My music died today...

As if it were a premonition, I read a few days ago somewhere a column of someone marveling about the new and forever smaller and smaller gadgets that the modern homo heidelbergensis (if you cannot understand this fancy word, here's help: homo sapiens. Feeling better?) cannot live without. He went on to jokingly say that he has all his music in this wonderfully little device. ALL OF HIS MUSIC! Then he jokingly said that when his device crashes... You know what he meant!



I must always have the most modern gadgets that come out first. I cannot live without any of them. Really! I have a 1GB super fast memory card in my first ever 5GB digital camera. I carry all my "must be backed up" codes I write in my spare time in this tiny 1GB USB device that always dangles in my key chain. Of course, I have ALL MY MUSIC converted into MP3 in the first ever "fit in your shirt pocket" digital MP3 player.

Well today is the fateful day of all days. While driving, my favorite public radio station has the infinite wisdom to broadcast the political wrangling of the local school board so I turned to my trusted MP3 player. You know what I am leading to... Read the paragraph at the top that said the dreaded word "premonition."

Below is the confirmation that just came in my email of my most recent on line chat...

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'TLMainDB=001-445-653'Dell Chat-Interaction

The session has been accepted.

{Lan Nghiem-Phu 8:33:43 PM} My Dell DJ 15 GB hard drive is dead. What can I do?
{Kumar 8:34:04 PM} Thank you for contacting Dell Technical Chat Support. My name is Sushil.
May I have the service tag of the DJ?
{Lan Nghiem-Phu 8:34:30 PM} 9cnbd31
{Kumar 8:34:39 PM} Please give me a minute to pull up the account information. In the mean time, may I have the full name on the account and the initial shipping address please?
{Lan Nghiem-Phu 8:34:52 PM} Lan Nghiem-Phu
{Lan Nghiem-Phu 8:34:57 PM} ...censored...
{Lan Nghiem-Phu 8:35:03 PM} Miami, Florida
{Kumar 8:35:54 PM} Thank you
{Kumar 8:36:13 PM} May I call you Lan?
{Lan Nghiem-Phu 8:36:21 PM} Sure.
{Kumar 8:36:31 PM} Thank you
{Kumar 8:37:06 PM} How the harddrive is damaged?
{Lan Nghiem-Phu 8:37:59 PM} It just quits today. It has been working fine. I tried to reboot but cannot. I tried to reformat. It says hard disk is bad and quits.
{Lan Nghiem-Phu 8:38:33 PM} I tried to reboot many times. The drive makes strange noise.
{Kumar 8:39:00 PM} What error is displayed on the screen?
{Lan Nghiem-Phu 8:39:58 PM} It goes into the 4 choices: Cleanup (does nothing); Reboot (does nothing); Firmware reboot (does nothing); Reformat (It says hard disk is bad.)
{Kumar 8:40:31 PM} ok
{Kumar 8:41:20 PM} Lan, as I see the account details, the warranty of this DJ is expired.
{Lan Nghiem-Phu 8:42:13 PM} Great. Anything I can do except buy a new one?
{Kumar 8:42:27 PM} Therefore you need to purchase a new DJ.
{Kumar 8:42:55 PM} You may contact Dell sales at 800-915-3355.
{Lan Nghiem-Phu 8:43:07 PM} Wonderful. Thank you for your help. Can I ask why I had to answer all the questions before you told me I need to buy a new one?
{Kumar 8:44:33 PM} I collected the information for the privacy and security of your account.
{Kumar 8:44:53 PM} Is there any other technical issue I may assist you with, today?
{Lan Nghiem-Phu 8:45:21 PM} Great. No. Thank you for your time. Have a wonderful day. Bye.
{Kumar 8:45:56 PM} Thank you for contacting Dell Technical Chat Support. Have a great day
The visitor has ended the chat session.
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There you have it! I am not sure how long I can survive... Well... the 15GB was all filled up anyway... I need more room... iPod or not iPod? That is the question! Nah! Let's help Kumar keep her job and go for the 30GB. Sushil Kumar, here I come!!!!