Hanging by a thread

Well, twine is probably more accurate.




For months now, the monitor on my laptop has slowly been losing it's... well, I don't know what it's losing. The spring in it's step. Maybe that's a good way to put it.

First, it was just the left side of the monitor. Some plastic piece broke and some metal piece that attaches the monitor to the keyboard got twisted. I have no idea how it happened. The monitor became a bit floppy. Then the same thing happened on the right side of the monitor. And now my monitor... it's fallen, and it can't get up.

But aside from the loosey-goosey monitor, the computer works pretty well. So I decided to make a splint.




I started out with this cardboard brace to help hold the monitor in place. But after about a week the cardboard started to give a little. So I added the twine to the cardboard to help it keep it's shape. That worked for a few days, but then the laptop started slumping forward. So finally I added another piece of twine that wraps around the laptop itself. (That's the one you see in the first photo.) So the splint has kind of turned into a full-body cast.

But it works. I can even adjust the slant of the monitor with this latest addition. If you're going to hold your computer together with twine and cardboard, this is the way to go.

Hopefully the computer will make it a bit longer without needing additional braces or -- I hate to even think it -- surgery. I should have a new laptop in about a month.