The Golden Key to Happiness

So, the inevitable, unpredictable breakdown happened – my 3-year-old laptop died yesterday morning. Or more specifically, the video card died, as trying to load my laptop managed to display nothing but a vicious black, and if I’m lucky enough to see some barely legible images and words, I’d see that it was loading a Blue Screen of Death.

Thinking that I was unlucky to have it break down on a Sunday, as most shops would be closed, I didn’t think of heading to a computer repair store, but when I passed by one about 5 minutes walk away from my place, turns out that they were open 7 days a week and I went to enquire – AUD$75 would be charged to inspect and diagnose the problem of my laptop before they quote prices for repairs/replacement. fml.

Long story short, when I finished talking to my dad via Skype (he rang me through Skype) and I brought my laptop to the store, the dude who was attending to me noticed my hesitation and asked if I’m sure if I wanted to go through with the inspection. We then talked a bit about my laptop and he asked if I had tried connecting an external LCD monitor, to which I said no (as I don’t have such a thing myself), and he offered to help me out. When he did so, the BSOD came up on my laptop screen – and he explained that as the external LCD monitor has to go through my video card in order to display and the fact that I have a BSOD when trying to load indicates that there’s almost certainly a problem with my video card.

What a Sunday – being completely out of touch with the online world as I’ve tons of things to do, from Hidden Street-related work to my university work. In the end I went to the library at RMIT City Campus at Swanston St which has computers available, and stayed from about 3.30pm till 4.45pm researching Dell laptops.

I have initially ordered for a Dell Studio 15 yesterday at midnight (via Ethan’s laptop), but when I checked with Dell again today, apparently my order didn’t go through due to a problem with my debit card – if I have to guess, my billing address in my bank is different than the one I specified (stupid bank system entered my address incorrectly). Another long story short, Daphne from Dell contacted me and now my order is being handled by her – apparently as an RMIT student I can get an 8% discount, which is a huge saver of about AUD$112, which means that the price difference between purchasing the same laptop with similar specs in Australia and Malaysia is smaller now. :) (Converting at the current exchange rate, it will be a RM1k more expensive to purchase the laptop, before discounts, in Australia fml.)

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Last Thursday night, I was at Building 8 of RMIT to check out the RMIT Outdoors’ Club Introductory Night, and they’re the coolest club ever as they served us free beer when we entered the room, and there were free pizzas when the whole thing was over. :D Which club ever does that – certainly not in Malaysia, and possibly hardly ever in other countries too, which is why I was exceedingly amused and stared in disbelief at that free beer in my hand for a long time. (Picture will come later when my new laptop finally arrives.)

There was also something I’d like to mention on my blog before my laptop went down under – not because I’d like to brag, but because it’s a point of contentment and much euphoria for me when I first got the news.

That same Thursday night, when I was chatting with my dad on GTalk, he told me that I have a letter from RMIT back in Malaysia, and apparently I was invited to join some Golden Key society, which on googling later, I found out was the Golden Key International Honour Society, and I quote from its FAQ page:

What is Golden Key? Golden Key is the world’s largest collegiate honor society. Membership into the Society is by invitation only, to the top 15% of college/university sophomores, juniors and seniors, 2nd and 3rd year students (depending on your programme) and top performing US graduate students in all fields of study, based solely on the objective criteria of their academic achievements.

Golden Key has chapters at over 370 colleges and universities in Australia, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

It sounds pretty damn good, and I’m more than flattered as I didn’t feel like I belong at all to the “top 15%” of my university. So I’ve to pay a lifetime membership fee of about AUD$90+, my membership won’t be revoked should my grades drop after joining (not that I’m planning to let them slide lol), some scholarships and awards as well as “exclusive” postgraduate and career information are provided, not to mention this would boost up my resumé a bit.

I’ve never been so extremely ecstatic that all I wanted to do was to scream my lungs out – but it is something for me to be happy and feel honoured about.

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Even more happy news: my housemate who’s an RMIT student too yesterday told me about some teaching/computer labs that would print for free (and she cut her finger as a result as she was talking to me while shaving some onions) – I’m at said computer lab now, tested out what she said, and looks like I won’t be miserly when it comes to printing anymore. :)