The Blog Trend

These keystrokes officially mark the commencement of my very own 'blog. I never thought I would see this day, not even three weeks ago when I was busying myself at my bland and lonesome reception desk by browsing the newly born blog of Sar C. (alias "Dolyn"), mentally taunting her for being a total internet nerd-face. Of course, I realize that such derision was purely hypocritical, as I have greedily devoured every post of every blog that any of my friends has ever created, and I would be unable to argue if Sar C., or any other blog-founding friend of mine, were to scoff at me and suggest that my ridicule was probably rooted in straight-out jealousy and longing for a blog of my own.

So here it is.

I will begin with a promised tale of electronic explosions. As most readers of this blog will probably know, I have recently moved from New York to London. And, as most coherent human beings will probably know, the electrical currents used in these two countries are very different from one another, and not to be confused. To be more specific, the voltage used in the US is something like 120, whereas the electricity used in the UK is double that, packing a whopping 240 volts of pure, unadulterated power. Being a well-traveled individual with experience in such matters, I dutifully made my way to the Maplin Electronics store on Tottenham Court Road before even thinking about plugging my computer into the potentially deadly socket in my new bedroom. I spoke with a customer service representitive, explaining that I had brought my beautiful, new, shiny American iMac with me to London, and asked what precautions I should take before plugging it in. He assured me that all I would need was a British power cord. No converter. No adapter. No nothing. He spoke to the store's certified Apple expert, who confirmed his claims. Fair enough, I thought. These guys know what they're talking about. So I happily shelled out ten-or-so pounds and walked away with my power cord. When I got home, just to be absolutely sure, I carefully examined the small print on the back of my computer, and found, to my dismay, a clear marking of "100-120 V" emblazoned there. Better safe than sorry, I thought to myself. And so I trudged back to the store the next day and spoke to a different customer service representative, expressing my worries. This kind young man told me that their shipment of Apple products actually came from the US, so I had nothing to worry about. He sensed my lingering concern, and checked the iMac specs online, and even called some elusive computer epicenter. All his research confirmed his original intuition. So, impressed with his thorough approach, I went home in a bubble of blissful trust, unwrapped my new power cord, and plugged my computer in. It instantly made a loud popping noise and emitted a small cloud of burnt-smelling smoke and, needless to say, didn't turn on.

To make this long and painful story shorter and less painful: I screamed in fear, then cried, then cried some more, then phoned the tech people, who told me that my computer was hoplelessly destroyed, and that I probably wouldn't be able to recover any of the information on my hard drive, and that it would be cheaper to buy a new computer than to fix it since my warranty had expired. I then cried some more, threw my pretty new handbag across the room in rage and thus accidentally broke the handle, then pouted my way to the Apple store with computer in tow. There, a very nice man named Leigh helped me even though I wasn't in the Genius Bar queue, told me they could fix my computer within the week, and told me they'd even cover the cost of the parts for me, including a part to make my computer truly internationally compatible, so all I would have to pay was the 70 pound labor fee. He then called me the next day to assure me that my hard drive was undamaged. I had my computer back and working in a week, as promised.

I feel that this extremely two-faced experience is actually rather representative of my time here so far.