He...Died?

The news that greeted me this morning was that a certain Libyan with an unspellable last name was executed by his own people after a long uprising. As a History and Middle Eastern Studies major, I have lots of questions about the whole affair, like

1. "Who will take power now? Will it really usher in a democratic era for the Libyan people?"
2. "How come NATO made it a priority to invade Libya but not Syria, where the leadership has been doing comparable (and maybe worse) things for decades?"
3. "How come no one ever reported from Qaddafi's side? We know all about the rebels war effort, but surely the people who supported him were not nameless, faceless video-game enemies? Surely they had their reasons?"
4. "Are we all aware that much of the fighting was divided among pre-existing tribal lines? This won't create any old resentments, will it?"
5. And most importantly, "NOW who am I gonna represent at the Model Arab League?"

Also, I left my shoes outside last night, and someone stole them. That meant I had to go to school barefoot today...dammit.

Shocker: White People Can't Afford Everything.

The word is back on my computer--it's dead. Dead as in, the motherboard is broken and will cost more than the damn thing is actually worth to get it replaced.

Which means that I'm stuck using this overheated, semi-functional internet cafe indefinitely. It also means I've lost total access to all my personal documents, my passwords to various websites, my photos, my Chinese lessons, my Khmer lessons, and my global intelligence network, to name a few.

Last week there was a big uproar when Libya's intelligence chief, Moussa Koussa, defected to NATO. They thought for sure Libya's regime would crumble. The demise of my laptop is to me what that defector guy was to Moammar Qaddafi: I think I will crumble. I AM VERY DEPRESSED ABOUT THIS.

You: Why can't you just repair it, freak? Instead of always making outlandish comparisons between yourself and Middle Eastern despots.

Me: Because every single entry I write has to reference Middle Eastern despots, that's why.

And because I don't happen to have an extra THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY PLUS DOLLARS lying around my house that I can just fork over to the nearest technician who tries to tell me I need a new motherboard.

And because I also spent hundreds of dollars on an extended warranty with Best Buy, knowing this would happen. That warranty doesn't expire till July. Why the hell should I spend obscene amounts of money on something that's supposed to be under warranty? I don't care if my computer is 12000 miles away from the nearest Best Buy. I WANT IT FIXED FOR FREE, DAMMIT.

And tomorrow is the start of Khmer New Year. This means that, because it looks like my laptop won't magically heal itself, I may or may not be able to get on the internet for three or four days, if ever, depending on what's shut down in Phnom Penh. I hate being at the total mercy of everyone else's work schedule. Dammit.