Weekend Beat/ Breathing Space: Writer suffers after killing laptop with top-quality coffee

A cup of coffee is a must to kick off my sleep-fogged morning. But one morning earlier this month, that crucial ritual triggered a disaster.

While I was checking my e-mail, I accidentally rammed my elbow into the coffee cup on the desk. Just like that, my laptop was drenched in fresh-brewed Italian roast. I desperately tried to wipe it up, but almost a full cup of coffee had soaked into the keyboard and the heart of the computer--the hard disk.

I sat in a daze as my Hewlett Packard Compaq 6120 died a wet, messy death. I knew it had already departed to meet The Great Processor in the Sky, but pulling myself together, I sent a cry for help (via cellphone e-mail) to my friend and computer expert, Kazumi.

Kazumi, a very cautious type, calmly, if a bit cold-bloodedly, replied: "Buy a new one. It's beyond repair! You should never place a cup around a computer!"

Yes, she was right. I knew I was careless. But how many people work at a computer without setting a cup of something next to it?

A morning of tragic proportions. I had recently spent about 30,000 yen to fix the computer's adapter jack. Worse yet, the coffee made a huge stain on my favorite ivory-colored Portuguese rug I had purchased just one month before.

Snap out of it, wimp. No time to be depressed. No computer means no job for a writer.

I ran to Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku. It was 10 a.m. The whole place was like an alternate universe. I am a low-tech, analog person. I still use an old-fashioned cassette tape recorder for interviews, not one of those cool new integrated circuit gizmos.

I bought my now-toast computer for around 100,000 yen on the Internet. Kazumi helped me.

This time, I had to do it myself. I felt like I was ordering a meal in a foreign country where I didn't speak the language. All I needed was Microsoft Word and a DVD player. I didn't care about the size of the computer or the brand. I just wanted the cheapest.

I asked a clerk for help. He recommended several types, but couldn't explain why one was different from another. I asked three different clerks. All recommended a different computer.

Exhausted and confused after half an hour in this twilight zone of bits and bytes, I decided to buy another HP computer, something similar to the one I had murdered. At least I knew how to work it.

After the computer was delivered, I felt refreshed just looking at the machine's desktop. Usually cluttered with documents, it was still virgin territory. My feel-good moment didn't last long. I spent the next two tortuous hours reinstalling software and getting the printer to print.

But, I wouldn't remain a loser forever. I can turn anything into a profit. I am getting paid to write this. And a cup of coffee is on my desk.

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Breathing Space is our first-person look at recreation. If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments, please contact us at < wbeat@asahi.com >.(IHT/Asahi: March 29,2008)