Rules to live by: No food or drink within 18″ of or anywhere above your laptop or other valuable electronic devices.

Accidents happen. Accidents happen to all of us. They happen unexpectedly and often at the worst possible moment. Life happens, as they say. Actually most people would say another word happens. But life is messy and I’ll just leave it at that. It’s so messy and accident prone in fact that it would seem easy to avoid some problems. Like spilling liquid into a laptop.

It always seems easier to deal with when I make a mistake to my stuff. But I feel horrible when I break someone else’s things. And it’s hard to be forgiving when the thing I loaned to someone else is broken by them.

But life happens! And tonight it happened to a friend and co-worker. I don’t know the details yet except to quote, it’s “not working”. In the morning I’ll figure out how bad it is. In the mean time, I’m sharing this reminder.

No food or drink within 18″ of or anywhere above your laptop or other valuable electronic devices.

And also remember, once an accident with an electronic device has occurred, immediately remove any batteries that can be removed, disconnect from all external power, prop it up at the best angle to drain, and leave all the power disconnected until a professional can look at it.

It might be too late. Basically, you need to get it dry. Bag it with rice and hope for the best. But it’s never good.