suddenly find yourself sat in the dark, you swear, you go and fix problem etc.

Now as you can see my light fitting has three lights and the bulbs are halogen bulbs. Which seem to get even hotter than ordinary bulbs and take longer to cool down.

This brings me on to the point of this post. Something that I learnt the hard way. I can't remember how long ago this happened, it was over a year ago for definite, but one of the bulbs in the aforementioned light fitting blew. I didn't have a new bulb so I had to wait until the next day to get one.
When I got home it was dark so I put the light on. Then knowing I had to change the bulb I went and got a step ladder and a torch. I then switched off the lights, to avoid blinding or electrocuting myself.

So because the bulb had gone the day before it wasn't hot, so I removed it and put the new bulb in.

But it seemed a little loose.

'I wonder if the other bulbs sit in the fitting in the same way,' I said to myself. So I reached round and put the index and middle fingers of my right hand on one of the other bulbs to see if they were sat in the fitting in the same way.

The same bulb that had been switched on not two minutes before. I discovered that the bulb I had put in was in correctly but then nearly fell off the step ladder when I burnt my fingers on the still hot bulb that hadn't blown. I then went tearing off to the bathroom to put my fingers under cold water - it hurt a lot but at least I knew my nerve endings were in tact.

So a word to the wise - light bulbs get very hot!