Home is where your capacitor is

Beau and I love to watch movies. A lot of them. We now have a large DVD collection and joined NETFLIX enabling us to watch as many movies as we possibly have time for. So last night when we went to watch our Friday Evening Movie we were stunned to discover our DVD player blinked a rude red light (a metaphorical "&^*% you") and plainly refused to open or accept a disc of any nature.

So this morning, after pulling out the DVD manual and garnering no valuable info on our DVD malady, the omnipotent words "fear not- the Internet lies before you" sprang to mind and away I went.

After a quick search along the lines of "Phillips DVD 646 blinking red standby light" I discovered we were not alone in our plight and, indeed, hundreds of Phillips users have experienced the same problem. I quickly discovered our C316 capacitor was the problem and set about unscrewing our sick little puppy and coming face to face with a circuit board filled with little round things, cables and numbers.

Now what?

But lo and behold - some lovely person had taken the time to post a photo of our DVD player with a little diagram clearly locating the little round part I needed to replace including a step-by-step guide on how to do it. Within 15 minutes I was at Radio Shack with a new 35v electrolytic capacitor in hand, staring at soldering irons and solder. Who knew there were so many?! I called my dad for his expertise but -alas-his answering machine was of no help at all.

Fortunately some techno-teenager was within earshot and, hearing my message to my dad, asked me if I needed some help soldering. He quickly told me exactly what to buy, gave me a few quick tips on soldering and the Radio Shack staff were more than entertained that some chick was trying to fix her DVD player.

As it turns out Beau is quite handy with a soldering iron (who knew??) and within minutes we were in the kitchen pulling out the old round-bit and replacing it with a brand spanking new one. I put the circuit board back in, screwed it back together and plugged the DVD player in - and yes, I did it away from all the other electronics just in case it exploded or something.

But guess what? Nothing exploded and The DVD player works. And I also learned Beau is kind of handy and I am completely convinced that the Internet really is omnipotent.

Visa!

I flew to Toronto on Wednesday for the day - literally I arrived, had a smoke, then came right back to NY. Why? To get my next Visa!

Of course my little trek wasn't without adventure and irony. To begin with I am currently on the 10 day Master Cleanse (so no food, only lemon, maple syrup, cayenne pepper and water all mixed together like spicy lemonade) so I couldn't eat. However, as I was nervous about not getting up at 5:30am and missing my flight I decided to stay up all night and watch LOST. So by the time I got to the airport I was overtired, full of spicy lemonade, needed to pee and entered the airport with the unsettling feeling of needing to survive on an island. So when some poor fellow asked me for a light I responded suspiciously "Why?" before I handed him my matches.

While I was waiting for the plane a very nice lady gave me her flight coupon that she wasn't going to use so I could grab a bite to eat. I smiled at the irony that out of all the people in the airport she picked the girl on a fast to give this to. C'est la vie.

The trip to Toronto was uneventful and Toronto airport was fabulously empty so I managed to check-in early and onto an earlier flight and zoomed through customs. I think everyone gets nervous going through immigration in any country and I am certainly no different. I pulled out all my papers, degrees, passport photos, proof of Canadian citizenship, old passports, old visa records, my $131 fee, social security cards from the US and Canada, job offer letter and old pay stubs as required.

The immigration official looked at me and said "I'm sorry, it's 12:30 we only process visas until 12pm everyday, you have to come back tomorrow."

I almost cried and started thinking about where to stay, how much more this will cost to buy another flight back etc,,, and said in protest "No! No one told me that and I did all my research and I never saw any mention of that - can't you help me? I need to get back to NY today..."

The immigration officer smiled "I'm KIDDING. It's a JOKE."

Such witty repartee from an immigration officer - who would have thought? My little tired heart all full of LOST episodes and visions of trying to get on a plane melted and what little energy I had left went 'yipppeee'!

I smiled and said "I've never met an immigration officer with a sense of humor - thank you, you just made my day!"

He stamped my papers and off I went back to NY with a tremendous sense of relief that finally my next visa is completely and utterly sorted.

My Birthday!

So today is my birthday. I don't know about you but I am not into the big fuss of it all but it is amazing how many people remember my b'day, always very touching. So thank you! I also tend to go through the usual stock of questions "What have I achieved? Where am I going? What do I want?" and I have come to the conclusion that this is a very Western thought process - I have to remember life is about the journey, not the destination.

And that is my deep thought for today.

And here is the coolest picture that my mum made for my b'day which really made me laugh...

Thanks mum!!