Leave Well Enough Alone

So I am sitting around the house last weekend and decided to take the pictures off my mighty Metropcs pimp phone and move them to the laptop. I have all my phone pictures on a micro SD card so I waddle upstairs and get the adaptor case thingy. I get back downstairs, squat at the dining room table, open up the laptop and slide the little data card out of the phone. Before I am ready to slip the data card in the adaptor case I feel along the front of my laptop for the adaptor slot. I feel the regular slot and next to it are a couple smaller slots. So I think “hmmmmmmm this is really a fancy laptop (forgetting it is an elcheapo that is 6 years old) and it has a slot for the mini data card…….I don’t have to use the adaptor thingy!” ………..so I proceed to slip the mini data card into the new found slot. About as soon as I slipped it in, I eased down and looked at the slot. I noticed the two “slots” were separated horizontally by a volume wheel. My steel trap mind immediately began to evaluate the consequences of my actions. I eyeballed the data card resting slightly inside the laptop case and lying directly on top of the volume wheel. I hollered for Plou to come down and see if she could get the card back out. I could tell when I showed here the situation she was contemplating weather this actually qualified me as a dumbass, jackass, or just a regular ass. She wanted to know how I happened to get the data card in that position. I stated I just wanted her to get the card out. She went upstairs and got a needle, came down, and tried to fish hook it out. This caused the card to move further into the laptop and disappear. I picked up the laptop, put my hand over the slot and shook the case violently. I assumed the card would shake out. I was wrong. I called several computer companies I had found on Angie’s list. They all were gone or chose to ignore my call. I called Best Buy and they said they would get it out for $50. I called Zoolander, my son in law and asked for his advice. He said take the laptop back off and get the data card. I mentioned that Best Buy would do it for $50. He said I could do it, just be careful. I went to the desktop and Goggled for a schematic…….then went to YouTube to see someone taking my laptop apart. I watched a Japanese guy start to take the back off of the same model as mine. I stopped watching after about step 23. I figured I would go for it. I began taking screws out of the back. Once I had them all removed I tried to open the case. Nothing moved, no separation, nothing. I put the screws back in and headed to Best Buy. Yong Sung Min Kim was waiting for me. I gave him the laptop and he said he was the one that I talked to on phone. He said WERE YOU the one that put the card in the volume control “slot”? I said well yea. He said why did I do that? I told him the story. He said give me a few hours and I will get it out._

He calls me about 2 hours later. Says he took the laptop apart, looked everywhere, and there was no card in the laptop. I hop in the car, go to Best Buy, and Kim hands me the laptop. He says no charge as there is no data card in the laptop. I thank him and leave. But I know in my heart, the data card is in there laughing at me. I also know that at some time and place I will take the laptop apart (and when I say “I”…… I mean my son in law, Zoolander) and retrieve the card.

The lesson here is one should stay with tried and true practices. If something is working for one, one should continue doing what works and don’t get fancy.