Welp. Took the thing apart. Wiggled the probable bit a bit, checked if anything notable was lose, did the proper things. Still no power. Last time I get to use this thing for at least a couple days, gonna' leave a bit of power left for when take to a shop or two. Hopefully it's fixable for less than it'd take to just buy a new one.
Gods damned but I do wish I had a frakking desktop. Need to just get parts and build the bloody thing, but... bleh. No idea how to comparison shop for computer hardware. No clue what's worth the price, etc., so forth. Anyway. Off it goes.
Bugger a goat. Looks like it might be the wall socket or somethin', unless moving the damned thing jiggled whatever might be loose back into place. Arglefargle. Testing time.
E: Or it could be none of the g'damn above. Looks like something's buggery with the power adapter that came with the laptop. Prong-whatsits are a bit bent and the buggers're sparking everytime I plug th'adapter in to something, even if the adapter itself isn't plugged into the computer. The older adapter I had left over (actually... I've got another one sitting my car, I think. Hrm.) didn't have that problem, and the computer is now charging. Bloody weird, wonder what happened to the borked adapter...
Guess it's lucky I had spare HP power adapters laying around, huh. Coincidences of coincidences, or something.
As usual, the episode has been another highlight of how... dependent isn't quite the right word. It's definitely close to addiction, but again, it's not the addiction of dependency so much as the addiction of capability. I am... so much more, than just human, qua animal, when my capabilities have been expanded by this machine and the internet access it facilitates.
Losing that capability, the sheer expansion of ability these machines represent, is indeed terrifying and depressing. You can live, and live well, without an arm or a leg, but... why would you want to? And is not the thought of being crippled in such a manner unsettling? It is analogous. These devices give as much to a person as any of their limbs do -- perhaps more -- and this enhancement is the future.
It is a future I believe I welcome coming, and dread those moments when its loss to me threaten.