lightning never strikes the same place twice

so my computer broke the other night. when i pushed power, the chime would sound, i'd see the apple logo, then ... nothing. if you're wondering, i'm typing on our family dell desktop and playing spider solitaire.

this is the, let's see... 4th time something has gone wrong since last fall. my hard drive went, then my logic board, then my logic board again (it was at the apple store for 2 weeks for that second time waiting for the part). so i dropped in at the apple store again today, a bit frustrated and wondering if this was part of the normal decline of a computer.

turns out it's not. the mac "genius" looked at my computer, looked at my repair history explained that there was no point in replacing parts that had already been replaced and then politely offered to take my old computer off my hands and exchange it with a macbook. HELLO! A MACBOOK - with the built in camera and intel processor and so skinny and cool looking it makes me drool! he was so polite and explaining the macbook specs using techy words, that i didn't really believe him at first, "wait, what? you're giving me a macbook?"

for those who weren't around for the first time, way back in '03, i bought a ibook g3 when i moved up to vancouver. that computer lasted about a year and a half, when it's logic board wasn't on the fritz. it had to be replaced 3 times, usually when i was working on a paper - really, when you're in grad school, when aren't you working on a paper? the fourth time this happened (all replaced free by the way, because apple knew that round of ibooks had faulty logic boards), i called apple and complained, and so they gave me an ibook g4. and that g4 lasted a little over 3 years until today, when we usher in the new macbook era.

after filling out the relevant paperwork, and thinking that they were going to suddenly change their minds, they brought out my new computer. they're keeping both computers to do the data transfer and i'll pick it up tomorrow. i'm still scratching my head over this. very unexpected and surreal that i should suddenly be receiving this new awesome computer. i mean, i considered calling apple the other night, but i didn't think i could wangle another computer out of them. and should i be so stoked that i get a new computer again? what's with these computers that they keep breaking repeatedly on me?

since it was an exchange, i opted to pay extra for the upgrade to the faster processor and super drive. they're giving me a refund on the apple care plan remaining on my g4. AND i bought the apple care plan for this computer too of course. i'm totally sold on apple care for sure.