jmoiron.net

Usually i try to write these titles in the proper alphabet, but I'm too tired and frankly I have no idea where to find a resource for even the most simple Thai phrase (hello!).

I woke up at 4:30 this morning (god knows what time; GMT+7:00 I think?) to catch a flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. I have a bunch of homework due by Sunday night, 12:30 AM, GMT-4, which gives me about til Monday morning to do it. Unfortunately, one hotel wanted like $7 for internet access, and upon arrival to our (absolutely gorgeous and fantastic) accommodations in Chiang Mai, we were told that the wireless there was broken. My girlfriend said "We're all engineers, we can fix it", and thus it began.

Let me lay the setting briefly. Chiang Mai is in Thailand. I had no idea where the hell in Thailand until 5 minutes ago; it's quite close to Burma and Yangon, where presently an entire country is going to hell. Thailand, though, remains pretty fine. So that's where I am, Chiang Mai. It's winter, and outside it's about 85 Fahrenheit degrees.

They tell us the wireless doesn't work, so I'm told if I want to use it, I have to fix it. Luckily enough, unlike power, phone, and pretty much everything else (the cars in most asian countries, including Thailand, have their controlls mirrored onto the right side, and people drive on the left; like England), the internet is the same everywhere. And fortunate for me, computers were invented in the United States, and virtually every computer in the world is easy to use as an english-input terminal.

So I go to work on their wireless, but their mouse is really upsetting me. It's a ball mouse, and if I had to guess, it's never been cleaned. I open it up and start to clean it. Now, ball mice have 3 wheels you need to clean when you clean them; they have the top motion and bottom motion wheels, which are long and easy to clean, and then a little pressure wheel, which keeps the ball pressed against the other two and is small and a pain in the ass. As I was cleaning this wheel, I learned something new; the pin that holds this tiny wheel in place is actually (or at least, occasionally) a spring that can move and fling the small black wheel out in a random direction.

So I broke their mouse, before even getting started with the internet problem. So I look around for some tools with which to fix it (starting with the little black wheel, which thankfully flew off into the internals of the mouse); and I MacGuyver my way into a bent paper clip and a binder clip (to use pliers for the wheel). I'm sitting there, playing with the internet, waiting for DHCP, navigating by keyboard, wondering what the hell was going on, and in the mean time trying to sneak my way into the mouse I broke while no one is looking and fix it. After about 25 minutes, I fix both and am a hero!

True story.