Approximately 4 years ago I was given a Dell laptop as a gift by my common-law spouse at the time. The computer and I had a difficult working relationship because it wasn't a Mac like I wanted it to be, everytime I looked at it I was reminded of the fact that my spouse didn't take my preferences into account when buying the thing and truth be told it was heavy and ugly as sin.

About a month ago, it overheated during a presentation that I was doing for a job interview over Skype. It had been having issues for a while but this was just too much. I don't know much about such things and that combined with my anger gave me courage - I decided to clean the fan. I went out and bought a little screwdriver and started unscrewing things and pulling on the casing. I found two little screws where the monitor meets the rest of it and proceeded to flex the monitor with a screwdriver while using the another screwdriver to undo the screws. During this entire procedure my roommate came home, stared in mordib fascination for a while, warned me that is a singularly stupid idea and then proceeded to help me. We eventually got the fan clean, but the monitor gave up the ghost.

Deep down inside I was looking for an excuse to buy a new computer, that is the only logical reason for my behaviour. I have finally found a candidate that I am excited about - a Sony Viao CR - in shiny sexy metallic red. I am so looking forward to having some aesthetic pleasure in my computing experience.

I am in the process of leaving Taiwan. I have to think about the question of where I will go next. This week I interviewed for a job in Abu Dhabi - while its a completely random place its really as good as any.